 |
||
 |
|
|
1123
1413 1421 1424 1457
1470 1491 1497 ......................................................................................................................................................................Back to top 1502 1503 1504
1505 1506 1527 1547 1552 Archbishop John Hamilton is given permission to establish a rabbit farm on the St Andrews town links. John Hamilton, Archbishop of St Andrews, grants the right of the townspeople to play golf (among other pastimes) over the linksland, "between the Mussel Scaup and the Watter of Eden." Recorded for posterity in the city‘s charter, it confirms their right to use the links for "golfe, futeball, shuting and all games as well as casting divots, gathering turfs and for the pasturing of their live-stock". The first recorded evidence of golf at St. Andrews it also grants permission for the burgh to establish a rabbit warren on the links.
1554 1555 1560 1561 1562 1566 1565 1568 1574 1585 1589 1592 1593 1596 1599 A series of punishments were outlined in St Andrews on 15 December for anyone playing "goufe or uthir pastimes" on the Sabbath. They included five shillings for the first fault, ten shillings for the second and "public repentance" for the third. ......................................................................................................................................................................Back to top
1602 1603 Donald Patoun, James Yung and Andro Neilsone of Stirling are: "fund (found) to have prophaned the Sabbath by playing at the golf." The spread of golf from Scotland to England comes in 1603 when Queen Elizabeth I died without issue. Stuart King James VI of Scotland assumes the English throne as James I. A keen golfer he made his view known that the people's right to enjoy sport on a Sunday was to be respected, as long a religious observances had been completed first. 1604 1605 The first reference to the 'toune links' at North Berwick was made in the Kirk Session book of 15 January. 1610 Archbishop Gladstane of St Andrews grants a contract confirming the townspeople‘s right to use the links for golf among other things. 1611 1613 1614 Archbishop of St Andrews, George Gledstanes approved the rights of the citizens to use the links for the playing of golfe. 1616 1618 1619 1621 The first recorded reference to golf on the links of Dornoch in the far north-east of Scotland. David Hairt, apprentice to Gilbert Bauhop, "wrycht, confest prophanatione of the Sabboth in playing at the Goff in the park of Stirling on the Sabboth "aftirnone in tyme of preaching; and therfor is ordenit "to pay ad pios usus six shillings eight pence." 1625 1628 Sir Robert Gordonstoun describes Dornoch in the north of Scotland as, "the fairest and lairgest links in Scotland, fit for archerie, goffing, ryding and all other exercise. They do far surpasse the fields off Montrois (Montrose) and Saint Andrews." 1629 The day before James Graham, son of the 4th Earl of Montrose, was due to get married, he was found purchasing golf balls to play a match with his brother-in-law, Sir John Colquhoun. In perhaps the first ever case of a golfing widow, he suddenly became "mindful of his match with Sweet Mistress Magdalene Carnegie" the following day. So having first, "taken a drink at John Garns," he mounted his horse and headed for Kinnaird to salute the young lady who was due to be his wife. He was married in the parish church on Tuesday, 10 November but scarcely had the wedding nuptials been completed minstrels when he was found at his clubs and balls again. 1631 1632 A legend exists of an unusual match played on the links at Ayr between a monk of Crossraguel and a Lord of Culzean, "for his nose…" Whether it was the monk's nose or the Lord's that was at stake, or both, who won and whether the penalty was exacted are unknown. 1633 1636 1638 1640 1641 1642 1643 1645 1650
1651 c.1655 1660 1672 c.1675 1682 1685 1686 Sir John Foulis refers to the high cost of golf balls at 5-shillings each bought at Leith. He also notes the different type of clubs now is use such as a play club and lead scraper club. 1687 On 21 January, Thomas Kinkaid wrote the first known reference to handicapping: It is widely believed that the term "handicapping" originated in horse racing where a jockey was handed his odds for the race in a cap (hand-in-cap). "At golf," he wrote, "whether it is better to give a man two holes of three, laying equal strokes, or to lay three strokes to his one and play equal for so much every hole." Kincaid was comparing types of betting; was it better, he asked, to give a player a two-hole start every three holes and play with no strokes, or play even, paying three-to-one odds per hole? Captain Elphinston challenges Mr. Allan next Saturday best of three rounds, half a crown (currency) a hole, that he beats Mr. Allan with the Club against his throwing and gives him half one. No running at the throw! That match was halved. On 24 January, Thomas Kinkaid added: "The ball must lie upon a line that is perpendicular to that line that passeth between one foot and the other." Turning to the equipment of the period Kincaid described the ideal golf ball: "It must be of thick and hard leather not with pores or grains…" The original diary is now held in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. 1690 Sir Robert Sibbald was crossing Leith Links when a young golfer apparently hit him on the backswing with his club. John Wallwood, second son of St Andrews merchant, Thomas Wallwood, is apprenticed to William Berwick, feather ball maker from 23 October. 1691 ......................................................................................................................................................................Back to top 1704 1711 1717 1718 1719 A copper engraving by Dutch artist Luiken of Amsterdam clearly shows a ball being driven from a raised platform or tee similar to golf. 1721 1723 1724 1726 1728 Local landowner Duncan Forbes writes in his journal about getting the better of his son at 'Gouff' over Musselburgh links. President of the Court of Session he recorded the event in November noting that he wished his son were as good at anything else as he was at golf. The death of Governor William Burnett was reported in the New England Weekly. An inventory of his estate showed he owned, "nine gouffe clubs and an iron valued at £2" making him the first identifiable golfer in mainland America.
1733 1735 Andrew Bailey was noted for making golfing clubs in Edinburgh, Scotland. 1738 1741 The shout of "Fore!" is most likely originated from the British military artillery officers. To warn the foot soldiers when the cannons were about to be fired over their heads the officers yelled "fore." Most of these officers were golfers so the term naturally carried over onto the golf course when they needed to warn fellow golfers of an errant golf shot. 1743 First mention of golf equipment being shipped from Scotland to the American Colonies; on 12 May, the Magdalene set sail from Leith in Scotland for Charleston. The manifest shows that it was carrying Scots shirts, salt, eight dozen golf clubs, and three gross of golf balls. 1744
1746 1748 1751 John Dalrymple-Hamilton of Barganey, a Scottish landowner, suspected his footman of improper conduct with a lady guest at his west coast estate. The following day, Mr Hamilton having "dined and drunk very freely" asked for one of his golf clubs. Striking his servant forcefully, the club "broke in pieces" over his back. Ejecting him from the house he shouted: "You damned scoundrel – provide yourself with a place." [To live] Circa 1753 1753 1754 1756 1758 1759 1760 1761 1764 On 4 October, William St Clair wrote a letter concerning the routing of the Old Course at St Andrews: “The Captain and Gentlemen Golfers present are of opinion that it would be for the improvement of the Links that the four first holes should be converted into two, - They therefore have agreed that for the future they shall be played as two holes, in the same way as presently marked out.” The first four holes at St. Andrews are combined into two, reducing the round from twenty-two holes (11 out and in) to 18 (nine out and in). St. Andrews is the first 18-hole golf course in the world and sets the standard for future courses. 1765 1766 Early golf club maker Simon Cossar was born. Thought to have been apprenticed to Andrew Dickson at Leith, he established his own business around 1785. He died in 1811. Lieut. Jones Dalrymple of the 43d Regiment was convicted of playing five different times without his uniform and, having confessed the heinousness of his crime, was fined six pints. 1767 Golf equipment is supplied to the French town of Bordeaux from Scotland. 1768
1770 James McEwan set up his business at Leith Links and was to be the first of six generations of the family engaged in club-making 1771 A description of golf on Leith Links near Edinburgh in Scotland is published on 17 June in Tobias Smollett's novel: 'The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker' which read: 1773 On 8 April the Royal Burgess Society publish the third set of rules in history after the Gentleman Golfers of Edinburgh (1744) and the Society of St Andrews Golfers (1754) 1774 The first part-time golf course professional / club maker is hired, by the Edinburgh Burgess Society. The Musselburgh Golfing Society is formed in East Lothian in Scotland. 1775 The first mention of golf at North Berwick comes in the Town Council minutes of 21 March banning play between March and September. James McEwan became the official club maker to the Burgess Golfing Society who frequented Bruntsfield Links in Edinburgh. 1776 The circumference of a putting green was deemed to be four or five club lengths from the hole. (It was enlarged in 1815 to fifteen yards.) A small amendment to the rules of the Burgess Golf Society is discussed during a gathering at Thomas Comb‘s club-making premises at Bruntsfield Links in Edinburgh. Golf is played on Arthur‘s Seat in Edinburgh. The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers banned the amount one golfer could win off another in a day‘s play. It seemed that far too many duels were being fought between members to settle their disputes. Unfortunately, this ruling did not allow for the ingenuity of some members who soon found a way around it. With the limit set on how much you could win in "one-day‘s play‘" matches were played over three holes at night with the caddies holding a lantern to show the way! Edinburgh Burgess Golf Society based at Bruntsfield Links near Edinburgh rule that no artificial devise (like a wooden tee) be used to prop up the ball. A pile of sand is the accepted norm as the ruling committee state: "Your tee must be upon the ground and unconnected with any conductor or Leader to the ball." 1777 The playing of golf on Glasgow Green is mentioned among other popular summer activities "bowls, nine-pins and quoits." Golfers at Frazerburgh in North-west Scotland appoint a, "proper person for taking care of the Links." 1778 1779 An advertisement appears in: Rivington‟s Royal Gazette in New York for: “Golf Players” offering to supply, excellent clubs and the veritable Caledonian (Scottish) balls” to anyone wishing to take up the game. 1780 James McEwan opens a club-making business in Edinburgh. 1781 1782 1783 A diploma of admission is now required by any member of The (Honourable) Company at Leith. A poem entitled “The Goff Match” is privately published by members of Blackheath Golf Society in England. Rules for playing golf at Aberdeen were formally documented. In the process the Society of Golfers at Aberdeen became the first to introduce the five minute limit on searching for golf balls. It also introduced the first etiquette rule which noted: "While a Stroke is playing none of the Party shall walk about, make any motion, or attempt to take off the Player's attention, by speaking or otherwise...” The Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh restricts membership to just 30. 1785 The town of St Andrews fell into debt and was forced to sell the Links on which the Old Course stands. It had previously been leased to local butcher James Butcher to breed rabbits on the understanding that they do not encroach on the golf links. Montrose golfers banded together to prevent the Town Council ploughing up part of the links up to build a school. However it was another 25 years, on 1 January, 1810, before they formed an official club. Originally called the Montrose Golf Club, it became "Montrose Royal Albert Golf Club" in 1845. 1786 An unusual competition is held in Glasgow where five balls are struck by John Gibson on level ground in mild conditions and measured between 182 and 201-yards. Golfers at Crail near St Andrews are the first to describe a driver or "wood" as a "timber club." Hugh Philp, Master Scottish club-maker was born in Cameron Bridge, Fife. Described as 'a dry haired man, rather gruff to strangers' he was a cabinet maker who began repairing golf clubs as a sideline to his main business in 1812. By 1819 he was appointed official club-maker to the fledgling Society of Golfers (later the R&A) and his fame spread with his putters considered the best available. The "Chippendale" of golf club-making, it was said he might spend a whole afternoon hand polishing a single club-head. In the late 1840s he took on James Wilson as assistant club-maker. In 1852, his employed his nephew, Robert Forgan who eventually took over his business after his death in 1856. 1787 David Allan, himself a member of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, unveils a painting of club captain, William Inglis, (1712-1792) Shown holding a long nose club with Leith Links as a backdrop, historians gain much from such early golfing portraits. Inglis for example was captain between 1782–4 and is shown wearing his scarlet red jacket emblazoned with the sash of honour, his badge of office and a tri-corn hat. In the distance is the procession of the silver club and other golfers. An Edinburgh surgeon by profession, a child caddy is pictured close by bearing three clubs under his right arm. Followed by other distinguished portrait artists of the late 18th century and early 19th century like Sir George Chalmers, Charles Lees, Francis Abbot and Francis Grant, they are considered invaluable in accurately depicting the play and golfing personalities of the day. The Glasgow Golf Club is formed in Scotland. A golf match at Blackheath is reported where the "picturesque" players wear "scarlet jackets and white waistcoats." Describing the "Excellency of this North British game," golf is now considered fashionable among London Society. Scottish records show that David Robertson of St Andrews was apprenticed as a feather ball maker under Robert Gourlay for four years. Robertson would later become a noted ball maker himself. He was also a fine player with one report saying how: "few were better on the golfing green." Personable and well-liked he acted as sales agent for club makers at both Bruntsfield and Musselburgh until his death in 1836. 1788 New buildings grew up around Bruntsfield Links in Edinburgh called 'Wright's Houses.' Number 30/31 Wrights Houses became the clubhouse of the Bruntsfield Links Society from 1788 until 1890. The building is still extant and is recognised as the oldest golf clubhouse in the world still in regular use. Still in use as a public hostelry, as far back as the late 19th century it was renamed Ye Olde Golf Tavern, after the Bruntsfield Society gave up their lease. An Edinburgh architect was appointed in 1899 to redesign and renovate the building and it is still in regular use today. A group of St Andrews feather ball makers including George Robertson and Patrick Robertson were recorded in the Cordiner Incorporation (business) record for many years. Then a local trade edict made membership costs so financially inhibitive that many refused to join. 1789 A mezzotint print by Valentine Green is published showing the famous golfing portrait of William Innis, Esq. by L. F. Abbott, R. A. 1794 1797 David Thoms, a merchant from Edinburgh and David Todd of Balmungo played a three round match at St Andrews the second week of October for the huge sum of twenty guineas. Won by Todd, the match was serious enough that they went to the trouble of having the bet recorded in the St Andrews Burgh Deed Register on 9 October. 1798 A detailed gazetteer entitled The New Picture of Edinburgh includes a substantial chapter on the Company of Golfers which includes the following description of the game: 1799 ......................................................................................................................................................................Back to top Circa 1800 1801 1802 In the interests of fair play, a rule was introduced at Bruntsfield Links by the Edinburgh Burgess Society stating that a buried or half-submerged ball should only be identified or "loosened" for play only by the golfer‘s opponent. 1803 Peter Robertson, registered ball maker in St Andrews, died on 1 December. 1805 1806 A Gold Medal was first played for at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. The principal prize for the Autumn Meeting, it was competed for by the membership until 1837. There was enough room on the original medal to inscribe the names of the winners up until 1815. Today, the R&A continues to purchase a new medal each time one is filled with winners' names. 1807 British explorer Sir John Carr authors: Caledonian Sketches, or A Tour Through Scotland in 1807. Sir John Carr wrote that he, "had frequent opportunity of seeing an amusement peculiar to this country, called the Golf..." In The Comforts of Human Life; or Smiles and Laughter of Charles Chearful and Martin Merryfellow there is an early reference to golf: Martin Merryfellow comments that "At Edinburgh, I took the greatest pleasure in joining the Golfers on the favourite scenes for their diversions, called Leith Links and Bruntsfield Links." The first time the term 'putter‘ is used in: The Stranger's Guide to Edinburgh. [Containing a history and description of the city, with a particular account of its civil and political establishments...] it also mentions the Company of Golfers, iron-headed clubs and the Links at Leith. The Edinburgh Burgess Golfing Society ruled on 25 July that an opponent‘s ball should be lifted if "it in anyway obstruct playing to the hole." 1809 1810 Montrose Golf Club was founded making it one of the ten oldest in the world. The seven-hole course started in the middle of the town on the Mid Links, just north of St Peter's Episcopal Church. It then went north to the Powdery (town armoury), curved west and then south to the Bleaching Green on the South Links. At this point the golfers turned round and played 5 holes in reverse, back to the Brander (drain cover) before turning again to play back to the Bleaching Green. 1811 The first American edition of Depping's Evening Entertainments; Comprising Delineations of the Manners and Customs of Various Nations was published. Containing one of the earliest and most detailed descriptions of golf and its early origins, it was the first time the game had been covered n a widely-distributed American publication. The book also described golfers playing in groups at St Andrews anywhere from two to: “six and even eight a side...” 1812 1813 With golf in Scotland in economic decline and the Society of St Andrews Golfers struggling for members, one newspaper report told how: "The club plays in scanty privacy over a course of only seven holes, instead of eighteen, and strangers are inclined to make fun of it, but in the history of golf it is a great figure." 1814 1815 The circumference of a putting green was officially enlarged from: "four or five club lengths from the hole to fifteen yards. On 13 May an Edinburgh newspaper reported that Mr. Scott bet one guinea with Mr. McDowall that he could drive a ball from the Golf House at Bruntsfield Links in the east of the City to the other side of Arthurs Seat in the West in 45 strokes or under. As a follow up, Mr. Brown bet Mr. Spalding one gallon of whisky that he would paly the same 'course' on the same terms as the previous bet. Unlike Mr Scott who failed to achieve the bet in Mr. Brown managed to 'hole-out' in forty-four strokes. The Aberdeen Golf Club was formed on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo on the Queen's Links - a strip of common land between the Rivers Don and Dee. 1816 1817 The Thistle Golf Club is founded at Leith Links, near Edinburgh. 1818 1819 Hugh Philp was appointed club maker to the Society of St. Andrew Golfers. 1820 In one the most unusual golfing bets ever associated with St. Andrews, Sir David Moncrieff, Bart of Moncrieffe, "backed his life against the life of John "Whyte-Melville, Esq. of Strathkiness" on the 3rd November. The prize was a new silver club to be given as a present to the St. Andrews Club by the "survivor." Thirteen years later Whyte-Melville" fulfilled the duty imposed upon him by the bet and delivered a silver putter engraved with the coat of arms of both men. Now one of the most treasured possessions of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, Whyte-Melville ultimately outlived his friend by almost half a century. An R&A member for 67 years, he was still playing 36 holes in a December gale aged 83! He joined in 1816 when he was 19, was captain in 1823 and was nominated for the captaincy again 60 years later but died before he could take office. 1821 James Cheape of Strathyrum House purchased the land on which the Old Course now stands to save it from future threat. The end of the so-called 'rabbit wars' which had threatened the very existence of golf in St Andrews, the Town Council‘s precarious finances had resulted in the links being sold in 1799 to the commercial rabbit breeders Charles and Cathcart Dempster. In 1805 the local inhabitants won the right to kill the rabbits and for sixteen years competing uses for the St Andrew's Links created friction between the golfers and rabbit breeders. The Dunn twins, Jamie and Willie Snr were born in Musselburgh. Famous for the quality of their play, they both took up employment with the Gourlay family as apprentice ball-makers at Bruntsfield. Taking part in many challenge matches between 1840-1860 Willie Dunn was appointed keeper of the green at Blackheath Links until 1864 when he returned to Leith before settling at North Berwick. Willie had two sons who were Tom and Willie Junior. Young Willie served as professional at Westward Ho! in 1886 before moving to Biarritz. It was while he was in France that the Vanderbilt family invited him to Shinnecock Hills on Long Island as green-keeper and club professional. The original course was twelve-holes. Willie added a ladies course and then in 1895 combined the two into 18 holes. Willie remained at Shinnecock for several years and won the first unofficial U.S. Open in 1894. In October a group Scottish migrants set sail from Leith, bound for the fledgling colony of Van Diemens Land in Australia. One of the migrants, Alexander Reid, brought hickory clubs and feathery balls with him (either on the original voyage or in 1842 when he returned from a visit to Scotland.) and played golf on his new property in the Tasmanian Highlands, which he named 'Ratho'. A twelve-hole layout, it started from the homestead with six holes running north of the shearing. The other six holes ran south before returning near the homestead's back door. As well as the Reid‘s, three other Scottish settlers laid out golf courses on their farms at 'Logan', 'Cluny' and 'Hartfield'. Today the Ratho Links is recognised as Australia's first and oldest golf course, and is widely considered the oldest known golf course outside of Scotland. The first recorded golfing bribe came from the records of a Golf Society who played over Bruntsfield Links in Edinburgh. Dated 27 April it noted how: "Captain Kilgour informed the meeting that Mr. Williamson had sent a small cask of spirits of his own manufacture as a present to the club. The Secretary was ordered to transmit the thanks of the Society to Mr. Williamson and to inform him that he was unanimously elected a honourary member..." 1824 Sir John Watson Gordon unveiled his large portrait of Honourable Company member, John Taylor and his caddy on Leith Links. The Secretary of Aberdeen Golf Club wrote to the members of the Thistle Golf Club thanking them for 3 copies of the privately published The Rules of the Thistle Golf Club by James Cundell. A review of the games earliest guidelines, he commented: "I have little doubt that these historical recollections will have a permanency with the Game itself." 1825 1826 Golf was played in Arbroath with the original course of 'about 9 holes' situated on the local common starting from Tuttie's Neuk, a well known Arbroath hostelry still pulling pints today. The first signs of an organised club appear in November 1877 when a public meeting 'of those favourable to the formation of a Golf Club in connection with the town' was convened. 34-gentleman joined the club at this meeting with a committee formed largely by schoolteachers and mill managers. The Montreal Herald in Canada ran a notice in 1827: "To Scotsmen A few true sons of Scotia, eager to perpetuate the remembrance of her Customs have fixed upon the 25th December and the 1st January, for going to the Priests' Farm, to play at Golf. Such of their Countrymen as choose to join them, will meet them before ten o'clock, a.m., at D. M'Arthur's Inn, Hay-Market. Steps have been taken to have (golf) clubs provided."
