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Long-forgotten Team Events

The trophy (although described as a cup, it was actually a silver plate encrusted with yellow amber) from a long-forgotten team event has emerged to cast another light on the 1936 Olympics and Adolf Hitler's view of golf. The latest arrival to the British Golf Museum here in St. Andrews — a peripatetic little trophy known affectionately as the Hitler Cup.

You see, back in 1936 when Berlin hosted the Summer Olympics, Adolf Hitler envisioned a propaganda blitzkrieg for Germany. One of the Fuhrer's strategies was to showcase his nation as an international golf power — this despite the fact that Germany had fewer than 50 courses, none of them particularly distinguished, and only a handful of his countrymen were capable of breaking 80.

Since golf was not included on the Olympic roster, Hitler organized a special tournament the week after the Games, inviting two-man teams from 36 countries to compete for a prize that he personally donated — a brass salver about 18 inches wide, inlaid with eight amber disks and engraved with the words: Golfpreis der Nationen, Gegeben von Fuhrer and Reichskanzler (Golf Prize of the Nations, Donated by the Fuhrer and Chancellor).

The Berlin Olympics, best remembered for Hitler's failed attempts to transform them into an Aryan propaganda campaign, had been dominated by American athlete Jesse Owens and his remarkable haul of four gold medals. "It is hard to explain the origin of the event - Germany had no golfing tradition nor champions," George Jeanneau of the French Golf Federation wrote in a book Golf and the Olympic Games. "The Reich [German government] may have wanted to follow up the Berlin Games with the organization of some non-Olympic sporting events - such as horse riding, tennis and golf."

The event was held in the spa town of Baden-Baden on Aug. 26 and Aug. 27 that year, with France and England installed as pre-tournament favorites. Baden-Baden was about 500 miles southwest of Berlin, at a course that measured barely 4,500 yards with a par of 68. In the end, it came down to a shootout among seven nations — Czechoslovakia, England, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary and Italy. (It's unclear why the U.S. was not involved — presumably Hitler, smarting from the Berlin heroics of Jesse Owens, found a way to exclude the Yanks.)

The tournament took place over two 36-hole days, with both players' scores counting. Unfancied Germany, represented by 19-year-old Leonard von Beckerath and C.A. Helmers, provided the shock of the opening day's first two rounds, moving five shots clear of England - 282 to 287 — and 10 in front of France. After the morning of the second day Germany was still ahead, now by three strokes over England.

At that point, high-ranking diplomat Joachim von Ribbentrop, who had been watching the action, contacted his boss and said there would be a German victory. Elated, Hitler summoned his chauffeur and set out for Baden-Baden to present the trophy himself.

But the English pair — Tommy Thirsk and Arnold Bentley — had other ideas. Thirsk, a tenacious Yorkshireman, had posted a course-record 65 in the morning and he matched it in the afternoon, vaulting his team to a four-stroke victory over France, as the Germans slumped to third place, 12 strokes behind.

Sensing the grim inevitability of the result, a red-faced von Ribbentrop raced off by car and intercepted the Hitlermobile. When he heard the news, the Fiihrer was furious — he made an about face and headed back to Berlin. A jubilant Thirsk, who closed with consecutive rounds of 65, and Bentley were presented with the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor Cup by Karl Henkell, president of the German Golf Federation.

Not surprisingly, the Germans kept no records of the event, and for a while even the trophy got lost. Originally, it was the property of the English Golf Union, which had no permanent home. It was presented, for reasons unknown, to the London-based Golfers Club.

Over the years the Golfers Club suffered hard times, and eventually the club and its assets were sold to a Glaswegian named Leonard Sculthorp, who moved the club to Scotland and into a small clubhouse constructed just outside St. Andrews. But that didn't work either and in 1996, Sculthorp quietly folded the club and took all the club trophies to his family home in Glasgow.

By this time, no one (except Sculthorp) knew what had happened to the Hitler Cup. Indeed, its whereabouts became the subject of much speculation in the British press, culminating in an article in the Daily Telegraph headlined "Golfers' Trophy that Upset Hitler Turns up in Glasgow."

Sculthorp, a member of the New Club in St. Andrews, has now made his prized possession available on loan to the British Golf Museum, that low-slung sandstone building that sits directly behind the R&A clubhouse. Thirsk and Bentley may not have been Olympic gold medalists, but in turning back Hitler on his home turf, their feat surely was something heroic.

Olympic Golf

Think of a sport. An ancient, traditional and popular sport. A game whereby the objective is to hit a ball using a specially-shaped implement. A sport which is unquestionably British but at which the UK players are regularly outclassed by colonial opposition.

Chances are, you're thinking of either cricket or golf. And, equally, the chances are that you wouldn't think of them as Olympic sports. In the 21st Century, the International Olympic Committee places them near the bottom of 'potential' Olympic sports - behind BMX racing, surfing and even bridge. The reasons why these seemingly harmless pastimes are so unfavoured may well be concealed in a history of mismanagement, incompetence and lack of interest...

Records show that golf competitions were held in Paris in 1900 for both Ladies and Gentlemen. However, it is notable that most of the entrants were primarily entered for other sports, and modern opinion is that a casual golf competition between competitors was enthusiastically upgraded into an official Olympic sport. Certainly, none of the day's leading golfers were present. For the record, the winners were Charles Sands and Margaret Abbot (both of whom had originally entered for the tennis).

At the turn of the 20th Century, golf in the USA was massive. Word had spread far from the original Scottish links, and courses were being built near virtually every town. It came as no surprise when the St Louis games pencilled in golf as an official sport for the 1904 Summer Games. The best players in North America fell over themselves to enter, although the leading British players - then the best in the world - declined to make the trip across the Atlantic. This meant, not for the last time, that an Olympic event would be almost completely dominated by USA competitors.

Almost was the key word. Although American teams took gold and silver in the team event, the leading golfers of the day found themselves outclassed by Canadian all-round sportsman, George Lyon. In a 36-hole matchplay final, he beat Chandler Egan three-and-two at St Louis' Glen Echo Country Club. With his enormous drives, and undoubted natural flair for the game (he had only taken it up three years earlier), Lyon quickly became a cult hero.

The 1904 golf competition had been a roaring success and had attracted upwards of 80 competitors. Not to be outdone, the British Olympic Association (BOA) planned something altogether bigger and better. Unfortunately, they did not foresee several problems.

The intention of the BOA was to make each competitor play six rounds of golf over just three days. Results would then count towards both the individual competition and the team competition. As if this wasn't tiring enough, the Association decided that these rounds would take place at three different courses: Royal St George's, Cinque Ports and Prince's. At the time these were the most testing, and potentially most exhausting, courses in the British Isles.

For no good reason, the BOA decided upon the first week in June for Olympic golf. This meant that high-calibre entrants would be playing less than a week after three important back-to-back events: the St George's Cup, the British Amateur Championship, and the International Match between England and Scotland.

The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of Great Britain claims authority over all that happens in the world of golf. Failure to inform or involve them was the straw that broke the camel's back. More out of outrage than through any genuine objection, the R&A publically criticised all Olympic golf plans, and all British contestants withdrew out of loyalty.

The top American golfers were unwilling to make the trip, as the British had been four years earlier, and in the end only one man entered: George Lyon. Two days before competition was due to begin, the BOA announced that the Olympic golf competition had been abandoned. They offered a gold medal to Lyon, but with common sense and dignity, he declined. Golf has not been played at the Olympic Games since.

George Peper. Cup of History. Links Magazine. November/December 2008.

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