The Worst Golfer in British Open History: The Wild Tale of Maurice Flitcroft

Maurice Flitcroft didn't know much about golf, but he still tried to qualify for the 1976 British Open. It went about as well as you'd imagine.

How did a crane operator who essentially no idea how to play golf sneak into a British Open qualifier, only to shoot the worst score in the tournament's history?

By lying, of course. 

Maurice Flitcroft had a dream to compete in one of golf's most prestigious events. The only problem was, he didn’t know how to play golf.

In fact he didn't even own golf clubs But that wasn’t going to stop Mr. Flitcroft.

So, he made up the name "Gerald Hoppy" and said he was a pro golfer, and — somehow — he was able to enter a 1976 Open qualifier undetected. 

He ordered a half-set of mail-order golf clubs, and it went just as badly as you would imagine.

Highlights of his train-wreck round included:

- Being penalized because he didn’t know where he was supposed to tee off.

- Taking 4 strokes to get out of a bunker and scoring a 21 on a single hole.

- Whiffing on several occasions. 

His final 18-hole score: 121

When his mother was informed of his record-breaking round, she was said to be very proud of her son for his accomplishment. She clearly doesn’t know how golf works, either.

In a post-round interview Flitcroft told a reporter that the main reason he struggled was because he left his 4-wood in his car.

Tournament organizers later changed the rules on how they accepted players into the qualifiers, and they banned Flitcroft from playing in any of their tournaments.

Over the following years Flitcroft came up with several more aliases, like Arnold Palmtree, and even went as far as dying his hair to sneak back into the event.

The whole story is so wild they even made a movie about him back in 2021.

But like Flitcroft's Open attempts, the movie flopped, too, only grossing $4 million at the box office.