Featured Golfers
Here are some informational notes on the great golfers from the pre-steel shafted period. Sam Snead gets a place here even though he really belongs to the early steel shafted period. However he learnt his golf with hickories ( we doubt if modern steel shafts could have produced such a fluid swing!), and also, together with Lewis Keller he was responsible for the restoration of Oakhurst Links!
Portraits of these golfers appear on the top left location of our web pages.
- Old Tom Morris
- Young Tom Morris
- Willie Parks Snr.
- Willie Parks Jnr.
- The Great Triumvirate
- J.H Taylor
- James Braid
- Harry Vardon
- Francis Ouimet
- Ted Ray
- Gene Sarazen
- Walter Hagen
- Bobby Jones
- Sam Snead
- Charles Blair Macdonald
- Allan Robertson
Other golfers of note from the classical and hickory era.
Old Tom Morris (1821 - 1908)
Tom Morris 1821 - 1908
By Frank Boumphrey
This article first appeared in the Jan 2006 Issue of the SoHG Newsletter.
Old Tom Morris is rightly called the father of modern golf and his status is legndary. Not only did he win 4 Open Championships himself; he fathered a son who was the Tiger Woods of the day, winning 4 straight Open Championships; he popularized the game; he was a great golf course designer; a great trainer of others including the great Donald Ross; and was a great innovator in equipment design.
The great mans career was centered around St. Andrews of which he was 'Custodian of the Links' for much of his life.
As a 16 yr old youth Tom apprenticed to Allan Robertson, considered by many to be the first golf professional and stayed with him until 1849. Tom and Robertson played in several challenge matches, and according to legend were never beaten! Under Robertson Tom learnt the art of 'featherie' making, and this indeed was the cause of their split. When the Guttie ball was introduced, Tom was quick to see it's advantages, and realized that the 'featherie' era was over. Robertson, perhaps seeing the guttie as a challenge to his lucrative featherie business, or perhaps from inate conservatism, strongly condemed the new ball. When Tom refused to join in this condemnation, the pair split, and apparently Robertson did not speak to Tom for several years.
Possibly because of this estrangement, possibly because opportunity beckoned, Tom moved to Prestwick in 1851 to become "Keeper of the Greens" and stayed there till 1864. Prestwick Golf Club was founded in 1851 by a group of members who met at the Red Lion Inn, Prestwick. A Colonel Fairlie of Coodham was responsible for hiring Tom as Greens keeper and a club and Ball maker. The club built two cotages, one for Tom and his family, and one to serve as a clubhouse. When Tom left to return to St Andrews these cottages were auctioned, and the proceeds were used to build a clubhouse on the present site.
Tom was a formidible competitor. He had a slow, smooth swing and his mind was always in the game; his only flaw apparently was a difficulty with short putts, a condition that many can relate to!
The first open championship was played at Prestwick, then just 12 holes, and indeed the first 12 Opens were played at this course. Tom was runner up to Willie Parks of Musselberg in this first championship, but prevailed the following year. As an aside Tom won £3 as runner-up, but Willie Parks the winner recieved nothing - the honor of being named "The Champion Golfer" for the year was considered to be payment enough! In all Tom won four Opens, in 1861, 1862, 1864, and 1867. In 1868 the championship was won by his 17 year old son, with Old Tom the runner up. Young Tom's round also included the first recorded hole in one! Young Tom then proceeded to win the next four championships! After Young Tom had won the championship belt for the third straight time, he was - in accordance with the rules - given the belt outright! Play of the championship was suspended in following year - partly to because there was no longer a belt to play for, and partly while the "powers-that-be" figured out how to "Young Tom" proof their tournament! Their answer was to rotate the tournament between three courses. The Claret Cup was introduced, and who should be the first winner but Young Tom again.
Young Toms end was tragic. Tom was away in Prestwick playing a challenge match when word reached him that his wife was in labour and not doing well. He hurried home, but before arriving recieved the news that both wife and son had died in childbirth. Young Tom never recovered from the shock and died himself a few months late on Christmas day aged 24 years. Old Tom was quoted as saying "People say he died of a broken heart; but if that was true, I wouldn't be here either."
Old Tom Morris still holds three British Open records: oldest champion (age 46 in 1867), only father/son winner/runner-up, and largest margin of victory (13 in 1862). He played in every British Open until 1895.