1827 A report was drawn up by an established St Andrews physician who described golf in glowing terms: "The amusement of golf, which is general with all ranks, is the best prophylactic in preventing dyspepsia and hypochondriasis, which occasionally occur." 1829 The circumference of a putting green was officially enlarged to twenty yards from the hole. It was originally from: "four or five club lengths from the hole" in 1776 before being enlarged to fifteen yards. Glasgow Golf Club describes a golf player as: "someone who has played twice during the season." 1832 Moves to increase the size of the greens at St Andrews were muted including the suggestion that two holes should be cut in a number of greens. It is not certain when this was started or completed but it is believed to have been finished by the Spring Meeting of May 1857. Reported in the Fifeshire Journal, white and red colour flags were used for the 'out‘ and 'in‘ holes, allowing golfers to identify to which hole they should be playing on the double greens. The course was played in the clockwise direction in this period. Originally seven holes Musselburgh Links added a new eighth hole followed by a ninth in 1870. Named the 'Sea Hole,‘ it now plays as the fifth on the present-day course. 1833 Members of the Innerleven Golf Club in Fife object to paying a quarterly subscription of one shilling. It was then decided that only those members playing at the April and October meetings would have to contribute. George Fullerton Carnegie published a small book of poetry: Golfiana, or Niceties Connected with the Game of Golf. Carnegie was born near St. Andrews, Scotland in 1800. The first edition included three poems including 'Address to And now farewell! I am the worse for wear - Grey is my jacket, growing grey my hair! And, though my play is pretty much the same, Mine is, at best, a despicable game. But still I like it - still delight to sing Club, players, caddies, balls, everything. But all that‘s bright must fade! and we who play, Like those before us, soon must pass away; Yet it requires no prophet‘s skill to trace The royal game thro‘ each succeeding race; While on the tide of generations flows, It still shall bloom, a never-fading rose: And still St. Andrews Links, with flags unfurl‘d, Shall peerless reign, and challenge all the world! The Society of St. Andrews Golfers ban the stymie but rescind it less than one year later. 1834 Winner of the first British Open in 1860, William Park Snr. is born in Inveresk, Scotland. When Willie had defeated all the top challengers at his home course of Musselburgh, he took the unusual step of issuing a public challenge in The Sporting Life newspaper. Offering to play the top golfers of the age, Allan Robertson, Jamie Dunn or Tom Morris Snr. for a stake of £100 there was no immediate response. Finally in 1853, he took on and beat Tom Morris. Losing the return match, his victory at Prestwick in 1960 sealed his reputation as he and Old Tom dominated the event winning six of the first seven Opens between them. He died 1903 in Edinburgh. The word "stymie" first appears in the Rules of the Crail Golfing Society. 1835 Major Hugh Lyon Playfair formed the Union Club with members primarily from the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. His reason for doing so is unclear but the Union (Golfing) Club had a small clubhouse behind the first tee of the Old Course. They called it the Union Parlour. In 1853 they built a new clubhouse which was finished a year later. It continued to be known as the Union Clubhouse until both Clubs formally merged under the Royal and Ancient title in 1877. Much changed over the years it is now known as the Royal and Clubhouse. 1836 The longest drive recorded with a feathery ball, 361 Yards, is achieved by Samuel Messieux playing from the Hole O‘ Cross green into Hells Bunker, St Andrews. A portrait of him resides in the R&A clubhouse in St Andrews to commemorate the feat. Major Hugh Lyon Playfair formed the Union Club at St Andrews with a membership consisting almost exclusively of Royal and Ancient Golf Club members. With a small building known as the Union Parlour, it offered a place to change clothes and socialise. In 1853 the members built a new clubhouse behind the first tee of the Old Course. Completed in 1854, it continued to be known as the Union Clubhouse until it formally merged under The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews title in 1877. Continually expanding over the years to meet the growing number of members, the modern day R&A clubhouse is the most famous building in golf. In December the Rev David Couper compiled a Statistical Account of the Burntisland area of Fife: Detailing golf in the local area he wrote: "The chief game is golf, the links, though not very extensive, being well adapted for it. A golf club has been in existence upwards of forty years." 1837 The Fifeshire Journal notes the first firing of a canon in the traditional captain‘s driving in ceremony at St Andrews saying: "On Wednesday, Captain Moncreiff and members preceded by the Towns officers in full uniform, carrying the Silver club with balls and gold medals attached and accompanied by music marched from Cross Keys at eleven o‘clock to the links, on arriving at which they were saluted by Sergeant Ness with a round from the piece of artillery (pictured) below." Today, the same canon rests inside the main entry to the Royal and Ancient Clubhouse. Tom Morris Snr. left school aged 16 and became apprenticed to St Andrews feather ball maker, Allan Robertson. Considered by many to be the first golf professional Morris remained with him until 1849. Despite falling out over the introduction of the first gutta-percha golf balls, Morris and Robertson played in several challenge matches together and according to legend were never beaten! John Wood of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers was "fined two tappit hens for appearing on the Links (of Musselburgh) without a red coat." In a Statistical Account of the Parish of St Andrews by the Reverend R. Haldane and Reverend George Buist (published in December) the game of golf is described thus: "There is no popular custom that can be said to be peculiar to the district; but there is a game of skill, which has for centuries formed a favourite amusement at St Andrews, viz. the game of Golf. For the prosecution of this amusement, a considerable range of ground is requisite with a short-herbage... The course for this game is divided into a number of stages from 200 to 500 yards distant from each other. At the termination of each, a hole about five inches in diameter and several inches deep is formed and the object of the competitors is to drive the ball they employ from station to station, landing it ultimately in the holes with the fewest number of strokes. For this purpose, clubs of a variety of shapes are employed, according to the nature of the position in which the ball may be found after the several strokes. Nearly eighty years ago, a number of gentlemen in St Andrews and its vicinity formed themselves into an association for the purpose of promoting the cultivation of this very interesting and healthy amusement. This club has now a muster roll of from 300 to 400 members. King William IV., who, before his accession to the Crown, was Duke of St Andrews, has signified his acceptance of the office of patron of the club, and has lately sent a splendid Gold medal, to be competed for annually, and to be held for the year by the winner." 1838 The opening of the Dundee and Arbroath railway line made travelling to Carnoustie easier for visiting golfers, particularly from Edinburgh. In his History of St. Andrews, Episcopal, Monastic, Academic, and Civil; Reverend CJ Lyon noted how: "The Links, to the north-west, are admitted to be the best adapted of any in Scotland for the national game of golf; and, at certain seasons, from the influx of players and spectators, present a gay and animated appearance." 1839 The Royal and Ancient make the first reference in the rules to playing the wrong ball. Archibald Montgomerie, the 13th Earl of Eglington and sponsor of the first British Open at Prestwick in 1860, inaugurated the Eglinton Tournament at Eglinton Castle. A grand affair harking back to the chivalric days of the Middle Ages it was said to have cost him the unimaginable sum of £30,000. Spoiled by unfavourable weather, the rain fell in torrents and made him the subject of much ridicule. Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society began playing competitions at Musselburgh Links but retained their old clubhouse at Bruntsfield Links in Edinburgh. The Society of Golfers at Aberdeen inaugurates the first medal competition in the world specifically for juniors. 1840 Tom Morris Snr. became apprenticed to feather ball maker Allan Robertson in St Andrews. 1842 Robert Millar was widely known as "Wheeplin Bobby" because of his habit of going about constantly whistling to himself. A keen golfer he joined with local schoolteacher, Mr Spankie to form the Barry Golf Club at Carnoustie. A hand-written book entitled: “Scraps on Golf” is written and published by Neil Ferguson Blair of Balthayock. Unusually philosophical in nature, it presents a preview of human life with "all its‘ hazards, and its woes which every pilgrim‘s progress knows." Dedicated without permission to The Royal Perth Golfing Society and some of its more colourful characters one passage reads: "Man is the ball and fate is the club that drives us all…" This extremely rare book, one was sold at Christie‘s, Glasgow on 7 July 1998 for £12,650. A group of St Andrews caddies asked Allan Robertson not play in a sweepstakes competition because it was felt they would not have a chance in any contest in which he took part. Considered Scotland‘s greatest golfer, he nobly agreed not to play. George Fullerton Carnegie authors and published his book: Golfiana; or, Niceties Connected with the Game of Golf... “Dedicated with respect to the Members of All Golfing Clubs, and to Those of St. Andrews & North Berwick in Particular," it was the second ever publication (after The Goff) entirely devoted to golf, the three poems by Carnegie are: The Golfiad; The First Hole at St. Andrews; and Address to St. Andrews. It was originally privately printed in Leith in early 1833 as one long poem. 1843 The St Andrews Mechanics Golf Club was founded. Still in existence today it was later renamed The St Andrews Golf Club. Allan Robertson from St Andrews took on Willie Dunn of Musselburgh in a 20 round match over both links - two rounds per day for ten days. The challenge went down to the final day, with Robertson eventually winning two rounds up with one to play. A match was played between professional Willie Dunn and an Edinburgh caddie named Toper. Played over Bruntsfield and Musselburgh it was the first time that spectators were held behind ropes held by appointed course marshals. The St Andrews Golf Club was established by eleven local tradesmen on 29 September. They included a Dancing Master and a Butler (George Morris, brother of "Old" Tom) the membership later included Allan Robertson and Tom Morris, the foremost golfers of the day. The club also boasts a member who played golf in the Olympics in Paris in 1900. Mackenzie Turpie was a local postman who paid his own entry fee and travelling expenses 'purely for the honour of competing'. 1844 The first recorded 'professional' match took place at North Berwick between Willie Dunn and Allan Robertson. It was part of a big money challenge played over three courses including St Andrews and Musselburgh. Golf was believed to have been played at Grose Farm in Sydney, and Flagstaff Hill Melbourne. Tom Morris Snr. married Agnes Nancy Bayne on 21June in St Andrews. The most legendary family in golf history their children included their eldest son Thomas born in 1846 (died 1850); "Young" Thomas Jnr. born in 1851 (died 1875); Elizabeth born in 1852 (died 1898); James "J.O.F." born in 1856 (died 1906) and John born in 1859 (died 1893). Old Tom outlived all his children. The Royal Blackheath Golf Club near London adopts the rules used by the Society of St Andrews Golfers (later known as the R&A) following a resolution put before the members on 4 May which read: "it is absolutely necessary for the future welfare of this club that the Regulations of the Society of Golfers, and the Laws of the Game, by which it is governed, should be entirely revised so as to assimilate more to the Golf Clubs of Scotland…" 1845 The Monifieth Club adopted the rules used by the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews with the addition of an unplayable ball rule which stated: "if a ball is so placed that the player says it is not playable, and his opponent agrees to it, he shall drop it behind and lose a stroke, but if disputed, the opposite player shall be bound to play it out in not more than three strokes, which shall stand against the player of the ball whose ball is so played, but if not taken out in three strokes, it shall be considered an unplayable ball and played as above." The Bombay Golf Club in India gifted a specially cast Bombay Medal to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews to cement bonds of fraternal friendship. Circa 1846 1847 Charles Lees' famous painting of a St Andrews golfing scene entitled The Golfers is unveiled. A leading Scottish artist, Lees was born in Cupar, Fife in 1800 and studied art in Edinburgh and later exhibited works at the Royal Scottish Academy. Featuring a foursome match between Sir Ralph Anstruther and Sir David Baird against Major Hugh Lyon Playfair and John Campbell of Glensaddell, a large group of spectators surrounds the main figures and contains many eminent golfers from the St Andrews area including feathery ball making professional, Allan Robertson. Alexander Munro, Aberdeen, Scotland's resident club-maker dies. He is followed by Ludovic Sandison who has his shop at 118 King Street, Aberdeen. Cabinetmaker John Patrick begins club making at Leven, Scotland. James Maule of Monifieth Farm claimed a right of pasturage over land used by golfers. When negotiation failed, an interdict was granted against the Monifieth Golf Club. Plans had already been put in place for a new nine-hole course, designed by Allan Robertson and Alex Pirie but now had to be abandoned. From this point on, competitions were played over Carnoustie links with its ten-holes and to which club members also contributed funds for upkeep. 1848 The new gutta-percha golf ball grows in popularity. A cheaper, far more resilient ball than the leather-covered feathery, it was obtained from the sap of the palaquin genus of trees native to Southeast Asia. It was then softened in boiling water before being moulded into the shape and size of a ball and dropped in cold water to harden. It was then left to season for six months before being painted and finally used. Although this new ball did not perform significantly better than the feathery it had the advantage of being easy to make and was far cheaper. The new ball was also harder and caused damage to the wooden clubs and ultimately encouraged the development of iron faced clubs. There is also much debate as to the true origins of the gutta-percha golf ball with Willie Dunn, Robert Patterson and William Smith among those credited with its invention. Sir Ralph Anstruther played a round of golf at Blackheath with William Maitland Dougall using new gutta percha balls instead of the usual 'featheries'. Played in wet conditions, he noticed that the 'new‘ ball played far better after a day in the rain, unlike the feather ball. They wrote immediately to London for more of these balls, which they then tried at Musselburgh before bringing back to St Andrews. Allan Robertson found his apprentice Tom Morris experimenting with a gutta-percha ball given to him by John Campbell of Glensaddell. The most prolific feather ball maker in St. Andrews it displeased him greatly fearing that his business was under threat should the new ball become popular. Leading to a split they would continue to play exhibition matches together up until Robertson‘s‘ death in 1859. Allan Robertson, who was the 'Keeper of the Green' at St. Andrews, was asked to make improvements to the Old Course including lengthening the course. Robert "Bob" Ferguson is born in Musselburgh, Scotland. He would become one of the top players during the late 1800's winning three consecutive British Open championships in 1879, 1880 and 1881. 1849 John Dunsmore, a Scottish lawyer from Sydney in New South Wales, asked the Provost of St Andrews, Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair, to recommend a 'golfer of note‘ to emigrate to the thriving British Colony in Australia to help design a new golf course on land owned by D‘Arcy Wentworth. The legendary Allan Robertson was approached but declined. He in turn suggested David Robertson, 24, who after arriving in November set about completing a nine-hole course. A report in Bells Life magazine of Sydney, Australia on 22 December noted that David Robertson, brother of legendary St Andrews ball maker Allan, had offered a golfing challenge saying: "I shall be happy to play any man in the Colony for any sum, as soon as clubs and balls can be procured from home." Immigrating there some years earlier, it is thought his brother dispatched clubs and feathery balls from St Andrews which later formed the basis of the impressive Royal Sydney Golf Club Collection. 1850 Gutta percha golf balls are increasingly stamped with numbers denoting weight and size: Balls are made in the following sizes, viz. 26, 27, 27 ½, 28, and 29, these figures representing the weight in drachms avoirdupois; 26"s and 29's, the two extremes, are not much used, the one being considered too light and the other too heavy. The Innerleven Golf Society lost to the St Andrews Golf Club over Leven Links. Played in November it is one of the first inter club matches ever played. Club record books tell how they dined in the Crawford Hotel before "they drove off for home in glorious style." Kingsbarns Links in Fife came to an inglorious end after the tenant farmer at nearby Cambo House made the decision to return it to agricultural land. The game had been enjoyed here since the late 1700s. 1851 Prestwick Golf Club on the West Coast of Scotland is founded by a group of members who met at the Red Lion Inn, Prestwick. Colonel Fairlie of Coodham was responsible for inviting Tom Morris of St Andrews to lay out a course on the relatively small patch of rough links land next to the railway line to Glasgow. Before he arrived, the club built two cottages, one for Tom and his family, with the other to serve as a clubhouse. Morris was then hired as the first "Keeper of the Greens." When Tom returned to St Andrews in 1864, they were auctioned with the proceeds used to build a clubhouse on the present site. The Earl of Eglinton became the first Captain of the club, and presented a gold medal for an annual competition. Tom Morris Jnr. is born at Prestwick on 20 April in St Andrews. He would become the greatest golfer of his era. David Anderson was appointed Keeper of the Green at St Andrews under the direction of Allan Robertson. (He had married one of Robertson‘s cousins.) Paid £5 a year, he resigned in 1855 because the Royal and Ancient would not increase his fairly meagre wages. Credited as the first one to cut two holes in a number of the greens to speed up play, he returned to club making and caddying for other professionals including Allan Robertson and Tom Morris Snr... Many years later, Auld Da‘ made a decent living selling refreshments including Ginger Beer at the far end of the Old Course. With the introduction of the gutta-percha ball, a new rule is instigated saying that if a ball broke up in flight, another ball can be dropped without penalty where the largest piece was found. 1852 George Bruce dedicated his latest golf poem to the St Andrews Golf Club and was read out by him after its half-yearly meeting in June. Hoping to encourage members to donate sixpence each to help talented club member Jamie Herd who was seriously ill, it included the immortal stanza: 1853 The R&A and Union Club of St Andrews combine. Bob Martin, British Open champion in 1876 and 1885, was born at South Toll, near Cupar in Fife. Growing up as a caddie at St Andrews, he was appointed as club maker to Jamie Anderson in the town. After employment as a sheep herder he took up his former profession with Tom Morris Snr. With him for twenty years he lost his job after an extended period in the local hospital after breaking his leg when he attempted to climb over a stone wall when he was drunk! The Tantallon Golf Club in North Berwick was founded on 17 September by local merchants. Using the West Links to play their competitions Tantallon members organised the upkeep of the course before a Greens Committee was established in 1876 which included representatives from the Town Council. Scottish professional David Robertson was involved in a rather unusual incident during his extended stay in Australia. Following heavy winter rains, post from Sydney could not get across the flooded Mulwaree Creek at Goulburn, close to where he lived. Known for his golfing prowess, he attempted to drive a golf ball with a silken thread attached so that letters could be 'ferried‘ across. Sadly the carry of 200 yards with strong cross winds proved too much and he faced a deal of criticism from disgruntled locals. His professional pride dented, Robertson removed the thread which was dragging the ball down, and cleared the swollen stream without any difficulty. 1854 William Doleman (1838-1918) is credited as the first to play golf in Canada when as a 16 year old sailor he went ashore from a military vessel and played a game on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec. One of four famous golfing brothers, from North Esk near Musselburgh, Willie was the first amateur to enter the British Open Championship. His brother A. H. Doleman (1836-1914) was one of the pioneers of golf in England and founder of golf at Lytham and St Anne‘s. His elder sibling John (1826-1918) introduced the game to Nottinghamshire while Frank (1848-1929) was a club maker at Bruntsfield Links. 1855 George Glennie became the first golfer to break 90 at St Andrews with a medal score of 88. It was not till 1879 that Mr Glennie reduced this record by one stroke. Gardener Nicol Wright was employed by Tantallon Golf Club at North Berwick on a wage of 30 shillings per annum to maintain the links and repair the flags. David Salmond, publisher of the Arbroath Herald, describes his golfing visit to St Andrews: “There was but one course and the same nine holes served for the outward as for the inward play. Each hole was marked by a small iron pin with a bit of red rag attached. The greens were in the "rough" and the bunkers were in their natural state. If a player went off the narrow course of good ground he was at once landed in very "rough country", and the course at the ninth hole was all heathery and difficult across is the whole breadth.” According to Tom Morris Snr. a typical set of clubs included - the driver, long spoon, mid spoon, short spoon, baffy spoon, driving' wooden putter, ordinary wooden putter, wooden niblick with or without brass sole, a cleek, and sand iron. 1856 Dunbar Golf Club was established on the Duke of Roxburghe estate. Fifteen holes were designed by Old Tom Morris with an additional 3 holes added in 1880. Golf was thought to have been played in the Dunbar area at least as early as the beginning of the 17th century with the first course laid out on the land where Oliver Cromwell's army camped prior to the Battle of Dunbar in 1650. Hugh Philp, legendary club maker of St. Andrews, died aged 74. A former cabinet maker, he is best known for creating long-nosed putters with beautiful perfect graceful elegant lines. Known as the 'Chippendale‘ of golf, management of his successful club making business had passed to his nephew Robert Forgan four years earlier in 1852. Over the next five decades, the newly-named Forgan & Sons grew steadily. Imported hickory was dried under cover by the side of the 17th fairway of the Old Course. In each of the Black Sheds (now recreated on their original site to the right of the famous Road Hole tee), there were rectangular stacks of square-cut shafts, each containing as many as 8,000 rods apiece. After a full 12 months‘ seasoning they were deemed ready to be rounded off by hand and offered for sale. Innerleven Golf Society in Leven in Fife is reputedly the first to use sandboxes on the tees. Former Provost of St Andrews Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair is appointed captain of R&A. 1857 George Morris, brother of Tom Morris Snr. is appointed the first professional and club-maker at Carnoustie Links. Prestwick Golf Club backs the instigation of a National Foursome competition at St. Andrews. It is attended by eleven golf clubs. George Glennie and J.C. Stewart win for Blackheath. R&A spring meeting approves cutting of two holes on each green. A National Golf Club foursome competition, known as the Grand National Tournament was played on 29 July in St Andrews. Musselburgh, North Berwick, Perth, Carnoustie, Blackheath, St Andrews and Leven all took part and sent their best pairs. Montrose, Bruntsfield, Dirleton Castle, Innerleven, Panmure and the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers were all invited but did not take part. Watched by good crowds, the home team were beaten in the final by Blackheath from London represented by George Glennie and Lieut. John Stewart. The following year the inter-club competition took the form of an individual match play tournament. Having established it as a National tournament it eventually led to the first British Amateur Championship in 1885 when 26 clubs, subscribed to the trophy. St Andrews decides to cut the number of holes on their course from 22 to 18 setting an acceptable format which many other clubs would follow. 1858 The format of the Championship Meeting is changed to individual match play and is won by Robert Chambers of Bruntsfield. The King James VI Golf Club is founded in Perth, Scotland. It was named after King James VI who, according to tradition, had learned to play golf as a youth on the "Inches" – the common land along the River Tay. It held its matches on the North Inch until 1897. After a dispute with the tenant of Muirton over grazing rights had led to the temporary loss of the extension to the North Inch course, it opened its own course, laid out by Old Tom Morris, on Moncreiffe Island. William Park Snr, golf ball maker of Musselburgh, placed an advertisement in Bell‟s Life and Sporting Chronicle newspaper on 6 June announcing that he will: "play any man in the world for £100 or £200 a side over 36 holes to be played on each of the three golfing greens at St Andrews, Musselburgh, and North Berwick." The "Grand National Tournament" is held at St Andrews for the second consecutive year for top Scottish (amateur) golfers. Evolving from a doubles to a singles championship, Robert Chambers Jr. of Bruntsfield defeated Alex Wallace to win the winners medal to become the first recognised Scottish Amateur Champion. Allan Robertson, "the greatest player of his day," recorded a round of 79 on the Old Course at St. Andrews. The first player to complete the course in under-80 Robertson's style was neat and effective. He held his clubs near the end of the handle, even his putter high up. His clubs were light, and his stroke an easy, swift switch. With him the game was as much of head as of hand. He always kept cool and generally pulled through a match even when he got behind." St. Andrews issues a number of new rules for its members, and Rule One states that, "one round of the Links or 18 holes is reckoned a match unless otherwise stipulated." For centuries, St Andrews boasted 22 holes until 1764 when 4 holes were merged to make an 18-hole course. The growing popularity of the gutta-percha ball sees the introduction of a new rule which deals with their apparent fragility. Known to split into two, a penalty of one shot is awarded if the golfer is forced to replace his broken orb with a new ball. The distance by which a golfer teed his ball at St Andrews was increased from "one club length from the hole last played" to "not nearer than six and no further than eight club lengths." 1859 George Daniel Brown, Scottish professional golfer and caddie, was accused of "cursing, swearing and using threatening and abusive language on the night of Saturday 11 June." Sentenced to 14 days in Cupar Jail, he would compete in the inaugural British Open at Prestwick the following year. Local fishermen were banned from drying their nets on the West Links at North Berwick – a right they had enjoyed for many years previously. An extract from the Dunbar Golf Club minutes describe what was required from a green keeper at that time: 'The green must be swept and cleaned every Wednesday and Saturday. All molehills kept flat where possible. He must be on duty during all Medal days and when the tent has to be erected he must be out.' One interesting Bye-Law from the turn of the century reads. 'The official at the burn is authorised by the Committee to charge all players one penny for each ball recovered from the water.' Neighbouring farmers formed The East Lothian (Golf) Club. Playing over the windswept links at Gullane, they were second only in age to The Dirleton Castle Golf Club, founded in 1854. Allan Robertson (11 Sept 1815 – 1 Sept 1859) died after a bout of jaundice at St Andrews. Considered the world‘s greatest golfer he left a substantial estate worth £93.1.9 to his second wife, Jane Kyles. He willed his bible, an old knife in the shape of a hare, his father‘s pinch back watch and a copy of The History of the Robertson‟s to his brother David who had immigrated to Australia. The first man to break 80 over the Old Course, he owned and ran a popular ball making business at Golf Place near the final green. His funeral was well attended and he was buried will full civic honours in the Cathedral grounds at St Andrews where a memorial still stands today. 1860 Andrew Kirkaldy, honorary professional of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, was born at Denhead on 8 March. In an attempt to regulate caddies in St Andrews, R&A member Major Robert Boothby submitted a list of 'official‘ caddies and a set of rules for their employment. He did the same when he founded a new club in Warwick in 1886. Golf Clubs in England and Scotland were all invited to send no more than three professional players to compete in the new "Open" competition at Prestwick in October. There was no prize money, but the winner received custody of the Belt for the year The inaugural British Open was contested by eight professionals including local favourite Tom Morris Snr. Played over three rounds at Prestwick Links on Wednesday, 17 October the fledgling Ayrshire Golf Club had decided to hold the tournament after losing patience with Musselburgh and St Andrews. After numerous requests to join them in organising a National "Open" Competition for Scottish professionals, Prestwick decided to go ahead despite only being formed nine years earlier. Organised by Major John Ogilvy Fairlie and the Earl of Eglinton first prize was an impressive red morocco leather belt decorated with silver panels. Not unlike those given in archery or prize fighting tournaments, it was purchased for £25. A letter was then sent out to the premier Scottish Golf Clubs requesting them to send: "two entrants and the competitors must be known, honest and respected caddies." Given the poor reputation of one or two of the competing professionals, Prestwick Golf Club decided that such a valuable prize as the Championship Belt should not leave the club except under exceptional circumstances. On the morning of the tournament, the eight competing professionals gathered together in the main room of the Red Lion Public House in Prestwick and signed a sheet of paper stipulating the rules. Regarding the belt all players agreed to produce, “a guarantee to the satisfaction of the above committee that the belt shall be safely kept and laid on the table at the next meeting to compete for it until it becomes the property of the winner by being won three times in succession...” The first winner of the British Open was William Park Snr. of Musselburgh with a total of 174. In a field that included George Daniel Brown, Andrew Strath, Tom Morris Snr. William Dow and Bob Andrews, he made a strong start in windy conditions. He took the first round lead with a score of 55, three shots better than Morris. Park and Morris both scored 59 in the second round but Tom could only claw back a single stroke after shooting a 59 to Willie Park‘s final round of 60. The turning point came at the penultimate hole named the "Himalayas" when Morris failed to make the carry onto the green. Scoring 6 instead of the expected 4, he eventually lost by two strokes. William Strath, younger brother of 1865 British Open winner, Andrew Strath, was convicted of "striking William Mason with a golf cleek" by a St Andrews magistrate. A noted drunkard, the former caddie was finally sentenced to a prison term of hard labour after a string of charges for assault and theft over the next few years. 1861 Seventeen players enter the second British Open Championship at Prestwick. The inaugural 1860 Open had been for professionals only, but now amateurs were allowed to play and eight entered including J.O. Fairlie and Robert Chambers. Finishing four-shots ahead of runner-up William Park Sr. Tom Morris Sr. captured his first title. Perth Town Council planted trees on the North Inch links to provide shade for the public during the summer months. But the wrath of local golfers was aroused because they felt the trees interfered with their play. Eventually a mob marched to the Inch and uprooted the trees, which the Council decided not to replant. The Parochial Directory for Fife and Kinross show four club makers in St Andrews: George Daniel Brown of 6 Pilmuir Links; Robert Forgan of 5 Pilmuir Links; Robert Kirk of 1 Pilmuir Links and James Wilson of 4 Golf Place. 1862 1863 Queen Victoria agreed to act as patron to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, (almost 30 years after King William IV had granted the original Society of St Andrews Golfers the right to call themselves the R&A.) Tom Morris Snr. was appointed Keeper of the Green at St Andrews by the R&A. Old Tom was a St Andrew's man who had studied under the legendary Allan Robertson, before being appointed Keeper of Greens at Prestwick in 1851. Robertson died in 1859, and Old Tom was invited to return to St Andrews some years before he agreed to take up the post. It was speculated that the term "caddie" came from the Latin word caduceous describing the emblem of power carried by Mercury, Jove's messenger. Robert Forgan club making premises relocated from Philip‘s original workshop to an old fisherman‘s house next to the home green on the Old Course. It was to become the epicentre of the company for decades. Saws and lathes were introduced into the production process, enabling mass manufacturing. Mr Wolfe Murray of St Andrews addressed a letter to "The miss-er of short putts, Prestwick." The letter was delivered without any difficulty to Tom Morris Snr. c/o Prestwick Golf Club. Robert Greig was convicted at Cupar Sheriffs Court (Scotland) after a drunken argument with William Palmer on 9 October. Striking him over the head with a "golf cleek and punching him‖ he was sentenced to 21 days in the local jail. Robert Forgan and Son Ltd. was appointed club maker to His Royal Highness Edward, Prince of Wales after a visit to his new workshop in St Andrews. Within a year, clubs were being marked with the Prince‘s emblem of the plume of feathers. When the Prince finally became King Edward VII in 1901 Forgan begins using the crown mark. King Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, accepted an offer to become captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. In a rather sycophantic letter they wrote: "Understanding that your Royal Highness has some knowledge of; and considerable proficiency in, the ancient and noble game of golf, we humbly crave your patronage to our Royal and Ancient Club, where the game is played over ground superior to any other in Great Britain." The request was granted, but the Prince was was unable to attend the Autumn Meeting at St Andrews where he would have been installed as Club Captain. Instead, former captain John Whyte Melville stood in for his Royal Highness at a special driving in ceremony off the first tee of the Old Course. The first of its kind, every captain of the Royal and Ancient is now inaugurated this way. 1864 The London Scottish Golf Club was formed from members of the London Scottish Rifle Volunteers. Laying out a new course on Wimbledon Common in southwest London, the seven-hole links was played from Mrs Doggett‘s Cottage beside the Windmill and back again. Still in use today, (as an eighteen-hole layout) non-military golfers were admitted as members in 1869 and by 1874 out-numbered soldiers 250 to 50. Tom Morris Snr. resigned his "Keeper of the Green" position with the Prestwick Golf Club in September after being hired by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews as their new Custodian of the Links.‖ Hired at salary of £150 per annum, he was also "given" a wheelbarrow, spade and shovel and the assistance of a man's labour for two days per week as part of the deal! After he departed for his hometown of St Andrews, Prestwick Golf Club auctioned off the cottage they had built for Tom and his family in 1851 and used the proceeds to build a clubhouse on the present site. Appointed Custodian of the (St Andrews) Links a year later he held the position until 1903/4. In addition to his green keeping duties, Morris ran a thriving club and ball manufacturing business and laid out many other golf courses. Andrew Strath moves from St Andrews to Prestwick to take up his duties as green keeper. Young Tom Morris, 13, entered a professional tournament at Perth but was refused entry on account of his young age. Instead, Dr Miller, Rector of the Perth Academy, arranged for him to play local boy, Willie Greig, on 14 April. Attracting a large crowd of interested onlookers Morris beat local favourite Greig to win £5 and a gold medal especially made for the match. Indeed his play impressed so much that one report stated how Young Tommy: "has been cast in the very mould of a golfer and plays with all the steadiness and certainty in embryo of his father." The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews made the decision to formally collect and display historical objects in addition to its own medals and trophies. Since then it has built up a significant collection of artefacts and paintings many of which are now displayed in the nearby British Golf Museum. Rules and Discipline of Caddies - St Andrews 1864 Charles Hunter replaces Tom Morris at Prestwick as custodian and club maker. He remained there until his death in 1921. William Park Jnr. was born in Musselburgh in 1864. Son of Willie Park Snr. and nephew of Mungo, he is recognised as the first golfer to make a successful business empire out of the game. Apprenticed as a club maker with his uncle Mungo at Alnmouth, he was appointed green-keeper and professional at Ryton Golf Club aged just 16 where he stayed for four years before returning to Musselburgh. Park lived for many years at 8 Mill Hill, Inveresk where he started in business as a club and ball maker. Author and two-time British Open champion, he expanded a thriving club making concern started by his father and was later involved in golf course design and reconstruction. At one time he had offices in Musselburgh, Edinburgh, London and New York. A former naval captain bet Tom Morris Snr. the huge sum of £50 to one shilling that he could not make an almost impossible putt on the Road Hole green at St Andrews. But Tom made the putt and the naval man tendered the money. "Na, na," said Tom, "we were but joking and I canna' take it." Today, the £50 equates to the cost of a new house in the Auld Grey Toon. Tom Morris Snr won the British Open Championship at Prestwick and the first cash prize of £6 - the first offered to the winner. Perth club maker John Jackson relocates his business from Prince Street to Athole Street and later to North Methven Street. Jackson was Perth's first manufacturer of golf clubs and feather balls. He was succeeded by Walter "Watty" MacDonald, who began making the more recognisable gutty type of ball. Professionals Tom Morris and Charlie Hunter play an unusual challenge match at Prestwick against two wealthy amateurs - Mr. Knowles, a French Canadian dentist and a Major Crieghton. They began at 11 p.m. and finished the twelve-hole course at 1.30 a.m. losing only two balls between them. According to reports the expected moon did not appear and the match was played in total, darkness. 1865 Andrew Strath (1836-1868) won the British Open Championship. Breaking the early domination of the event by Willie Park, Snr and the two Morris's he also finished third in 1860, fourth in 1863, second in 1864 and fourth in 1867. Born in 1836 in St Andrews, Strath began his career as an apprentice club-maker. His brothers were also golf professionals; David was Tom Morris Snr. and Andrews Strath offered to play any pairing in the world for £100, but nobody accepted the challenge. Alexander Greig, a club and ball maker in St. Andrews has a shop at 22 Duke Street between 1866 and 1872. Madeleine Boothby, wife of prominent R&A member Colonel Robert T. Boothby, was appointed the first president of the St Andrews Ladies‘ Golf Club. North Inch in Perth was the venue for the second of two professional tournaments. The first was played two year earlier and both attracted a strong field of 10 Scottish professionals. To commemorate this tournament at Perth an early group of golf professionals are photographed for the first time. They include George Daniel Brown, Tom Morris Snr and Tom Morris Jnr. David Park, William Dow, Charlie Hunter, William Park, Bob MacDonald, Andrew Strath, James Johnstone and Bob Andrews. The tournament at North Inch was also the first public appearance of Young Tom Morris. Still a schoolboy, he played a match against local youngster, Willie Greig. Professional Bob Andrews was challenged by Mr Condie when he boasted that he could hit the ball off the face of a watch without "injuring" it. Supplying his gold watch, Condie looked on nervously as the St Andrews caddie teed-up his ball on the first tee at North Inch in Perth. Bob then drove off "with so powerful a stroke that the ball landed within ten yards of the first hole." Thankfully the watch remained undamaged and Andrews won his bet. An "Open Golf Competition" was held on Montrose Links. Scheduled over twenty-five holes, (‗being one round of the golf course') the first prize of £10 was won by local professional Robert Dow who shot 112. Three-strokes behind, Willie Park Snr. who won £5 for second place with Andrew Strath from Prestwick, finishing joint third with Jamie Anderson of St Andrews on 119. Montrose Links lays claim to the fact that it was the course with the greatest number of holes, boasting 25 at its peak. Although these holes were not played in their entirety on every occasion, they were mostly used regularly in club competitions. Bob Ferguson won the first prize of ten pounds in a tournament at Leith Links (1866) against a strong field of top professionals. Aged just 18, this brought him to the attention of a number of wealthy sponsors including Sir Charles Tennant who backed him in 1868 and 1869 when he defeated Tom Morris on six occasions. A bout of typhoid cut short Ferguson's playing career and he was later appointed custodian of the old links. Ferguson died in 1915 and a fountain was erected adjoining the Musselburgh Links in his memory.
