Michael Bonallack

Last updated

Sir
Michael Bonallack
OBE
Personal information
Full nameMichael Francis Bonallack
Born(1934-12-31)31 December 1934
Chigwell, Essex, England
Died26 September 2023(2023-09-26) (aged 88)
St Andrews, Fife, Scotland
Sporting nationalityFlag of England.svg  England
Career
StatusAmateur
Best results in major championships
Masters Tournament CUT: 1966, 1969, 1970
The Open Championship T11: 1959
U.S. Amateur R64: 1961
British Amateur Won: 1961, 1965, 1968, 1969, 1970
Achievements and awards
World Golf Hall of Fame 2000 (member page)
Knight Bachelor 1998
Bob Jones Award 1972
(For a full list of awards, see here)

Sir Michael Francis Bonallack, OBE (31 December 1934 – 26 September 2023) was an English amateur golfer who was one of the leading administrators in world golf in the late 20th century. [1] [2]

Contents

Bonallack was born in Chigwell, Essex. He learned the game of golf under the tutelage of head professional Bert Hodson at Chigwell [3] and soon won the Boys Amateur Championship in 1952. A rare example of an outstanding golfer who remained an amateur in the era when professional domination of the sport became firmly entrenched, he went on to win the Amateur Championship and the English Amateur five times each and the Brabazon Trophy four times. He was a member of nine Walker Cup teams and played in the Eisenhower Trophy seven times. His best finish at the Open Championship was eleventh in 1959. He was the leading amateur at the Open in 1968 and 1971.

Affiliations

Bonallack was Secretary of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews from 1983 to 1999 and Captain from 1999 to 2000. He has also been President of the Golf Club Managers' Association (1974–84), Chairman of the PGA of Great Britain and Ireland (1976–81), Chairman of the Golf Foundation (1977–82), and President of the English Golf Union (1982).

Bonallack was the president of the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association (BIGGA) and also served as president of the One Armed Golfers Society, the Professional Golfers Association of Europe and as chairman of the advisory committee for the Official World Golf Rankings. [4] He was also president of the National Association of Public and Proprietary Golf Courses (NAPGC).

Honours

Bonallack was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to golf in the 1971 New Year Honours, [5] and was knighted in the 1998 Birthday Honours, again for services to golf. [6] [7] In 1972, he was voted the Bob Jones Award, the highest honour given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. He was a member of Augusta National Golf Club, [8] and has received numerous honours from golfing organisations around the world, culminating in his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2000.

Legacy

Europe and the Asia-Pacific play for the Sir Michael Bonallack Trophy every two years. The teams consist of 12 amateur golfers and no more than two players can be from the same country.

Personal life and death

Bonallack married Angela Ward in February 1958. They were married for 64 years until her death in July 2022. [9]

Bonallack died in St Andrews, Fife on 26 September 2023, at the age of 88. [10] [11]

Tournament wins

Note: This list may be incomplete

Sources: [12] [13]

Results in major championships

Tournament1956195719581959
Masters Tournament
The Open Championship T11
U.S. Amateur R128
The Amateur Championship R128R32SFR32
Tournament1960196119621963196419651966196719681969
Masters Tournament CUTCUT
The Open Championship CUTCUTCUTT33T27CUTT21LAT42
U.S. Amateur R64T53T11T14
The Amateur Championship QF1111
Tournament1970197119721973
Masters Tournament CUT
The Open Championship CUTT22LACUTCUT
U.S. Amateur R32
The Amateur Championship 1

Note: Bonallack did not play in the U.S. Open or the PGA Championship.

  Did not play

LA = Low amateur
CUT = missed the half-way cut (3rd round cut in 1970 Open Championship)
"T" indicates a tie for a place
R256, R128, R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in match play
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10

Sources: [14] , Masters, [15] U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur, [16] Open Championship, [17] Amateur Championship (1956, [18] 1957, [19] 1958, [20] 1959, [21] 1960 [22]

Awards and achievements

Team appearances

this list may be incomplete

Related Research Articles

Peter Arthur Oosterhuis is an English professional golfer and golf broadcaster. Oosterhuis played on the European circuit from 1969 to 1974, winning 10 tournaments and taking the Harry Vardon Trophy for heading the Order of Merit for four consecutive seasons from 1971 to 1974. From 1975 he played on the PGA Tour, winning the Canadian Open in 1981. He was twice runner-up in the Open Championship, in 1974 and 1982. Later he became a golf analyst on TV, initially in Europe and then in the United States. In 2015, Oosterhuis announced that he had Alzheimer's disease.

Clive Anthony Clark is an English professional golfer and more recently a broadcaster and golf course architect.

Joseph Benedict Carr was an Irish amateur golfer.

The English Men's Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship for the Brabazon Trophy is the national amateur stroke play golf championship in England. It has been played annually since 1947 and is organised by the England Golf.

William Hyndman III was an American amateur golfer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Wolstenholme</span> English professional golfer

Gary P. Wolstenholme MBE is an English professional golfer. Wolstenholme is known for his long amateur career and now plays on the European Senior Tour.

