Antique Golf Clubs from Scotland: Clubmakers

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Clubmakers

Joseph Lloyd
Hoylake/Pau/Boston

Joseph Lloyd, born in Hoylake in 1864, began his career there as a caddy before becoming assistant to Jack Morris. Harold Hilton in My Golfing Reminiscences recalls Lloyd, “General”, as he was known, asking to carry for him when he entered the Hoylake senior club championship as a ten year old! 'It is more than probable that he played the game, and I simply struck the ball', writes Hilton but, in any event, he won the tournament.

In 1880, a group of English amateurs spending the winter in Pau hired him to be the first golf professional in France where he also made and repaired clubs. There was sufficient time also for him to be professional at Hayling Golf Club in Hampshire from its inception in 1883 for two years during which he helped lay out the first 9-hole course.

He remained professional at Pau until 1925 but in the mid-1890s he spent the winters in Pau and the summers as professional to the Essex Country Club in Massachusetts. He found time here to enter the US Open between 1896 and 1898 coming third the first time, fourth on the third occasion and winning in Chicago 1897. Compared to the Open Championship, the US Open had generous prize money. Lloyd was awarded $200 but $50 was deducted for the cost of his medal! Nevertheless, Jack Burns who won the Open in 1888 received 8 pounds prize money, perhaps about $30 at the time).

For those interested in the history of golf in Belgium, there is a newspaper report from June 1892 that Lloyd has been ‘summoned’ to Spa to advise the casino directors on improving their lawn tennis ground and the ‘proper accommodation for golf and polo’, The current Spa course is from the 1930s. There was one laid out in 1907 so it would be interesting to know if there was one even before this.

(My thanks to Bill John, historian at Hayling GC for the information about that club.)

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