1867 The first National Golf match for professionals took place over Leith Links on 14 May. Organized by the Leith Thistle Golf Club, 11 competitors took part including Tom Morris Snr. George Morris and Tom Morris Jnr. of St Andrews; Willie Park Snr., Bob Ferguson and David Park of Musselburgh; Willie Dunn of Leith; Charles Hunter, Jamie Anderson of St Andrews; Robert Kirk from Musselburgh; Tom Brown and Charles Hunter. Total prize money for the tournament amounted to £25 (with £10 for the winner) with the tournament played over four rounds of seven holes. Bob Ferguson of Musselburgh won with a total of 131 with Hunter winning £6 in second place. Robert Clark authored and published: Poems on Golf. Printed for Private Circulation and produced in limited numbers, material was collected by members of the Edinburgh Burgess Golfing Society. They include The Goff by Thomas Mathison; Carnegie's Golfiana and the first appearance of The Nine Holes of St. Andrews. The sonnets were written by Robert Chambers, his son, Robert, Jr. (winner of the first open Amateur Tournament of 1858 and author of A Few Rambling Remarks on Golf) and Patrick Proctor Alexander (a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club). An open competition held on the Links at Carnoustie was won by 16 year old Young Tom Morris. Played over the original ten-hole course established back in the 1830‘s, it was his first tournament victory. Lord Kennedy and Mr Cruickshank of Langley Park played a three-hole match at St Andrews for the astonishing sum of £500 per hole! Played at night using one lantern per hole, two were halved with his Lordship winning the other. It was also noted that both players took as many strokes as they usually did in daylight! William Doleman became the first amateur to lead the British Open after a first round of 55 at Prestwick. One stroke ahead of Robert Andrew he eventually finished eight strokes in 8th place behind winner Tom Morris Snr. on 178. Tom Morris Snr. wins the British Open Championship at Prestwick. The Open was held to coincide with the members Autumn Meeting and included 'a great muster of professionals and more than an average attendance of spectators‘. Old Tom won for the fourth and last time to become the oldest winner at 46 years, 99 days. Willie Park Snr. finished in second place on 172, two strokes behind his greatest rival. His son Tom Morris Jnr. finished five shots behind in joint fourth place on 175. After the event Young Tom challenged Willie Park to a twelve-hole match, which he lost by two holes. Archerfield House in Dirleton, East Lothian, opened a new thirteen-hole golf course within its grounds. Owned by the wealthy Scottish family the Nisbet-Hamiltons, it was unique in being the only private residence in the country which had a private links attached to it. The newly formed Archerfield Golf Club, composed chiefly of residents on the estate, had the right to play over the course along with two other local societies. The Nisbet-Hamiltons allowed competitions over it. Mr. John Penn, M.P., a tenant in the autumn and winter, and Mr. James Law, tenant in the summer months, also did much for the up-keep and improvement of the links. Garden G Smith described as a private oasis In the days when seaside greens were so crowded that it is all but impossible to enjoy the game; when one is jostled on the tee for the right of starting, or places have to be booked the night before; when the green is blocked with duffers, and when golf balls, flying in all directions, put the golfer in terror of his life, a game at a place like Archerfield is a soothing and soul-restoring experience. Tom Morris Snr. opened a new golf shop near the final green on the Old Course at St Andrews. The business continued through his lifetime and at its peak in the 1880s, he employed six skilled craftsmen including Bob Martin, double winner of the British Open Championship at St Andrews in 1876 & 1885. Tom Morris Snr. was commissioned by the town of Carnoustie after they decided to extend their ten-hole course to eighteen – reputedly the second course to do so after the Old Course at St Andrews. A locker room used by the golfers as a meeting place was situated behind "Smithy" Gray‘s workshop in East path. 1868 Alexander "Sandy" Herd, 1902 British Open champion is born. The West links at North Berwick was extended from six to nine holes and now included the famous short 'Redan' (15th) hole. The course was extended to the current eighteen-hole layout in 1877 under the supervision of John R. Whitecross. Willie Campbell challenged Mr. Hall Blyth over one of the longest holes ever played. The start point was the first green at North Berwick and the finish was the green of the High Hole at Gullane some five miles away. What made it interesting was that Hall Blyth took the inland route through Dirleton while Campbell played round via the shore line! Sadly Campbell got into trouble among the rocks and his opponent won easily. Andrew Strath, 1865 British Open winner, died at Prestwick. The Lundin Links Golf Club and Lundin Mill Golf Club were founded in the Fifeshire town of Leven. At this time three other clubs were playing over the already over-crowded public links including Innerleven, Leven Thistle and Leven Golf Club. (Innerleven had responsibility for maintaining the Links with contributions from the other two Leven clubs.) Inevitably with so many golf societies vying for the same ground Lundin Mill would fail in 1877 with Leven following in 1884 The Ladies Course at North Berwick was laid out on land next to the Marine Hotel and remains the oldest nine-hole Ladies course in Scotland. Today, it is known as the "Children's Course." Tom Morris Jnr. wins the first of his four British Open titles at Prestwick Golf Club. Played over three rounds in one day, he broke the course record with a final round score of 49. Recording an unassailable total of 154, his father Tom Morris Snr. finished in second place three shots behind. Bob Andrew was third and the first Open winner William Park was fourth. The most dominant golfer of his era, he remains the youngest Open winner at 17 years, 181 days. The Rose Golf Club is formed at St Andrews. Following the British Open at Prestwick a challenge match for professionals was held at St Andrews in late September for a total prize purse of £20 compared with a total of £12 on offer at Prestwick. The winner also received a generous cash prize of £8. A close friend of Young Tom, local man David Strath was forced to give up his job as a clerk just to enter. As a professional, it now meant that he would be at the disposal of members of the R & A and visitors who wanted lessons or indeed a caddy. Still just 18, Young Tom was the clear pre-tournament favourite and duly won with a score of 87. Bob Ferguson finished second, a stroke behind with David Strath finishing on a score of 91. The Leven Club invited Tom Morris Snr. to extend their links east from the Mile Dyke toward Lundin Links. The opening of the full 18 holes was marked by a 36-hole match on 2 October which Young Tom beat his father by 19 shots! The oldest boy‘s tournament in the world was established at North Berwick after Lord Elcho donated a medal for the children of visitors to the town. A stroke play event open to boys over 10, but under 15 it was first played in October over the West Links. (Those under 10 competed on the much shorter Ladies Links near the Marine Hotel.) A trophy was later donated by William Cree and is still contested today for boys under 14. 1869 Tom Morris, Snr. makes his son, Tom Morris Jnr. a partner in his club and ball making business in Prestwick. Alexander Boyd and Lord Colin Campbell were playing a match at St Andrews against William Tulloch and Colonel R.T. Boothby in April. Known to be hugely competitive, Tulloch berated his partner for his lack of concentration. Shouting at the top of his voice, Boothby brandished his club in the air and yelled out: "No directions! I‘ll take no directions!" Tom Morris Jnr. reduced the long standing course record at St Andrews by one-stroke to 78. Tom Morris Snr. is asked to oversee a number of changes to the Old Course at St Andrews. Large sections of the first and eighteenth fairways are re-turfed as the final green moved back 50 yards to its present position. Plus a long standing bunker is removed from halfway down first fairway. After complaints from local golfers it is reinstated and named 'Sutherland.‘ Improvements at Links Road and approaches to Old Course are also instigated. Evening classes for caddies begin at St Andrews. They are taught a formal guideline on how to behave on the links. A permanent carved stone memorial to Allan Robertson is erected in St Andrews Cathedral burying ground. Fourteen players entered the British Open Championship at Prestwick on 17 September. Tom Dunn was the first professional to enter from North Berwick. Young Tom Morris, 17, wins the first of four successive British Open championships. Three strokes ahead after an opening round of 50, he strolled to a massive 11 shot victory over Bob Kirk in second. The most dominant professional of his era, his streak would include an even more impressive 12-stroke victory in 1870 (in a 36-hole format). His 149 in the 1870 British Open over 36 holes is a stroke average that would not be equalled until the invention of the rubber-cored ball. Tom Dunn, son of Old Willie Dunn, was appointed the first-full time professional at London Scottish Golf Club in Wimbledon, south of London, on a weekly wage of 20 shillings. Establishing a successful club and ball making business from premises next to the iconic windmill, he would stay there until 1881. At the age of 48 Tom Morris Snr. read in The Scotsman newspaper that life expectancy for men in Scotland at that time was just 41. Looking up from his paper he reputedly told the assembled caddies at St Andrews: "It would appear I have been dead for seven years already." Bob Ferguson and Tom Morris Jnr. played a match using just iron clubs alone at Prestwick; a powerful player with all his irons Ferguson won by four-holes. Willie Dunn Jnr. of Musselburgh and his twin brother Jamie establish a club and ball-making business in Leith before moving to Musselburgh in 1871. 1870 Willie Dunn moves to Musselburgh and sets up his club making business. Three-time British Open winner, Robert'Bob‘ Ferguson establishes a club and ball making business at Links Place, Musselburgh. It lasts until 1876. A separate first green is built on the Old Course at St Andrews. In its original form and for many years, the Old Course was played backwards, from the first tee to the 17th green. The inward holes of the modern-day course mark the original line followed out and back by the earliest golfers. Over the centuries, the gradual widening of the fairways has brought more land on the seaward side into play. Separate teeing areas are introduced at St Andrews including the introduction of sand buckets for producing tees. (Previously players had teed off from the previous green at a distance of a few yards from the hole using sand from the hole to produce the tee.) The Old Links at Musselburgh opens with a new nine-hole lay-out. Originally seven holes another was added in 1838. Three amateurs were among eighteen players who teed up for the British Open Championship at Prestwick on Thursday, 15th September. William Doleman finished in the highest position in fifth place, 20 strokes worse than winner, Tom Morris Jnr. Tom Morris Jnr. wins his third consecutive British Open Championship. Taking permanent possession of the prize belt, it was considered an historic achievement. His father had come close in 1863 when Willie Park Snr. denied him a hat-trick of wins by two strokes. Opening with a record first round of 47, two shots better than his previous record round in 1868, Morris held a five shot lead over Bob Kirk and seven shots over Davie Strath. It was a lead he never looked like giving up as he eventually strolled to a 12 shot win over David Strath and Bob Kirk in second. When the news of his win reached St Andrews, a flag was flown at Old Tom‘s workshop. At 10 o‘clock on Saturday night a number of Young Tom‘s friends awaited his arrival at the railway station and according to one report: “he had scarcely set foot on the railway terminus 'ere he was hoisted shoulder high and borne in triumph to Mr Leslie's Golf Inn, where his health was drunk with every honour.” The first reference to 'par‘ was apparently made in the British magazine Golf. A. H. Doleman had asked professionals Davie Strath and Jamie Anderson, what score would be required to win The Championship Belt at Prestwick in the upcoming British Open. Their response was that perfect play should produce a score of 49. Mr. Doleman then called this "par" for Prestwick. Young Tom Morris scored two strokes over par for three rounds (36 holes) to win The Belt, and the term stuck. Having received just £6 for his British Open victory, a debate sprang up about the low amount paid to Young Tom Morris. One report suggested that the winner should receive at least £20. In keeping with the amounts paid in lesser professional tournaments, it was widely felt that the figure was: "more commensurate with the importance of the contest and the honour of winning the belt." Five-time British Open Champion James Braid was born in Elie, Scotland on 6 February. Turning professional in1896, he won the British Open Championship title five times in the first decade of the 20th Century, Dominating the sport in the early 1900s; he became famous as one of the so-called "Great Triumvirate" of British golfers with Harry Vardon and J.H. Taylor. Despite his successes, James Braid had a relatively short career. He decided to retire from major competition in 1912 at the age of 42 to concentrate on his club professionals business at Walton Heath in Surrey, England. 1871 The British Open is cancelled because no prize is available because Tom Morris Jnr. had taken permanent possession of the Championship Belt after winning it three-times. Later the same year, funds were raised by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, Prestwick Golf Club and The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews to purchase a new trophy for the British Open Championship. Originally known as the Golf Champion Trophy, it is better known today as the Silver Claret Jug. Professional Bob Martin went from sheep herder to golf champion in a matter of days. Employed by a local farmer in the hills above St Andrews, he remembered that the time had come for a caddie tournament he has previously won so he sent his name in as a competitor. On the appointed day he was partnered by golf‘s greatest talent, Young Tom Morris. For months had he not even touched a golf club and in the most adverse conditions imaginable, he won again. For a long time after that, Martin was known as, "The Herd Laddie." Professional Willie Dunn opens his own golf shop in Musselburgh, Scotland. An article in a Dunbar newspaper interviewed a bachelor who has taken the unusual step of offering himself as a prize for the winner of the Ladies Competition, "provided she be young and pretty." This was followed by a letter from an Edinburgh lady, who described that she coming to Dunbar to play in the said competition and hoped that she might be considered... 1872 The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers hosted a professionals-only tournament at Musselburgh in April to coincide with their Spring Meeting. Playing for a total purse of £30, twenty-one professionals took part including Tom Morris Snr and Jnr, David Strath, James Anderson Willie Park and Bob Ferguson. Young Tom took the first prize of £10 with three creditable scores of 38 in high winds. The minutes of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club dated 1 May, state that the Greens Committee had been empowered to enter into communication with Prestwick and Musselburgh with a view to reviving the competition for the Championship Belt. They were "authorised to contribute a sum not exceeding £15 from the funds of the club". Twenty-six professionals entered a tournament hosted by Royal Liverpool Golf Club. With a massive prize fund of £55 on offer with £15 going to the winner, the event was disrupted by unseasonal spring weather. The dominant golfer of his era, Young Tom Morris won with a score of 167 for the two rounds. Strath was second and his father, Old Tom Morris tied with Davie Park for the third and last prize of £4. The following day Tom Morris Jnr and Bob Ferguson represented Scotland in a match against England, represented by Scottish professionals, Bob Kirk and John Allan (Kirk was professional at Blackheath and Allan was resident pro at Royal North Devon.) The 'Scottish‘ team of Morris and Ferguson, won by 8 &7 over 36 holes. The R&A Clubhouse at St Andrews is extended. Tom Morris, Snr. and Tom Morris Jnr, played a "great professional golf match" against Davie Strath and Tom Kidd at St Andrews on Wednesday, 24 July. Played over two rounds game the betting on the match was considerable with the Morris father and son partnership made strong favourites. At the conclusion of the first round Strath and Kidd were one hole up. In the second round, Strath and Kidd maintained their advantage and eventually ran out winners by four holes up. "The players on both sides were in excellent fettle and drove splendidly," said one report in Field magazine. "But Kidd far exceeded his opponents in driving, his long sweeps being much admired. The Morris‘s were rather unfortunate in their putting but on the whole, the play on both sides was excellent, considering the grassy nature of the green." Charles Blair MacDonald was sent to college in St. Andrew from his home in Chicago where he discovered a passion for golf after his grandfather purchased a set of golf clubs for him from the shop of Old Tom Morris. One of the most influential figures in American golf around the turn of the century, he won the first official U.S Amateur Championship in 1895. Founder and designer of the Chicago Golf Club, The National Golf Links of America in Southampton, Piping Rock Golf Club and Lido Golf Club, he was instrumental in the founding of the U.S.G.A. The Society of Golfers at Aberdeen received the patronage of Prince Leopold. However the Royal (Aberdeen Golf club) title was not applied until 1903 when it was conferred by His Majesty King Edward VII. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers agreed to join Prestwick in hosting the British Open Championship in September. It was agreed that the winner would receive a medal and that each of the three clubs would contribute £10 towards the cost of a new trophy, which was to be a silver claret jug, instead of another belt. It was formally named The Golf Champion Trophy. This decision was taken too late for the trophy to be presented at the 1872 Championship. The letter of agreement between Prestwick, the R&A and the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers o jointly host the British Open was signed on 11 September - barely two days before the Championship was due to be played on 13th September. While each club agreed to pay £10 towards the cost of a new trophy there was no time to get the new trophy made. Instead, it was decided that the winner would receive a gold medal, which would be his to keep. Alexander Brodie of Brodie, Member of Parliament for the County of Elgin in Scotland, wrote in his diary about a visit he made to a healing well to drink the medicinal water in August: “desiring to use it as a means through His blessing to prevent the diseas which I am subject unto of the stone. I was this night at Burgi. Mr. Colin Falconer drank with me and we recreated the bodi by pastim at golf‟. Sadly his conscience troubled him and he added: “Lord! Let this be no snare to me...” Tom Morris Jnr. wins his fourth consecutive British Open Championship at Prestwick on 13 September. Because of doubts over whether the event would go ahead or not, only eight players entered including a number of home town amateurs. They included Mr William Hunter, Prestwick; Old Tom Morris; David Park; Charlie Hunter; Mr William Doleman; Davie Strath and Hugh Brown of Prestwick. Played at Prestwick in a strong westerly breeze, the final round turned out a real battle between Young Tommy and his great rival, Davie Strath. Five strokes behind starting the final round, Strath failed to keep his nerve and stumbled to a 61 – compared with a superb 53 by Morris. (William Doleman, an amateur, finished third on 177). Having accepted the Champions Belt two years earlier, Tom Morris Jnr. did not receive the new trophy as expected. A silver claret jug based on the prize awarded to the winner of the 1857 Grand (Amateur) Tournament at St Andrews, it was not ready for presentation until 1873. Instead he was awarded a gold medal inscribed 'The Golf Champion Trophy‘. The first instance of appearance money came after North Berwick Town Council offered Young Tom Morris and Davie Strath, twenty-five pounds each to play a 36-hole challenge match on the West Links. 1873 Tom Morris Jnr. played Davie Strath for £50 a side over 108 holes or six rounds of St Andrews links. Described as, "The most important golf match that has taken place in Scotland for some years," Morris and Strath were considered the best young golfers in the world. Played in mid-August over two rounds per day for three days, Strath led at the end of the first day's play and was four holes up after the second day ended. Young Tom fought back and by the end of the fifth round he had pulled level. Then Strath took the first five holes in succession. Still two-up with four to play, he emerged victorious by 3 and 1. The Bass Rock Golf Club at North Berwick was formed on 24 April. One of the first artisan clubs in Scotland they were permitted to hold competitions on the West Links on Saturday afternoon. The British Open is played at St. Andrews for the first time. A new silver trophy replaces the belt won in perpetuity by Tom Morris Jnr. Made by the Mackay Cunningham & Company of Edinburgh and was hallmarked 1873. Tom Kidd ended Tom Morris Jnr. four-year reign by winning the British Open at St Andrews and taking the first prize of £11. The conditions are unusually wet for the 26 competitors and under the "play-it-as-it-lies" rule in force at the time, some players incurred a one-strike penalty for removing the ball from casual water including bunkers. Young Tom was the strong pre-tournament favourite fro the 36-hole championship. Confirming his status he returned scores of 94 and 89 but it was only good enough to finish in third place behind Jamie Anderson on 180. Played over two rounds in one day Kidd took the honours with 179. The St Andrews caddie was the first to receive. Kidd's winning score was the highest in any previous Championship played over thirty six holes and according to the St Andrews Gazette newspaper signaled the end of an era: “The Championship, which has now departed from the house of Morris, has been retained in the family if we mistake not for a period of seven years. The first two of these by the father and the remaining years by the son; Many think that Tommy has allowed his laurels to slip too easily and support this opinion by instancing the very high score at which the position (championship) was won…” Young Tom Morris beat David Strath over two rounds in a professional challenge match held during the autumn meeting of the Aberdeen Golf Club. One of the first times that ropes were used to hold back the crowds, club records note: "This match caused great interest and brought together such a large concourse of spectators on the links that ropes had to be used to allow the players free action." The first mention of waterproof clothing being used came during the autumn meeting of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St Andrews on 1 October. Club records noted that: "no less 32 couples started on the occasion, in most unfavourable weather. Old Tom Morris, fortified with a waterproof and an umbrella, discharged the duties of starter." The Bombay Gazette reported the following golfing incident on 1 October. Playing the opening hole at Royal Bombay a Scottish golfer found a large, black rat curled around the flagstick inside the hole! Unsure whether it was dead or not, he prodded it with the end of his club. The rat bolted but before it got very far it was swatted with a swing from his putter. "I might have been inclined to spare him but my partner was not so sentimental," said his playing partner. "I asked him why he didn't let the poor beggar escape but the gentleman who is very Scotch, replied, 'I wad‘na have touched the rat if he had been a Scotch ane, but being a native ane I had‘na patriotic motive to tempt me to spare it." Thomas Manzie is hired as the professional and club-maker at Crookham Golf Club, Berkshire for two years until 1875. 1874 Mungo Park won the British Open at Musselburgh with a record low total of 159. The first time it was played on the West Lothian links, the championship was hosted by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. As such it was brought forward to April to coincide with their Spring Meeting. Even then the final day was beset by poor weather with two of the three nine-hole rounds played in strong wind and rain. Mungo earned £8 for his victory with Young Tom Morris finishing second on 161. Part of the legendary Park golfing dynasty, Mungo was the brother of Willie Park Snr – the first winner of the British Open in 1860. He had learned golf at an early age but abandoned it for a period of almost 20 years while working as a sailor. Returning to Musselburgh in 1871 he found his golfing skills were unaffected by the long layoff and afterwards took up club-making as a profession. When he died in 1904, his family donated the gold medal he won to the Grimsdyke Golf Club to be played for as their scratch prize. Tom Morris Snr. advised on proposed improvements to bunkers, greens and fairways on the Old Course at St Andrews. Including the creation of separate teeing areas, many credit him with the present day lay-out. Members of Burntisland Golf Club were the first to use coloured balls in winter. Rather than abandon their Christmas competition to a heavy snowfall a few days earlier, they decided to paint the gutta-percha balls red and venture out! Tom Morris Snr. hosted a bachelor party for his son Young Tommie at the Golf Hotel in St Andrews in December to celebrate his forthcoming wedding to local girl, Margaret Drennan, daughter of Walter Drennan and Helen Donald. In proposing a toast to the groom, Tommy‘s many golfing achievements were listed with each one cheered to the rafters. It was also announced that as a soon-to-be married man, Tommy Morris or "Young Tom" would henceforth be known as Thomas Morris Junior. 1875 Scottish author Andrew Lang wrote: "To write a history of golf as it should be done demands a thorough study of all Scottish Acts of Parliament, Kirk Sessions records, memoirs of Scottish literature, legislation, and history from the beginning of time. [Such an historian] will be so ancient before he finishes that he will scarce see the flag on the short hole at St. Andrews from the tee..." North Berwick was one of the first courses in Scotland to introduce a separate teeing ground. Before this the ball was teed up on a small mound of sand "no more than six-club lengths from the last hole played." Small wooden boxes were also introduced on each tee so the golfer could grab a handful of sand with which to build his own driving platform. Before this the golfer reached inside the previous hole for sand! Fresh holes had to be cut in the 'greens' every Monday morning as the holes "were as big as wash-tubs" by Saturday evening. Not long afterwards, a white chalk line was drawn in the ground at North Berwick to define how far ahead the golfer could tee his ball. This was eventually replaced by one or more "tee-boxes" which defined the driving area. The distance by which a golfer teed his ball was increased from no nearer than six club lengths and no further than eight from the hole (cup) last played in 1858 to no nearer than eight club lengths and no further than twelve "except where a teeing ground is provided." Five golf professionals including Ben Sayers set out from North Berwick at 5 o'clock in the morning for a tournament at Wemyss. Their conveyance was a plasterer's donkey cart. Sayers drive from the third tee lodged in some ivy, forty feet from the ground on the castle wall. Barely five feet in height Sayers chose a club before climbing up like a squirrel. Holding onto the ivy for his life, he then hit the ball within putting distance of the putting green. Even then it was not enough to win the tournament as Andrew Kirkaldy from St Andrews took the first prize of £6. After that Sayers and Kirkaldy played many foursomes' matches as partners. Robert Clark published his definitive history of the game in his book: Golf: A Royal and Ancient Game. A respected Edinburgh printer, he collected early golf references from the many old book shops in the city including the early Acts of Parliament that shaped the Scottish game. The book also included obituaries for Young Tom Morris and Allan Robertson. The British Open Championship was played at Prestwick on Friday, 10th September. Tommy Morris‘ wife had died during child-birth only six days earlier so naturally, none of the Morris family took part in the Championship. Willie Park, British Open Champion in 1860, 1863 and 1866 set a stiff three-round target of 166 at Prestwick. With eighteen players competing for the silver Claret Jug, he finished two-strokes ahead of runner-up Bob Martin of Musselburgh to win his fourth title. In the first instance of golf cheating, a large number of Scottish professionals entered an Open tournament at North Berwick on 4 September. At the conclusion of the final round, Tom Morris Jnr. was declared the winner with Willie Park Snr. in second place. Then just before the presentation was about to begin, golf ball maker Ned Cosgrove of Musselburgh returned a scorecard which revealed that he had taken one shot less that Young Tom! Throwing the tournament into chaos, match referee John Home declared his score inadmissible because of irregularities in the way it had been marked! Local pro Willie Dunn was also disqualified for the same reason. Despite his protestation of innocence, Cosgrove was disqualified and the result stood. In one of the most memorable matches in golf history, William Park Snr. and his brother Mungo played against Tom Morris Snr. and Tom Morris Jnr. over the West Links at North Berwick in early September. The Morris father and son partnership led by four holes after the first two rounds and retained their advantage well into the third. The Parks then made a dramatic comeback and pulled the match back to all square with two to play. Watched by a large crowd, the Morris‘s won the penultimate hole and halved the last to win. Sadly the celebrations were short-lived when match referee Provost Peter Brodie received a telegram giving the news that Young Tom's wife was seriously ill following the birth of their first child. Passing it to Old Tom, they immediately set sail for St Andrews across the Firth of Forth in a sloop loaned by North Berwick member, John C. B. Lewis. But before they left, a second telegram arrived bearing the news that Tom's wife and child had both died. However, Old Tom did not break this news until they were in sight of St Andrews harbour. Tommy then rushed to his wife Margaret‘s bedside shouting. "It‘s not true, it‘s not true!" The Reverend Doctor Boyd, who attended the family, wrote later: "I have seen many sorrowful sights, but not many like that Saturday night." 