My prankster dad was the real life Phantom of the Open and how he hoaxed the world of golf in disguise is unbelievable

AS unknown golfer Maurice Flitcroft teed up his ball to take a tilt on the sport’s most outstanding event, one thing was clearly amiss.

Not solely was the 46-year-old wearing a floppy jungle hat and a pair of tatty plastic footwear, he received down on all fours to position his tee.

After posing as an expert participant to enter an elite qualifying competitors for the British Open of 1976, Maurice lined up his first drive and took a slipshod swing at his ball — sending it a depressing 40 yards.

His photographs didn’t enhance, as he blasted into bushes and skewed easy putts. 

By the time he was midway around the course, red-faced officers had been urgently attempting to influence Maurice to retire gracefully.

It turned out he was not the gifted participant he had claimed to be.

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Instead, he was a shipyard employee who had by no means been spherical a golf course in his life — practising as a substitute in muddy fields and on a neighborhood seashore.

But the chain-smoking imposter was not about to surrender on his dream of lifting the event’s well-known Claret Jug trophy when the occasion was held that 12 months at Southport’s Royal Birkdale Golf Club.

That was the 12 months 19-year-old Spanish prodigy Seve Ballesteros introduced himself to the world by ending joint-second behind US nice Johnny Miller.

As for mischievous Maurice, he bombed out of qualifying after an 18-hole rating of 121 at Merseyside’s Formby Golf Club — a disastrous 49 OVER PAR and the worst spherical in British Open historical past.

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Failed to gap a putt 

But his son James, 59, tells The Sun that Maurice was not one to throw within the towel, saying: “One of his issues was that he wouldn’t hand over. On something.

“Whether it was constructing a bobsleigh for us, studying a language or placing a window in, he wouldn’t cease till he’d completed it.

“So for them to ask him to retire was out of the query. 

“He’d paid his money so he wanted his money’s worth.”

Maurice was the unique loveable sporting loser, effectively earlier than English ski-jumper Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards or swimmer Eric “The Eel” Moussambani, from Equatorial Guinea in central Africa. 

He was dubbed “the world’s worst golfer” and made headlines all over the world.

The eccentric beginner later did not gap a single putt when he appeared on a mock mini-course for daytime TV, complaining that the studio ground below the indoor inexperienced was uneven.

A event was even established in his identify within the United States, celebrating effort over potential.

Now Sir Mark Rylance is portraying Maurice, who died in 2007 aged 77, in new movie The Phantom Of The Open which mines the have-a-go hoaxer’s comical character for all it’s price.

Indeed, his isn’t a narrative that ended with that ignominious Open defeat.

Even although event bosses The Royal And Ancient, primarily based in Scotland on the “home of golf” St Andrews, banned him from ever competing once more, Maurice stored attempting to enter the Open and different professional tournaments all over the world below a sequence of comedy pseudonyms. These included Gene Pacecki, as in pay test; Arnold Palmtree, in a nod to American {golfing} legend Arnold Palmer; and the simply bonkers moniker of Count Manfred von Hoffmenstal.

Maurice additionally tried to disguise his now well-known face. Son James says: “My mum dyed his moustache and hair. He additionally used hats and pseudonyms.

“My brother Philip lived in Switzerland, so he would send an entry form for Dad from there and he also had an American pal who would do the same.” But Maurice was usually chased off programs in his deerstalker hat, and threatened with arrest.

In desperation, Royal And Ancient secretary Keith Mackenzie — performed by Notting Hill actor Rhys Ifans within the new movie — employed a handwriting skilled in an try to flush out the pretend functions.

But golf was a ardour for Maurice — and it was James and his twin brother Gene’s curiosity within the sport which first sparked it.

James says: “We took up golf after we had been ten or 11. Our dad purchased us golf equipment. If we wished cricket we had pads, balls, wickets. It was the identical with golf golf equipment. 

“He quite liked the idea when he saw us cleaning them and practising with our mates. The next minute he’s got himself a set of clubs and is practising every day.”

 But the household’s revenue didn’t stretch to golf membership membership.

 Maurice labored as a crane operator with shipbuilders Vickers-Armstrongs in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, and his spouse Jean — who died in 2002 — was a part of the secretarial employees there.

Undeterred, Maurice practised hitting balls alongside his native seashore, within the park, on college grounds and typically by sneaking on to programs at night time. James says: “He was fined for playing on the grammar school field, about a 100 yards away from where we lived.”

Maurice’s twin sons had no concept their dad was participating within the British Open qualifying throughout the summer season of 1976 — and neither did his employers. He had instructed his bosses he was unwell, so it got here as an excellent shock to them to see images of him strolling alongside behind Seve Ballesteros on the Open — after failing to qualify,

 Maurice had turned as much as watch and received shut sufficient to Seve to be photographed with him.

James provides: “One weekend he went away and we didn’t suppose something of it. Then on the Saturday The Sun had a banner headline that Maurice Flitcroft shot 121 within the Open.

Walking behind Seve

“We were about 12. We didn’t grasp how immense it was until we got to school on the Monday morning.”

While the brothers took a good quantity of ribbing, it was far worse for Maurice — who was given his marching orders from work.

James says: “They realised he wasn’t sick when they saw him in the paper. He lost his job, Mum went to work and he looked after us. He was one of the first house-husbands.”

Local {golfing} bigwigs had been additionally none too happy about Maurice having proven up the game, and promptly blackballed him.

Former tailor and jeweller James says: “Because of what he’d completed, he just about made himself unemployable.

“There was a stigma connected to what occurred on the golf.

“We were annoyed about that growing up. It probably affected some of our job prospects when we left school. Most of the management played golf. The powers that be.” But none of that was going to discourage decided Maurice, who had the assist of his household and plenty of in the neighborhood.

James says: “My mates’ dads would say to us, ‘Well done to your dad for what he did’.” 

Both Gene, who died in 2010, and James joined him on his capers up and down the land, typically performing as his caddy.

James recollects his dad as soon as pitching a tent at Scotland’s prestigious Gullane golf course, in East Lothian, solely to later realise they had been in the midst of the automotive park. 

He says: “It was filling up with cars. I said, ‘Dad, we have to take the tent down’.”

But James didn’t all the time like caddying as a result of it typically meant going through livid officers when Maurice had been rumbled.

 He recollects with a smile: “I wasn’t keen on the confrontation — but Dad revelled in it.”

Indeed, Maurice performed as much as the eye of the Press.

After the 1976 Open, together with his dentures lacking, he instructed photographers: “I’ll see you next year, fellas” — and praised the course placing greens as a result of “they resemble my living room carpet which I practise on every night”.

The twins inherited their dad’s sense of dedication — James and Gene cherished dancing and went on to change into world disco champions.

Even although Maurice talked golf on a regular basis, he by no means had complaints from spouse Jean, performed by Paddington actress Sally Hawkins within the film. “They were an old-fashioned couple,” James says: “They supported one another in each endeavour.

“She didn’t say, ‘Don’t do it’. She was a co-conspirator.”

By 1992, Maurice had developed a hip downside which lastly satisfied him to pack away his golf golf equipment.

The sporting world may need handled him as a joke however he had wished to change into an excellent golfer.

 James insists he reached the usual of an honest membership participant and definitely was NOT the world’s worst.

He says: “Dad took it seriously — deadly serious. ‘Go for it, what the hell! Who cares?’ — that was the family attitude. We have kept that throughout life. You have got to do hare-­brained things.”

• The Phantom Of The Open (12A) is in cinemas from Friday.

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