MAGAZINE 2025-26
His family name, or golfing prowess, or both, paid dividends. In 1911, at a Special General Meeting, “it was resolved to confer a life membership on T. Froes Ellison, West Kirby, when he is elected a member of the club on attaining 18 years of age”.
That would be in 1914, and the First World War stole years from Froes’ youth after he signed up as a Private with the 10th Battalion, Liverpool Regiment and embarked for France. Later, he was commissioned, ending his military career as a Lieutenant and Acting Captain of the 1st Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers.
On returning to civilian life, Froes joined his father in the Liverpool cotton trade and resumed his deep relationship with the game of golf and Hoylake. Between 1919 and 1931 he won at least 17 Club Medals and Cups, and probably more for which records no longer exist.
More or less in the middle of this run came his most significant victory.
April 1925 brought the first English Amateur Close Championship, a tournament spirited into being by the brand new English Golf Union. The venue was Hoylake, and the final saw Ellison, the local hero, pitted against Southport golfer and gas worker, Samuel Robinson.
“Truly it was an alluring match,” wrote the correspondent of the Athletic News on Monday, April 27, “in which the rivals produced golf of exceptional quality. In a traditionally tempestuous mood, Hoylake, of the new conformation, was as exacting to play as any course in the world. It always did search the players’ foundations."
The ‘new conformation’ presumably refers to the recent and extensive redesign of the Hoylake links by leading course architect, Harry Colt. This, and the weather, added up to a stern test.
“The closing phase was accompanied by a biting gale, vicious hailstorms, and drenching rain. The way Ellison and Robinson delivered the golf in such an ordeal was a rare tribute to their intricate worth.
“And of course, to give the full touch of fascination, the struggle, fluctuating all the time, was decided by a putt of just under a yard on the thirty-sixth green. Ellison came with a burst at the end of each round and won, thanks to his deadly chips to within call of the hole, and his capacity for doing the rest with his putter.
“Really he won the match when he squared it at the thirty-fourth with a courageous putt of two and a half yards. The dramatic finale was a remarkable replica of Walter Hagen’s finish in last year’s Open Championship. Robinson played through the green directly behind the hole, just as Hagen did, and similarly he was a couple of yards short with a little pitch, but Robinson’s putt was an inch or two short, whereas Hagen was in.”
The Western Daily Press described the reaction to Ellison’s victory: “A mighty cheer went up from 3000. It came mostly from artisans who surrounded the last green, and who had been impelled by the force of their enthusiasm to make holiday on this great day.”
In the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, the columnist known as ‘Follow Through’ noted the impact of the new look links: “Perhaps when Mr Ellison gets nearer to the hole he pitches the ball up into the air a little more often than is associated with the old Hoylake ‘school’, but the course now demands more shots of the all-air-route type, and whether he is following the sacred precepts of his forerunners or not, he plays the strokes very well and very successfully.”
This inaugural tournament attracted both praise and criticism. ‘Follow Through’ recalled a conversation with an unnamed but “most distinguished of amateur golfers that ever lived.”
The First World War stole years from Froes’ youth
This gentleman stated his opinion that golf didn’t need another championship - there were already quite enough: “the Amateur Championship, the Open, and various gold medals and silver trophies offered by prestigious clubs.”
In response, ‘Follow Through’ wrote: “What chance does a promising young golfer who is a member of a humble and comparatively unknown golf club stand of developing his game unless local, or, even better, international tournaments are encouraged?”
The following year the publication reported that Froes Ellison had successfully defended his title, but there were caveats: “The English Close Championship at Walton Heath was in some respects a disappointment. Too many of our best players were standing down from the competition to make it truly representative, and in addition it clashed with the Irish Open Amateur Championship at Portmarnock. However, this is only the second year of its existence and the next list of entries ought to contain the names of more players of Walker Cup class. T. F. Ellison, the Hoylake golfer, was again successful, beating Squadron-Leader C. H. Hayward, of the R.A.F., by four holes up and three to play in the final round.”
Mention of the Walker Cup is a reminder that his consecutive English Amateur victories probably felt like vindication to Froes Ellison, whose name had been the focus of controversy in 1923.
In February it was revealed that the Walker Cup match would take place at St Andrews on May 18 and 19, and that the Championship Committee of the Royal and Ancient Club would set about determining which British golfers had the right stuff to retrieve some of the honours taken the year before on the National Golf Links of America in New York by a convincingly victorious American team.
This was a cue for those who believed selection was not as fair as it might be to have their say, and dissension bubbled into the press.
A century ago, the distinction between amateur and professional was as plain as it was unsatisfactory, but the distinction between players of different social classes, and between gentleman and artisan, was less clearly expressed.
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The Yorkshire Post observed that the British team beaten easily by the Americans in “the experimental contest” at Hoylake in 1921 had not been the strongest, “but when, a week later, the Amateur Championship had been decided on the same course, it was recognised that plenty of good golfing material still existed in this country.”
The writer stated that no selection lessons were learned, for “our team that went to Long Island, New York, last summer, to engage in the first officially constituted match…was accepted from the outset as a forlorn hope.”
So, how might a more formidable team be chosen for the ‘23 Walker Cup? The Post quoted Mr Anthony Spalding, “a well known golf journalist who, when he was in Manchester in pre-war days, played a very good scratch game”, and who had concluded that “social position over-rides skill at golf - which latter should obviously be the only consideration.”
Considering the selection of the England team crushed by Scotland 10-4 at Prestwick in 1922, Mr Spalding went on: “There is the concrete case of Mr Ellison, Royal Liverpool, and Mr C. Hodgson, Baildon. The former has won medals at Hoylake, but outside his club has achieved no distinction. Mr Hodgson has won the Yorkshire amateur championship twice; he defeated Mr Ouimet in the American invasion of 1921 [at Hoylake in the Amateur Championship], and he came very near to beating Mr Wethered at Prestwick last year. Mr Hodgson is a shopkeeper, I believe, and a product of artisan golf. Mr Ellison was chosen, Mr Hodgson left out.”
It’s possible Thomas Froes Ellison was both hurt and inspired by such public displays of doubt.
1925 may have been the first tried and untested English Amateur, and the field a year later may well have been diminished, but his two victories demonstrated he was far from short of mettle.