1876 R&A member Colonel Robert T. Boothby proposed a "National Open tournament for amateurs." He also suggested that: "the club shall provide a handsome challenge medal or cup to be played for during the first week of August, such (a) prize to be open to all members of the R&A and to all amateur golfers of eighteen years of age and upwards." The idea was rejected and it was not until 1885 that the British Amateur Championship was first played. David Strath leaves St Andrews to be Keeper of the Links at North Berwick. Before he left, he backed himself to go round the Old Course at St Andrews in under 100 with nothing other than moonlight to guide his way. He took 95 and did not lose-a ball. Controversy ensues at the British Open after David Strath refused to take part in a play-off against Bob Martin. Having driven into a group of amateur players putting out on the Road Hole green, a complaint had been made against the temperamental St Andrews golfer. The Championship committee decided to defer making a decision whether Strath would be penalised until after the actual play-off! Feeling he could not win either way, the irate Strath refused the play-off and forfeited any prize money. Martin was awarded the title and the £10 first prize but only after going through the bizarre step of walking the course by himself. British Open champion David Strath backed himself to go round the Old Course at St Andrews in moonlight in under 100. He was round in 95 without losing a ball. Thomas Manzie succeeds Robert Kirk as professional and club-maker to the Royal Blackheath Golf Club. He was succeeded by C. Thomson in 1885. HRH, Prince Leopold, the Duke of Albany, was installed as captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. Afterwards, the Prince and Tom Morris Snr. played a foursome against former captain John Whyte Melville and Major Lockhart. Morris and his Royal partner won by 2 and 1. Thomas Johnston of Edinburgh receives the first ever patent issued for a golf club. Recorded as British patent number 2,683 and dated 29 June, it covered the making of golf club heads out of a synthetic rubber substance called "vulcanite" rather than wood. George Lowe was apprenticed as a club maker to Jack Morris, professional at Hoylake. He remained there for twelve years, until 1888. Establishing himself as one of the most prolific golf club makers over the next half century, his obituary in 1934 credited him with "having made more than 25,000 clubs." Old Tom Morris' wife, Agnes died on 1 November in St Andrews. Barely a year after the tragic death of their second son, Young Tom in December 1875, he attended her funeral with his surviving children, daughter Elizabeth and sons James and John. 1877 A British patent is granted to William Currie of the Caledonian Rubber Works of Edinburgh for a new process for making golf balls from India-rubber combined with ground cork, leather, or vegetable fibres. The ball was named the Eclipse but was nicknamed the "Putty." A golf match was played over Musselburgh Links, on the 11 September between top professionals Bob Ferguson and Davie Strath. The match was 36 holes, or four rounds of the links. Ferguson was the winner. 1878 Jamie Anderson aced the seventeenth hole at Prestwick enroute to winning the British Open with a 36-hole score of 157. After he had teed-up up his ball on the fifth tee in the final round, Andrew Stuart, his marker, remarked that it was outside the teeing ground after a young girl in the crowd had pointed it out to her mother. Anderson retraced his ball before holing out. A permanent memorial to Tom Morris Jnr. is unveiled in St Andrews Cathedral burial grounds on 24 September. Designed by Edinburgh sculptor, Mr John Rhind, it shows a half life-size image of Young Tom at his address position. The Very Reverend Principal Tulloch, Dean of the Thistle and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews wrote the following inscription which was included on the monument: "In memory of Tommy, son of Thomas Morris, who died 25th December, 1875, aged twenty-four years. Deeply regretted by numerous friends and all golfers, he thrice in succession won the Champion Belt and held it without rivalry and yet without envy, his many amiable qualities being no less acknowledged than his golfing achievements. This monument has been erected by contributions from sixty golfing societies.” Golf professional Davie Strath died during a long sea voyage to Australia. He had intended to immigrate there for his health. 1879 Ladybank Golf Club near St Andrews was formed on 23 July. Old Tom Morris laid out the original course which consisted of six holes outward before being played in reverse back to the clubhouse. Membership totalled 26 with the annual subscription fee set at half a guinea. Visitors or 'Strangers' as they were called were asked to pay whatever they fell fair and equitable. In recognition of his assistance, Tom Morris was permitted to play in the Club's second competition, the 1879 Autumn Meeting, which he won with a net 60 for twelve holes, playing off a handicap of 3 strokes. The New Golf Club at North Berwick was formed. The following year they built a permanent stone clubhouse, which still resides beside the eighteenth green on the West Links. William Law Anderson was born in Abbey Mews Cottage on 21 October in North Berwick, Scotland. Immigrating to America aged 16, he was appointed professional at the Misquamicut Club on Rhode Island shortly after. An excellent player, he finished second to Joe Lloyd in his first U.S. Open at the Chicago Golf Club aged 17. Today, his record of four victories in 1901, 1903, 1904, 1905 is shared by Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus. 1880 1881 Scottish blacksmith George Nicoll a blacksmith began the manufacture of hand-forged irons. His designs were innovative and included a swan neck putting cleek. The designs attracted some very large orders one being placed in 1898 by the Forth Rubber Company for 10,000 clubs. Tom Dunn was appointed keeper of the green at North Berwick and rented a timber building adjacent to the 18th tee on the West Links for his club making business. Charles Gibson and Tom Dunn trained many fine club makers at North Berwick including James H. Hutchison and Jack White. Numbered among his golf pupils were two Prime Ministers: AJ Balfour and WE Gladstone. George Strath was appointed the first club professional at Troon in Ayrshire (later Royal Troon.) Brother of 1865 British Open champion Andrew Strath, he stayed there until 1887. Robert 'Bob‘ Ferguson of Musselburgh wins the British Open at Prestwick. A golfer struck a fourteen year old boy on the back of the neck on Montrose Links on 18 July. The boy fell and the golfer ran up to him. The boy rose to his feet, walked a few yards before falling down dead five minutes later. Robert Forgan authors; The Golfer's Handbook, including History of the Game, Hints to Beginners, the Feats of Champion Golfers, Lists of Leading Clubs and their Office-Bearers. An instant best-seller, it went into numerous editions and by 1897 the title had changed its‘ title to The Golfer's Manual. A complete review of the game it included photographic illustrations for the first time, instruction, a glossary of technical terms, rules, history, outstanding golf feats and a gazetteer of the existing Clubs in Great Britain and Ireland. Today it is considered among the most highly prized of early golfing publications. 1882 Frederick Robertson McLeod, 1908 U.S. Open champion, is born on 25 April at Edington's Cottage situated behind the County Hotel in Kirk Ports, Scotland. His father Neil McLeod came from Portree in Skye, and his mother Marion McLeod (nee Whigham) came from Bolton in East Lothian. He was educated at the Public School in North Berwick and in 1891 moved with his family from 23, Quality Street to 98, High Street where Willie Anderson and his family also lived. The two boys would later prove strong rivals in many U.S. Open Championships. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews received a letter from the Calcutta Golf Club offering them the gift of a, "handsome silver Kashmir Cup". Arriving in Scotland a year later, the Club dropped their original proposal to use it as a second prize to the George Glennie Medal. Instead, the magnificent silver trophy was awarded in a handicap match play competition in perpetuity. 1883 Bob Ferguson suffered a severe bout of typhoid fever shortly after his British Open success in 1882. While he defended his title he retired from competitive play to become the professional/greens custodian at Musselburgh links. William "Willie" Fernie (1857–1924) won the British Open Championship at Musselburgh. Scheduled to last four rounds of the nine-hole course, St Andrews-born Fernie tied with defending champion Bob Ferguson on 158. The following day Fernie won the first play-off in major championship history by a single stroke. Fernie was runner up in the Open in 1882, 1884, 1890 and 1891. When George Strath left Troon in 1887, Fernie took over as club professional and served for 37 years. As a pioneering golf course designer he made improvements to the Old Course at St Andrews and Troon. He also designed the Ailsa and Arran courses at Turnberry. Dorothy Campbell, 3-time U.S. Women's Amateur and 2-time British Women's Amateur champion, is born. John Whyte Melville, a hugely influential figure in the history of Scottish golf, died. Born in 1797, he was a member of the Royal and Ancient when it was still known as the Society of St. Andrews Golfers. Captain in 1823, he tirelessly served the Club as an administrator. When the Union Club and the Royal and Ancient formally merged in 1877, he took over the chairmanship of the new amalgamated clubs. He served as acting captain when the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) was elected as captain in 1863 and was elected again a second time to serve as its captain in 1883. 1884 The so-called "Vardon" overlapping grip was invented by a top British amateur almost a decade before Harry came to prominence! Scottish amateur Johnny Laidlay had been badly off his game so he made various alterations including trying out a new grip which involved placing the small finger of the right hand over the first fingers of the left. He used this method for almost half a century but was never credited with its invention. A team from King James VI Golf Club in Perth took part in the first international club golf match against the Royal Belfast Club. Jack Simpson (July 15, 1858 – November 30, 1895) won the British Open Championship at Prestwick with a score of 160 for 36 holes. His winner's prize was £10. Born in Earlsferry, Fife he was one of six golfing brothers. He played his golf out of Carnoustie and returned to club-making before his death in 1895. Willie Park Jnr. returns to work in his father's shop in Musselburgh. In the next few years his son Willie, Jnr. took over the shop due to his father's failing health. W.F. "Willie" Davis is the first Scottish professional to work in North America. He was employed by the Royal Montreal Golf Club. His wages were one pound a week and he agreed: "I am to get all that I can earn for making and repairing clubs and balls." 1885 The inaugural British Amateur Championship was instituted by the Royal Liverpool Golf Club. Scot Allan MacFie was the first winner having beaten Horace Hutchinson in the final. (Throughout the week tied matches were replayed rather than decided in a sudden death play-off with MacFie forced to play the same opponent, Walter de Zoete, three times in succession!) With just 24 entrants, the home club had scheduled another event the day before the final which took precedence. Amazingly, John Ball Jnr, Harold Hilton, Hutchinson and MacFie participated in both events in the same week which is why the Championship and its result was not recognized until 1922, when the Royal and Ancient decided to include MacFie‘s name in the official records. 1886 A total of twenty-four golf clubs subscribed for a large silver trophy for the British Amateur Championship. The lid includes a statue of Tom Morris Snr. Bruntsfield Links Golf Society erected a purpose built clubhouse at Musselburgh in a row which contained the clubhouses of the Honourable Company, Royal Musselburgh and the Burgess Golf Society. The club had moved to the links at Musselburgh in 1874 after Bruntsfield Links in Edinburgh became disagreeably crowded. 1887 Reminiscences of Golf on St Andrews Links is written by R&A member James Balfour. Part of it describes a wet and windy day at Blackheath Golf Club near London around 1848 when Sir Ralph Anstruther played a round of golf with William Maitland-Dougall. Using the new gutta percha balls instead of the leather-covered 'featheries' he noted that the gutta ball played far better after a day in the rain. He wrote immediately to London ordering more of these balls, which he then used at Musselburgh and St Andrews. Heralding the demise of the feathery, the guttie ball would reign supreme for the next half-century. Willie Park Jnr. son of "Auld" Willie Park Snr, winner of the first British Open in 1860, wins the title over the same course. Benefitting from an horrendous 9 by Willie Campbell, who refused to play out backward from a bunker when he was comfortably leading the field, Park was back at his workman‘s bench making clubs the following day. 'The Golfers Garland' was published and dedicated to the Edinburgh Burgess Golfing Society. The cover shows golfers in the club's uniform playing on Bruntsfield Links with their caddies. 1888 John Reid carves out three golf holes on his own land in Yonkers in New York in preparation for a game with a few friends. It is considered the first recorded golf course in America. Playing on George Washington‘s birthday on 22 February, he was joined by his fellow Scot, Robert Lockhart. Using clubs purchased by Lockhart from Tom Morris‘ golf shop in St Andrews, Reid and a few close friends returned to play the crude three-hole pasture course a few weeks later in March. In April, Reid built six new holes on a larger 30 acre patch of land on nearby Broadway. Enjoying regular games of golf throughout the summer months, Reid invited four of his closest friends to dinner at his home in November with the purpose of formalising their efforts. Consequently, the St Andrews Golf Club was formed with Reid as its first president. As a founder member, Lockhart presented the fledgling Golf Club with the Lockhart Medal. Today it is considered the first official Golf Club in the United States. The new Scotscraig Golf Club course was officially opened at Tayport in April with members being permitted to use the nearby fever hospital as a locker room and meeting place. Many of the rules of golf were still decided on an ad hoc basis. Two particular examples were recorded at St Andrews in March. First there was the dilemma of a player whose ball ended up wrapped in the flag at the eighteenth. Under the accepted rules he could not touch his ball without penalty. His opponent was also stymied because he could not putt out with the flag still in the hole - and the flag could not be removed because the ball, hidden in its folds, could not be moved. It was stalemate and the match was declared a draw. (The R&A later decided that the ball could be shaken from the flag and played from where it lay.) Another rule was needed after a player found his ball beneath a sheet of newspaper in a bunker on the Road hole. He could not remove the paper - so he burnt it. Scot George Lowe tendered his notice to the Council of the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in May. A talented professional and skilled club maker, he had been offered a new post at Lytham Golf Club further up the coast. Considering his application to leave, Mr Gibson Sinclair expressed the opinion that it should be rejected and, "all practicable means should be taken by the Club to retain Lowe, he being one of the best club makers in the Kingdom." Sadly his plea fell on deaf ears and Lowe was allowed to leave. He would remain there until 1905. St Andrews club maker Alexander Walker was accused of breaking into the golf shop of Alexander Patrick at Leven in November and stealing money from a locked desk. Tried at Cupar Sheriffs Court on 6 February, the case was found not proven. Jack Burns won the British Open at St Andrews under controversial circumstances. Club professional at The Warwick Golf Club in England, the former St Andrews caddie finished the tournament tied with Ben Sayers and Davie Anderson on 172. Then an official found that Burns had scored 86 and not 87 in the first round. Later titled the, "pencil and rubber" Open, Burns was awarded the title by the Championship committee and the three way play-off was cancelled. Sayers took second place with James Anderson and shared the £8 and £6 prize money. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews published the first "universal" set of rules. Up to this point, the rules of golf included local amendments which applied to the Old Course and nowhere else. For instance, they included guidance on what to do when a ball landed in the "Eden Estuary" and "Station masters Garden!" As the accepted authority on the game, there was a need for a general set of rules which could be applied everywhere including the growing number of inland courses in England. That need was addressed in November. In a complete revision the term "honour" denoting who should play first on each tee made its first appearance. The distance a golfer teed his ball from the last hole played was also removed. In 1858 the accepted distance was "no nearer than eight club lengths and no further than twelve except where a teeing ground is provided." With dedicated teeing areas now in common usage this was thought unnecessary. Some of the new rules were less successful. For example, a time limit of ten minutes was allowed when searching for a lost ball. Slowing down play considerably, it was repealed a decade later in 1899. 1889 Alexander Guthrie Day from Musselburgh was the first professional golfer in Ireland. He was engaged by Royal Belfast GC in February. Willie Park Jnr. wins the last British Open staged at Musselburgh. Played in early November, the daylight hours proved so short that some players relied on greens illuminated by street-lighting just to be able to hole-out. When bad light threatened the closing stages, several players who had no hope of winning, were quietly bribed by the organisers to withdraw so the leaders could finish. Park eventually beat Andrew Kirkaldy of St Andrews in an 18-hole play-off to win the £8 first prize plus the gold medal. Willie Park Jnr. receives the fourth British patent ever given for a golf club. It was a British patent number 5,042 and dated 23 March. Willie Campbell of Musselburgh took part in a four-round challenge match against fellow professional Archie Simpson over Carnoustie, St Andrews, Musselburgh and Prestwick. The opening rubber was played on 12 April over Archie's home course at Carnoustie. Campbell won all four matches but it was the huge crowd at Musselburgh which made the headlines with both men consistently driving down an avenue of fans ten to twelve deep. George Forrester of Elie, Earlsferry registered the design for the Concentrated Lofter. It was the first iron with the back shaped to concentrate the weight behind the ball, being slightly thicker at the exact centre of the face and becoming progressively thicker as it approached the sole. 1890 The British Open is moved from early November to the end of August. Willie Park Jnr. patents the diamond mesh pattern for golf balls. Professor Peter Guthrie Tait of the University of Edinburgh calculated the flight of golf balls. A respected Scottish physicist, he published a series of scientific papers confirming that air and direction of wind had much to do with a ball's trajectory. He was also the first to prove that a spinning ball creates lift and distance while over spin reverses lift force, helping pull a golf ball to the ground. John Ball Jnr. became the first amateur to win the British Open at Prestwick. A member at Royal Liverpool he was recognised as the supreme match player winning a record eight British Amateur titles before his death in 1940. A shy man who never capitalised on his great fame, he was once asked to loan his impressive collection of medals for an exhibition in London. Sadly, Ball had none he had given them away to friends and family as keepsakes. Club maker James Anderson is listed as an employee of R. Forgan & Son until 1884. British Golf magazine announced that a new competition would be held in St Andrews on 22 November. Open to all club and ball makers in Scotland, it attracted a high class field with many former British Open champions competing for a 'handsome gold medal.‘ Sponsored by 'a number of (rich) gentlemen‘ the event was held twice a year until 1896. Ben Sayers sent his friend Andrew Kirkaldy a letter from North Berwick addressed to: "Andra in Hell Bunker, St Andrews" and it reached him without any difficulty. 1891 New rules issued by the R&A determined that the size of the golf hole should be standard on golf courses throughout the golfing world. The size they decided on was 4.25 inches in diameter with a depth of no less than 4 inches. At a meeting of the North Berwick School Board in April, it was noted that several boys had been suspended from school for acting as golf caddies. Hugh Kirkaldy (1865–1894) won the British Open Championship at St Andrews. Played in October, in rough weather, his winning score was among the highest in Open history at 166 for 36 holes. Beating his brother Andrew and Willie Fernie of Troon by two shots, it was the last Open contested over 36 holes. Barely three years later he died of lung disease aged just twenty nine. The first patent for a metal wood was granted to William Currie, Jr. of Edinburgh Scotland for a club head made of brass filled with gutta percha on the striking face. It also includes a design for attaching the metal wood head to its shaft with a hosel socket. Tom Morris Snr. four times British Open champion, laid out the links at Wallasey near Liverpool. Andrew Morison a member at Royal Troon Golf Club receives British patent for a wooden golf club made from a single piece of wood. 1892 St Andrews Golf Club, the first official Golf Club in the USA, up sticks from the six-hole site in Yonkers to a nearby apple orchard. Forced to move in May, founder John Reid learned that a public road was to be built right through the property where he and his friends played golf. The move however was a precipitous one and ensured its lasting success. A large apple tree hard by the last hole served as the members meeting place. Known as the "Apple Tree Gang" it was under its spreading limbs where they gathered together to draw playing partners and enjoy post match picnics. On warm days, they would hang their official grey plaid golfing jackets from the limbs of the tree as they went out to play. The club moved twice more. At nearby Grey Oaks, they constructed a longer nine-hole course with a nearby farmhouse serving as an official clubhouse and locker rooms. The last move was in 1897 when they built an eighteen-hole layout at Mount Hope Harold Hilton won The British Open Championship at Muirfield, becoming the second amateur to do so. He won again in 1897 at his home club, Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake. The only other amateurs who have won the Open Championship are John Ball Jnr. and Bobby Jones. John and Andrew Dickson club-makers at 8 Braid Road, Morningside in Edinburgh apply for a British patent on their revolutionary simplex 'torpedo‘ iron. Unable to finance production their patent application was abandoned shortly thereafter. Caddies at Leven Links in Scotland go on strike looking for a bag rate of one-shilling per round instead of the nine-pence they were currently being paid. North Berwick caddie David Stephenson was seen chasing sheep on the Ladies Links by Tom Anderson, the head greenkeeper. Stephenson was suspended for almost a year for his "lude and drunken behaviour." William Merrilees was suspended from working at North Berwick for two weeks in July. The 12 year old was caught caddying during school hours by the head greenkeeper who demanded to see his license. Merrilees said his mother burnt it. The following day the greenkeeper caught him again and he was removed from the course. The ban was imposed by the caddie master. The land occupied by the Old Course at St Andrews was offered for sale by the Cheape family of Strathtyrum. James Cheape had indicated his willingness to sell two years earlier in 1890. The R&A offered £3000 but he declined. Then St Andrews Town Council suggested joint ownership with the R&A with the requirement that the course become public. Determined to protect its members' interests over those of the town, the R&A offered £5000 for the land. This time the Cheape family accepted with a number of provisos: First was that his descendants retain the right to dig shells near the mouth of the Eden; Second was that no buildings (with exception of rain shelters) be built on the course and thirdly, that his family could play the course in perpetuity at no cost. The R&A agreed and a contract was drawn up the following year but the Town Council was not to be denied. They promoted a parliamentary bill to forcibly acquire the links and, after a series of amendments, the act became law in 1894. It required the town to preserve the links as a public recreation ground and the R&A to maintain the Old Course. They were also required to lay out a "New" Course for the use of local townspeople. The Old Course would also be made available to the public in perpetuity and was not to be closed for more than one month in each year. During a holiday in Scotland, Edward Baird Hay Blackwell drove a gutta percha ball from the seventeenth tee of the Old Course, to the edge of the first green. He marked the spot and returned the next day with his father and measured at a distance of 366 yards, - a record with the gutta ball for many years. He also drove from the eighteenth tee to the steps of the Royal and Ancient clubhouse before returning to California for six years where he never picked up a club. A book entitled 'Golf in the Year 2000' was published. Written by British author John McCullough under the pseudonym J.A.C.K. it details the adventures of fanatical golfer, Alexander Gibson. Describing how he fell into a coma only to wake up over one hundred years later, the world has changed beyond recognition except for two things - golf is still a popular pastime and St Andrews is still its spiritual home. Outlining an incredible vision of the future, it predicts among other things, metal-headed woods and even live-televised golf from America! And this in the bygone days of wooden-shafted clubs, crude leather golf bags and gutta-percha balls! In one chapter he even details the forerunner to the modern electric golf trolley. 1893 Lady Margaret Scott won the first British Ladies' Open Championship at Lytham and St. Anne‘s Golf Club. James Braid was offered the position of club-maker at the Army and Navy in London which he accepted. He turned professional three years later in 1896. Tom Stewart opens a new club making business in Argyle Street, St Andrews. Stewart learnt his trade as a blacksmith under his father in Carnoustie and club making under Robert White. Stamping his irons with the 'pipe‘ brand cleek mark previously used by his father, his clubs found favour with many famous golfers including U.S. Open winner Francis Ouimet and Grand Slam winner Robert T. Jones Jnr. Robert Forgan, David Auchterlonie and Andrew Crosthwaite, combine to set up a new club making concern in North Street, St Andrews. J.H. Taylor and Harry Vardon make their debuts in the British Open Championship at Prestwick. Controversially, Vardon appeared wearing plus-four‘s or 'knickers‘ as the Americans know them. Causing much comment, the gentleman amateurs took slight feeling that he was getting above his station. For them, professionals were little more than glorified caddies and they wore trousers! A year later, James Braid made his first appearance. Known as the "Great Triumvirate" they would go on to dominate the championship over the next two decades. Harry Vardon wins his first professional tournament at Kilmacolm Golf Club, Scotland, where he wins the 1st prize of £5 with a score of 162 over 36 holes. William Auchterlonie (1872-1963) won the British Open Championship at Prestwick. Winning £30 he remains the second youngest ever Champion at the age of 21 years and 24 days. A member of the legendary Auchterlonie dynasty, he was the brother of Laurie Auchterlonie, winner of the 1902 U.S. Open at Garden City Golf Club in Garden City, New York. Before his death aged 80, Auchterlonie was appointed honorary professional to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. A position he held for nearly a quarter of a century. Tom Morris Snr. wins the so-called club maker‘s medal at St Andrews aged 71. Played since 1890 and open to all Scottish club and ball makers, it was the final tournament victory of his illustrious career. HSC Everard wrote: "That a man who is verging on his 72nd year should defeat a field containing a goodly proportion of scratch players, all of them lusty, strong, and in the heyday of youth, is a fact unique. That he should win at all is most creditable; but he comes out, as will be seen, far in front of the throng. He is like Odysseus among the Phaeacians at the Court of Alcinous.” William Auchterlonie was the first British Open winner to receive a gold circular medal – similar to those presented today. The medal was assigned a value of £10 which was deducted from the advertised purse! Before that the lozenge-shaped gold medals, which in fact were silver gilt with a central design of a shield and crossed clubs. Around the edge was the inscription 'Golf Champion Trophy‘. During the late 1880s and early 1890s, the design of the medal underwent several changes. St Andrews Town Council sets up a committee to examine golfing facilities on the links. The R&A appoint a committee to confer with James Cheape with a view to purchasing the links. With this in mind, Dr. Thomas Thornton advises St Andrews Town Council to seek parliamentary authority to acquire the links. Caught up in a bidding war, St Andrews Town Council was forced to offer £4,500 for the land the Old Course stands on. The R&A raises the offer to £5,000 which owner James Cheape, finally accepts. Bad losers, the Town Council petitions Parliament in London for the power to acquire the links without recourse to law. They are refused. 