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Arnaud Massy Golf Professional Born: July
1877, Biarritz, France. Died: April 1950, Etretat, France.
![[Arnaud Massy]](images/massy_1.jpg) Arnaud Massy at La Boulie © Digitalsport UK |
Bass Rock Sea Bird Sanctuary
![[Canty Bay]](images/cantybay_1.jpg)
Canty Bay, North Berwick © Digitalsport UK West Links East Course Gullane Muirfield Dunbar Musselburgh
![[Quadrant, North
Berwick]](images/quadrant.jpg) Quadrant, North Berwick © Digitalsport UK
Tournament Record French Open :1906 1907,1911, 1925 British Open :1907 Belgium Open :1910 Spanish Open:1911,1927,1928 British Open : runner-up,1911 French Open :runner-up,1908,1910,1926 2x Inter-Allied Games - First Medals 1919 (Pershing Stadium, Colombes, France) La Ville De Cannes Au Golf Club, 1907 Societe De Golf De Paris, 1911 Championnat des Professionels Francais, 1911 |
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Frenchman grasps the coveted silver jug
By Douglas Seaton
North Berwick Factfile
Arnaud George Watson Massy, born 6th July 1877 in Biarritz,
southern France, son of Bernard Massy and his wife Marie Lauga. On leaving school Arnaud was employed as a sardine fisherman and from the age of fourteen caddied at Biarritz, for mostly English visitors to the Basque region.
Massy was taught the rudimentary skills of club making by sixteen year old Willie Tucker when he was assistant to Willie Dunn at
Biarritz. William H. Tucker Snr. was a club maker with Willie Dunn on Wimbledon Common before following him to France.
Massy carried for many well known players at Biarritz including Horace Hutchison, Charles Hutchings and Everard Hambro. It was
Hambro who brought Massy to North Berwick for the summer season when he was twenty-one. Massy was met at Drem station by Davie
Grant in a horse and cart. Grant was an excellent teaching pro at North Berwick where Hambro had made arrangements for Massy to
learn the craft of club making in James Hutchison's workshop on the West Links.
Arnaud was a popular figure with a keen sense of humour, and returned to the West Links on six occasions, teaching for four
months during the summer season. He was enormously impressed with Harry Vardon when he watched him at North Berwick during a
match against Willie Park in 1899.
" He had a distinctive twirl at the top of his backswing
which dated back to when he played left handed as a youngster."
Massy used a two-handed grip and an open stance. A powerful man, he was a long hitter and highly thought of as a cleek player.
He had an unusual action, described as a 'Pig Tail' swing which was very upright with a curious flourish at the top. Massy
played regularly with the best Scottish 'cracks', amateur and professional, until he gained the necessary experience to compete
at the highest level. He entered his first Open Championship from Biarritz G.C in 1902, and finished tied for tenth place with
Andrew Kirkaldy. This was the first time a foreign player had entered the Open Championship. | |
| The growth in the popularity of golf in Europe can be attributed to Arnaud
Massy, Ben
Sayers, Jack White and Davie Grant, who took part in exhibition matches throughout the continent. |
| In 1903 he joined the PGA and listed his employment as assistant to Ben Sayers. That year he married North
Berwick girl Janet Punton Henderson known as 'Jinty', daughter of Captain Henderson.
In 1905 Massy entered the Open Championship at St. Andrews from North Berwick, when he finished in 5th place and received £
7-10s. The following year he won the inaugural French Open at La Boulie where he was later appointed professional, this was his
first of a record four wins in the French Open. La Boulie was home to the club Societe de Golf de Paris, situated near Versailles
about a dozen miles from Paris, and the course was laid out round a big hill. At this time George Nicoll from Leven, Fife made
clubs stamped A. Massy, La Boulie G.C Paris, for sale at the club.
Massy finished in 6th place at the 1906 Open at Muirfield, and in 1907, he was described by the press as a 'Frenchman with the
soul of a Scot' became the first overseas player to win the Open Championship.
The weather was appalling at Hoylake in 1907, but Massy had the game to combat the strong winds and torrential rain. His putting
was steady and he used a driving-iron given to him by Andrew Kirkaldy to great effect. Massy led, or tied for the lead,
throughout and scored 76, 81, 78, and 77, for an aggregate of 312, two stokes ahead of J.H. Taylor one of the best bad-weather
players of them all.
The entry for the 1907 Open was over subscribed, and a qualifying round was introduced for the first time, which Massy also won.
During the championship, his wife gave birth to a daughter, and he cut short his celebrations to return to Scotland. He arrived
back in North Berwick accompanied by Ben Sayers and when news spread that the Champion was arriving at 3 o'clock, a large crowd gathered at the Railway Station. A string-band in town for the summer season was hastily assembled, and an open top charabanc put at their disposal. As Massy alighted from the carriage the crowd cheered, and waved their caps in the air, as the band played 'See the Conquering Hero'. Massy and Sayers then took their seats in the vehicle which proceeded down Station Hill and east into Westgate, then a two way thoroughfare. |
| Massy holding the claret jug aloft, acknowledged their applause. The motorcade continued slowly along
Westgate, the streets lined with people, until the procession reached Captain Henderson's house at Harmony Cottage, Forth Street.
There with the cheers still ringing in his ears, and clutching the Open Trophy, Massy was reunited with his wife and new born
daughter, who they later christened Margaret Lockhart 'Hoylake' Massy after his triumph.
