Trophies

The Cambridge University Golf Club trophies can be viewed in the Royal Worlington and Newmarket clubhouse.

The Linskill Cup (1877) 

The Linskill Challenge Cup, a pewter loving cup made by Munsey and co. of Cambridge, was donated in 1877 by Captain William Linskill, the father of W T Linskill who was the major-domo of CUGC during its first two decades. W T Linskill was an undergraduate at Jesus College, but there is no evidence that he ever took any exams. He was captain from 1876-1883 and honorary secretary from 1887-1896. He was not a great golfer nor very good with finances, but he was a tremendous enthusiast. He was the key figure in establishing the Varsity match in 1878, one of the longest running matches in golf. The Linskill Cup was the major scratch trophy played for within the club over its first one hundred years of existence. Ironically it was originally donated by the father to his son for coming not first but third in 1877. The Cup has had an interesting life having been lost and found again several times since it was first played for. Most recently it had been missing for a couple of decades before being tracked down and discovered in the basement at Hollinwell in 2016. CUGC’s oldest trophy had been forgotten about when the annual match against the Notts club had gone into abeyance. 

The Barrow Medal (1892) 

The Barrow Medal was donated by Claude L Barrow in 1892, an undergraduate member of CUGC at that time. Claude Barrow came to an untimely death when he crashed his car into a tree when trying to avoid a dog in the 1903 Paris to Madrid race. The medal was originally played for in a bogey competition in the Michaelmas and Lent terms off two-thirds handicap. It is made of silver gilt in the shape of a star with an enamel centre featuring the University of Cambridge coat of arms and the wording ‘Non Sine Pulvere Palma 1892’. On the reverse, there is the traditional golfing exhortation ‘far and sure’ and that it was won by I W Heron-Maxwell in 1892. On 16 November 1909, the Barrow Medal was won by E J Hunter. No further references to it appeared in the CUGC minute books. In 2011, the Barrow Medal surprisingly re-appeared at a Bonham’s auction and was purchased by avid golf collector, Jim McCormick from Chicago. Via an anonymous donation, the medal was acquired from Jim and returned to CUGC in 2023. 

The Scratch (Gold) Medal (1910) 

The Scratch (Gold) Medal was presented to CUGC by the Royal Worlington and Newmarket GC in 1910. The first winner was W E Gardner Beard with 79 at Worlington. It became colloquially known as the Trotter Scratch Medal after the Hon Secretary at Worlington, Mr W O Trotter, who held the office from 1898-1923. In January 1936 it was recorded in the CUGC Minutes that the Trotter Medal should in future be called the Royal Worlington Medal. The medal was played for up until the Second World War. The last noted winners were J D A Langley (1939), a Walker Cup player, D F Ashton (1942-43) and J R B Horden (1943-44). In 2021, Ashton’s medal came up for auction on eBay. It was successfully acquired by club members, Nigel Notley and Michael Morrison, who have donated it.

The Storey Medal (1924)

The Storey Medal was presented to CUGC by Eustace Storey in 1952. The medal had been awarded to him as runner-up in the Amateur Championship at St Andrews in 1924. At the time, he was captain of CUGC. He had beaten the defending champion Roger Wethered in the semi-final but lost to Ernest Holderness in the final. The Storey Medal was originally played for over 18 holes of medal play between the twelve players chosen to go to the university match (ten Blues plus the two reserves). 

The Dunedin Cup (1928) 

The Dunedin Cup is perhaps the most romantic of all the CUGC trophies. It was donated by Lord Dunedin at a CUGC dinner held in Cambridge in June 1928. As Andrew Graham Murray, a Trinity undergraduate, he was one of the founders of the club in 1869. He would go on to have a highly successful legal and political career. He was the Secretary of State for Scotland in Balfour’s Cabinet in 1903 and was raised to the peerage in 1905. He was also steeped in golf – he was Captain of the R&A (1892), of the Honourable Company (1894 and 1895) and of Sunningdale (four times in the 1920s). The silver cup, made by Mappin & Webb, is encrusted with 17 half-crowns all dating prior to 1869 to represent the subscription payments made by the original 17 members of CUGC. The trophy bears a passing resemblance to the Ryder Cup made by Mappin & Webb in 1927. The Dunedin Cup had not been seen since the 1950s when was stored at Munsey’s, the jewellers. In 2016, making some enquires at Mappin & Webb’s store in Cambridge (which had acquired Munsey’s some years ago), Michael Morrison made a quite amazing discovery – the trophy was still there. It had been in the safe in the shop basement for around 60-70 years waiting to be rediscovered.

