The article below appeared in the 2024 Royal Liverpool GC annual magazine. The club have kindly given permission for us to publish it here.
John Heggarty, Royal Liverpool’s Head Professional for more than 40 years, has retired. His contributions to Hoylake and golf are substantial. This is his story.
“I didn’t swing a golf club until relatively late, especially by today’s standards. We weren’t a golfing family. My parents didn’t play when I was small, although Dad took up the game later. My main sport as a youngster was swimming, I was not bad, but round about the age of 14 I started getting beaten by 12 year-olds. So I tried golf instead and that was that. Golf is so accessible in Scotland, and it wasn’t expensive to be a member. I could cycle to Dumfries and County Golf Club in the morning and cycle back home at night. It wasn’t a big course so you’d get round quickly and fit in three rounds, and that was what started me off. I just played for fun and turning pro more or less happened by accident, a happy one, but an accident nonetheless.
“Fast forward to my later teens. I’d been working as a waiter and had planned to go and study hotel management, but the pro at the golf club said, ‘I think you’ll make a decent pro.’ Now in those days the rules on amateur status were so strict, it felt like even showing interest in a professional role was infringing that status, let alone applying for a job. The ‘Gentlemen and Players’ divide was more pronounced than now. Thankfully it doesn’t exist – as much – today. So, in a clandestine way, aged 17, I went to an interview in Glasgow and three weeks later I’d left home and gone up to Kirkintilloch just outside the city, living in a flat which, when I look back, beggars belief. To make matters worse my wage was £10 and my digs cost more than that, so I had to hustle every week to pay the bills.
“I was an assistant golf pro and the shop was literally a wooden shed. In those days of no metal woods, winter repairs were such an important part of the business. It scares me now but we’d strip woods and rub them down and stain and varnish them with polyurethane varnish, and at the same time we’d be putting grips on with petrol, while also using Bunsen burners to take heads off clubs. So how there wasn’t an almighty explosion in there I have no idea. The income a pro received from refurbishing was incredibly important – we’d do maybe 150 woods during a winter.
“There were a lot of very good players around there, including boys called the Brodie brothers, and a guy called Jim Hay, the first Scottish international to play with his right hand at the top of the club. When he was young he had an injury and his right arm was shorter than his left so he played what is sometimes described as ‘cack-handed’. You’d come to understand real competition, because these lads were hustlers; they often played for quite a bit of money, so you learned to play hard – because it helped pay the rent if you won.
“So there I was when my boss, Nigel Matthews, who used to be an assistant at Gleneagles, was offered a job at a brand new Club called Schawpark in Alloa. He was going from a shed to a brand new, purpose built pro shop that looked like Harrods to me. It was incredible, so I moved with him and enjoyed the golf over there. Alloa is a very nice place with plenty of attractive outlying villages and towns, and at the time Alan Hansen was a member, then playing for Partick Thistle with his brother John. In the same year Alan was signed by Liverpool I got the job as an assistant at Royal Liverpool. We moved down here within a week of each other.
“The pro at Hoylake then was John Morgan. I was 19 now and joined him as assistant, and I’d been there barely a week when he handed me the keys to the shop and said, ‘I’m off.’ And by ‘off’ he meant going to play the African circuit, so I was thrown into the deep end.
“John remained the Head Pro, but with him spending seven weeks in Nigeria and on the Ivory Coast I was basically running the show. That said, you have to understand that Royal Liverpool was in no way the Club it is today, and of course the pro’s job is very different now. The original shop was more or less the same size as the present one, but proportionally most of it was given over to repairs, and the front part, the tiny bit, was retail. Repairs, making golf clubs, balancing them, were still a vital part of the business.
“Then I got the job of pro at Wirral Ladies, which was fine; but when I reached the end of my second year there I found myself thinking, ‘I either need to do something very different, or I need to go and compete,’ and that’s what I did, playing in South Africa and Australia, trying to get my tour card, although I didn’t succeed. And then Royal Liverpool came along.
“John Morgan was pro at RLGC for five years until 1982, and I think he and the Club reached the conclusion the set-up wasn’t working quite as well as they’d hoped. They wanted a Club pro who was always present for the members, much as they admired his ability to play the game. So they advertised, and I applied and was offered the position, but it was made crystal clear by the then Chairman, John Behrend, that they weren’t expecting me to go off and play lots of tournaments, which was fair enough, but I have to say that if there is one regret I have it’s that I took it too literally and didn’t continue to compete. In fairness, I was pretty decent as a player, so I could have put myself out there more while striking an acceptable balance.