In 1865 Old Tom had returned to St. Andrews as Greenkeeper a position he held until 1904. He also established a club and ball making shop near the 18th green. He was to remain in St. Andrews till his death in 1908.
Old Tom's clubmaking business was established in 1867 by the side of the 18th green of The Old Course, and his clubs were regarded as some of the finest. The business continued through his lifetime and consistently created employment for six skilled craftsmen, one of which, Bob Martin, was a double winner of The Open Championship at St Andrews in 1876 & 1885.
Morris pioneered many of what are now considered the first modern approaches to greenskeeping. He also was one of the first great course designers, taking a role in designing or remodeling around 75 courses including Prestwick, Royal Dornoch, Muirfield, Carnoustie, Royal County Down, Nairn and Cruden Bay. This alumnii were also responsible for several courses, and the most famous of them is probably Donald Ross who was apprenticed to Tom in 1899!
Tom was responsible for the 18 holes that we know to day (St.Andrews had been previously 22) and also encouraged the concept of 'double loop routing' where each nine goes out and back to the clubhouse. At Muirfield he famously routed his front nine clockwise round his inner back nine. This ensured that in the windy links conditions a sampling of the wind from all directions had to be played. Another of Toms innovations was the idea of routing the golf ball. Previously fairways had tended to be narrow and hazzards were put there to be carried. Tom would lay out his courses so that the golfball could be routed round the hazard. Apart from designing several new and classic golf courses Tom was also responsible for raising several old classics up to the standards he had established at Prestwick and St. Andrews.
It must be remembered that Old Tom had no earth moving equipment, and his skill lay in his wonderful eye for the lay of the land and the way he would incorporate natural hazards into his course. He would go in and lay out teeing areas and greens so that the suggested route between the two tested all the skills of the golfer. For his services? "£1 a day I charged plus expenses." Rarely would his total bill come to more than £5! Even today his course are tough, encouraging strategic golf, and penalizing the rash player.
Below is a partial list of some of the great courses he designed or had a hand in designing!
- Carnoustie Golf Links (1867)
- Crail(1892)
- Ladybank (1879)
- Machrinhanish (1879)
- Moray - Course 1 (1889)
- Muirfield (1891)
- Perth (1864)
- Prestwick (1851, 1883)
- Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh (1895)
- Westward Ho! (1865)
- Royal Dornoch (1887)
- Saint Andrews - New Course (1894)
- Tain (1890)
- Lahinch Golf Club - Old Course (1893)
- Rosapenna (1893)
- Royal County Down (1891)
In green keeping he pioneered several techniques including top-dressing of greens to smooth the surface and encourage new growth. He was also probably the first to 'improve' hazards, and used sod-reveting on many bunkers, most famously the green-side bunker at the road hole at St. Andrews Old Course.
Equal to his golf skills was his character. A truly humble man in spite of his fame he was know for his graciousness and fortitude under adverse circumstances. In Victorian times Tom was a legend. His biographer Hutchinson writes "has been written of as often as a Prime Minister, he has been photographed as often as a professional beauty, and yet he remains, through all the advertisement, exactly the same, simple and kindly." As St. Andrews became the mecca for golfers, so was old Tom assocated with the kind of demeanor becoming of a golfer- and Old Tom came to signify everything good that is associated with the words "Golf, a game for gentlemen of all classes".
F.B. 2005-11-29World Golf Hall of Fame Profile
Young Tom Morris
Willie Parks Snr.
Willie Parks Jnr.
The Great Triumvirate
J.H Taylor
James Braid
Harry Vardon
Harry Vardon 1870-1937
This article was first published in the Spring 2006 issue of 'A Wee Nip'
 |
VARDON TEES OFF. Vardon in his heyday was virtually unbeatable. Old Tom looks on
from the left as Harry gets ready to let one rip. It is something to remember that, as
good as he was, Vardon lost 14 years of his prime playing time, eight to tuberculosis
and six to the Great War. |
Born: May 9, 1870, in Grouville, Jersey (Channel Islands)
Died: March 20, 1937
Victories: 62 professional victories
Major Championships: 7
· U.S. Open: 1900
· British Open: 1896, 1898, 1899, 1903, 1911,
1914
Awards and Honors: Member, World Golf Hall of Fame
Quote:
· "Don’t play too much golf. Two rounds a day
is plenty."
Bernard Darwin on Harry Vardon: "I do not think anyone who saw him play in his prime will disagree as to this, that a greater genius is inconceivable."