The Welsh Cup (1929) 

The Welsh Cup was first referred to in the club minutes in January 1929. William Welsh had been an outstanding golfer who played for Cambridge in the Varsity match in 1880 and 1882. He was also an excellent mathematician, Senior Wrangler in 1882 and winner of the Smith Prize in 1883. He remained at Cambridge, a fellow of Jesus, for the rest of his life. He was President of CUGC from 1896 until his death on the golf course at Brancaster in 1925.  The trophy was purchased from donations raised by past members of CUGC in commemoration of his contribution to Cambridge golf. It is recorded in the minutes in 1937 that Eustace Storey was one of the chief donors. It was originally played for in an inter-college competition. 

The Carr Challenge Cup (1930) 

The Carr Challenge Cup was presented to the club by Sir William Emsley Carr in October 1930. Sir Emsley Carr was the proprietor of the News of the World as well as the editor of the paper from 1891-1941. Three of his sons, who all went to Trinity, represented Cambridge in the Varsity match: Walter Copley (nicknamed ‘Wash’) Carr (1928, 1929, 1930 and 1931), Horace (or Harry) Lascelles Carr (1931), who were identical twins, and William Emsley Carr (1933 and 1934). It was originally played for between eight players in a matchplay knockout format who had qualified via a bogey competition.

The League Armada Dish (1965)

This silver armada dish was presented by Raymond H Oppenheimer to Donald Steel as one of the members of The League team on the occasion of the final match played against Cambridge in November 1965. In commemoration of the matches between The League and CUGC from 1929-1965, it is inscribed, ‘In memory of much laughter and fun’. Oppenheimer, who was an excellent golfer, captained Oxford in 1928. In the following year, he created The League, his team consisting of strong golfers, to provide Oxford and Cambridge with a stern test each year. The League was revived after the Second World War, and when Gerald Micklem took over the running of the matches, he put together ever more powerful teams, often including internationals and Walker Cup players (Oppenheimer captained the GB & I Walker Cup team in 1951). With such strength in depth, they rarely lost. With Oppenheimer approaching his sixtieth birthday he decided to wind The League up after playing their final match against Cambridge in late 1965 and against Oxford in early 1966.

The Sutherland Tassie (1973) 

The Sutherland Tassie was presented by Sir Gordon Sutherland in 1973. Originally from Scotland, he graduated from St Andrews in 1929 with degrees in physics and mathematics. He became an experimental physicist specialising in infrared spectrometry at Cambridge and Michigan. He headed up the National Physical Laboratory from 1954-64, was knighted in 1960, and returned to Cambridge to became Master of Emmanuel from 1964-77. He was President of CUGC from 1967 until his death in 1980. The Tassie was originally played for as a scratch medal over 18 holes. The first winner was A D Burton (Jesus) with a score of 75.

The Don’s Cup (1986) 

The Don’s Cup was presented to the club in November 1986 by Dr Denis Marrian who was President from 1980-93. Dennis Marrian had graduated in organic chemistry from Manchester. He moved to Cambridge in 1944 working under (Lord) Alex Todd who would win the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1957. He was King Charles’s tutor at Trinity in the late 1960s. The cup commemorates Sir Robert Speed. R W A Speed (Trinity) played for Cambridge in the Varsity matches in 1926 and 1927. In 1980, together with Sir Clement Penruddock (who represented Oxford in the same two Varsity matches), he founded the Speed Charitable Trust to provide financial assistance for golf at Oxford and Cambridge. The Don’s Cup has been played in a variety of formats over the years involving golfing dons and the student members of the club. 

Michael Morrison

24th September 2023