Three years ago, after a visit to Royal Portrush, Ed Alford and Graham Frazer had a conversation, over a few beers, about the fact that Royal Mid-Surrey has three professionals who have been Open Champions and have nine Opens between them. J. H. Taylor has five, Henry Cotton has three and Max Faulkner won his at Portrush, where the Open returns for 2019. There is no Club in the world who can boast more champions of any major tournament.

During their conversation the discussion centred around the fact that in today’s world the Open Champion is given a replica copy of the Claret Jug to have pride of place in their home Club. After the conversation Graham spoke to Peter Unsworth (Chairman of the Championship Committee) of the R&A about this phenomenal achievement and asked about our chances of having a copy of the Jug to show off inside our Club. However, the Claret jug was not introduced until 1928 and was awarded to Walter Hagen and so the jug would not be the best piece of memorabilia, as such the R&A worked with Graham over several months and meetings to look at an appropriate item to recognise the achievements of the professionals of Royal Mid-Surrey.

The result was that they gave us an exact replica copy of the Gold Medal won by J. H. Taylor in 1900 at St Andrews. John won both the 1900 and 1913 British Opens by eight strokes. To this day, that remains tied for the largest margin of victory in any post-19th Century Open Championship. A huge thanks must go to Graham for obtaining an exact copy of the gold medal, the original sits in the R&A museum. His work has also meant we are on the R&A map again as a Club of great significance in the history of The Open.   

This weekend we will get the chance to play for this Medal and when the Captain of the R&A announces “And winner of the Gold Medal and Champion Golfer of the year“ then you and your partner will have the chance to receive the same Gold Medal presented to John in 1900 at St Andrews (To view the 1900 Open Championship story please click here)

The competition details for this Sunday are as follows:

J. H. Taylor Gold Medal - Sunday 20th July

Starting Time: Shotgun Start at 9.00am

Format: Four Ball Better Ball (Pairs - any combination) Stableford, Best one of 2 Scores to Count. 85% handicap allowance

Tees: Ladies from the Green Tees, Men from the Black Tees

Lunch: Two Course's in The Viscount Room

On conclusion of Lunch and the Medal Presentation you are then invited to watch the 153rd Open Championship live from Royal Portrush

Cost: £30 per person