ALLAN ROBERTSON THE UNBEATEN
by HORACE HUTCHINSON
from British Sports and Sportsmen 1908
ONE OF THE GREATEST GOLFERS WHO EVER LIVED, ALLAN ROBERTSON WAS BORN AT St. Andrewws in 1815. He came of amgolfing race, his father and grandfather being professionals and feather-ball makers. He was teethed with a golf-club handle.
In all the details of the game Allan showed remarkable science. He seemed to "plav with" the ball. The little "26" he could humour with his toy club as he pleased. His putting was simplw marvelous. He would "wile the wether intae the hoose." He used no sand for a tee, and when plaring against the wind he would place his ball on the backard slope, and, picking it up clean, would make it skim along, "to cheat the ind," until it ultimately rose, swallow like, before dropping from the carry.
Unruffled in temper, he could bear anything. Of the game he might say to his partner, "It's aye fechin' against ye," yet he was of the most cheerful disposition, born in the purple of equable temper and courtesy. To gentle and simple he wvas the same, as polite as a Brummel and as politic as a Metternich.
Yet he could chuckle when his opponent got bunkered. "It appeals," he would remark, with a twinkle in his eye, "to the higher feelin's o' humanity to see yer riwal in a bunker." He was the most artful miser of putts when it suited him. But he plawed alwavs with his head. with him golf was a passion.
Consternation seized the little man when the boy Robert Patterson showed him the first gutta-percha ball in 1845. He Would buf- up all the old balls and burn them, for he thought his liwing was to he ruincd. Yet in the end he begun to realize that the substitute was surely coming into the game.
Allan Robertson was never beaten -- this is a proud epitaph. His matches are classical.
When twenty-eight years of age he had to tackle the most brilliant driver of his day, Willie Dunn, Of Musselburgh. The match was one of twenty rounds, of eighteen holes each, over St.Andrew's links, each round counting one point. This Allan won by two rounds and one to play.
Foursomes were then more popular, and in 1849 a great match was plaved by Allan and Tom Morris against the brothers Dunn on the three links Musselburgh, St. Andrevys, and North Berwick, success on each course to count a point. They scored victory on their respective greens, and at North Berwick the great deciding contest took place. after a most exciting match the Dunes were four holes ahead and eight to play. Yet the innate strength of character, marvelous training, and pure skill of Alan and Tom came to their aid just when needed. By an unequalled game of brilliancy Allan and Tom won the first and second, halved the third, won the fourth, halved the fifth, and won the sixth, making them all square and two to play. These two Allan and Tom won, and thereby came out victorious in one of the most extraordinary and brilliant matches in the whole annals of golfing.
Considering the narrow course, the bad state of the putting greens, the oppressively grassy hollows, the ever-threatening bunkers, the awestriking whins [gorse], Allan's famous round of St. Andrew's links in 1859 in seventy-nine strokes is sufficient evidence of his exceptional powers as a golfer. This score will keep up his name for ever; it is probably equal to sixty-nine now.
These are mere specimens of Allan's consistently successful play. He had some most curious clubs, fitted for different situations. There was the Doctor, Sir Robert, the Thrawcruck, the Fryingpan, and others. He was not a long driver, but he never missed a shot, and he kept the line with undeviating accuracy. It was in his complete mastery of every club that his brilliant success lay. When within reach of the hole it mattered nothing to him whether the stroke required a driver or an iron, he made direct for it, with frequently a good chance of holing out in his next.
After the champion's sudden death, when only forty-four years of age, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club entered the following in their minutes, dictated by the late Principal Tulloch: "This meeting has heard with regret of the death of Allan Robertson, and they desire to record in their minutes the opinion universally entertained of the most unrivalled skill with which he played the game of golf, combining a ready and correct judgment with most accurate execution. They desire also to express the sense of the popularity of his whole conduct and unvarying civility with which he mingled with all classes of golfers, of his cordiality to those of his own, of his integrity, his happy temper, and the anxiety he always manifested to promote the comfort of all who frequented the links."