Guy Bertram Wolstenholme was an English professional golfer. He had a successful career both as an amateur and then as a professional.

Peter Michael Paul Townsend is an English professional golfer. After a very successful amateur career he turned professional in 1966. He had a number of wins in the early part of his professional career including the Piccadilly PGA Close Championship in 1968. He represented Great Britain twice in the Ryder Cup, in 1969 and 1971.

Jeremy Gordon Robinson is an English professional golfer.

Bert Hodson (1905–1971) was a Welsh professional golfer who played in the early 20th century. Hodson's best performances in major championships came in the 1927 and 1934 Open Championships when he was tied for seventh place in each event. Hodson played on the Great Britain Ryder Cup team in 1931.

Sir Ernest William Elsmie Holderness, 2nd Baronet CBE was an English amateur golfer and one of the Holderness baronets. He won The Amateur Championship in 1922 and 1924 and the Golf Illustrated Gold Vase in 1925. He played in the Walker Cup in 1923, 1926, and 1930.

The Golf Illustrated Gold Vase was a prestigious amateur golf tournament in England. It was a 36-hole scratch stroke play competition.

Douglas Norman Sewell was an English professional golfer. Before turning professional he had a successful amateur career, playing in the Walker Cup in 1957 and 1959.

Philip Furse Scrutton was an English amateur golfer. He played in the Walker Cup in 1955 and 1957. He was killed in a road traffic accident at the age of 35.

Bruce Fishwick Critchley is a UK TV broadcaster and commentator who worked for the BBC in the 1980s and from the early 1990s was a member of Sky Sports golf broadcasting team until his retirement in the mid-2010s.

The Berkshire Trophy is the amateur stroke play golf championship played at The Berkshire Golf Club in England. It has been played annually since 1946. The format is 72 hole stroke play contested over two days. Both the Blue and Red courses are used on the Saturday with the leading 40 scores and ties going through to play two further rounds on the Red course on the Sunday. If two or more players are tied after 72 holes they share the trophy; there is no playoff.

Arthur Herbert Perowne was an English amateur golfer. He played in the Walker Cup in 1949, 1953 and 1959.

Rodney Foster is an English amateur golfer. He was one of the leading British amateurs of the 1960s and early 1970s. He represented Great Britain and Ireland in five successive Walker Cup matches from 1965 to 1973 and twice in the Eisenhower Trophy, in 1964 and 1970.

Alec Edward Shepperson is an English amateur golfer. He played in the 1957 and 1959 Walker Cup matches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angela Bonallack</span> English amateur golfer (1937–2022)

Angela, Lady Bonallack was an English amateur golfer. She was twice a finalist in the Ladies' British Open Amateur Championship and won the English Women's Amateur Championship in 1958 and 1963. She played in six successive Curtis Cup matches from 1956 to 1966. She was married to Michael Bonallack.

References

  1. "On This Day in History – Sir Michael Bonallack, Former R&A Secretary, Is Born". In Golf We Trust. 31 December 2007. Archived from the original on 15 January 2010. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  2. Corrigan, James (26 September 2023). "Golf mourns death of former R&A chief Sir Michael Bonallack at the age of 88". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  3. Hodson, Andrew. "Bert Hodson Ryder cup". hodsongolf.com. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  4. Mackie, Keith. "2006 Memorial Tournament Honoree; Sir Michael Bonallack" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  5. United Kingdom list: "No. 45262". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1970. p. 9.
  6. United Kingdom list: "No. 55155". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 1998. p. 1.
  7. "Sports stars share honours". BBC News. 13 June 1998. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  8. "Augusta National Golf Club members list". USA Today.com. 4 August 2004.
  9. "Tributes Paid to Lady Angela Bonallack". The R&A. 2 July 2022. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  10. Sandomir, Richard (7 October 2023). "Michael Bonallack, Britain's Greatest Postwar Amateur Golfer, Dies at 88". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  11. Huggan, John (26 September 2023). "Sir Michael Bonallack, former R&A secretary and World Golf Hall of Famer, dies at 88". Golf Digest.
  12. Huggins, Percy, ed. (1973). The Golfer's Handbook. p. 363.
  13. "Sir Michael Bonallack". Essex Golf Union. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
  14. Brenner, Morgan G. (2009). The Majors of Golf: Complete Results of the Open, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and the Masters, 1860-2008. Vol. 1. McFarland. ISBN   978-0-7864-3360-5.
  15. www.masters.com Archived 26 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  16. USGA Championship Database Archived 21 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  17. www.opengolf.com
  18. The Glasgow Herald, 30 May 1956, pg. 4.
  19. The Glasgow Herald, 30 May 1957, pg. 4.
  20. The Glasgow Herald, 7 June 1958, pg. 4.
  21. The Glasgow Herald, 28 May 1959, pg. 9.
  22. The Glasgow Herald, 27 May 1960, pg. 13.