1894 An eight-a-side Amateur versus Professional Challenge Match featuring some of the greatest golfers of the time was played at Sandwich on 14th and 15th June 1894 as a prelude to the Open Championship played on the same course. All the players in the tournament also played in the Open including the top three finishers; J.H. Taylor who won, Douglas Rolland 2nd and Andrew Kirkaldy 3rd. The professional competitors also included Alex (Sandy) Herd (Open Champion 1902 and 2nd 4 times), Willie Park Jnr (Open Champion twice), William Auchterlonie (Open Champion 1893), Willie Fernie (Open Champion 1883 and 2nd 4 times) and Archie Simpson (2nd twice). The most notable amateurs taking part were John Ball Jnr (Open Champion 1890 and winner of the Amateur Championship 8 times), Harold Hilton (Open Champion twice), Freddie Tait, S. Mure Ferguson and Horace Hutchinson. The professionals were the narrow winners. James Braid assisted Ben Sayers to layout the Rhodes course at North Berwick. It was his first experience of golf course design. Scottish club maker James Waggott played a match at Musselburgh in April where he teed off the face of a wristwatch on every hole. Scoring 41 for nine holes, the watch remained undamaged in any way. Forfar G.C. in Scotland rule that they will allow women to join only if 30 members of the "fair persuasion" could be persuaded to apply. St Andrews Links Bill goes before Scottish Select Committee. Town Council and R&A tell Select Committee that agreement has been reached between them. St Andrews Town Council re-acquire the land on which the Old Course stands following the passing of the first Links Act by Parliament, thus safeguarding public access to the Links for locals and visitors alike. St Andrews Links Act receives the Royal Assent on 20 July. Under the newly established Links Act, the Club became responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the Old Course and the newly built Tom Morris designed New Course In response, the previous owner James Cheape demands compensation for loss of pre-emption rights. Andrew Greig appointed Starter at Old Course at St Andrews. Member of Parliament, the Rt. Honourable A.J. Balfour drove himself in as the captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews with Tom Morris Snr. looking on. The post of Secretary of the R&A is established - Colonel R. Elliot Lockhart was the first. He was followed by Thomas Law in 1903. The hole size is standardised by the R&A at a diameter of 4 ¼ inches. Three years later in 1897, there are new patents for flagsticks and flags. The Dunbar Ladies Golf Club was instituted in the Mason's Hall with a local cottage now known as Beachcote for their first clubhouse. A new clubhouse was constructed in 1900 with oil lighting. The Links Act stipulated that play on the Old Course of St Andrews should be free and open to all. Subject to a ballot at busy times no green fee would be charged and many citizens considered this as their non-negotiable birthright. The problem was the so-called 'day-trippers‘ brought in by rail every day of the summer months. In fact, so many would turn up that locals barely got to play... J.T. Turnbull of Scotland receives British patent number on September 5th for the first permanent teeing device that would be imbedded into the teeing ground. Willie Park Jnr. receives British patent number for a club with an unusual hosel shape. It was for a putter with the lower part of the hosel bent backward to offset the blade. 1895 William Mills produces the first successful aluminium-headed 'Jack Morris, son of Old Tom and younger brother of Young Tom died in St Andrews on 22 February. The limit on membership of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews was raised from 750 to 850. Leslie Melville Balfour-Melville (1854-1937) won the British Amateur Championship in St Andrews. An outstanding all-round Scottish amateur sportsman, he was an international cricket and rugby player. He also excelled at tennis, skating, curling, long jumping and billiards. A "Veteran Scotch" golfer wrote a letter to The Times in June berating their English readers for mispronouncing the word "golf". I am greatly pained to hear the name of the Royal and Ancient game habitually mispronounced by novices in England, who persist in sounding the letter 'L' in the word, although on every green from John O'Groats to Airlie, it remains silent in the mouth of player and caddie alike. It would be as correct to accentuate the 'L' in calf ' or 'half,' as in 'golf;‘ Which, by the way, is actually spelt 'goff‘ and sometimes 'gowff‘ in the old burgh records. Can you do anything to set the playing public right in this little manner?" An injured hand kept James Braid out of the British Open at St Andrews. Tom Morris Snr. played in his final British Open at St Andrews aged 74. Coincidentally, Harry Vardon made his first appearance and tied for sixth place on 338 with his brother Tom, A. Toogood and Ben Sayers. J.H. Taylor retains his British Open title beating Sandy Herd in second place by four-strokes to win at St. Andrews. The 72 holes are played over two days. He was the first Englishman to win on the Old Course. An exhibition match for $600 was arranged between former British Open champion William Park Jnr. of Scotland and rising star Willie Dunn of America. Played at Shinnecock, Morristown and St Andrews in New York, Park ran out the winner despite being out of practice and long past his best in competitive terms. An iron golf club developed by George Forrester of Elie called the "Drilled Neck Club" received a British design registration number. James Anderson, three-time British Open winner and one of the largest, oldest, and best makers of iron clubs died in his home town of St Andrews. David Dalziel of Glasgow receives a British patent for a permanent or fixed teeing device. S.C. Millar of Scotland receives British patent number for a tee consisting of a metal disc, rubber collar, elastic tether and ground pin. Corlett and Hulbert of Scotland receive British patent for a sand tee mould that includes an ejector and tamper. The so-called New Course at St Andrews opens for public play. Designed by Tom Morris Snr. the amount of money allocated to maintenance is woefully inadequate and the R&A are forced to borrow money for improvements. As golf's popularity grew, the Town Council opened the Jubilee course in 1897 and the Eden in 1912. The first American patent for a tee is issued to Scot David Dalziel. Andrew Scott of Elie receives British patent number for his fork splice neck joint. 1896 At St Andrews Police Court a couple of labourers pleaded guilty to deliberately moving the tee on the seventeenth hole for pecuniary advantage without the authority of St Andrews Links. Caught moving the teeing area about 25 yards nearer to the dyke which enclosed the ground around round the old railway station,(where the Old Course Hotel currently stands) their plan was to encourage golfers to play over the corner of the wall - much like today. On the morning in question, the accused had been seen hanging around in the Stationmaster‘s garden having, "set a trap for the players, as golfers would from this tee have to play right over the corner of the shed, and if the shot was not a particularly good one the ball would fall into the Stationmaster‘s garden." Passing a guilty verdict, Judge Barr said it was, "diabolical to interfere with the natural course of sport in this way" and imposed the full penalty of £1 on the two miscreants. Two-time British Open champion Willie Park Jnr, entered the U.S. Open but the odds–on-favourite‘s ship did not dock in New York until the day after the tournament had ended. James Foulis (December 11, 1870 – October 31, 1928) wins the second U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, Long Island, NY. Born in St Andrews, Scotland, he travelled to the United States to take up a job as golf professional at Chicago Golf Club, which was the first club in the United States to have an eighteen-hole course. One of the eleven players who took part in the first U.S. Open in 1895, he came third. The following year the Open was played at Chicago and he finished third again. He continued to compete in the U.S. Open until 1906, but didn't win again. Harry Vardon wins his first British Open Championship at Muirfield after an eighteen-hole play-off with his greatest rival J.H. Taylor. Before the playoff he travelled from his lodgings in Gullane to Ben Sayers' professional shop at 102 High Street, North Berwick. Picking up a thin-bladed putter, he not only bought but actually used it in the play-off to give him his first Open title. W. Kirkwood of Scotland receives British patent number for a flexible metal stamped tee. The golfer was required to bend the tee 90 degrees prior to using it. The first book written by a professional, The Game of Golf by Willie Park Jnr. is published. 1897 A book is published by the fledgling the United States Golf Association. Edited by Charles Blair Macdonald, and Laurence Curtis it is grandly entitled: "The Rules of Golf as Revised by The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in 1891 with Rulings and Interpretations by The Executive Committee of The United States Golf Association...” A look at some early interpretations of rules, it sought to establish the USGA as a separate entity from the R&A. Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R & A) was given control of the rules of the game by common agreement of the existing clubs. Muirfield was added to the rota of courses used to host the British Amateur Championship. Previously, only four clubs were used - St Andrews, Royal Liverpool, Royal St George‘s and Prestwick. Accused of approaching golfers in their carriages, North Berwick caddie Daniel Kenny was suspended for four days for canvassing for work outside of the confines of the golf links. Willie Park Jnr. was playing a 36-hole exhibition match in Chicago against Fred Herd at the height of the summer. Played in intense heat the gutta percha balls he was using began to melt and stick to his fingers when he placed them on the tee! Causing an unpleasant outbreak of carbuncles on his neck, he sent his caddie to the clubhouse. Determined to finish his match, the boy arrived back a short time later carrying a champagne cooler filled with ice and a dozen guttie balls. Eight clubs were found in a boarded up closet in a House in Hull, England with a paper dated 1741 which were to become known as the "Troon Clubs" were donated to Troon Golf Club by Adam Wood. They are considered the oldest set of clubs in existence. The Great North Eastern Railway Company tried to attract people to use their railway by building the luxurious Cruden Bay Hotel on the high ground above Port Erroll, north of Aberdeen in Scotland. Down in the valley they also built a links golf course. The Jubilee course at St Andrews opened with 12 holes and named in honour of Queen Victoria‘s Diamond Jubilee that took place that year. It was extended to 18 holes in 1905. The "Victor" tee was developed by P.M. Matthews of Scotland and received British patent. It is the first tee to include a prominent rubber cup to hold the ball more securely. 1898 Scottish-born professional Fred Herd won the U.S. Open Championship. Head professional at the Washington Park course, Chicago, did the rounds in 84-85-75-84-328 to win. Alex Smith was second. Remarkably, such was his hard drinking reputation that the organisers required him to put up some security before they would release the silver trophy to him – some of the organising committee feared he might pawn it! Top Scottish Amateur Frederick Guthrie Tait boasted he could play from the clubhouse at Royal St. George's in Sandwich to the clubhouse at Cinque Ports three miles down the coast in 40 shots or less. Allowed to tee his ball up whatever the lie any money Freddie won was quickly handed over in compensation to a waitress after his 32nd shot sailed through an upstairs window and showered her with broken glass! There were too many entrants for the British Open at Prestwick so the first cut in major championship history was implemented after two rounds Harry Vardon wins the British Open at Prestwick, Scotland. The first professional to break 80 in each round with the gutta-percha ball, he continues his rich vein of form by winning first prize at St Nicholas Golf Course, a day later. 1899 William Fernie to lay out the original 6,040-yard course. A second course was added in 1909, by which time the Marquis had sold the property to the Glasgow and South Western Railway Company, which constructed a 100-room luxury hotel at the same time. The R&A publishes the first 'national' set of rules. The R&A begins allowing free drops for balls lying in casual water through the green. In 1900 the U.S.G.A. follows suit. Tom Morris Snr. employs future golf course designing legend Donald Ross as an apprentice green keeper at St. Andrews. That apprentice was Donald Ross. Laurie Auchterlonie left St Andrews to become club professional at the fledgling St Andrew‘s Club in Hastings-on-Hudson in America. He had three spells as pro here with interludes in Florida and at the Ravisloe Country Club in Chicago. Laurie‘s most notable victory in the US was the 1902 Open Championship at Garden City, NY. J.S. Higginbotham, Captain of Islay Golf Club, announced in December that Mr Iain Ramsay, the club president, had offered £100 as first prize in an open tournament at the Machrie which would begin on Wednesday, 12 June. Although there were stakes in challenge matches of greater value than this, no other open tournament had ever offered so large a first prize. It was four times the amount awarded to the winner of the Open Championship which would take place the weekend before at Muirfield. Not surprisingly, the best players of the day entered including J H Taylor, James Braid, Harry Vardon, Sandy Herd, Ben Sayers, Jack White, Andrew Kirkaldy and Willie Fernie. The tournament was match play and, in the first round of 32 players, professionals were drawn against amateurs. J H Taylor eventually beat James braid in the final. Sir George Reid painted Tom Morris Snr. for the R&A when he was nearly 80 years of age. Known to dislike the portrait painting process, Reid noted that when Old Tom saw the finished work, he gazed at it for some time before proclaiming: "well the cap's like mine…" Today, the painting resides in the main members‘ room at the R&A clubhouse in St Andrews. John Ball Jnr. won the British Amateur Championship at Prestwick. With prize money comparable to the British Open, Ball won £30 in addition to his gold medal with Frederick Guthrie Tait receiving £15 as the losing finalist. (After Tait‘s tragic death a few months later while serving in South Africa, Prestwick Golf Club sent his unredeemed winnings to his family.) William Park Jnr. challenges Harry Vardon to a 72-hole 'home and away‘ match at North Berwick and Ganton Golf Club with each man depositing £100 with the editor of Golf Magazine. The concluding leg at Ganton, Yorkshire, and (Vardon‘s home club) was played in front of 1,000 spectators on 23 July. Taking a two-up advantage from the previous match at North Berwick, Vardon ran out a convincing winner by 11 holes up with 10 to play. Carnoustie-born Willie Smith won the U.S. Open at Baltimore Country Club, Maryland. Recently arrived in America to take a position as professional at the Midlothian Country Club, near Chicago, he scored an impressive 77-82-79-77. His eleven stroke victory has never since been equalled. Alex Smith, one of Willie's four brothers, also won the U.S. Open in 1906 and 1910, the second time beating brother, Macdonald, in a play-off. F.G. Tait played his last recorded match at Muirfield on 14th October with A.R. Paterson and W.G. Bloxsom before leaving for South Africa on 24 October 1899. One of Scotland‘s greatest amateur golfers, he would be killed shortly after. Harry Vardon sails to America in January where he plays in more than 80 Exhibition matches - winning 70 of them including: Arriving on 11 February, it was the first of its type and scale. Travelling over 20,000 miles, he went as far west as Chicago and throughout the Southeastern states, his tour extended through most of the year. Sponsored by the A.G. Spalding Company, they were promoting the new 'Vardon Flyer‘ wound rubber golf ball. It was a long and exhausting trip and except for a break to return home to defend his British Open title (where he finished second), Vardon was paid $5,000 to endorse their products in the US. He also advertised muscle balm and heath tonics as well as golf coats. He played matches against many of America‘s finest players at venues like Lawrence Harbour Country Club, New York; Pittsburgh Golf Club, PA; Dyker Meadow Golf Club, now Dyker Beach Golf Club, New York; Scarsdale Golf Club, Sate of New York and many others in New England, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, Denver, Colorado, Toronto and Canada. Vardon recalled in a book about his first trip to America: "At that period, the Americans were not sufficiently advanced [in golf] to appreciate the finer points of the game. They did however; appear to thoroughly enjoy the type of ball I drove. I hit it high for carry, which resembled a home run." The fledgling U.S.G.A. adopted the 1899 R&A set of rules on 28 February. Adding their own decisions and interpretations they included special Rules for Medal play. Harry Vardon won the U.S. Open Championship at Wheaton Golf Club, Illinois despite hitting a fresh air shot on the final green. Vardon prevailed by two strokes beating little-known American professional, David Ball, by 10 shots. It made him the first Englishman to win both the British and the U.S. Open Championships. Walter J. Travis wins the U.S. Amateur at Garden City Golf Club where he was a member. Played in July he beat three-time finalist Findlay S, Douglas 2 up in the final. Born and raised in Australia he came to New York in 1885. It was here he took up golf a year later at the advanced age of 35. Within four years, he was one of the best amateurs in the United States. Travis also won the 1901 and 1903 United States Amateur Championships and 1904 British Amateur Championship. Known fondly as "The Old Man" of American Golf, he served as greens chairman at Garden City for 10 years, wrote extensively about golf and became editor and publisher of The American Golfer magazine. He became a respected golf-course architect including layouts at Cherry Valley Country Club, Westchester Country Club, Garden City Country Club and Canoe Brook. Harry Vardon interrupts his American tour to play in the British Open Championship at St Andrews. J.H. Taylor sets the low scoring record (309) en route to his third Claret Jug. Vardon and James Braid finishes second and third. Taylor remains the only player in the history of the championship to record the lowest score (or a share of it) in all four rounds of the British Open. Following the British Open at St. Andrews James Braid, J.H. Taylor, Harry Vardon and Alex Herd agreed to have their eyes tested by an Edinburgh optician to find out if perfect eyesight was the secret to a top professional‘s success. As it turned out, none of them had perfect 20-20 vision with the world‘s number one golfer, Vardon, the worst of all. The Irish Amateur Open was played over the Newcastle Royal County Down and won by Harold Hilton. Golf was played at 16,000 feet above sea level in July by British explorer Captain F.E.S. Adair. In his book, "A Summer in High Asia," he described how he found," a lovely spot carpeted with short, bright green turf‖ when travelling through a Himalayan Mountain pass into Tibet. "Being a golf enthusiast I had brought a driver with me and a putter," he recalled. "Having made a hole in the short turf I instituted a putting competition for the camp, I should think the first time that the royal and ancient game had been played at an elevation of upwards of 16,000 feet." Around this time A. G. Spalding & Bros. begin drop forging in London, producing metal club heads cast in moulds allowing mass production of matched sets of clubs. Prior to this all heads were made in the traditional way using anvil and forge. John Gammeter of The Goodrich Rubber Company patents a machine for the winding of the revolutionary Haskell ball, enabling them to be mass produced and signalling the slow demise of the gutta-percha ball. Scottish engineer, M. McDaid patents a machine for winding rubber onto a central core for golf balls. He also applied again in1903 and 1906. Robert Forgan of St Andrews died aged 76. Passing his club making company to the third of his five sons, Thomas, he built up the workforce to 40 in 1895, before his own premature death in 1906. The business was then passed into the hands of his two sons Lawrence and Robert Jnr. Golf is played at the Olympic Games in Paris, France. American Margaret Ives Abbott became the first woman to win gold in the women's competition but chaotic organization meant her achievement was never recognized during her lifetime. Miss Abbott, a Chicago Socialite, was in Paris studying art when she entered the event in October along with nine other women. Played over a nine-hole course at Compiegne, just outside Paris, she scored 47 beating Polly Whittier into second with a 49 and Daria Hager Pratt who shot a 55 for third. Receiving a small silver bowl Abbott later told relatives that she won the tournament: "Because all the French girls apparently misunderstood the nature of the game scheduled for that day and turned up in high heels and tight skirts..." She died in 1955 never knowing that she was America's 1st Woman Olympic Golf Champion. Charles Edward Sands (December 22, 1865 - August 9, 1945) wins the first Olympic Mens Tournament competition in Paris. He also participated as real tennis player where he was eliminated in the first round. Sands also had the distinction of being a finalist in the first U.S. Amateur Championship in 1895 where he was defeated 12 & 11 by the winner Charles B. MacDonald at Newport Country Club. Harold Hilton beat James Robb 8 and 7 to win the final of the British Amateur Championship at Royal St George's. The first time he had won he had been beaten in the final three times previously in 1891, 1892, and 1896. Jim Foulis was contacted by Colonel George McGrew, founder of Glen Echo CC, to come to St. Louis and design the St. Louis area‘s first 18-hole course. The former St Andrews professional arrived in January 1901, with his brother Robert. Together they designed and constructed Glen Echo on over 350 acres of pristine land. The course opened on May 25, 1901 with Robert as golf professional and green keeper. Willie Anderson became the first US-based professional to be sponsored by a golf club manufacturer. Supplied with equipment by the Worthington Manufacturing Company, woods bearing his name were the first example of an autograph branded club made in America. ......................................................................................................................................................................Back to top
1901 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, conceived the idea for one of his greatest adventures during a winter-weekend golf trip to Royal Cromer on England's east coast. Eight years earlier he had killed off Holmes after a battle with the evil Professor Moriaty at the Reichenbach Falls in: The Final Problem. Returning to the fray, The Hound of the Baskervilles proved one of his most popular and lasting stories. The British Professional Golfers' Association was founded with John Henry "J.H." Taylor appointed its first president. The U.S. Open was played at Myopia Hunt near Boston, Massachusetts. A private members Club, competing professionals were not allowed to enter the clubhouse and were expected to eat in the kitchen all week. Willie Anderson in particular was furious when informed of the arrangements. Taking a huge divot out of the practice green with an iron club he shouted: "We're no going tae eat in the kitchen." With a possible strike threatened, a truce was hastily arranged with the professionals offered a specially erected tent to eat in next to the caddie shed. Almost two decades would pass before the clubhouse would be open to professionals at a U.S. Open. The Wei Hai Wei Golf Club in China opened for play. For the first time in the history of the U.S. Open, the championship resulted in a tie after four rounds. Tied on a score of 331 for four rounds, Alex Smith beat Willie Anderson in an eighteen-hole playoff by 85 to 86 at Myopia Hunt Club in Boston. (Alex Smith‘s four round U.S. Open total of 84-83-83-81-331 remains the highest leading aggregate by a champion.) Anderson had led Smith by five strokes with five holes to play. In a spectacular collapse, Smith made two bogeys, two double bogeys and a par on the tough stretch of finishing holes to lose by one. Remarkably, the play-off was contested three days after the final round had been completed because the course had been reserved for members over the weekend. Using the gutty ball throughout the championship, Anderson is the only player to win U.S. Opens with both the gutty and the rubber-cored ball. Pinehurst resort in North Carolina opens the first nine holes of its No.2 course. Former British Open champion William Park Jnr. surprised the golfing world by purchasing a 1500 acre estate near affluent Henley on Thames in southern England. Situated 695 feet above sea level with views across the Chiltern Hills, Huntercombe Manor formed the centre piece of his ambitious plans to build three courses plus a 100-bedroom hotel. The original course was built in just 7 months and was part financed from the fee Park had earned for designing Sunningdale Old. When the Course opened for membership in the summer of 1901, ultimately just one was built) the entrance fee was a substantial five guineas with the annual subscription also set at five guineas. Life Memberships were available for fifty guineas and green fees were 2/6d per day. While the two extra courses and luxury bedroom remained a pipe dream, the new course was (and still is) hailed as a superb example of his work. An interesting exchange took place at Morton Hall in Edinburgh in July. American billionaire Andrews Carnegie was in Scotland for a presentation in his honour. Referring to his recent purchase of Skibo Castle in Scotland, the Master of Ceremony Bailie Mackenzie congratulated him on his plans for building a new golf course there. Discussing the benefits of fresh air and exercise the game offered in the Scottish Highlands, he commented: "You will add ten years to your life!" Carnegie smiled before replying: ―If you can add ten years to my life I'll moke you a present of two million dollars!" A wealthy collector persuaded the great Harry Vardon to sell several of his much-prized clubs. Tom Bendelow from Wisconsin purchased a driver and cleek that had been used in at least two of his British Open victories. Paying the huge sum of $150 each, Vardon turned down an even larger sum to part with his putter. Harold Hilton narrowly beat John Low in the final by one-up to win the British Amateur title at St Andrews. One of the greatest amateurs of all time he won again in 1911 and 1913. 1902 Turnberry Golf Club opened on 24 April. The members used a new course built by Archibald Kennedy the 3rd Marques of Ailsa (Lord Ailsa) and designed by William Fernie of Troon. Fernie was the professional of nearby Troon Golf Club (later to become Royal Troon) and he had won the Open Championship at Musselburgh in 1883. Alexander "Sandy" Herd becomes the first professional to win the British Open championship using the new Haskell "rubber-core" golf ball. The day before play started at Royal Liverpool, he went out for a practice round with former champion John Ball Jnr. who gave him a new ball to try. At once Herd realised its virtues, and hunting round local professional shops he discovered three more balls of the same make – even though very few of the rubber-cored balls had been imported from America. Using the same ball for all four rounds he holed out for victory despite a nervous final round of 81. Laurie Auchterlonie (December 8, 1868 – January 20, 1948) won the eighth U.S. Open at Garden City Golf Club in Garden City, New York. The first time that 80 had been broken in all four rounds, the St Andrews-born pro posted a score of 78-78-74-77 to win $200 and a gold medal. Walter J. Travis, who had twice won the Amateur, tied for second. The entry of 90 was a new record with any competitors using the new Haskell rubber-cored golf ball. No doubt they were also tempted by a high prize fund totalling $970. Auchterlonie competed in the U.S. Open eleven times, finishing in the top ten on seven occasions. David & William Auchterlonie of St Andrews designed and marketed a range of new rubber-core golf balls including the Auchterlonie Flyer and the Ortogo (because it "ought to go") A year later they patented a ball which had a revolving steel ball as the core. It was not a success mainly because Willie Auchterlonie was no supporter of the revolutionary rubber cored ball which had hailed from the USA: "The Americans have spoiled the game," he was quoted as saying. "That devilish rubber ball just goes too far. The game will never be right again till they come back to the solid ball. When you played with a guttie, the ball said 'Hit me true and true I‘ll fly'. But the rubber core, you can hit a dunt anyhow and it‘ll fly. A half hit shot is a half hit shot. With a rubber core, it could go in the hole." The R&A appointed C.B. Henderson from the Luffness New Golf Club as its new greenkeeper. Brought in to assist the ageing Tom Morris, Henderson lasted just a few weeks before being dismissed for "violent behaviour" towards his staff. When Morris retired the following year Hugh Hamilton from Dornoch was appointed Head greenkeeper at St Andrews. Members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews commission Sir George Reid to paint a portrait of Tom Morris Snr. Morris was eighty one years old and the first professional honoured this way, Reid was a former president of the Royal Scottish Academy and a leading Scottish portraitist. The portrait was received with great enthusiasm upon its unveiling at the 1903 Spring Meeting. W.F. "Willie" Davis, the first Scottish professional to come to North America dies at age 39. The R&A commissioned Sir George Reid to paint a portrait of Tom Morris. Reid was a former president of the Royal Scottish Academy and a leading Scottish portraitist. The portrait – the first of a professional golfer – now hangs in the clubhouse in St Andrews.
