THE HISTORY OF THE STABLEFORD GAME 1932
Dr. Frank Barney Gorton Stableford gave his name to the most popular points scoring system ever to be adopted.
He was an excellent golfer and with a handicap of plus 1 in 1907, he won the club championship at Royal Porthcawl. Earlier he had served as a surgeon in the Royal Army Medical Corps and spent some years in South Africa.
His medical career brought him to Wallasey and he joined the golf club in 1914. During the 1914-18 War, he served as a major with the RAMC. He returned to Wallasey after the war, and records of 1922 show that his handicap had risen to 8.
His unique scoring method was born out of frustration with the bogey system of scoring at that time, where the player played against the bogey (or par) for the hole. The strong winds at Wallasey made nonsense of this system when players were unable to reach the long par-4s in regulation.
THE FIRST STABLEFORD GOLF GAME HELD IN 1932 AT WALLASEY UNITED KINGDOM
Wallasey held the first Stableford competition on 16th May 1932, and it was an instant success. As an everlasting tribute to Dr. Stableford, Wallasey introduced “The Frank Stableford Open Amateur Memorial Trophy” in 1969. Of course, the event is played as a Stableford, and it has become a major event in the amateur golfing calendar.
Stableford’s portrait by J.A.A.Berrie hangs in the clubhouse, a reminder to the members of the debt owed to the club golfer’s greatest benefactor.
“I doubt whether any single man did more to increase the pleasure of the humble club golfer” (Henry Longhurst)
Stableford had experimented with a scoring system
Stableford had experimented with a scoring system when briefly a member of Glamorganshire in 1898.
He took the scores from a normal bogey competition and used a points system to identify a ‘winner’, but the system proved unsatisfactory and was not repeated.
It was only many years later at Wallasey that he devised a formula that worked. “I was practising on the 2nd fairway at Wallasey Golf Club one day in the latter part of 1931”, he said, “when the thought ran through my mind that many players in competitions got very little fun since they tore up their cards after playing only a few holes and I wondered if anything could be done about it”
The result was the Stableford scoring system, and club golfers have been indebted to the good doctor ever since. A very popular game played at many Golf Courses in Sydney.
2BBB Stableford is a regular game played at Bardwell Valley Sydney Golf Course. Everyone is welcomed to come in and enjoy our 18 hole course.
HOW TO SCORE POINTS IN STABLEFORD
Stableford is an upward counting point system, where a certain number of points is given based on your score relative to par on each hole.
In the traditional system, 1 point is given for a bogey, 2 for par, 3 for birdie, and 4 for eagle.
Wallasey Golf Club, situated on the Wirral Peninsula not far from Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, has a very proud history having hosted final qualifying rounds of the Open Championship on a number of occasions.
Dr Stableford was a member of the Wallasey Golf Club for many years, including being Captain in 1936 and later becoming an Honorary Life Member.
The Stableford scoring system had its genesis in his desire for fairness in that if a player had a bad hole (or 2) then there was no need to “tear up their card”. This was (and still is) the case in stroke play format if a no return is recorded on a hole.
So almost 35 years after the initial trial at The Glamorganshire Golf Club and with the advent of the stroke index, Dr Stableford was finally in a position to present a scoring system (that is still used to this day) to the Wallasey Golf Club council.
At first, it was thought much too complicated but all doubts were dispersed after the first recognized Stableford competition, which was held on 16th May 1932 and was won by Mr Frederick Lister with a score of 36 points.
Frank Stableford Letter to the Wallasey Golf Club Council
Highcroft: 22 Magazine Brow Wallasey Cheshire
15 March 53
Dear Captain
I am so sorry I shall not be at the General Meeting on Saturday
Will you please thank my fellow members for the great honour they have done me in electing me a Life Membership of the Wallasey Golf Club, I am very proud of the distinction.
I have loved the Wallasey Golf Club since 1910 and have never tired of Its infinite variety.
It may Interest the members to know that my Scoring System was thought out the second fairway.
Duman Taylor was the first golfer to hear of it. I asked him to discuss it with me. The first prize competition, 16 May 32, were F Lister and Bill Harries
When I offered my system of scoring to the club Council thought it much too complicated but after the first competition the enthusiasm was nearly out of bounds.
It has been a great source of pleasure to me to know that my system of scoring has added happiness to a Large number of golfers in various parts of the world
Yours Sincerely
Frank Stableford
PERSONAL NOTE:
I believe that Dr Frank Stableford should be considered for the World Golf Hall of Fame.
He may not have been one of the best players in the world however his contribution to golf had changed the way the game was played.
From a frustrating game to one that placed players on a greater equal level. The “Stableford” game is considered the most played event in the golf course world.
Resources:
Wallasey Golf Club
https://www.wallaseygolfclub.com/dr_frank_stableford
Nextgengolf
https://blog.nextgengolf.org/golf-help/fun-golf-tournament-formats
GOLFING HERALD
https://golfingherald.com/dr-frank-stableford/
Stableford
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stableford
Golf Heritage Society
https://www.golfheritage.org/stableford/