The British PGA Matchplay Championship was first held in 1903 and its association with the News of the World newspaper lasted from the very first edition until 1969, two years before it became a European Tour event. Sadly, the commercial world of the 1970s didn’t offer much support to match play competitions and it was discontinued in 1979 when a suitable sponsor could not be found.

It originally started out as a tournament for British professionals but overseas players from other Commonwealth countries were gradually invited to participate. Americans occasionally made an appearance, such as in 1949 when the US Ryder Cup team accepted an invitation to take part. In its formative years, the Matchplay was considered as one of the top events on the calendar, attracting the biggest prize pot in British golf.

In the beginning, 32 golfers qualified from the five different sections of the PGA, with numbers based on the membership in each region. Matches were decided over 18 holes and extra holes were played in the event of a tie. The final was a 36-hole affair and medals were given to everybody who reached the semi-final stage: gold for the winner; silver for the runner-up; and bronze for the losing semi-finalists.

The format was changed as the years went by. Final stage entrants in 1919 numbered 64 and that ballooned to 149 in 1945, forcing the Committee to use both the Old and New courses at Walton Heath to accommodate the huge field. During the 1950s, first round matches were played over 36 holes, with the quarter-finals and semi-finals reduced to 18-hole matches.

The inaugural News of the World Matchplay, as it was commonly called, was played at Sunningdale in October 1903 with James Braid beating Ted Ray 4&3 in the final. Ted Ray was destined to never lift the trophy, losing another two finals in 1911 and 1912, but James Braid would go on to win again in 1905, 1907 and 1911.

In the eleven editions played before World War I, Sunningdale and Walton Heath each staged the event on four occasions, with Royal Mid-Surrey hosting twice and Notts once. J. H. Taylor claimed his only two titles at Royal Mid-Surrey in 1904 and 1908, while Sandy Herd captured the first of his two Matchplay wins at Notts in 1906 with a resounding 8&7 defeat of Charles Mayo.

After the Great War, twenty tournaments were held before armed conflict halted proceedings once again. Abe Mitchell won the first two of these contests in 1919 and 1920 and he’d go on to garner a third victory at Wentworth in 1929 when he trounced Philip Rodgers 8&7 in the final.

The three Whitcombe brothers from Somerset featured prominently in between the wars: Ernest, the oldest, won at St George’s Hill in 1924 and was a losing finalist in 1937; Charles won at Stoke Park in 1928 and Oxley in 1930 before losing out in the final at Walton Heath in 1934; and youngest sibling Eddie was defeated in his only final by Dai Rees in 1938.

This was Rees’s second Matchplay title and he’d snare another couple after World War II, at Walton Heath in 1949 and Carnoustie in 1950. Similarly, Henry Cotton won two of four finals he appeared in between 1928 and 1940 before snatching a third win at Royal Liverpool in 1946. Fred Daly also won three championships in the late 1940s-early 1950s period, never losing a final he took part in.

Peter Thomson became the competition’s first overseas victor on the Old course at St Andrews in 1954 and he would later follow that up with another three wins at Walton Heath during the 1960s, to join James Braid and Dai Rees as the golfers with the most Matchplay winner’s medals.

Harry Weetman enjoyed great success in the tournament during the 1950s, reaching five finals and winning two of them: at Royal Liverpool in 1951 and Walton Heath in 1958. During the 1960s and early 1970s, Neil Coles played in six finals, prevailing in three of them: at Walton Heath in 1964 and 1965 then at Hillside in 1973 when he beat Doug McClelland 2-Up.

The last hurrah for the event came in the 66th edition at Fulford in 1979, with Des Smyth defeating Nick Price from Zimbabwe 1-Up in the final. Unfortunately, stroke play events on the European Tour were deemed to be the best way forward in the world of professional golf, leading to the demise of the British PGA Matchplay Championship.

Walton Heath was used 22 times between 1905 and 1969 to stage this annual golfing series and it was also held on 7 occasions at Royal Mid-Surrey. Both Sunningdale and Moor Park hosted the event five times. Incidentally, you’ll not see Oxley (1921, 1930, 1936) listed below as it no longer exists.