Cornwall Golf Union
West Cornwall and Prestwick Golf Clubs celebrate Jim Barnes
DP World and PGA Tour winner, Cornwall’s Harry Hall, marked a special centenary prior to this year’s Genesis Scottish Open by representing West Cornwall Golf Club, Lelant, in a friendly match against Prestwick Golf Club, ‘The Birthplace of the Open’.
The fixture commemorated Jim Barnes’s victory at Prestwick in 1925, the 24th and final occasion the Championship was played there. Barnes and Hall have much in common. Both learned the game at West Cornwall before finding fame in the USA.
And, although Barnes’s win is often remembered as a triumph for America, he remained a proud Cornishman and returned with the Claret Jug to Lelant, where he was photographed – a copy of which West Cornwall presented to Prestwick as part of this year’s celebrations.
That moment in 1925 was significant: it proved to be the last time the original trophy visited a British club. Bobby Jones took it to America in 1926 and 1927, and in 1928 the Claret Jug was retired to the R&A clubhouse.
West Cornwall’s side included Hall and his father Phil, a past captain, together with fellow clubman Phil Rowe — member of the victorious 1999 Walker Cup team and now head coach at Cal Poly in California. Rowe, along with Prestwick members Tom Brown and Al Stewart, was instrumental in arranging the match, which it is hoped may be repeated.
The historic setting was not lost on the players. At the Alps, Prestwick’s famed 17th, Hall drove with a 1925 James Learmonth hickory driver from Lelant, while Rowe played his entire afternoon round with hickories.
On the eve of the fixture, BGCS member, Mike Roberts, hosted a Jim Barnes–themed golf history quiz for the Cornish contingent at the Red Lion Inn, where the first eight professionals gathered before the inaugural Open in 1860.
Prestwick extended a warm welcome, with archivist Andrew Lochhead, professional David Fleming and fellow members fully embracing the spirit of the occasion, thereby cementing the historic bond between the Ayrshire and Cornish clubs.
[Credit: This article appeared in the September issue of Through the Green, the quarterly publication of the British Golf Collectors’ Society. Photo credits: Mike Roberts and BGCS]
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