A hundred years of mixed foursomes
Last September, the club celebrated the centenary of one of the most historic and popular amateur events in English golf, the Worplesdon Open Mixed Foursomes. First contested in October 1921, it has attracted extremely strong fields, especially in the years surrounding WWII. Siblings Joyce and Roger Wethered were defeated in the inaugural final, but went on to triumph the following year, with Joyce going on to take the title a remarkable eight times in total. Joyce was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, female amateur golfers of all time. Other winners whose names will be familiar to keen golf historians include Leonard Crawley, Bernard Darwin and Molly Gourlay.
Any fears that the event might decline in popularity following the war were happily dispelled, with champions including such luminaries as Bruce Critchley and Catherine Lacoste. In 1958, the then future secretary of The R&A, Michael Bonallack, and his wife became the first married couple to take the title. As golf’s popularity grew, any subsequent slight decline in the quality of the fields was largely down to the demands on leading amateurs to travel more widely and play in tournaments around the world.
To keep up with the times, the event is now played over one weekend, with 36 holes of stroke play on the Saturday and the leading four couples progressing to Sunday’s semi-final. The centenary champions didn’t have to travel far – Chloe Ryan and Jacob Austin are members at nearby Sunningdale.