LADIES GOLF AT HOYLAKE

DESPITE MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS PLAYING GOLF IN THE 16TH CENTURY, THE GAME WAS NOT REGARDED AS AN APPROPRIATE PASTIME FOR LADIES UNTIL LATE IN THE 19TH. RAISING ARMS ABOVE THE SHOULDER WAS REGARDED AS INDELICATE—LADY TENNIS PLAYERS SERVED UNDERARM—AND LADY GOLFERS WERE A RARITY.

Things changed in the 1890s and ladies were encouraged to play. At Hoylake the links was regarded as too long for them and a short course was laid out to the left of the present 18th hole, a sizeable area before the church and the Stanley Road houses were built. However, for some reason this was not a success. Almost certainly through the initiative of Mrs Ryder Richardson, the wife of the then secretary of the Royal Liverpool, a nine hole course was laid out in sandhills on the Dale estate overlooking the Irish Sea a mile or so north of the Hoylake links. This proved popular and the Hoylake Ladies Golf Club was formed in 1895. Sisters, wives and daughters of Royal Liverpool Members were now provided with a course to suit them.

Coinciding with developments in Hoylake the growing popularity of golf amongst ladies led to two other clubs being formed on the Wirral-Moreton Ladies, largely for Royal Liverpool connected ladies, and Wirral Ladies. The nine hole Moreton course was near the lighthouse not far from today's Leasowe links. Sadly, the club became a victim of the First World War when the land was requisitioned for wartime food needs and it closed. Wirral Ladies was 18 holes from the early years and continues, now as Wirral Golf Club, on its original site.

Lady Champion Molly Graham, the daughter and sister of prominent Royal Liverpool members, having learnt her golf on the Hoylake links with her family, entered championships from Hoylake Ladies, and the great Lottie Dod, another Champion, entered from Moreton.

Compared to the other two clubs, Hoylake Ladies Golf Club evolved rather differently. Where it was based in 1895, being proper links land, was ideal for golf. However, it was privately owned and with a growing need for housing the estate, inevitably, was sold for building. The Hoylake roads ending in 'dale' are now the result. The Club had to move if it was to survive. So only after a little more than five years a new site had to be found.

He was also the freeholder of much of the local property including land over the railway line. This provided the answer to the Hoylake Ladies GC predicament and a lease was signed. The Club thrived in its new location with a small clubhouse close to Hoylake railway station and, according to the 1914 LGU Handbook, it had an eighteen hole course of 3790 yards with a course record of 73 and a membership of 200.

All was well until 1931 when Lord Stanley sold the land to the Hoylake Urban District Council, the then local authority. The course was upgraded with the help of five times Open Champion James Braid, but presumably the established HLGC was not keen to be beholden to the new owner and its members drifted away, mainly to the Wirral, Caldy and Heswall clubs. The municipal course became home to a number of men's and ladies' clubs.

Although ladies played on the Royal Liverpool's links it was in a less than formal manner. They could not get a handicap because, as a men's club, the Royal Liverpool was not affiliated to the Ladies Golf Union and, apart from the occasional mixed foursomes, there were no competitions. Being unable to get a handicap and hold competitions was not very satisfactory and the problem was solved with the formation of the Hilbre Ladies Golf Club in 1958, becoming Royal Liverpool Ladies GC three years later. This Club was affiliated to the LGU enabling members to get handicaps and run their own competitions. In the first years membership was confined to those with a link to the Royal Liverpool, but this was relaxed by the 1970s. By 2000 Ladies became full members of Royal Liverpool and RLLGC was closed down.

The first Captain on the formation of Hilbre Ladies was Mrs Gladys Temple Dobell (nee Ravenscroft), a former British and US Champion. Although she hadn't learned her golf at Hoylake, she had connections with the Club and it was a most appropriate appointment.

Alongside the local developments in the 1890s, at the national level the Ladies Golf Union had been formed in 1893 and organised the first British Ladies Championship in that year. Mrs Ryder Richardson was a leading light in the LGU and she probably played a part in bringing the Championship to Hoylake in 1896 when Miss Amy Pascoe became Champion.

It was to be 93 years before the Championship returned to Hoylake, Miss Helen Dobson winning in 1989. Seven years later in 1996 on its third visit the Champion was Miss Kelly Kuenhe of the United States. The Ricoh Women's Open in 2012 won by Jiyai Shin of South Korea added to the list of winners of big events hosted at Hoylake. In addition to these National competitions for ladies, Hoylake has been the venue for seventeen Cheshire County Championships with multiple British Champions Enid Wilson and Liz Pook (nee Chadwick) amongst the winners, the latter on two occasions. Mrs Temple Dobell was a finalist in the County Championship on eleven occasions, winning seven times but never at Hoylake.

All courses have got longer over the years but the change for ladies has been dramatic. Compared to the 4730 yards of the course played by the competitors in the 1896 British Championship, the course confronting the 2012 competitors was 6660 yards long, an increase of 40%. In the same period the yardage of the men's Championship course increased by 15%. The 2022 Black course measures 5847 yards making the course of under 4000 yards, played by members of Hoylake Ladies GC in 1914, a laughable thought!

With the growing interest in golf for ladies at the end of the nineteenth century, wives, sisters and daughters of Royal Liverpool members were held back by the difficulty of the Hoylake links. Clearly enterprise was displayed in laying out less intimidating alternatives and forming Hoylake and Moreton Ladies Golf Clubs. These were appropriate forerunners to the position that exists today when, thanks to the way the game has evolved, ladies are now able to enjoy the historic Hoylake links.