1903 The Sheriff of Fife approves strict bye-laws for the conduct of St Andrews caddies. Robert Maxwell won the British Amateur Championship at Muirfield. Winner again in 1909, he was leading amateur at the British Open on a number of occasions. Resident in North Berwick for much of his life, he would play the West Links all day and walk the course at night. When U.S Amateur Champion, Walter J. Travis saw the long-hitting Maxwell for the first time he described him as. "A human battering ram, who can drive a ball half-a-mile." Tom Morris Snr. retires as Custodian of the Links at St Andrews. Willie Park Snr. winner of the first British Open Championship at Prestwick dies in Musselburgh after a long illness on 25 July. Scottish brothers, Jim and David Foulis, were the first to sell metal rings for the inside of golf holes. While they had first appeared in Scotland in the 1870‘s, the size of the hole would grow as player after each player holed out. In an article in Golf Illustrated in 1905, David, who was professional at Chicago GC, commented: “After a few days the hole would get deeper and deeper, as caddies would scoop sand from the bottom of the cup to make tees at the next teeing ground!” John Gray of Prestwick, Scotland, one of the first iron makers and much esteemed character in the west of Scotland dies at age 79. Harry Vardon wins his fourth British Open at Prestwick. Finishing six strokes ahead of his brother Tom in second, it was the first time in golf history that two siblings had occupied the top-two positions. Visibly distressed during his final round of 78 for a total of 300, his victory was even more impressive because of the fact that he was feeling desperately ill and was barely able to finish his last round. The Championship committee in charge of the British Amateur voted to end the practice of awarding prize money. Instead the winner this year, Robert Maxwell, received a gold medal. In the future the balance of the entry fees after expenses was to be divided between the host club (75%) and the Championship fund (25%). Old Tom Morris refereed the first Scottish Ladies Championship final held in St. Andrews between Molly Graham and Alexa Glover. Watched by a large crowd, Ms Graham was beaten on the last green. James Ross Brown, a ship smith from Montrose, Scotland receives British patent on September 22nd for four different style irons. Each has horizontal openings, vertical slots, or perforations across the face. He receives a U.S. patent in 1905. 1904 The Reverend Doctor Robert Adams Patterson died on 25 April in Rochester, New York. The man who changed the face of golf in the late 1840s, he was credited with being the first to recognise the benefits of using gutta-percha for golf balls. As a student in St Andrews, he was too poor to buy the leather covered feathery ball and experimented with other rubber like substances – most notably the gutta percha packaging that enclosed a statue of Vishnu he received from the Far East. Patenting the idea in 1847 he ended his days as President of the New York State Ladies College at Binghampton in East Bloomfield. Former Wimbledon champion Charlotte 'Lottie' Dod (24 September, 1871 – 27 June, 1960) wins the British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship at Troon. Her opponent in the final was May Hezlet, champion of 1899 and 1902. In a close match the two were tied after 17 holes when Hezlet missed a short putt on the final green making Dod the only woman to win both the British tennis and golf national championships. Acknowledged as the greatest all-round sportswoman of her era she became the youngest Wimbledon Singles Champion in 1887, aged 15 and went on to gain four more title victories. Being so young, Dod was given special dispensation and allowed to play matches in shorter skirts than the petticoats women normally had to wear. This gave her an advantage, as she could move across court with less restriction. She was a member of the national field hockey team and the archery silver medallist at the 1908 Olympics. James Braid was the first player to shoot a round in the 60s in the British Open, carding a 69 in the third round at Royal St. George's. He finished second. Part of a remarkably consistent streak which began when he finished runner-up in 1897, Braid was never out of the top five for 14 straight Opens - a feat that has never been matched. Jack Nicklaus is the next best at 11 top-5‘s from 1970 - 80. Jack White (1873-1949) won the British Open at Royal St George‘s. The Scottish professional became the first man to break 300 in a 72-hole major championship. His 69 in the final round gave him a four round aggregate of 296, the first time the 300 barrier was broken. Two years earlier, he was employed at the newly opened Sunningdale Golf Club near London where he remained for 25 years. White eventually returned to his home down of Gullane where he started a club making business in a two storey building (now demolished) in Goose Green Mews. One of his apprentices, Hugh Watt became professional at Barnton, before being appointed to Gullane Golf Club. White opened a successful golf equipment shop at 2 Roseberry Place and for many years gave evening class lessons on the art of club making. Five times British Open champion James Braid was appointed Club Professional at the newly opened Walton Heath Golf club near London. Not long afterward, a visiting American went into the shop where Braid was at work and asked if the "club pro" would like a game? "Braid, with his habitual Scottish charm, agreed," wrote Bernard Darwin in his biography of the great man. "Two and a half hours later the American was heard to say: 'Gee! That guy in your wood shack is a promising player…‘" Braid would remain as head professional until he died in 1950. Scottish designer James Ross Brown is granted a British patent on 29 June. It was the first patent granted for a "Swan neck" or a bent hosel putter that lined the shaft up with the centre of the head. A permanent caddie' shelter is erected behind the eighteenth green of the Old Course at St Andrews. The Arundel twins of North Berwick were both suspended from their caddie duties within days of each other James Arundel was banned from the West Links for three days after defacing the caddie shelter while his brother John was banned for a month after stealing a golf ball from a client. Robert Percival Higgs receives a provisional patent on 16 September for his new 'Higgs Deliverer" rake iron. He later abandoned his patent application but his design was later taken up by St Andrews club maker Tom Stewart who had limited success with it.
1905 Tom Morris Snr. played golf in a howling gale at St Andrews in 16 June – his 84th birthday, An interesting match took place on 18 August at a well-known but unnamed Scottish Course! A top female golfer boasted she could compete with men if not for the cumbersome clothing of the period. Offered a bizarre challenge by a scratch male golfer, he offered to take on the better ball of her and another woman, from the same tee. He also offered to play in women‘s clothing including woollen skirt, corset and a hat tied down with a bow! Watched by a group of curious onlookers, he won but later expressed his embarrassment at his behavior. Unrecognisable in a veil pulled down over his face, caddies had murmured their disquiet at the butch looking female who showed considerable "vigour and prowess" when striking the ball. A return match was muted where the woman was dressed as a man but it was considered too avant-garde for the period. The Jubilee Course at St Andrews is extended to 18 holes. Future U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt played the Old Course at St Andrews on Sept. 5, while honeymooning in Scotland. The final leg of an, "International Foursome" match for $1,000 a side between Harry Vardon and J.H. Taylor of England and James Braid and Alexander Herd of Scotland, was played at Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club on 10 September. It resulted in a victory for England by 3 up and 12 to play. The St Andrews Golf Club purchases a clubhouse next to the home fairway on the Old Course. James Ross Brown receives a U.S. patent on 24 January for four different types of iron club. Designed to make play from deep rough or "watery filth" easier, they included horizontal-openings, vertical slots, or perforations across the face to allow grass or water to pass through unhindered. 1906 Four rounds of the British Open at Muirfield were played over three days for the first time – one round played on the first two days with two rounds played on the third and final day. All those more than 15 shots behind the leader were eliminated from the two final rounds on the third day, reducing the field to 72 players. Robert Johnstone became the only competitor in British Open history to compete with just one club in his bag! Forgoing the need for a caddie, the North Berwick professional used an adjustable-headed "Urquhart" iron for the opening two rounds at Muirfield. Causing much interest from onlookers he even had a hole-in-one at the fourteenth. James Braid won the British Open at Muirfield. Defending the title he had won by five shots at St Andrews the year before, he once again dominated the championship. Amassing scores of 77-76-74-73, his total of 300 was enough to push J.H. Taylor into second place by four shots. Yet his victory was not without its difficulties. Forced to endure two late afternoon starts because of the large field of 180 competitors, Braid blamed his poor opening round on his late tee-time. Determined not to make the same mistake on the second day, he took part in a friendly foursome on a nearby course before completing his second round as the sun went down! Thomas B. Forgan, son of Robert Forgan dies in St Andrews on 30 December. Peter Lawrence Forgan one of Thomas's sons takes over R. Forgan & Son. 1907 The British Amateur Championship was played at St. Andrews. A record 200 entries meant that Monday would be used up fully for first round matches with the decision on whether to have qualifying rounds or impose a handicap limit deferred to the following year. R&A build a shelter behind the first tee of New Course. It is still there today. Extensive planting of whin bushes on the sand dunes on the Jubilee Course at St Andrews gets the go ahead. C.B. Macdonald became the first American to join the R&A Rules of Golf Committee. He would represent U.S.G.A. interests. Written by British Open Champion James Braid, The Ladies Field Golf Book was published as a guide for struggling women golfers. 1908 The R&A decided that the Rules should be freely available to all in booklet form. A sponsorship deal was made with the Royal Insurance Company to enable publication. Tom Morris Snr. of St Andrews died from injuries sustained after falling down cellar stairs at the New Golf Club in St Andrews on 24 May. Tom, who was in his usual good health, had gone down to the New Golf Club from his shop a few doors away. Intending to go to the lavatory, he mistakenly opened the wrong door which instead led down a long stairway down to the cellar. Falling forward fully eight feet, he was taken in an ambulance to the Cottage Hospital in the town but died soon afterwards. Having died just three weeks short of his 87th birthday, 'Old‘ Tom had outlived his wife and children. His first born son, Tommy, had died in infancy. Another son James was disabled from birth and perhaps most famously, his second son. "Young" Tom Morris had died at the tragically early age of 24. Tom Morris was buried in the cathedral grounds on 27 May. The funeral cortege was composed of members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, the St Andrews Club, the Thistle Club, and the New Club. The Earl of Stair, captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, was one of the pallbearers. As a mark of respect the links were closed for play along with many local businesses closing for the day out of respect. In recognition of his service, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews commissioned a painting of Tom Morris Snr. by George Reid which now hangs on permanent display in the famous clubhouse. The British Open Challenge Belt (won in perpetuity by Tom Morris Jnr.) was donated to the R&A by the grandchildren of Tom Morris Snr. after his death. L. S. Grace, honorary treasurer of the Tom Morris memorial fund, hoped donations for a permanent tribute may reach £1500. With anything over that amount, it was hoped to endow a bed in the St. Andrew's Memorial Cottage Hospital. Named 'The Tom Morris Bed' it would be made available to any sick golf professionals, club-makers and caddies who could not afford to pay. Frederick "Fred" Robertson McLeod (25 April 1882 – 8 May 1976) won the U.S. Open Myopia Hunt Club in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. Born in Kirk Ports, North Berwick, Scotland, he left for the United States in 1903 to try his luck as a Golf Club professional. He quickly found employment at the Rockford Country Club in Illinois. McLeod entered his first U.S. Open within weeks of his arrival in America, and later that year he was fifth at the Western Open. He won the Riverside Open in 1905 and the Western PGA Championship in 1905 and 1907. In 1908 at Myopia Hunt he was level with fellow Scot Willie Smith after four rounds, but won the playoff by 77 shots to 83. McLeod was five feet four inches tall making him the smallest man ever to take the title. He competed in the U.S. Open twenty-two times and had eight top ten finishes. He also played in the first four Masters from 1934-37 and afterward acted as an honorary starter at Augusta National from 1963 to 1976. Walter Edwin Fairlie authors: The Old Golf Course of St. Andrews: Plans, with Names of Holes and Bunkers. This was the first of many similar books to be published over the years designed to help the average golfer find his or her way around the legendary Old Course. It was republished again in 1920. Golf course designer Tom Dunn counselled the secretary of the London Scottish Golf Club "to go one better than St. Andrews," and extend its course to an unprecedented 19-holes! The suggestion came from America on the grounds that almost all golfers mess up the opening hole thereby making it impossible for them to return a scorecard. The first would therefore be a practice or warm-up hole during which time a player would: "contrive to still his beating heart and get some command of his insubordinate nerves. Amazingly the Wimbledon Common Club took his advice and a nineteenth-hole was laid out with each competition round beginning at the second! But the novel idea was quickly abandoned as lower handicap golfers complained that they needed a first-hole disaster from their higher handicap rivals to have a chance in medal competitions. George F. Dagnall of Glasgow, Scotland is given a British patent to cover placing a tube of mercury, liquid, or powder in a wooden club head. The Metropolitan Association at Delmonico's in New York agreed to contribute $25 to the memorial that was being prepared by British golfers in honour of Old Tom Morris who died recently at St. Andrews, Scotland. The copper plaque would eventually hang on the front facing wall of the Royal and Ancient clubhouse. 1909 Howard Taft, the recently installed President of the United States, sent a letter to the members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in March. Known to be passionate about the game, he explained that playing golf in America was not accepted as the working class sport it was in Scotland: "Preceding the late election campaign there were many of my sympathisers and supporters who deprecated it becoming known that I was addicted to golf, as an evidence of aristocratic tendencies and a desire to play only a rich man's game..." The British Ladies Championship was played 17-21 May at Birkdale Golf Club. Florence Hezlet was beaten 4 and 3 by Dorothy Campbell Hurd. The British Amateur Championship was played at Muirfield on 25-29 May. It was won by Robert Maxwell of Scotland one-up over fellow Scot C.K. Hutchison. Prior to the championship Edinburgh Burgess proposed the rota change to include an Irish club in1912. At the time the Amateur Championship was in the hands of the clubs on the rota (Hoylake, St. Andrews, Prestwick, Sandwich and Muirfield). A new club was added to the rota but it was Royal North Devon who hosted the event in 1912 and not Dollymount as originally proposed. Harry Crawford, better known as "Big" Crawford, died at North Berwick at the age of 73. Along with "Fiery" and Bob Ferguson, he was one of the legendary caddies who hawked back to the golden era of Young Tom Morris and Willie Park Snr. A well-built man with a gruff, no-nonsense manner, he caddied for celebrities like former British Prime Minister Arthur Balfour and the Grand Duke Michael of Russia. In his later years, he ran a ginger-beer stall out at the eighth hole at North Berwick and would fly the Scottish standard from the top of his tent whenever Balfour was in the town. He was buried in Inveresk Churchyard in Musselburgh. Both the R & A and U.S.G.A. ban clubs using any: "mechanical contrivance." Harry Vardon was playing at Musselburgh when the American Ambassador passed by on an adjacent fairway. As his caddy saluted the Ambassador respectfully, Vardon asked: "You know the Ambassador, do you?" "Of course I do," said the dishevelled bagman. "We‘re very close - these are his trousers I've got on." To celebrate the opening of the new Glen Golf Club in North Berwick an anonymous donor gifted 300 guineas towards prizes for a professional tournament. Played over the East Links in July, the field included five Open Champions; Sandy Herd, Harry Vardon, J.H. Taylor, Arnaud Massy, Willie Auchterlonie and two future champions in Ted Ray and George Duncan. Among the local professionals were Ben Sayers, Willie Watt, David and Andrew Grant, James Souter, Ben Sayers Jnr. and Robert Thomson. Willie Park Jnr. receives a British patent for his new "Pik-Up" club. It had a corrugated brass soleplate that was to reduce friction between the sole and the ground. Prior to the British Amateur Championship at Muirfield in May, there was a proposal by Edinburgh Burgess that the rota be changed to include an Irish club with Dollymount put forward as a possibility. Dorothy Campbell won the British Ladies Championship at Birkdale. Not long afterward she penned a controversial article for Golfer magazine entitled: The Feminine Temperament: Dorothy Campbell from North Berwick followed her British Ladies victory at Birkdale by winning the United States Ladies Championship at Merion. Played at Merion there were 67 starters of which 32 reached the match play stages. She beat Nonna Barlow, of County Waterford in Ireland in the final by 3 and 2. The first woman golfer to achieve this unique British/American double, she almost made it a unique triple the following year when she won both the American and Canadian titles, only to be defeated by Miss G. Suttie in the British Ladies Championship. T. T. Gray and Mr H. B. Ferrier, two members of the Edinburgh Burgess Golfing Society, played an eight round match in one day on 14 September. They began at 4 a.m. and finished their final round in the dark at 10 p.m. A brief interval was allowed for lunch and Mr Gray, the younger of the two competitors at 38, averaged 82 for his eight rounds - his best round being 77. Gray gifted five holes as a handicap to Mr Ferrier each round and still won their private match. Three youths appeared at Cupar Court House near St Andrews on 24 November charged with stealing golf balls from a club makers shop. Taking the opportunity to address the growing problem of golf ball thefts, Sheriff Armour took the view that it was the buyer and not the seller who should be heavily fined or even sent to prison for receiving stolen property! Believing that most golfers turned a blind eye to the criminality of buying stolen or lost balls, he said: ―Can anyone doubt that if the market for these so-called lost balls were not promoted by the banded feeling of loyalty among golfers, then the practice (of buying them) would cease. If they instead refrained from dealing with the persuasive loafer or the caddie, it would soon become apparent to the boys themselves that the risk incurred and the profit to be earned, were not worth all the danger. A spat grew up between a local farmer and a Golf Club in Dysart in Fife. Annoyed at golfers consistently trespassing on his land to retrieve "lost" golf balls, he took them to court in November looking for £18 in compensation for a damaged potato crop. They in turn counter sued for £20 for a half year rent for grazing his cows on their land. He replied by saying how the Golf Club had cut the grass on the course so "unnaturally" short as to make it useless as pasture for cows! The court finally found in favour of golf and the farmer was asked to remove his cattle. ......................................................................................................................................................................Back to top 1910 The R&A increased the total prize money at the British Open to £125, with the champion receiving £50 and a gold medal. A memorial Bronze plaque was placed below the clock on the west front of the R&A clubhouse at St Andrews. Commemorating Tom Morris Snr. it was designed by Waller Hubert Paton, an eminent sculptor resident in Edinburgh. Financed by the members and individual subscriptions, the plaque is still in place today. The R&A bans the centre-shafted putter (including the Schenectady) while the U.S.G.A. keeps it legal. The first time that the U.S.G.A. diverges from an R&A equipment ruling, it marks the beginning of a 42-year schism between the two bodies. The body of Lady Marjorie Erskine, daughter of the Earl of Buchan, was discovered on the golf course at Aviemore, Inverness, on 29 August. She had been missing tor four weeks despite an exhaustive search by the local police. A post mortem showed that she died of exhaustion after a strenuous solo mountain climb. Caddies on the West Links at North Berwick contributed to a Caddies Provident Fund for retired and destitute bagmen. The "lush" condition of the Old Course at St Andrews caused frantic debate in the Auld Grey Toon. Dismissing the methods of former head greenkeeper Old Tom Morris as "unscientific" the man in charge of course maintenance Hugh Hamilton favoured using manure instead of sand to aid growth. The controversy came to a head on 15 October when Guy Campbell and six other R&A members pointed out to the Committee that there was now "plugging of balls on the first green!" Hamilton did change track but his widespread use of charcoal to harden the greens was a complete failure. The following year the course looked threadbare and was described by a local newspaper as resembling "a desert" with the fifth green termed "a complete disgrace." William Law "Willie" Anderson dies on 25 October aged just 31. Four-time U.S. Open champion (1901, 1903, 1904 and 1905) he was born in North Berwick, Scotland on 21 October 1879. Dorothy Campbell successfully defended her American Ladies Championship title beating Mrs GM Martin from Devon by 2 & 1 at Homewood Country Club, Flossmoor, Illinois. The dominant woman golfer of her era, she beat the course record with a qualifying round of 78. This prompted a local newspaper to comment how: "No better performance ever has been recorded by a woman over a championship course of over 6,000 yards."