As part of the summer season in North Berwick many of the local golfers and visiting personalities took part in a putting
competition in aid of the North Berwick Parish Church Funds. In 1908, Dorothy Campbell, the current Scottish Ladies Champion,
Arnaud Massy, and Ben Sayers were among the competitors.
The tournament was played over a week on the nine-hole putting green at the Royal Hotel, now occupied by Craigleith View.
Sixpence being charged per round with seven hundred rounds played, raising over £17 | |
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| Massy tied for first place along with another five on 21 strokes, but scratched to his opponents in the play-off.
Campbell tied for second place in the Ladies competition, which was won with 23 strokes by Miss Faith Laidlay Invereil House,
the sister of the famous amateur golfer John E. Laidlay.
In 1908, Massy was the first winner of a professional tournament to be held at Turnberry. The same year he won a tournament
at Blackpool and in 1909 he won the professional competition at the opening of Pitlochry Golf Club.
In July 1909, Arnaud was joined in North Berwick by Frenchman Jean Grassiat, a fellow professional at Biarritz. They played in
the 300 guinea tournament on the newly opened North Berwick Burgh course. Massy finished 4th behind George Duncan, Alex Herd
and Harry Vardon. Three years later Jean Grassiat won the French Open.
Massy came close to winning another Open Championship on 30th June 1911, when he made up four strokes on Harry Vardon to tie at
Sandwich. In the playoff, however, he conceded on the 35th. He bounced back quickly, crossing the channel to win his third
French Open, by seven strokes with all the top players in the field.
The following year he entered the Open at Muirfield from La Nivelle Golf Club, when he finished in 10th place. The Nivelle Golf
Club was located a few miles from Biarritz and a twelve hour train journey from Paris. The course was laid out between the Rhume
mountain, the Nivelle river and the sea. The view from the 10th hole over the Bay of Biscay was described as spectacular.
Arnaud Massy had an outstanding record in the Open Championship, consistently finishing in the top twenty from 1902 until 1922.
Among his pupils at La Nivelle Golf Club, were Andre Vagliano, Pierre Maneuvrier, and Simone Thion de la Chaume. Massy was
involved in the first matches between France and the United States in 1913. He wrote a book titled "Golf" which was translated
into English in 1914.
During the First World War he joined the French Army and was wounded at Verdun while attached to a grenade company. Following
the conflict he continued his duties as pro at La Nivelle, St Jean de Lux and returned to North Berwick in July 1919. In 1921,
Massy finished 6th in the Open Championship at St Andrews while living at 118 Findhorn Place, Newington, Edinburgh. On 9th
October 1925 he won his record fourth French Open after a play-off with Archie Compston, the British PGA Champion. During the
championship at Chantilly Golf Club, Massy made a hole-in-one at the par-3, 165 yard, ninth and the following day he won the
French Native Championship. On 23rd December that year Massy and Compston sailed from Southampton to New York to play in a series
of exhibition matches in the USA.
They took a winter position at St Augustine G.C in Florida and their first match was played on New Years Day 1926 against Bobby
Jones and Watts Gunn, the winner and runner-up in the US Amateur Championship. Watched by a record gallery, the Europeans won
3 &2 and despite Massy being outdriven by Compston and Jones, the Frenchman's chip shots and putting were so accurate that Massy
posted the lowest individual score. Later in January, Bobby Jones got his revenge beating Massy and Compston 8&7, this time Jones
was partnered by Tommy Armour the former Scottish Amateur Champion.
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| Massy set a new course record 68 on the Kings Course at Gleneagles
during the Glasgow Herald 1000 Guinea Golf Tournament in 1921 |
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On 1st November 1928, Massy was appointed the first pro at Golf de Chantaco near Biarritz. Arnaud and Jinty Massy had two
daughters born in Harmony Cottage, 7 Forth Street, North Berwick Margot Lockhart Hoylake Massy (1907) and Lena Marie Lauga Massy (1909).
A third daughter born in 1919, Marthe Davelli Massy married Jindrich Veverka, a Company Director and they lived at 9 Lennox
Street Lane, Edinburgh.
Margot married George Edgar in 1929 in Edinburgh and Lena married Alberto Bellamy and they lived in London and later Edinburgh.
Their mother Janet Punton Henderson died on 28th April 1935 in a private nursing home at 22 Moray Place, Edinburgh, while Arnaud
was working at Chantaco Golf Club, a few miles from La Nivelle in southwest France.
During the late 1930s Massy was the private professional to the Pasha of Marakesh in Morocco. Following WW2 Arnaud went into
semi-retirement teaching at Golf D' Etretat in Normandy. Where he had previously extended the course to 18 holes in collaboration
with architect Julien Chartepie. Etretat is a small fishing village northeast of Le Harve overlooking the English Channel. Massy
resided on rue Notre Dame where he died on 16th April 1950.
Arnaud's daughter Margot had his body returned to Edinburgh where he was buried beside his wife Janet Henderson in Newington
Cemetery. When Margot died 27th June 1955 she was also buried in Section P, headstone 114 beside her parents.
In 2005, Arnaud's second daughter Mrs Lena Bellamy left a legacy of £39,000 to the English Ladies' Golf Association Trust.
Lena was a keen golfer and kept up her membership of a golf club in the Edinburgh area until late in life. The Bellamy Bursary
continues to be awarded annually to a student studying a golf related subject from Golf Course Management to Greenkeeping.
Arnaud Massy remains to this day the greatest French golfer ever - "Vive l'Entente Cordiale!" |
| Copyright © Douglas Seaton 2010, All Rights Reserved. | |