Maurice Flitcroft had never played a round of golf in his life but decided to enter the most prestigious golfing tournament in the world
14:55, 02 Jul 2026Updated 14:55, 02 Jul 2026
Maurice Flitcroft managed to gain a place to play in the qualifying round of the Open Championships despite having no experience – this image has been colourised from the original black and white
Next month a sea of spectators will flood Merseyside as a global sporting event returns to one of the region’s coastal towns. The 154th Open Golf Championship arrives in Southport this July, drawing audiences from across the world to the town for the prestigious sporting spectacle.
While golfers at the very height of their game compete in the elite competition, it was on Birkdale’s fairways that a crane operator from Barrow-in-Furness managed to fool the world into thinking he could qualify for the tournament.
In 1976 Maurice Flitcroft conned his way into the Open Championship at Formby Golf Club, where he attempted to qualify for the British Open.
Posing as a professional golfer, Maurice managed to gain a place to play in the qualifying round of the Open Championships(Image: Mirrorpix)
According to his unpublished memories, Flitcroft took up golf after watching the 1974 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship. He bought a set of clubs from mail order, studied instructions from a former PGA champion, and, while casually practicing in fields near his home, “launched” his golfing career.
Despite his lack of golfing expertise, he was inspired to enter the tournament by Walter Dandecki, a postal worker from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who entered the 1965 Open Championship after telling The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews that he was a professional and set a two-round score of 221 during qualifying.
Flitcroft realised amateurs required an official handicap to enter competitions. Since his lack of experience meant he did not have one, he secured his place in the qualifying round by declaring himself a professional.
The 1976 British Open Golf Championships being held at the Royal Birkdale Gold Club
When many players of his ability or lack of it would have given up ambitions to play in any tournaments, Flitcroft decided, “it would be nice to play in the Open with Jack Nicklaus and all that lot. It would give me some encouragement.”
Yet Flitcroft had the audacity to try – and was subsequently rumbled after carding a 49 over par 121 in a pre-qualifying round for the 1976 championship, the worst score in the tournament’s history.
His angry professional playing partners, who suspected something was amiss as soon as the pre-qualifier began at Formby, got back their entry fees after complaining to Royal and Ancient officials.
They subsequently banned Flitcroft from the Open for life and tightened up the entrance rules.
Posing as a professional golfer, Maurice managed to gain a place to play in the qualifying round of the Open Championships. His duplicity was easily uncovered when he carded 49 over par (121), the worst score in the tournaments history(Image: Mirrorpix)
Following the 1976 Open, the rules were changed to prevent Flitcroft from attempting to enter again. However, undeterred, he regularly attempted to enter and managed to get into qualifying rounds several more times, using disguises and pseudonyms, including Gene Paceky (as in “pay check”) and James Beau Jolley. Other, more ridiculous names included Arnold Palmtree and Count Manfred von Hoffmanstel, paired with physical disguises such as a fake moustache and sunglasses.
The Liverpool ECHO reported in June 1997: “It was at the Open last year that Flitcroft, previously unknown outside Barrow where he works as a crane driver, shocked the golf establishment by infiltrating the qualifying field at Fromby, despite never having played 18 holes in his life, and returning a shattering 121.
“Afterward, holding one of the most bizarre press conferences in the history of the championship. Flitcroft came out with the immortal comment that he hadn’t played any practice rounds because he needed the rest more than the training.”
Flitcroft died of a lung infection on March 24, 2007, at the age of 77. In its obituary of Flitcroft, The Daily Telegraph published: “Maurice Flitcroft was a chain-smoking shipyard crane-operator from Barrow-in-Furness whose persistent attempts to gate crash the British Open golf championship produced a sense of humour failure among members of the golfing establishment.”
In 2021 a film, The Phantom of The Open, staring Mark Rylance, was released based on Simon Farnaby’s biographical book The Phantom of the Open: Maurice Flitcroft, The World’s Worst Golfer.