01.04.2007

The end of the golfing crane driver

Maurice Flitcroft a crane driver and would be golfer from Barrow-in-Furness, who became famous for gate crashing the British Open, has died from a lung infection.

Flitcroft had been playing golf for 18 months on local fields when he conned his way into the prequalifying rounds for the 1976 British Open.
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Maurice Flitcroft

He was rumbled when he carded a 49-overpar 121 and his angry professional playing partners, who suspected something was amiss, were given back their entry fees.

The Royal and Ancient club which runs the game, banned Flitcroft from the Open for life and tightened the entrance rules. However, he got into qualifying rounds several more times, using disguises and pseudonyms, including Gene Paceky (as in “pay-check”) and James Beau Jolley.

An embarrased R&A pointed out that a lot of people worked hard for many years to get into the Open, with 600 players in the North West of England vying for 88 places in the championship proper in 1976. But Flitcroft’s brazen approach, coupled with his cheeky grin and floppy hat, turned him briefly into something of a folk hero.

He said that he had been inspired by watching golf on TV and had bought a set of mail-order clubs, studied the instructions and practised on fields near his house. He soon realised that the game was harder than it looked, but instead of giving up, decided that “it would be nice to play in the Open with Jack Nicklaus and all that lot. It would give me some encouragement.” When he realised that amateurs needed an official handicap, he entered as a professional.

Flitcroft was born in Manchester in 1929. After a spell in the Merchant Navy, he became a stuntman and toured the country as a high diver in a comedy show.

After he married he moved to his wife’s native Barrow-in-Furness and became a crane driver at Vickers Armstrong shipyard. He retired from Vickers in the 1970s and continued playing golf in fields and on the beach, having been banned from every local club after sneaking in to play.

However, he was given an honour bestowed on only a few of the sport’s exponents when in 1988 Blythefield Country Club in Grand Rapids, Michigan, renamed one of its competitions the Maurice G. Flitcroft Member-Guest Tournament.

Flitcroft’s wife, Jean, died in 2002. He is survived by their twin sons, one of whom acted as his caddie.