Trivia:
· Harry Vardon is one-third of Britain’s famed
"Great Triumvirate" of golfers. The other two
members are J.H. Taylor and James Braid.
· Vardon is the only 6-time winner of the
British Open.
· Scoring leaders on
both the U.S. and
European PGA Tours
are awarded the Harry
Vardon Trophy.
Biography:
Harry Vardon was the first international golf celebrity, and easily one of the game’s most influential players.
The grip he popularized is now known as the Vardon Grip; the "Vardon Flyer" ball may have represented the first equipment deal for a golfer; his instructional books continue, to this day, to influence golfers; he won majors with both the gutta-percha and Haskell golf balls. Vardon was born in the Channel Islands, that group of islands in the English Channel between England and France. He took up golf in his teens and, inspired by his brother Tom’s success as a professional, decided to dedicate himself as well to the game. He turned pro at age 20.
His first big win was the 1896 British Open, where he played in what would become his signature attire: knickers (the first golfer to play in knickers), dress shirt, tie and buttoned jacket.
Despite the cumbersome jacket, Vardon was known for a smooth, free-swinging motion. The World Golf Hall of Fame described his swing thusly: "Vardon had a swing that repeated monotonously. His swing was more upright and his ball flight higher than his contemporaries, giving Vardon’s approach shots the advantage of greater carry and softer landing. He took only the thinnest of divots." His fame exploded in 1900 when he toured the U.S., playing more than 80 exhibition matches - often against the better ball of two opponents - and winning more than 70 of them.
He won the U.S. Open that year, his only victory in the event, but as late as 20 years later - in 1920 at the age of 50 - he was runner- up in the tournament.
Vardon was struck by tuberculosis late in 1903. His game was never as sound, but he recovered to win the British Open again in 1911 and 1914.
After leaving competitive golf, Vardon designed courses and wrote instructional books, one of which, "The Gist of Golf" (compare prices), is still considered a classic. Harry Vardon was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
Francis Ouimet
Ted Ray
Ted Ray 1877 - 1943
By Frank Boumphrey
This article first appeared in the Feb 2006 Issue of the SoHG Newsletter.
EDWARD R. G. Ray was a native of the Channel Islands like his great contemporary and friend, Harry Vardon. He was born on the twenty-eighth of March, 1877 and died in 1943.
Ted Ray is possibly the best golfer not to be inducted into the hall of fame. Although he is best known for loosing a play off for the 1913 US Open with Harry Vardon and the eventual first-time U.S. native winner Francis Ouimet, he was a great player in his own right. He had won the British Open at Muirfield in 1912, and later the U.S. Open at Inverness in 1920. He played several times on the Ryder Cup team for Great Britain, and captained the side in 1927. Among his contemporaries , including his friend Harry Vardon, he had a much greater standing than he does today.
It must be remembered that Ted Ray played his best golf in the days of 'the great triumvirate', and came very near to equaling their achievements, and on occasions he did in fact best them. He was rarely out of the top 5 in major championships, and with a little bit of luck we may have been speaking of 'the great quadumvirate'!
He was known for his prodigious (even if somewhat wayward) drives off the tee- he could carry the ball 300yards!; his resultant awful lies; and his remarkable recovery shots. His recovery powers were said to be phenomenal and cartoonists usually caricatured him with a niblick in hand, festooned with clumps of heather and saplings. This together with an inseparable pipe clamped between his teeth made him a great subject for satirists! On account of his lenght, in many rounds the niblick was the only iron club he employed. His lenght and the fact he could hit the ball almost 150 yards with this club!
Ray was not known for the beauty of his swing here is how Harry Vardon described it:
"Edward Ray is a man I like to watch on the Links. He defies so many accepted principles of the game; he is so very nearly a complete set of laws to himself. He sways appreciably and heaves at the ball. He is a master at recovering the right position at the moment of impact after having moved his head and body during the backward swing in a degree that would spell disaster to almost anyone else. He is the brilliant exception to the safe rule. As he brings his club down ... his tremendous lunge brings your heart into your mouth lest he should miss the ball. You wonder where ... the ball will go in the event of such a catastrophe ...(however)... at the psychological moment he has done everything correctly..." - How to play Golf. Harry Vardon - 1912
Possibly because of his unorthodox style he was not a great teacher. His chief admonition was to "Hit the ball hard like I do." When this failed to work the student was instructed to "hit it harder!".
