Lancashire Golf 
Golf
The Olympics and the Hitler Trophy
The Olympics and the Hitler Trophy
Captain Steve Mentha with President Derek Holden
The Olympic Torch Relay visited Southport on Friday 1st June, but for the members of Hesketh Golf Club, that week saw the realisation of an older Olympic dream. Just two days earlier, in a Bonham’s Auction in Chester, the Club had purchased golf’s ‘Hitler Trophy’.
The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin are remembered for the manner in which the host nation attempted to hijack this great sporting festival, as an instrument for propaganda. Jesse Owens with four gold medals rather stymied this attempt. An attempt to salvage some sporting pride was later made at ‘The Great Golf Prize of Nations’ played in Baden-Baden in association with the Olympics.
It was a four round two-man team stroke event for a trophy donated by Hitler. The trophy is an impressive brass salver inlaid with eight large amber discs, a true German stone. The English team, selected by the English Golf Union, was Yorkshire man Tommy Thirsk and Hesketh’s Arnold Bentley. After three rounds the German team enjoyed a three-stroke lead and Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop, who was representing Hitler at the championship, rashly notified him of an imminent home victory. Hitler immediately set out for Baden-Baden to enjoy the German triumph and to present his trophy. However in the final round the English team were able to take a four shot winning lead. Ribbentrop then raced off by car to intercept Hitler and to convey the bad tidings. Hitler was furious at being denied the opportunity to celebrate a German victory and ordered his chauffeur to turn the car around and return to Berlin.
Hitler’s ‘Great Golf Prize of Nations’ golf tournament had not gone according to the promoters’ plan and, in Germany, records of the event appear to have been conveniently air-brushed out. The presentation did go ahead and the salver became the property of the English Golf Union. Arnold Bentley’s son Robert generously presented all his father’s golf trophies, including his commemorative salver and individual medal from Baden-Baden, to Hesketh, and these are now on permanent display in their Bentley Room. Curiously a small potted fir tree was presented to each of the winning team; Bentley’s was planted and still flourishes on a sandhill, behind the flagstaff. It became known as the Hitler tree and during the war years members are reputed to have relieved themselves against it as they departed in the ‘black out’.
What of the team trophy – the Hitler Trophy? The property of the English Golf Union it was presented to the Golfers’ Club, probably in recognition of the contribution it had made to golf and particularly in the provision of administrative accommodation. After the war this club was hit by declining membership and became a proprietary club. The Club did not survive and its assets went into private hands.
Members of Hesketh have long believed that their clubhouse was probably the most appropriate destination for this trophy and eventually it was offered for sale at auction in this Olympic year. Fortunately One of Arnold Bentley’s close golfing friends at Hesketh was a man some twenty years his junior. He is now the Club President and he was able to mobilise members to pledge sufficient money to purchase the trophy. The hammer went down on Hesketh’s bid and the club’s Olympic dream had been realised.
After a short period, while satisfactory display and security measures are taken, members and visitors alike will be able to view one of the world’s most historic pieces of sporting memorabilia, taking in Golf, the Olympics and World War II.
It was subsequently learned that Hesketh’s ‘secret opponent’ at the Auction was a Continental Europe Member of the British Golf Collectors’ Society, from Hamburg. Whether he was attempting to buy the trophy for himself, or on behalf of the ‘Deutches Golf Archiv’ is not clear.
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