Allan Robertson

"World's First Golf Professional"

By Tom Johnson

This article first appeared in the Mar/Apr 2006 Issue of the SoHG Newsletter.

Allan Robertson was born in St. Andrews in the year 1815. Allan’s father David was a skilled caddie and ball maker, and at one time had been the sole agent for McEwan golf clubs in St. Andrews.  In fact, the Robertson family had been making golf balls in St. Andrews since the first half of the 18^th century; a skill in which Allan and his family had developed an excellent reputation.The firm even employed Tom Morris as a ball maker for several years prior to Old Tom moving to Prestwick.

Many of the photographs and drawings of Allan depict him with long dark sideburns or a trimmed beard, and wearing a heavy jacket typical of the times. Although Allan was a short muscular fellow, he generally used lighter weight clubs, had a short but graceful swing, and possessed a perfect golfing temperament.

Allan was known to be very skilled with his half and quarter shots approaching the green, but it was his expertise with a large flat faced iron called the ‘Frying Pan’ that was his principal shot.  He was able to cut the ball using the big, heavy smooth faced iron so the ball would stop dead on the green.  This skill at putting backspin on the ball with the smooth faced clubs pioneered the use of iron clubs at a time when very few were used. It was said he also had extraordinary course management skills, and with his excellent putting, it is no wonder he set himself apart from the competition.

In the late 1830’s and 1840’s Allan was probably better known for his playing prowess than his ball making skills.  It was documented in 1842, Allan’s caddy brethren requested he not play in a sweepstakes competition for the caddies, when it was felt they would not have a chance in any contest in which he took part, and he nobly agreed not to participate. Although he carried a reputation of never losing a match at St. Andrews, this was not necessarily true.  It was known Allan occasionally played down to his competition to minimize the odds in future matches, and no doubt resulted in him losing a match or two. Additionally, in Tulloch’s book about Old Tom, he writes of Robertson losing a match to Morris in 1853, and Allan’s reluctance to repeat the match.

It certainly appears Robertson was the dominant player of his era, especially from the year 1839 until his untimely death.  On September 15, 1858, a year before his demise, Allan toured the Old Course in 79, the first golfer to score better than 80 on the Old Course, and bettering his own course record by a stunning 4 shots. It was 11 years before another golfer (Old Tom Morris) accomplished the feat; later the same year, Young Tommy bettered the course record to 77.

In addition to Old Tom working for Allan, they partnered together for foursome matches (the main game at that time) for many years.   Although it is not correct that Allan never lost a match, it does appear to be correct that Allan never lost a match when he was partnered with Tom Morris. They appear to never have been beaten from 1842 till Robertson's premature death in 1859.

They were teamed up in probably the most historic match of the era. In 1849, Allan and Old Tom from St. Andrews were matched up against brothers Willie and Jamie Dunn of Musselburgh.

The four were to play a trio of matches, the first to be at the Dunn’s home course at Musselburgh. The second was at St. Andrews, the home of Robertson and Morris. The third contest was at the neutral location of North Berwick. The matches were each to be 20 holes, at stake was 400 pounds, a huge sum in those days. Of course, side-bets totaling many times more than that were made among the countless spectators.

The Dunns won the first match easily on their home course, 13 and 12, principally because Robertson played poorly. Allan and Tom barely won the second match at St. Andrews.

At North Berwick in the deciding competition, Robertson and Morris were down four with but eight holes to play.  Then, in one of the great comebacks in golf history, Robertson and Morris rallied to win six holes in a row, taking the match 2-up and winning the series, 2-1.

Allan is probably best known for his reaction to the new fangeled gutta-percha golf ball. His family business had been making featheries for over 100 years, thus, when the gutty was introduced and began to proliferate in the late 1840’s, fearing for his lively hood, it was understandable that he would oppose it. 'It's nae gowff', is a statement attributed to him, which reminds many of us of our opinions of the modern equipment available for use today.

It appears Robertson bribed caddies to give him all the gutties they could find, so he could ‘burn the filth’.   Shortly before 1850, an incident occurred that would change St. Andrews golf for some time.  It seems Allan had made Old Tom vow that he would never play the gutta-percha ball, but one day Old Tom ran out of balls. A playing partner gave him a gutty, which Tom used with great success. Allan soon heard about what happened. Enraged, he confronted Old Tom and banned him from his shop. 

Tom left St. Andrews in 1851, when he was offered and accepted a position at Prestwick, a new course in the western part of Scotland, where he would become ‘keeper of the green’, eventually returning to St. Andrews in 1864..

Curiously, the two men remained friendly enough to team up in challenge matches, but their business bond was damaged beyond repair.

Allan passed away on September 1, 1859, a year before the first Open Championship was held. It seems he had suffered an attack of jaundice, and passed away a few months later from complications derived during his illness. Although Allan was a working class member of society, reverence for him was so strong, the Royal and Ancient issued a special proclamation praising his virtues, and took up a collection among its members to provide an annuity to his widow.

Robertson's obituary read: "Allan Robertson was the greatest golf player that ever lived, of whom alone in the annals of the pastime it can be said that he was never beaten."

Allen is buried in St. Andrews Cathedral churchyard, only a few paces from Old Tom and Young Tommy Morris.

Allan Robertson was elected and inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2001.

Tom Johnson 2006

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