He was a club pro all his life. At Vardon's recommendation he followed Vardon as professional at Ganton in Yorkshire. Later he was professional at Oxhey Golf Club near Watford in Hertfordshire from 1912 to 1941, when he retired due to ill health. During the first part of the last centuary , in Britain as in American the professional was not allowed access to the clubhouse facilities, indeed in Britain it was even worse. In America Professionals were at least given the run of the locker room; in Britain they were usually expected to change in some small shack. During the 1920 US Open - which Ted won - Inverness Country Club was the first club to open it's doors to professionals. When Ted returned home after his victory Oxhey became the first club to allow their professional into the club. Other clubs soon followed so Ted may well be considered to be a pioneer in breaking down the class barriers of golf.
As an aside Ted was, and still is, at 43 years of age the oldest to have ever won the US Open, and he would not have done so were it not for a melt down by the eventual runner up - none less than the 50 Year old Harry Vardon, who played the last seven holes in seven over par to loose by one stroke!
He was a bear of a man in every way. He was loyal to his friends but he did not suffer fools, or those he considered fools, gladly. Occasionaly obdurate and stubborn to an extreme he was known to take up a line of argument which he knew he was wrong, just for the sake of arguing! It was said after he had ground the other down, he would say a day or two later, with out the hint of an apology, "You were quite right you know".
However in spite of his reputation of being 'difficult to get a long with' he had a legion of friends, and few humans inspired more respect or love. He was deeply mourned when he died at the relatively young age of 66.
F.B 2006-01-15
Gene Sarazen
Walter Hagen
Bobby Jones
Sam Snead
Charles Blair MacDonald
By Doug Marshall
This article first appeared in the Mar/Apr 2006 Issue of the SoHG Newsletter.
CHARLES B. MACDONALD : HIS CANADIAN CONNECTION
Charles Blair Macdonald is one of the founders of the U.S.G.A. and its first official champion in 1895. A controversial figure he went on to become a noted author and architect, creating outstanding golf courses. The best of these are the National Golf Links of America in Southhampton New York, Mid- Ocean in Bermuda, the Yale University course, and the Old White Course at the Greenbrier. What is not well known is that he was born in Canada in the Niagara Peninsula near Niagara on the Lake. His family had a second home there and he wrote fondly of the area in his book SCOTLANDS GIFT - GOLF .
"I had a country home in Lundys Lane, Niagara Falls - close to the battleground. It was there that my mother was born. I was born there also... The homestead plot, some 40 acres, I bought in 1893 and planted it entirely in grapes and peaches. Until a few years ago I maintained it but after a time sentiment died out and I parted with it. "
Macdonald was also an organizer of the first US-Canada tournament held in Niagara on the Lake the first week of Sept. 1895. It was called the International Championship Tournament. This event was held on the circa 1875 golf course at the mouth of the Niagara River. This course is the oldest known golf club in North America still on its original site. He and Charles Hunter of Toronto organized the event and Chicago friends came to participate in this historic event. Both men and women played in separate events.
The mens event at match play was won by Macdonald over a Mr. A. W. Smith of Toronto Golf Club, one up. Macdonald never a modest man relates that he scored 87 in one round - a course record and that he had won the long drive contest with a drive of "179 yds, one foot and six inches." Macdonald's family had a long history around Niagara. His mother's forbear was Sir Wm.Johnson who died in 1773 owning the whole Mohawk Valley in what became upstate New York. He had divided about 120,000 acres among his eleven children by Mollie Brant.
His son Sir William Johnson chose to be a United Empire Loyalist and influenced the Five Nations against the American colonists. After the War of Independence the provisional government confiscated the Mohawk Valley property and the children of Sir Wm. Johnson migrated. Macdonald's maternal great grand mother married a John Lefferty, a surgeon in the British army. Lefferty bought a property and home on Lundys Lane in 1814. Then in 1883, Macdonald purchased this property as a summer home.
After the 1895 matches, Macdonald instituted an international match of ten players a side, played in Toronto in 1898. The Americans won handily 27-7,with Macdonald winning a match from a young George S.Lyon (who later won numerous Canadian championships and the 1904 Olympic Gold Medal in St.Louis).
The tournament continued annually till the outbreak of WWI in 1914, never to be continued until our memorial event in 2003. This year will be our fourth reprise of the new event. Come join us for a great time in Niagara!
Doug Marshall 2006
Allan Robertson
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
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
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
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
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