“The Royal Liverpool Golf Club of today I would trace back to the Walker Cup of 1983. The course was not in the condition it should have been in for such an event. It was a success, but I think it was made clear that things needed to improve if Hoylake was to host important competitions in the future, and a lot of the membership realised that too, and among them were those who, in a very understated way, developed and actioned a strategy to put the Club back on the golfing map of the world. There was a simple desire to make the links good enough to host championships, and when that had been achieved it was possible to dream of bringing The Open back here for the first time since 1967.
“In the early 2000s there was quite a lot of movement regarding the golf course, and one of the big challenges at that particular time was space around the first tee. People didn’t think the current layout, the members’ layout, could cope with the demands of a major tournament. Then Peter Dawson, the Chief Exec of The R&A, asked the question, ‘Why do we have to start at the first?’ – and suddenly the mind set became totally different. The Open could start at our 17. The deal was done with Wirral Borough Council to use the Hoylake municipal course across the road from Royal Liverpool as the practice range for Open competitors, along with parking for spectators. Better road connections were made, the rail network could be ramped up – all these and more factors suggested Hoylake could host The Open again. And we did.
“I remember in the run-up to 2006 that in April-May we had some of the wettest months on record and the course was very green. People like Jack Nicklaus were saying it’s not like a links course at all because it’s so lush. Phil Mickelson flew over three times with Dave Pelz, his coach, and caddy Bones McKay. Phil asked questions and I could only say, ‘Well, you know, this course changes quite quickly…’ – not expecting a long heatwave and the dramatic changes it brought, from lush green to baked brown and almost white in places.
“It was great to be part of our first Open for 39 years. The excitement in the Club was intense. It was a never to be forgotten time, with a fabulous Champion in Tiger Woods who put on a showcase display.
“I’ve been very fortunate from a coaching perspective to be involved with the PGA. I’ve also done some work with The R&A which took me to places like Kazakhstan and Hungary to help them develop the game. At home I became Cheshire County Coach 12 years ago and work with the boys’ team through to the men’s team. The County has asked me to stay on board and I said I’d be delighted to. What I love about it is it allows me to coach incredibly enthusiastic and talented youths who have such enthusiasm to improve and are keen to buy into the new ideas they’re offered and become very rounded golfers very quickly.
“Working with these youngsters, understanding how they tick, trying to help them improve their performance, whether from a course management perspective or technical one, it gives me such a thrill. I’ll also continue to do work with the PGA, tutoring assistants who are going through their coaching exams – and then I’ll examine them and decide whether they’re at the required level or not.
“The PGA Captaincy? That was a huge honour. I did it for two years. I’d been on the board for 20 years, and on the Ryder Cup board too, twice, including the one at Medina which was an amazing occasion. I was asked to become Chairman, but it was likely to be an eight year role and at that time the job at Royal Liverpool was just too busy, so I decided to step off the board. Then, maybe 18 months later, I was asked to consider being Captain, which is much more of an honorary and representative role. It was wonderful to attend events representing the PGA – to go to the Masters, The Open, the Ryder Cup, and a lot of events where you just engage with the memberships. It makes you more aware of our wider industry, rather than just being in the microclimate of a golf Club. I represented the Ryder Cup at the Junior Ryder Cup in Paris, wonderful because you’re right there seeing tomorrow’s stars in a lovely atmosphere which is not the fever pitch you can experience at the Ryder Cup proper.
“I met my wife Helen at Royal Liverpool when I was an assistant. Then I moved to Wirral Ladies. She went to Australia to do a Masters degree, and then I came back to Hoylake and one thing led to another. We got married in 1987 and have two wonderful children, Tom and Laura. Laura didn’t care for aspects of the game, like the amount of time it takes and the protocols, but she loved playing nine holes as a family when we went on holiday. Then her career took her to London and life in a flat and golf suddenly became a great way of spending some weekend time. Tom, on the other hand, just loved golf and eventually went out to college in America and is now living there. Golf has been important to him both as a sport and a route to his present career outside the game.
“I’ve been so privileged and lucky to work with great people and be supported by many excellent assistants who, I’m proud to say, are spread across the world and have some very serious jobs.
“Hoylake. It’s a very special place with a very special place in my heart, not least because it’s provided me with an equally special network of friends.
“It’s been a great journey, and one that continues, albeit down a slightly different road.”