History

The club was formally opened on 11th June 1910 when an exhibition match was played by James Braid and Amauld Massey (the Open champion from France) against Harry Vardon and J H Taylor of England for a prize of £100.

It was financed by Sir Walter Gilbey, Chairman of the famous wine and spirits firm W & A Gilbey Limited at an original cost of some £20,000 which was thought to be an enormous sum at the time.

Walter Gilbey came from local stock, his family tree recording kinsmen living in the nearby village of Widdington as early as 1668. His father was a prosperous innkeeper at the Bell Inn, Stansted who also ran a successful coaching service between Cambridge and London until competition from the new railways caused the business to collapse. Walter and his brother Alfred founded the family wine firm in 1857 after returning from the Crimea war and by adding the famous Gilbeys gin and other spirits to their brand the company became one of the greatest family run businesses of the late 19th Century.

The partners in W & A Gilbey were originally drawn exclusively from the four families Gilbey, Gold, Blyth and Grinling who became extensively intermarried. In 1903 Henry Gold and a few wealthy friends laid out a 9 hole golf course in Stansted and many of the Gilbey clan played there before the Bishop's Stortford course opened. In fact the oldest club trophy the "Stansted Cup" had its origins there. Sir Walter was already in ill health when the new course opened so his son Tresham was appointed to the management committee and the Earl of Warwick became the Club's first President. There were some 300 initial members with subscriptions of 5gns for men and 3gns for ladies.

 The period between the first and second world wars saw difficult times and the club changed hands at least twice as the Gilbeys gave up control and different groups of shareholders took over the management. In 1972 there was another change of ownership but in 1993 the members secured the course in perpetuity.

The years since the first world war have produced a number of outstanding golfers. Zara Bolton who started at Bishop's Stortford in 1928 became a famous England international and captained the winning Curtis Cup team against the American Ladies in 1956. Bruce Atkinson was captain of the Hertfordshire county team from 1956 to 1963 and with his son John, won the English Father and Son Championship twice, although he was 70 years old on the second occasion.

Tina Jeary also won high honours as a junior amateur player. However the most famous name associated with the club is probably Guy Hunt, an assistant professional at Bishop's Stortford until 1968 who played in the Ryder Cup and World Cup teams and eventually went on to win the Dunlop Masters in 1977.