1911 The National Golf Links of America opened in Southampton, New York. Located on Long Island between Shinnecock Hills Golf Club and Peconic Bay it was named in honour of its 67 founding members -many of whom resided in different parts of the United States. Designed by the "Father of American Golf" Charles Blair MacDonald, many of the holes are based on classic Scottish golf links like St Andrews, Prestwick and North Berwick. "C.B." was also instrumental in adding another unique feature to the course after a trip to Holland. A fellow member remarked that a windmill would make a nice addition to the course so Macdonald purchased one when he was in Europe and sent him the bill. Today, it is located between the 2nd and 16th holes. Considered one of the most exclusive Golf Clubs in the U.S.A. it has never agreed to host a major professional championship. Hugh Hamilton, controversial Head green keeper at St Andrews, was dismissed on the 20 September because of his consistently drunken behaviour. Andrew Kirkaldy was beaten by Ben Sayers in a 72-holes match over Sunningdale and Walton Heath for £50 by 6 and 5. Dorothy Iona Campbell beat home favourite Violet Hezlet in the final of the British Ladies Championship at Royal Portrush. Born in North Berwick, Scotland, on 24 March, 1883, she remains the only woman to simultaneously hold the national championships of the United Kingdom, United States and Canada. Winner of over 700 titles during her glittering golf career, her personal life was not as successful. Twice divorced, she moved to America in 1913 and died in a tragic railway accident on 30 March, 1945 at Yemussee in South Carolina, after she failed to notice an oncoming train. "Par" became the accepted standard for judging handicaps in America. At a meeting on the 11th October at Baltusrol Golf Club, the United States Golf Association discarded the old "bogey" system where the score was based on what a mythical scratch golfer would score on each hole. Instead the new score of each hole would be judged on what the reigning national amateur champion (Harold Hilton) would expect to achieve on it, "without flukes and under ordinary weather conditions always allowing two strokes on each putting green..." They also established new yardage limits for determining the par of hole; From January 1912 onwards, a par three would be up to 225 yards; a par four was 225 to 425 yards; a par five was 426 to 600 yards and a ar six was 601 yards and over. The Times newspaper reported an unusual incident which occurred on the private links at Balmoral in November. A member of the King George V staff was playing on the Aberdeenshire course when his approach was seen to strike a cow! As befitting a royal bovine, it moved away without giving any indication that she had been hit. When the player came to the spot vacated by the cow nothing was found. Moments later, the animal shook its head and the lost ball fell from its ear! Playing it from where it lay, he pitched onto the green and holed out for a par. 1912 Westward Ho! In North Devon joined Royal Liverpool, St. Andrews, Prestwick, Sandwich and Muirfield on the rota of the British Amateur Championship venues. The threadbare condition of the Old Course at St Andrews was proving a major concern. In May The Times described the ancient links as having “brown greens with bare patches‘. The Old Course had been closed for the month of June the previous year with the R&A Autumn Meeting in August postponed to aid recovery. It made little difference as a combination of poor green keeping and drought conditions led the St Andrews Citizen newspaper to conclude that "the Old Course will never be the same again." James H. Blackwell, an R&A member, was asked to supervise the maintenance of the Old Course at St Andrews. With the links in poor condition, he made the decision to return to the "unscientific" methods used successfully by Old Tom Morris for many years. Employing some fairly drastic measures like course closure and turf cutting and replacement, he finally restored the Old Course to a playable condition in time for the British Amateur Championships of 1913. He was lauded for his efforts and stayed in post until 1933, He died in 1937 and by way of a tribute his grave was lined with turf cut from the Old Course. Rumours circulate that the R&A might leave St Andrews. They prove to be unfounded. England halved with Scotland 8-8 in an international match for professionals two days before the British Open began at Muirfield on 20 June. First played in 1903, Harry Vardon beat James Braid in the top singles while Edward Ray, captain of the English team, lost to George Duncan, captain of the Scots. Visiting professionals including J.J McDermott of The United States expressed their disappointment with the arrangements made for their comfort and convenience at Muirfield. Accommodation was scarce in nearby Gullane and changing facilities were practically non-existent as the members locker rooms remained out-of-bounds to professionals. Things were so bad that the British PGA called a meeting during the championship. The Honourable Company and R&A refused to compromise and it was determined that before the date of next year's championship at Hoylake a sub-committee be appointed to make representations to the authorities regarding "their justifiable requirements." Jack Burns who won the British Open Championship in 1888 appeared at Muirfield as a caddie. Many of the professionals complained that Muirfield was too easy a course for the British Open. Andrew Kirkaldy called the course an "auld water meadow." The first monthly golf magazine in the United Kingdom is published for the first time. Called Golf Monthly its first editor is two-time British Open champion, Harold Hilton. It is based in Glasgow for many years. Five-time British Open champion, James Braid retired from competitive golf in 1912 before joining Walton Heath as its club professional. He would remain at the prestigious Surrey course until his death. Suffragettes disrupted a game of golf at Dornoch on 13 September between the British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith and his Home Secretary. According to one report, "they waited until both had played their approach shots before they attacked them!" A week earlier a small group of activists gained access to King George‘s private course at Balmoral Castle. Believing that Asquith was staying with the Royal family they substituted purple "votes for women" banners for the flags marking the holes. The press named it the "Balmoral Incident" and openly questioned the Monarchs security during this period of social upheaval. 1913 With the British Amateur Championship scheduled for St Andrews, in May, the danger posed by suffragettes was a major concern. Looking to obtain the vote in England, one of their most effective tactics was to destroy the greens at golf courses using vitriolic acid. To counter the threat, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and local citizens organised a vigilance committee. Gathering together 5000 volunteers, they agreed to guard the greens night and day. Showing the degree of threat, the nightime sentries were all provided with large umbrellas to prevent the corrosive fluid from being thrown into their faces! More guards were placed at regular intervals along the St Andrews Estuary in case these so-called "wild women" arrived at the far end of the course in boats. A powerful navy searchlight was also mounted on the railroad bridge near the seventeenth tee - the light from which swept the links at regular intervals. Despite making threats about disrupting the tournament, the Suffragettes never made an appearance at the championship. The most famous caddy in the world James Carey died. Better known as "Fiery" because of his red, wind-beaten features, he was a familiar figure at Musselburgh Links for more than fifty years. The last of the old school of caddies which included "Big" Campbell, John Crawford and Bob Ferguson, he used to carry for William Park Jnr. in all his big money matches and championships. A large police presence at St Andrews frustrated a hard-line group of women suffragettes who hoped to disrupt the British Amateur Championship held the last week in May. Instead they turned their attention to local letter boxes and settled for destroying a quantity of mail. So much rain fell on St. Andrews during the final of British Amateur that the fire department was called to pump out the bunkers. There were 190 entries including defending champion, Jon Ball Jnr. who was a doubtful starter after injuring his wrist in a motorbike accident a few weeks earlier. The legalisation of steel-shafted clubs is rejected by the R&A. At the same meeting the members unanimously expressed disapproval of golf being included in the next Olympic Games. It was further agreed that if golf was included the Club would have nothing to do with its organisation or planning.
1914 Harry Vardon won a record sixth British Open at Prestwick. With two rounds played on the final day (20 June) his nearest rival J.H. Taylor was distracted all day by the large crowd. Trailing Taylor by two strokes after the third round, his rival could do no better than 83 after his concentration was broken by an errant photographer early in the round. Resulting in a dropped shot at the third Taylor found the burn on the long fourth taking a 7 to Vardon‘s 4. Dropping further strokes at the eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh holes, Vardon took full advantage of his playing partners‘ troubles to record a three stroke victory with a score of 306 against Taylor's 309. It would be the last Open played for five-years due to WWI with Vardon holding the record for most Open victories (6) in 1896, 1898, 1899, 1903, 1911 and 1914. Golf finally comes to Afghanistan. The Amir learnt the game under the tutelage of a Scottish mining engineer. The unknown Scot originally went to Kabul looking for mining concessions and took his golf clubs on the remote chance of finding a golf links! He quickly discovered that the monarch was more interested in talking sport than business. The Amir then lost no time in constructing a rudimentary golf course under the direction of the Scottish visitor. Taking lessons from the Scottish visitor, the Amir became a devoted exponent of the game and ordered countless sets of clubs from Forgan & Sons of St Andrews. Having attained a fair degree of proficiency, he began to lose weight. Afraid he was overdoing it, his ministers advised he take things a little easier. His answer was to build a miniature links inside his winter home including grass greens, hazards, bunkers and tees. The Eden course opens for play in St Andrews. The last bunker situated in the wide expanse of the shared first and eighteenth fairways at St Andrews was removed. Alister MacKenzie won a national competition to design the "ideal" golf hole in The Lido Golf hole design competition sponsored by Country Life magazine in the UK. World War I then intervened and Dr. Mackenzie‘s expertise in camouflage, rather than medicine, was put to good use. In 1918, when the war ended, MacKenzie pursued his vocation in golf course architecture and two years later wrote his seminal book Golf Architecture. Former partner of golf designing legend Harry Shapland Colt, his courses are revered by golfers world-wide and include Alwoodley (1907) and Moortown in Yorkshire (1909) Australia's oldest club, the Royal Melbourne (1926) America's Cypress Point (1928) Crystal Downs USA (1929) Augusta National, Home of the US Masters (1934) Born in 1870 to Scottish parents in Yorkshire and christened Alexander, he died in 1934 in California leaving behind a legacy of classic golf courses. Willie Park, Jnr. received a U.S. patent on 27 June for his stepped-face iron. Designed with three levels on the clubface it imparted backspin to aid control. This was the only U.S. patent received by Park for a golf club.
1915 Three-time British Open winner Robert "Bob" Ferguson of Musselburgh died. Unlike professionals Tom Morris Snr. and William Park Jnr. he never benefited from his considerable fame. Disabled by an attack of typhoid fever, not long after his third consecutive victory in 1882, he was unable to compete in first class challenge matches and reverted back to his former job of caddying and giving lessons on Musselburgh links. The removal of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers from Musselburgh to Muirfield also caused him serious financial loss. "To be great in golf requires the gift," he once wrote but never alluded to what the "gift" was. Andrew Greig, long time official Starter at Old Course at St Andrews dies on 29 April. Tom Fernie, the son of Willie Fernie, British Open Champion in 1883, was wounded in action in France. Fernie, professional at Turnberry, enlisted early in the war and was a corporal in a Glasgow regiment. All British and Canadian championships are suspended because of World War I. They resume in Canada in 1919 and Britain in 1920. All golf courses at St Andrews now get their own independent water supply from nearby Cairnsmill. In an article in Golf Illustrated magazine it described how the flag sticks at North Berwick were gathered in every Saturday night so the townspeople might not be tempted to play golf on the Sabbath! This was a practice that had gone on for the past century or more. 1916 Former U.S. Open champion, Willie Smith died on 26 December after an attack by rebel troops on Mexico City Country Club where he was club professional. Smith had moved to Mexico City in 1904 and refused to return to the United States despite the obvious danger he faced during the so-called Mexican Revolution which began in 1910. On Christmas Eve the clubhouse was shelled by rebel troops under the command of Emiliano Zapata. Armed bandits then rode in on horseback, used the ballroom as a stable and ransacked the members‘ locker rooms, Defending Government troops on the river bank 1,500 yards to the north fought back using small artillery and shelled the club themselves! Willie hid in the cellar throughout and was eventually found trapped under a fallen beam. Badly wounded by shrapnel, he died of his wounds a few days later. His brothers Alex, George, Jimmy and Mac arranged to have his body brought home to Scotland for burial in the family plot in Carnoustie. 1917 William Park Jnr. is granted a U.S. patent for a new type of golfing boot. 1918 No major championships are held on either side of the Atlantic because of World War One. Two-time British Amateur champion Robert Maxwell was awarded the Military Cross for bravery. Rising to the rank of Captain in the British Army, Maxwell had enlisted as a private in the 8th Royal Scots barely three years earlier.
1919 The Eden Tournament is inaugurated at St Andrews. The King's Course at Gleneagles in Perthshire officially opened in May. The first professional tournament was played there in 1920 and won by the club professional at Turnberry, Tom Fernie. A player practice swinging his club hit Robert Tait on the neck at Girvan Golf Links in July, The man fell unconscious and died shortly afterwards. Jimmy Alexander is appointed Starter at the Old Course, St Andrews. Lawrence Auchterlonie, playing in the July medal competition of the St. Andrews Golf Club equalled the Old Course medal record of 71. The other holders of the record are George Duncan and Willie Smith. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews took over the running of the British Amateur Championship in the belief: "that in the best interests of the game the time had now arrived when there should be a supreme ruling authority for the management and control of the game, to further this end the Royal and Ancient Club has been asked to accept the management of the championship." Invited by the host clubs of the Amateur Championship to take sole responsibility for the running of the event in December, a similar request was made by the host clubs of the British Open Championship in January 1920. ......................................................................................................................................................................Back to top 1920 Golf Illustrated magazine of New York suggested a match between the best players in America against Great Britain. With financial backing of the USPGA the ten-man American team were offered $1000 expenses and the match was arranged over the newly opened Kings course at Gleneagles on 6 June 1921. A ground breaking conference is held in England between the U.S.G.A. and the British sub-committee of the R&A. The results are far from satisfactory. They discussed prospective changes in the rules and standardising the golf ball with a view to advising the Rules of Golf Committee of St. Andrews in September about their decision. The matter of the stymie is also discussed but no agreement is reached on the matter of banning it. Instead, the R&A suggest is that any national golf association shall make its own ruling on the subject, which further widens the gap between the two ruling bodies. The value of the British Open winner‘s medal was increased to £25. It was again deducted from his share of the prize fund. This practice stopped after the 1929 British Open at Muirfield when the winner no longer had to 'pay‘ for his medal. Scot Jock Huchison won the U.S. PGA Championship at Flossmoor C.C. in Indiana. Narrowly beating J. Douglas Edgar by one up in the final, Hutchison was born in St Andrews but later moved to the United States and became a U.S. citizen in 1917. He won the British Open Championship at the St Andrews in 1921 which is now considered the first by a U.S.-based player. In 1937, Hutchison won the inaugural PGA Seniors' Championship at Augusta National Golf Club.
1921 Francis Ouimet caused a storm of controversy when he refused an invitation to play in the British Amateur championship. Writing to the American Golfer magazine he expressed his annoyance over one report that stated that his prime reason for not travelling to Royal Liverpool was that all matches, except the final, are played over 18-holes and not over 36 like the United States Amateur. He said that while he preferred the American format of a medal qualifying round and thirty-six-holes matches, he does not wish his absence to be interpreted as a criticism of championship organizers, the Royal and Ancient. Willie Hunter of Scotland defeated Allan Graham by 12 and 11 to win the British Amateur Championship at Royal Liverpool. An international Challenge match between the United States and Great Britain was played on the Kings Course of Gleneagles in Scotland on the first Monday of June. The forerunner to the Ryder Cup two teams of twelve professionals opposed each other over two days. To qualify for the U.S. team each professional had to be born in the United States or be a naturalized citizen like Fred McLeod, Jim Barnes and Jock Hutchison. Emmet French was appointed team captain with Walter Hagen, Bill Mehlhorn, George McLean and Tom Kerrigan forming the spine of the team. Other members included Charlie Hoffner, Wilfrid Reid, Clarence Hackney and J. Douglas Edgar. Eddie Loos and Harry Hampton had been selected for the team but were not able to make the trip. As it turned out they were probably needed because Captain Edgar was not allowed to play because he was not yet a naturalized American citizen! Then Jim Barnes was unable to play due to neuritis so it was ten against ten. The British team comprised of veterans Harry Vardon, Ted Ray, J. H. Taylor, James Braid, Arthur Havers, Abe Mitchell, James McKenden, Josh Taylor, J. G. Sherlock and captain, George Duncan. The home team ran out winners 10½ to 4 ½. Bobby Jones made his first visit to Great Britain as a member of an unofficial U.S. team. Competing against their British counterparts in what would become the Walker Cup matches the following year, he also participated in the British Open at St Andrews. Charlie Hunter of Prestwick, who succeeded Old Tom Morris as the "Grand Old Man of Golf‖ died at the advanced age of 84. Hunter started life as a caddie and was appointed professional to the Royal Blackheath Club in 1861. Competing in a number of early British Open championships at Prestwick, including the first in 1860, he returned three years later as club professional where he served for an amazing 53 years. In one of the most famous incidents in golf history, Bobby Jones disqualified himself during third round of British Open at St Andrews. Leading amateur after rounds of 78 and 74, he was out in a disastrous 43 in the third. Taking a double-bogey 6 at the tenth, he found Strath bunker with his tee-shot at the eleventh. Failing to get out twice, he thinned his next clean over the green into the Eden Estuary! Showing further contempt for the golfing proprieties putted between his legs before turning to his marker and instructing him to rip up his scorecard. Storming off, he upset many of those present by expressing his absolute dislike for the Old Course. "Master Bobby is just a boy," wrote one reporter. Stung by the criticism for his behaviour, Jones later vowed never to act in such an unsportsmanlike way again. Jack Fowler Hutchison defeated popular English amateur Roger Wethered in a 36-hole play-off to win the British Open at St Andrews. Tied on a score of 296, Hutchison beat Wethered by nine strokes after rounds of 74-76 against his opponents 77-82. It was a controversial and surprisingly unpopular victory for the St Andrews-born professional. Played in the fourth week of June, Hutchison had used a set of 'deep-grooved' irons which helped him impart extra backspin to hold his approach shots on the sun-baked greens of the Old Course. Accused of unsporting behaviour and even cheating, "Jock" left Scotland for his adopted home in America with howls of criticism ringing in his ears. Causing much debate the "ribbed" clubs he used were banned four years later in Britain. Golf courses throughout Scotland were becoming so congested that some took the unusual step of regulating the number of games played. The most drastic action was taken by the Monifieth Golf links which has 1,500 members. Each member was supplied with a card bearing the name and a serial number and containing 100 spaces. The idea was that he would be asked to produce this card whenever he wants to play and have one of the spaces stamped by the official starter before his game. When the whole 100 spaces have been stamped he will have exhausted his year's ration of golf and asked to play elsewhere. The "British Champion versus American Champion" match arranged to celebrate the home-coming of Harry Vardon and Edward Ray from the United States in 1920 was repeated at Coombe Hill a year later. The "British" pair of Scots George Duncan and Sandy Herd faced the "American" team of Ray and Vardon! The "home team" lost by 1 hole in the morning match and by 4 and 3 in the afternoon. Returning from a ground breaking twelve week trip to Europe, Crown Prince Hirohito of Japan alarmed his advisors by having a nine-hole course built inside the palace grounds in Tokyo. Thought to have played golf with Edward, Prince of Wales while in Scotland, the British heir-apparent returned the compliment by playing a return match in Tokyo in April the following year. (It was reported that the "battery of cameras" that followed their every shot "put them off their game and no scorecards were returned." Hirohito assumed the throne upon the death of his father Yoshihito in 1926. A passionate golfer Emperor Hirohito continued to play up to the outbreak of WWII. In true Scottish tradition, he never played without first donning his tweed suit and woollen plus fours.
1922 On 27 February the United States Golf Association invited the Royal Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews to send a British team of ten to meet a United States team prior to the American Amateur Championship. The even suggested a name for the new competition - "The Walker International Cup." Jock Hutchison and Joe Kirkwood completed a round at St Andrews in just one hour and twenty minutes. Hutchison won by 4&3 after a round of 74. Veteran Andrew Kirkaldy confirmed that he had played the Old Course at St Andrews in an eclectic score of 43! The Kingsbarns Golfing Society was re-established as Kingsbarns Golf Club. With the agreement of Lady Erskine, owner of Cambo House and Estate, Willie Auchterlonie laid out a nine-hole course on the land around Kingsbarns Bay. Barely ten miles from the golfing Mecca of St Andrews, the rough hewn course served the needs of the local people and holidaymakers until the onset of the Second World War when the links and beach was mined to prevent an enemy landing. Reverting to rough pasture the course would remain out of use for almost eight decades. Tommy Armour immigrated to the United States from Scotland after coming over to play in the Walker Cup Matches. He turned pro in 1924 despite having lost sight in an eye while fighting in World War I. Scot David Hood arrived in Japan on 22 July and within twelve months became the best-paid teaching professional in the world! In a real life rags-to-riches story, he had landed in Manila in the Philippines Three years earlier where he became official instructor attached to the Manila Golf Club. Looking to try his luck in the land of the Rising Sun, he rose to the height of his profession. The only golf professional for thousands of miles, he was appointed instructor to the Prince Regent of Japan. Based at the Shinjunku Palace Hood also gave lessons to other members of his family including Prince Kuni, father of Princess Nagako, the future Empress of Japan and Prince Asaka. The only foreigner allowed to touch members of the Imperial Family, Hood could not speak a word of Japanese with everything is being done through an official interpreter. A movie-camera filmed every lesson and he was literally showered with gifts for his efforts. As his fame spread, Hood was appointed official instructor to practically all the leading Golf Clubs in Japan including the Rokko, Maiko, Yokoya, Naruu in the Osaka district, plus others in Negishi, Hadogaya, Yokohama, and Kanazawa. He was paid a huge fee for laying out a course for the Osaka Golf Links at Ibaraki in 1925 which cost 650,000,000 yen or approximately £65,000 to build. A year later he extended the Tokyo Golf Club from nine to eighteen holes. A talented player, Hood established course records at all the courses he visited and was feted as a celebrity wherever he went. The Kooyonga Golf Club in South Australia was founded when a train strike forced businessman H.L Rymill, to make alternative travel arrangements. Forced to take a tram to his home club at Royal Adelaide he noticed a stretch of undulating swampland and sand hills known as May's Paddock was up for sale. Inspecting the site a few days later, he acquired the land with the idea of building a golf course on it. Within a few months the first nine holes were open and by June 1924 the full eighteen were ready for play. Kooyonga Golf Club celebrated its eighty-fifth anniversary in 2008. After two years in charge of the British Amateur (and Open) championships, the R&A officially recognised Allan MacFie as the first winner in 1885. 1923 The qualifying round for the British Open was played in windswept conditions at St Andrews. With golf balls regularly blown off the greens, Aubrey Boomer splashed his ball from sand only to watch it curl back over his shoulder and drop into his jacket pocket. Arthur Gladstone Havers won the British Open at Troon – the first time the Ayrshire links had hosted the Championship. Born in Norwich, the quietly spoken professional had first qualified for the Open in 1914 at the age of sixteen. He played in the Ryder Cup in 1927, 1931 and 1933. In the $5,500 professional matchplay tournament at Gleneagles, Archie Compston was forced to ask playing partner Harry Vardon to lend him a niblick (pitching wedge) to play a shot because he had snapped at least four over his knee in anger! Vardon agreed then lost the match into the bargain. The British Open at Troon became a battle ground between defending champion, Walter Hagen and the R&A who ran the tournament. Less than 36 hours before the Open was due to begin, the ruling body of golf outlawed any iron that had small round dots cut into the club face to aid backspin. Affecting most of the visiting American professionals of the time, Hagen expressed his displeasure describing their actions as "unsportsmanlike!" (He had already been stopped from entering the clubhouse the evening before because he was wearing a suit and not black tie as was required.) Threatened with losing some of their star names, the club professional and his assistants worked through the night with files brought in from a Glasgow shipyard to help file down the offending clubs – including Hagen‘s – and a major crisis was averted. The name "Postage Stamp" used to describe the short par-3, eighth hole at Troon came into common usage. Constructed around 1915 it was known before the British Open began as "Ailsa" because of its views to the nearby Ailsa Craig. Then during the course of the championship the editor of Golf Illustrated magazine, Willie Park Jnr. wrote how, "The putting surface has been skimmed down to the size of a postage stamp for the championship!" Needing a birdie at the 72nd hole to tie with Arthur Havers for the British Open at Troon, Walter Hagen cut his second shot into a bunker alongside the green to end his chances. The partisan crowd could not resist applauding "shortly and faintly" but it was enough for members of the Championship committee to offer their sincere apologies to Hagen. Told about the incident an American journalist said: "That‘s nothing, back home they would have called out their delight with a megaphone!" Hagen though had his own issues with the R&A. Finishing runner-up Hagen refused to take part in the trophy presentation ceremony because his fellow professionals had been banned from the clubhouse all week. Returning home, Hagen told reporters, "I am sorry to say that I did not receive the sort of treatment which would make me anxious to return." The St Andrews Golf Company of Glasgow and Dunfermline produce the first entirely machine made socket head driver on the 3 November. The first one off the assembly line was allegedly taken to Los Angeles and used once only by Douglas Fairbanks to drive off the first tee of Bel Air Golf Course. 1924 1925 On 7 January, Scottish professional Ben Sayers Jnr. receives British patent for a wooden club called a "Gruvsol." Designed with a recessed sole plate with grooves extending from front to back, it claimed to help deliver the club head in a straight line. Prestwick Golf Club hosted its 24th and final Open Championship. Jim Barnes won the British Open at Prestwick this day in 1925. Yet it was another American-based British professional that took the headlines. Third round leader MacDonald Smith knew that a round of 78 would secure the Claret Jug. Starting his final round after Barnes had already finished, Carnoustie-born Smith struggled manfully to cope with the massive Scottish crowds who turned out to support him. Running through the bunkers and crowding him on every shot, it must have been like playing golf in a goldfish bowl. Shooting 40 on the back nine for an 82 he slipped into a disappointing fourth place behind Ted Ray and Archie Compston on 301. Home to the first eleven Open Championships from 1860 onwards, it would be the last time golf‘s oldest major would be held on Prestwick Links. The R&A formed a Joint Advisory Committee with the USGA to assign Standard Scratch Scores (S.S.S.) to all British golf courses in the same way that Course Ratings were issued to courses in the United States. The Championship Committee of the Royal and Ancient decided to charge an admission fee to spectators for the 1926 British Open. Resulting from Macdonald Smith's complaint that he was robbed of the championship at Prestwick earlier that year owing to the enormous crowd which, he alleged, hampered and impeded his movements, so much so that there were occasions when he was unable to swing his club. Convinced that some action must be taken to curb the enthusiasm of the vast Scottish crowds, this was the first time that fans would pay to watch golf‘s oldest major championship. By no means a unanimous decision, it was pointed-out that charging a fee may prove impractical as all British Open courses had open access from the beach! 1926 Joshua Crane compiled the first ever rating system for British golf courses. Causing huge controversy when it appeared in The Field magazine he rated each one out of 100. Amazingly he placed the Old Course at St Andrews in a lowly 14th place out of 14! The top three were Muirfield, Gleneagles and Princes. Weakened by influenza, Jess Sweetser of the United States defeated home favourite A.F. Simpson 6 and 5 in the final of the British Amateur Championship at Muirfield. Amateur star Jess Sweetser was taken seriously ill shortly after his United States team defeated Great Britain in the Walker Cup at St Andrews. Barely hours after he beat Sir Ernest Holderness in the singles, he was put to bed under Doctors orders but later in the evening developed haemorrhage of the throat. He insisted on travelling south and being put aboard a liner at Southampton. After a lengthy sea journey he was rushed ashore at New York onboard a destroyer. At the pier an ambulance was waiting to take him to the hospital. Sweetser, who only played in the Walker Cup because a substitute could not be found, requested that his illness should be kept secret from his wife of six months because of the delicate state of her own health. He eventually made a full recovery.
