21st October, 2016.

AGW members and our valued media colleagues will be aware of the recent announcement advising the ‘Class of 2017’ inductees into World Golf’s Hall of Fame.

Whist everyone is delighted Ian Woosnam has finally been inducted, the AGW is very proud indeed our late and esteemed colleague Henry Longhurst, who passed away in 1978, was also voted into the Hall of Fame.

For 45 years, Longhurst was golfing correspondent of the Sunday Times. During World War II, Longhurst was also a member of parliament (MP) for Acton in west London,

Longhurst started writing for a monthly golf magazine called Tee Topics and came to the attention of the editor of the Sunday Times who invited him to contribute to the sporting page. Thus, he became the golf correspondent of the Sunday Times, and retained that position for 40 years. He was also a regular contributor to Golf Illustrated.
Former AGW member Henry Longhurst voted into World Golf's Hall of Fame.

Former AGW member Henry Longhurst voted into World Golf’s Hall of Fame.

In 1943, Longhurst was elected at a by-election as Conservative MP for Acton in West London, but lost the seat at the 1945 general election.[3] During the 1931 general election, Longhurst had spoken at a campaign meeting supporting Bedford’s Conservative candidate, which he described as “a heady introduction to politics, and once you have been bitten by the bug it is almost impossible, as in golf, to throw it off”.[4]

From the late 1950s to the end of his life, he was BBC Television‘s senior golf commentator. Longhurst featured on US Golf telecasts working for both CBS and ABC. CBS golf producer Frank Chirkinian hired Longhurst to work selected broadcasts starting with the Carling Tournament in 1965. He is best remembered by American audiences for his calls at the 16th hole of the Masters Tournament including Jack Nicklaus‘ 40-foot birdie putt that led to victory in 1975. Longhurst’s call of the putt (“My my…. in all my life I have never seen a putt quite like that.”) is a regular feature in Masters broadcasts. He had many lifelong friends including the cricket writer and commentator E.W. Swanton, and Alistair Cooke. Cooke referred to his writing as “the prose style, which was as effortless as falling out of bed.”[5]

In 1953, Longhurst acquired the Clayton Windmills (Jack and Jill) near Brighton in Sussex. He lived for a number of years at “Jack”, first in the mill itself and then in a modern house next to it built for him in 1963 by the architect Peter Farley who also designed Brighton Marina. “Jill” was derelict but with a grant from East Sussex County Council it was restored and opened for visitors.[6]

In his memoirs, My Life and Soft Times, (1971), he defended St Cyprians, the school he had arrived at in 1915, from critics like Gavin Maxwell, and George Orwell who had attacked it in his polemic Such, Such Were the Joys. Notwithstanding, Longhurst’s mention of being made to eat up a bowl of porridge into which he had been sick has been described as ‘an own goal’.

He died in Cuckfield, Sussex, in 1978, aged 69.

I’m sure all the AGW members will join me in congratulating our present Chairman Iain Carter and former Chairman John Hopkins for their efforts in regards to the inclusion of ‘Woosie’ and Henry Longhurst.

 

Bernie McGuire,  Secretary.

* Extra material on Henry Longhurst’s life thanks to Wikipedia.com