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Antique Golf Clubs from Scotland
Clubmakers
Archie Compston
Manchester/Coombe Hill
Archie Compston Archibald Edward Wones Compston was born on 15 February 1879 (calculated from his military record) in Wolverhampton to John Compston, a limestone miner, presumably a mine owner as he was classified an employer on the 1901 census, and his wife Mary Ann. Archie’s eldest brother, John, was a golf greenkeeper on the 1901 census.
He was called up for war service and enlisted on 22 March 1916 with the Durham Light Infantry and qualified as a stretcher bearer. He was promoted to Lance-corporal but reverted to Private at his own request. Nevertheless he was subsequently promoted again and finished the war as a Sergeant.

At the end of the war his future golfing success could not have been anticipated. He was discharged from the Army on 9 March 1919 ‘no longer physically fit for war service’. The doctor assessing him diagnosed ‘painful nerve end in heel following curettage for ICT’ (Infection of Connective Tissue). This was as a result of frostbite in his right foot while serving in France between January and April 1917. He concluded, ‘This man is unable to walk on heel or to stand on heel. Will not be likely to improve. His pre-war vocation will be much interfered with.’ The doctor classified a 50% disablement.

Nevertheless he did make an immediate return to professional golf after demobilisation turning in a fine performance in the Midland PGA tournament in May 1919 as unattached and finishing 9th in the Open Championship in 1920.

By 1922 he was professional at North Manchester and performing well in the finals of the Gleneagles 1000 Guineas tournament. Despite breaking both a mashie and a mashie niblick in his second qualifying round he returned a field-leading 71 to atone for his first round 83. In the ensuing matchplay he defeated Harry Vardon in the first round and Joe Kirkwood in the next. A two hole win over Percy Alliss set up a semi-final against Ted Ray which he lost 2 and 1.

1925 was his breakthrough year winning the Leeds Cup, the Gleneagles 1000 Guineas tournament (then sponsored by the Glasgow Herald) and the PGA Matchplay. He finished tied second with Ted Ray in the infamous Open Championship at Prestwick that year where 15,000-20,000 overenthusiastic supporters on the final day crowded around third-round leader Macdonald Smith to the extent he could not see the shots he was playing.

He came close in the Open on two further occasions after emigrating to the United States in 1926. In 1928 he was third, three strokes behind Walter Hagen whom Compston had beaten in a 72 hole challenge at Moor Park a few weeks earlier by the remarkable scoreline of 18 and 17. At Hoylake in 1930 he took the lead from Bobby Jones with a 68 in the third round but then inexplicably collapsed to a final round 82, finishing tied for 6th, and the second leg of Jones’s grand slam was secured.

‘Emigrating’ seems too tame a word for the furore surrounding Compston’s move west. He had been playing exhibition foursomes with Arnaud Massy in Florida on a visitor’s visa and, at the end of the tour, agreed a deal for his name to be used to promote a real estate development in the state. He was not shy in telling people he had ‘signed up for an American position’, agreeing a professional post in New York for the summer, and there was a long delay while the US immigration authorities considered whether he was in breach of contract labour laws. He did not endear himself to the British side either. Prior to the 1926 Open he had been talked up in the press as one of the ‘chief British hopes’ for the event. Yet, when approached as to how he should appear on the scoreboard he responded, ‘Class me as an American’. According to the US press ‘officialdom’ was apoplectic and claimed British golf writers were filling their pens with poison to denounce the traitor. They also pointed to a vengeful Schadenfreude when Compston was disqualified for playing a ball from out of bounds in the third round. Looking at this with almost a century’s distance it is not clear that it was such a big deal. Compston played for GB & Ireland in the 1927 Ryder Cup (and again in 1929 and 1931) and, although the New York position does not seem to have come about, he stayed in the US until April 1926.

He had been ‘unattached’ for a number of years before accepting the post of professional at Coombe Hill in Surrey in November 1928 and remained here until the advent of WWII during which he played numerous exhibition matches to raise money for the war effort. During this time he became friends with the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII and, later still, the Duke of Windsor) becoming his personal instructor. Illustrative of the snobbery which still persisted against professionals, the prince invited Compston to lunch after a round at the then Royal Berkshire club. The secretary refused to allow Compston in. The prince took him elsewhere for lunch and later wrote to the club instructing the removal of “Royal” from its name.

After the war Archie Compston was professional at Wentworth from 1945 to 1948 then became the professional at the Mid Ocean Club in Bermuda.

He died at Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood, London on 8 August 1962.

There seemed to be two sides to his character. He was tall (variously described as 6’ 4” and 6’ 6”) and loud. Gus Faulkner described how intimidated he was by Compston when he started playing tournaments, ‘a tough looking face and aggressive with it …, his voice would boom around the dressing room …. “Boy” this, “Boy” that’. O B Keeler too described, ‘a tall, grim relentless fighter’ but also recalled being invited for a walk with him at Virginia Water and Compston quoting ‘easily and gracefully’ from Keats and Shelley, ‘a gentle boy who loved beauty and nature and the long English twilight’.

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