Captain is ‘privileged’ to stay in top post

GOLF: Clive Edginton nominated to become only second to serve for two years

For only the second time in its 266-year history, the captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews will serve a second year with Clive Edginton continuing in the post for 2020/21.

Mr Edginton took office last September as captain for 2019/20 but due to the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the past captains of the club have nominated Mr Edginton to continue as captain for another year from September.

The club was forced to cancel its annual spring meeting this month for the first time out of war years because of the pandemic.

The only previous occasion a captain of the R&A has served two successive terms since it was founded in 1754 was when Major John Murray Belshes held the post in 1835 and 1836.

Mr Edginton said: “It is an honour to be captain of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club and I feel very privileged to be asked to continue in the role.

“This is a difficult time for all of us in the midst of this pandemic but I am happy that I can continue to serve the club as we look positively to the future.”

Born in Walton-on-thames, Mr Edginton was educated at Malvern College and Oxford University, graduating in 1973 with a degree in law and a Blue for golf.

After a successful business career in the city of London, latterly as chief executive and then chairman of Tindall Riley, a specialist insurance management company, he retired in 2014. He has since been a non-executive director and is now a consultant to the Medical Defence Union.

Mr Edginton became a member of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club in 1997. He served on the rules of golf committee from 2000 to 2004 and was its deputy chairman from 2002 to 2004.

He was chairman of the amateur status committee from 2007 to 2011 during which time the R&A and the USGA produced the first unified amateur status code.

He was elected to the general committee of the club in 2014 and became chairman of that and of the R&A’S principal companies from September 2015 until September 2018.

Mr Edginton’s home club is St George’s Hill in Weybridge, Surrey, where he became a member at the age of eight. He has served St George’s Hill as committee member, captain, director and trustee, been club champion four times and is a nine-time winner of the club’s scratch gold medal.

At various times he has also been captain of the South Eastern Junior Golfing Society, the Oxford and Cambridge Golfing Society, the Moles Golfing Society and the Old Malvernian Golfing Society, for whom he played more than 100 matches in the Halford Hewitt.

Aged 68, Mr Edginton currently plays to a handicap of eight. He is married to Debbie, who is a member of both St George’s Hill and The St Rule Club.

The R&A has also announced that the World Amateur Team Championships, run by the International Golf Federation and set for Singapore in October, have been cancelled due to the pandemic.

The men’s event, for the Eisenhower Trophy and the women’s for the Espirito Santo Trophy, had already been moved from Hong Kong because of civil unrest.

They were due to be played at the Tanah Merah Country Club and Sentosa Golf Club over the two weekends from October 14 to 24.

Clive Edginton: “Happy that I can continue to serve the club as we look positively to the future.”