1927 The championship committee of the R&A decided that a replica of the claret jug would be given to future winners of the British Open Championship. The original made by Mackay Cunningham and Company of Edinburgh in 1873, would remain permanently on display in the R&A Clubhouse at St Andrews. The leading amateur player would also receive a silver medal inscribed with "First Amateur". During practice for the British Open at St. Andrews, left-handed amateur Len Nettlefold astonished onlookers by swapping clubs with his right-handed playing partner Australian professional, Joe Kirkwood. Both ambidextrous they played the back nine with each other‘s clubs with very little effect on their game. Bobby Jones won his second consecutive British Open title at St Andrews. After a record-breaking 67, five strokes below par, at Gleneagles, the day before the British Open got under way, Bobby qualified with a 76, 71-147, and then opened the tournament proper with an impressive 68. Three 72's followed and the title was his. Jones held a press conference on his return to New York. Asked what he had learned from his trip to St Andrews, he said jokingly how it was considered a "hanging offence to hit of the first on the Old Course with an iron club!" Jones also admitted to bringing home a consignment of gutta-percha balls like those used in the last century. Given to him by top British amateur Robert Harris, he said he was going to display them in his study in Atlanta. Thomas Dickson Armour wins the 31st U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club. In the final round he played the last six holes in 2-under-par then birdied the 72nd hole after hitting a 3-iron to within 10 feet of the hole to tie Harry 'Lighthorse‘ Cooper‘s four round total of 301. (Cooper had three-putted the 71st hole from eight feet.) The toughest of competitors, "Tommy" closed out his round equally well the following day in the play-off. Coming from two strokes down with six holes to play, the 18-hole playoff was tied until Cooper took two strokes to escape a bunker and double-bogied the 16th hole. Armour eventually beat Cooper by three-strokes (76-79) to win his first major title. Scottish-born the "Silver Scot" followed it up with victories in the 1930 PGA Championship and 1931 British Open. Overshadowed by Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen throughout his playing career, Tommy built a wonderful reputation as a teacher and best-selling author in later life despite having lost an eye in a mustard-gas attack during World War One. (It was while convalescing from his wartime injuries that he first took up golf). Sir William Orpen painted a portrait of Edward, Prince of Wales on behalf of the R&A. Casually dressed in his cloth cap and plus-twos, the future King Edward VIII was a keen golfer and according to the Golfers Handbook, held the record of playing more golf courses than living amateur in the world. When this portrait is not hanging in the R&A clubhouse at 1928 Prestwick was suggested as an ideal place for next year's Ryder Cup match, which was due to be played in Britain. Within easy reach of Glasgow, big crowds would be almost guaranteed in contrast to the strong favourite, Sunningdale. In the end, Moortown near Leeds was selected by the British PGA. 1929 Widely acknowledged as the world's two best women golfers, Britain's Joyce Wethered beat America's Glenna Collett, 3 and 1 in the final of the British Ladies Championship at St. Andrews, Scotland, to claim her fourth title. The championship committee of the Royal and Ancient decided that a maximum of 130 would qualify for the upcoming British Open Championship at Muirfield scheduled for four rounds over Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, 8th, 9th, and 10th May. Walter Hagen successfully defended his British Open title at Muirfield from 8 -10 May. Gaining "revenge" for his team‘s recent defeat in the Ryder Cup, his winning score of 292 was the same as the previous year. At the halfway mark Leo Diegel led him by two strokes, 140 to 142, despite a new course record round of 67 by Hagen. In windswept conditions Diegel then fell apart on the final day with final rounds of 82 and 77. Followed by large crowds after his fine play in the Ryder Cup at Moortown, he eventually finished third behind reigning U. S. Open Champion Johnny Farrell (294) on 299. Seven shots behind Hagen, it was the American stars fourth British Open title. A local girl was killed by a golf ball while walking across Longniddry, golf course in East Lothian, Scotland. Her father raised an action against the landowner Earl of Wemyss for £500 damages for the death of his daughter. Lord Fleming, in the Scottish Court of Session, dismissed the action on the grounds that the child had received no permission to go on the golf course, which was private property, and that Lord Wemyss had taken reasonable precaution to warn off trespassers. ......................................................................................................................................................................Back to top 1930 Bobby Jones survived three 1-up matches before defeating Roger Wethered 7 and 6 in the final of the British Amateur Championship at St Andrews. Edward, Prince of Wales, was rebuked by religious leaders in Scotland after newspapers reported that he had flown over to Le Touquet in France for a round of golf on a Sunday in June. The telegram read: WE RESPECTFULLY SUGGEST THAT YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS COULD SET A HIGHER EXAMPLE TO YOUR FUTURE LOYAL SUBJECTS BY REFRAINING FROM ENCOURAGING THE DESECRATION OF THE SABBATH. Robert T. Jones Jnr. completes a unique "Grand Slam" with victory in the U.S. Amateur Championship at Merion Cricket Club in Ardmore, Pennsylvania on 27 September. Because of the huge crowds, Marines and State troopers ushered the finalists Bobby Jones and Gene Homans off each tee and onto each green. Jones dominated the match as Homans took on the look of a rabbit caught in a motor car headlight. Winning three of the first four holes in the most anticipated final in golf history, he defeated the hapless Homans by 8 & 7 in the thirty-six hole final. Capturing the American Open and Amateur Championships along with the British Open and Amateur equivalent, Jones achievement cannot be understated. Described by George Trevor of the New York Sun as the: "Impregnable Quadrilatera" the entire golfing world fully expected Jones to turn professional the following year. Looking forward to seeing Jones and Walter Hagen go head-to-head in 1931, no one could quite believe it when Jones announced his decision to retire from competitive golf aged just 28. Quitting while he was ahead, Jones impeccable record included winning 23 of the 52 tournaments he competed in. H.R.H., The Duke of York was installed as the new captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. David "Deacon" Brown, British Open winner in 1886, died in poverty in Musselburgh. Moving to England from Scotland to become club professional at Newbiggin around 1888 before relocating to the Malvern Golf Club. He continued to play in the Open and featured prominently. At the turn of the century he moved to Boston in the United States. In 1903 he tied with Willie Anderson for first place in the U.S. Open after 72 holes, but lost the playoff. Brown enjoyed playing the stock market but lost most of his wealth during the Wall Street slump in 1929 and returned to Scotland where he died the following year. 1931 After a series of thefts from the "dressing shed" at St Andrews between 9th and 16th July, Bob Alva Pittar, aged 18, was arrested and brought before Hamilton Magistrate Court on 22 August. Detective-Sergeant Thompson said that for some weeks visiting golfers had missed money which they left in their clothes in the changing rooms. A trap was set for the visit of a team from Hamilton Golf Club and the accused was seen extracting a marked 10 shilling note from a coat, owned by a Mr. W. J. King. The accused then confessed to the other thefts. The Magistrate, Mr. Wyvern Wilson, said there were some unpleasant features about the case. The accused had mixed with his father's friends in order to secure admission to the clubhouse, and he had deliberately and with premeditation stolen the money. Mr Pittar was given probation for two years on the strict condition that he made full restitution of all the monies stolen. 1932
1933 Professional William Nolan set a new course record after scoring 67 in the first round of the British Open at St Andrews. Craig Wood hits a 430 yard (393 m) drive at the Old Course's fifth hole in the British Open this is still the longest drive in a major championship. Densmore Shute was the model of consistency in winning the British Open at St Andrews scoring 73-73-73-73. Even then it was only good enough to put him in a playoff with his fellow American, Craig Wood. It looked certain that they would be joined by a third member of the US Ryder Cup team which had lost narrowly to G.B. & I. just a week or so earlier. Needing two putts for a tie, Leo Deigel inexplicable yipped his second from just two feet on the eighteenth green Missing the ball completely he left the course completely distraught. The following day Shute beat Wood by five shots over 36 holes. Newly-crowned British Open golf champion Walter Hagen set three course records in three days on his post Ryder Cup tour of Scotland at Kingussie (64), Pitlochry (65) and Inverness (64). Edward, Prince of Wales became marooned at Rothesay on the Isle of Bute after a game of golf. Enjoying a couple of rounds with Sir lan Hamilton they missed the last boat from the mainland at 9 p.m. Facing an overnight stay, the Royal Navy swung into action after a wireless message was sent to Gourock on the mainland. A destroyer was dispatched to the Island and brought him back to Gourock, from where he went to Glasgow by special train. They reached Glasgow the following morning where 35,000 people were waiting at the barricades to see the Prince, who barely had time to dash to the London train. 1934 There were disgraceful scenes at the British Amateur Championship at Prestwick when a partisan crowd did everything possible to prevent John McLean from defeating an unemployed Prestwick shipwright named Wallace in the fifth round. They crowded round McLean until it was impossible for him to swing a club, pushed him about, and cheered when he made a faulty stroke. McLean's ordeal was worst over the last four holes, when he was overtaken over the closing four holes. Obviously shaken by the experience, Wallace was beaten in the final by Lawson Little (U.S.A.) by the unprecedented margin of 14 and 13. William Auchterlonie, 1893 British Open champion, was appointed honorary professional to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. 1935 1936 Needing only a tie in the last singles match for a clear-cut victory, Mrs. Leona Cheney of America looked to have achieved it after hitting her approach within inches of the hole on the final green. All square with her opponent Jessie Anderson, the 21-year old Scot then holed a 20 foot putt across a rain-soaked green to halve her game and the overall match. With no provision for a tie, Doris Chambers, captain of the British team, declined to share the trophy declaring her team had not, "won any claim too it..." Unknown to her, she established the precedent that the previous winners should retain the trophy in international team competition. An idea that would be applied to all future Ryder Cup matches. Members of the Royal and Ancient met representatives of the golf ball manufacturers in London in July with a view to producing a new type of ball intended to reduce distance. The ball makers believe that they have found a solution to the problem of limiting excessive flight without interfering with the pleasure of the game. The manufacturers will report to the St. Andrew's Club meeting in September but they announced that: "It is expected that the new ball will reduce the full shot by from 20 to 25 yards. Some consider that this is a retrograde step but others believe it is necessary to prevent the ruin of the game by stretching the courses so inordinately as to make golf a test of endurance instead of skill." 1937 The Duke of Kent was installed as captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews on 30 September. The third Royal brother to accept the honour drove off before a large crowd but embarrassedly duffed his shot. The ball travelled sixty yards, and was retrieved, after a struggle, by a local caddie who received a sovereign from the hand of the Duke. 1938 The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrew's, announces that owing to flooding in February and the subsequent drought in April. Deal golf links will be unfit for play in the British Open beginning on 4 July. It also announced that arrangements were being made to hold the championship elsewhere, probably at Sandwich. Willie Auchterlonie is authorised to supervise reconstruction of the Jubilee Course at St Andrews. Trial matches are introduced for the first time by the selectors of the Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team. Causing a minor sensation, 17-year-old Irish schoolboy, James Bruen, equalled Bobby Jones amateur record of 68 for the championship course at St. Andrews. His total for four rounds (68, 71, 71, 72) was also three strokes better than the score Jones registered to win the 1927 British Open over the same course. Hailed as the greatest discovery since Jones and Ouimet, Bruen was promptly named on the British Walker Cup team the day before his 18th birthday - along with five Englishmen, two Scots. A few weeks later, the British team won the Walker Cup at the tenth time of asking. 1939 The British Open, British Amateur and Walker Cup are cancelled for the foreseeable future due to the War in Europe. ......................................................................................................................................................................Back to top
1941 Rubber for golf balls was in short supply in wartime Britain leaving nothing but pre-war stock and remoulds. Within a year production in Scotland had ceased completely leaving many Scottish golfers in the unenviable position of having to use cheaper wooden balls. 1943 1944 1945 1946 A Tribunal met on Edinburgh on 26 and 27 July to consider the Town Council's petition to Parliament that free golf for local citizens at St Andrews is rescinded after many centuries. Golf on the Old Course had been free for all comers until 1913. Locals played at no cost until the so-called Links Act received Royal Assent this year effectively abolishing the right of St Andrews citizens' to free golf on 19 December. Today, locals pay a fee of about £300 for the entire year. ($500) while visitors pay in excess of £180 per round.) Guests currently account for 40% of the play. The first British Open after World War II was scheduled for St Andrews. Defending champion Dick Burton from 1939 sent in his entry accompanied by a note saying: "I shall bring the Cup with me…" It seemed the famous old claret jug had been in his possession for six years. He had held the trophy for the longest period in its history and he arrived on the first tee having waited seven years to defend his title then sliced it out of bounds! Sam Snead won the first post-war British Open at St Andrews. Sparking controversy he described the Old Course as looking like it was "abandoned." Riding a train into the town, Snead asked a fellow passenger, "What in the devil is that? It looks like an old abandoned golf course." Much to his chagrin an old Scotsman reprimanded Sam, telling him, "That Sir, is the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, founded in 1754. It isn‘t abandoned and never will be!" Later that week, he had to be tracked down at his hotel for the trophy presentation! His only British Open victory, he ended the championship four-strokes ahead of Johnny Bulla and Bobby Locke. Green fees were introduced for the courses at St Andrews. After a contentious vote, the Town Council were allowed to levy charges of 3/6 for the Old Course, while members of the St Andrews courses including the R&A, could obtain a season ticket for £2.5s. Caddie charges were set at 6 shillings for a man and 4 shillings for a youth. 1947 1948 British Ryder Cup professional, Charlie Ward was challenging Henry Cotton for the lead in the British Open at Muirfield when King George VI unexpectedly joined the gallery to watch the action. Visibly shaking, Charlie hit a perfect five-iron at the 175-yard, thirteenth for a hole-in-one. An ardent Royalist, Ward declared proudly, "I wanted to give the King bit of a show." Bobby Jones was granted the "freedom of the burgh" of St. Andrew's, Scotland, traditional birthplace of the game of golf. The only other American to have been granted that honour was Benjamin Franklin. John Melville died in St. Andrews in October from injuries sustained in a road accident. He was an accomplished golfer, both amateur and professional, caddie and club maker with Robert Forgan & Son. As a member of the St. Andrew‘s Golf Club he won the won the Scratch medals in 1919 and 1923. He was the last man to caddie for Old Tom Morris in his final game on the Old Course. In 1905 he caddied for J.H. Taylor in the 1st International Match between the professionals of England and Scotland. In 1921 he caddied for Jock Hutchison who won the Open after an historic tie with Roger Wethered. Stewart Maiden, the Scottish professional credited with developing a young Bobby Jones into one of the world‘s best players, died on 5 November after a short illness. 1949 ......................................................................................................................................................................Back to top 1950 1951 Francis Ouimet was elected as the first American-born Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf club of St Andrews. In a solemn ceremony held on the first tee of the Old Course on 1 October, William Auchterlonie, winner of the British Open in 1893, teed up the ball. Accompanied by the sound of canon fire, Ouimet drove the ball some 170-yards down the fairway. He then gifted a $5 gold coin to the lucky caddie who retrieved his ball. The stymie was finally eliminated from the Rules of Golf on 14 December by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of 1953 The St Andrews Town Council and R&A discuss the club's financial difficulties. Shortly afterward, an agreement is made to set up a Joint Links Committee for the control, maintenance and management of all courses at St Andrews. It is still in place today. 1954 1956
1957 1958 The U.S.G.A. and R&A form the World Amateur Golf Council, and hold the first World Amateur Team Championship at the Old Course in St. Andrews. Open to representative teams of four players, the trophy was named after former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The contest consists of 72 holes of stroke play (the team with the lowest number of strokes wins). The three low scores of each national team for each 18-hole round are totalled to give the team score for that round. Robert Tyre Jones Jnr returned to St Andrews as captain of the USA "Eisenhower trophy" team. In an emotional ceremony the evening before the tournament was due to start, "Bobby" received the Freedom of the City from Provost Robert Leonard inside the Graduation Hall of St Andrews University. He first came to St Andrews as a 19-year old to play in the 1921 British Open. Giving up halfway through his third round it was an inauspicious beginning to what became a great love affair between him and the home of golf. He came back in 1926 and won the Open not forgetting to apologise for his previous behaviour – an apology so gracious that the townspeople took him to their hearts Presented with a ceremonial scroll and casket, the end of his speech was greeted with a spontaneous rendering of the old Scottish Song: "Will ye no come back again." Sadly he never did. Laid low by a degenerative spinal disease he ended his days in a wheelchair. He died on December 18, 1971 aged 69. The same day, the flag on the R&A clubhouse at St. Andrews was lowered to half-mast and all play was stopped for a remembrance. 1959 Gary Player wins his first major at the British Open at Muirfield. Eight shots adrift at the halfway point, the South African hit back with closing rounds of 70 and 68 to complete a two stroke win over Flory Van Donck and Fred Bullock. Scottish amateur Reid Jack was only two behind moving into the final round but could not give the partisan crowds the victory they wanted and ended the week in fifth place. ......................................................................................................................................................................Back to top 1960 Kel Nagle wins the Centenary British Open at St Andrews. The 39-year old Australian had never finished in the top 10 of a Major before despite being a multiple winner down under. In the final round, Palmer tamed the Old Course with a 68 despite this being his first experience of a Scottish links. With a birdie at the last from Palmer, Nagle had to hole a difficult 10-footer at the Road Hole 17th just to stay ahead. At the 18th, he then hit a nine-iron to within three feet of the hole - to seal victory by a shot. He later described it as: "the best shot of my life." 1962 Arnold Palmer defends his British Open title by winning at Troon with a record low score of 276. In his most successful year to date, he wins the Bob Hope Desert Classic, the Phoenix Open, the Texas Open, the Tournament of Champions, the Colonial National Invitational, the American Golf Classic and the Canada Cup with partner Sam Snead. Masters champion, Palmer also captures his second Vardon Trophy. Sam Snead made his first appearance at the British Open since his victory in 1946 at St Andrews. An unpopular winner with the locals, he was accused of having little regard for the traditions of the Open, which he dismissed as "just another tournament." While the austerity of post war Britain was in his words, like, "camping out." Having taken the £150 prize money - a fraction of that on offer in the U.S. Open - he then described the money he had lost that week. No wonder he chose not to return to defend his title. 1963 1964 1966 1967 1969 ......................................................................................................................................................................Back to top
1970 Jack Nicklaus wins his second British Open title at St Andrews beating the hapless Doug Sanders - who famously missed a three foot putt for victory then lost in an 18-hole play-off the following day. 1971 1972 Lee Trevino wins the British Open at Muirfield. Jack Nicklaus, who has completed the first two legs of the modern Grand Slam in winning the Masters and the U.S. Open, finishes second. It was decided by the Championship Committee of the R&A that all amateurs who play on the final day of the British Open should receive a bronze medal. The leading amateur will continue to receive a silver one. The first new nine-hole course at St Andrews was opened - the Balgove - a simple layout for local children. The 10th hole at St. Andrews Old Course is named after Bobby Jones. Scottish professional Jimmy Stewart was competing in the Singapore Open when his ball caught the attention of a cobra that mistook it for an egg. Bravely dispatching the large snake with one blow of his club he was amazed to see another, smaller snake wriggle out from its mouth. Repeating the exercise, Stewart went on to finish his round. 1973 Tom Weiskopf won the British Open at Royal Troon defeating Johnny Miller and Neil Coles by one shot. Miller had been the third round leader but faded with a final round 72. Weiskopf scored 70 which held off the hard charging Coles who shot 66. The most in-form player in the world, it was just one of five tournaments he won in a two months period. In an attempt to loosen the American stranglehold on the Ryder Cup at Muirfield, Irish players are added to the British team creating a GB&I team (Great Britain and Ireland). Foursomes and fourballs were also intermingled on Days 1 and 2. Lee Trevino boasted he would "kiss the American team‘s asses" if he did not beat Peter Oosterhuis in their Ryder Cup singles match at Muirfield. The record book shows that he halved the match and his team members - including Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer - insisted that he kept his promise. Scotland played host to the Ryder Cup for the first time. In a changed format, 18-hole foursomes and fourballs were played on each of the first two days and two series of singles matches on the third. In a fast start the British and Ireland team raced to a three-point lead with the Scottish pairing of Bernard Gallacher and Brian Barnes leading the way winning maximum points from their two matches on the opening day. Then disaster struck after Gallacher contracted food poisoning. Englishman Peter Butler was drafted in to partner Barnes but apart from recording the hole-in-one in Ryder Cup history, they could stem the tide of American dominance. After three days the U.S.A. ran out the winners by 19 to 13. 1974 The larger size 1.68 ball was made mandatory for all competitors in the British Open for the first time. 1975 1977 1978 Jack Nicklaus wins the British Open at St Andrews. Trailing Tom Watson and Britain's Peter Oosterhuis by one on Sunday morning, he came through the field on the final day to pip New Zealand's Simon Owen and Americans Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite and Ray Floyd to win by two shots for his third Open title. Establishing a record of three wins in all four majors, this was his 15th Major title and his second Open at St Andrews as he finished at 7-under-par for the week. Sandy Lyle won the Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award named after the English three-time British Open Champion Sir Henry Cotton. ......................................................................................................................................................................Back to top 1980 1981 1982 Bobby Clampett carded successive rounds of 67 and 66 to lead by five at halfway stage of the British Open at Troon. Following up a third-round of 78 with a final-round 77 he eventually finished in joint 10th behind winner, Tom Watson.
1983 Tom Watson captures his fifth British Open at Royal Troon. One behind Harry Vardon‘s six Open titles, he equalled J.H. Taylor, James Braid and Peter Thomson. He also became the only golfer in history to win at five different courses: Carnoustie, Turnberry, Muirfield, Royal Birkdale and of course, Royal Troon. He also matched Lee Trevino (1971-72) and Arnold Palmer (1961-62) as the only professional have won back-to-back British Opens. (They would later be joined by Padraig Harrington, winner in 2007-2008.) 1984 1985 1986 Greg Norman's bounced back from U.S. Open disappointment to win the British Open at Turnberry. In honour of his victory, Captain John Cook flew Concorde at low level up the final fairway before turning the afterburners on and flying over the famous hotel in a spectacular show of power! Not long afterwards the Great White Shark and a group of friends ventured back down to the 18th green where they were caught by security guards drinking champagne out of the Claret Jug. "Eventually, they realised who we were," said Norman, "and what we were doing, so I invited them to join us. Greg Norman held the lead in all four of the majors going into the final round of play but only won one - the British Open." 1987 After missing the cut in the British Open at Muirfield, Vijay Singh stayed on in Scotland and worked as a bouncer at the Amphitheater nightclub in Edinburgh to earn some extra money. 1988 1989 ......................................................................................................................................................................Back to top 1990 The R & A finally adopts the 1.68 inch diameter ball. For the first time since 1910 The Rules of Golf are standardised throughout the world. 1992 1993 1994
1995 Arnold Palmer made an emotional farewell after the second round at St Andrews. Credited with revamping American interest in the Championship after his decision to compete in the 1960 Open at St Andrews, he waved goodbye to his many British fans from the Swilken Bridge. It was his 32nd British Open appearance. John Daly won the British Open at St Andrews. Leader at the halfway stage, he fell back into the pack after a 73 in the third round. On Sunday, the former US PGA winner posted a solid 71 to hold a one-stroke lead. In a dramatic conclusion to the final round, Costantino Rocca needed a birdie on the eighteenth hole to tie. With Daly looking on from the clubhouse steps with his new wife, Paulette, the Italian star stunned the huge crowd by duffing his approach into the "Valley of Sin" in front of the green. With his chance looked to have gone, Rocca then holed out with a putter from fully 60 feet! After the drama of the 72nd hole, the play-off was a tame affair and Daly took control early on to record his second major championship. Only the fourth American since World War II to win two majors before his 30th birthday, he joined Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Johnny Miller in the record books. A senior army officer who took a military helicopter to fly to a golf tournament in June was disciplined by the Ministry of Defense. Lieutenant-Colonel Douglas Connon, commanding officer, 3rd Highlanders, booked an army gazelle helicopter to take him and a colleague to a VE Day celebration and then to an inter-regimental golf competition. With no room in the helicopter for their clubs, his also ordered his driver to take them the 220 miles from Nairn to Prestwick by car. The driver then returned to Prestwick two days later to take the men home. Lt-Col Connon, who had won the tournament the previous year, returned in triumph, successfully defending his title. Nicholas Soames, armed forces minister, said the incident had been investigated. "There was no dishonest intent on Lt-Col Connon's part," he said. "He did, however, make an error of judgement…" 1997 Alastair Campbell, Chief Press Secretary to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, tried his hand at golf at St Andrews during the Commonwealth Heads of Government conference. One witness who saw him play compared Mr. Campbell's swing as "like a caveman trying to kill his lunch!" 1999 ......................................................................................................................................................................Back to top 2000 Tiger Woods wins the British Open Championship over the Old Course at St Andrews. His first major at St. Andrews as a professional, Tiger blitzed the field by a record 8 shots. Completing a career grand slam aged just 24 he is two years younger than Jack Nicklaus when he first achieved it. Avoiding all 112 bunkers throughout the championship, his 19-under-par score also beat Nick Faldo‘s previous for low aggregate score at the Open Championship. 2002 Ernie Els lifts the British Open‘s famous Claret Jug at Muirfield after a dramatic four-hole play-off against Thomas Levet, Stuart Appleby and Steve Elkington. A first edition copy The Goff by Thomas Mathison from 1743 was sold for 20,180 pounds ($US30, 600 dollars) at Bonham‘s auction in Edinburgh in July. Written in the style of a Greek heroi-comical poem, it was just 32 pages long and is considered as the oldest book related to golf. 2004 The British Amateur Championship is played on the Jubilee and Old Courses. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews celebrated its 250th anniversary. Throughout its history it has remained a private golf club with a world-wide membership of 2,400. An 18th century golf ball linked to a renowned St Andrews professional was bought for £24,000 at auction by Jamie Ortiz-Patino, owner of Valderrama Golf Club in Spain. The ball, dating from 1790, was made by William Robertson from a leather shell stuffed with feathers. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews hand over the running of The British Open, the British Amateur Championship and other noted amateur events to a newly formed group of companies collectively known as "The R&A." 2005 2007 Three-time champion Gary Player sparked a storm on the eve of the British Open at Carnoustie when he alleged yesterday that there was widespread performance enhancing drug use in golf. Padraig Harrington defeats Sergio Garcia in a dramatic four-hole play-off to become the first Irish professional since Fred Daly in 1949 to win the British Open at Carnoustie. On the 72nd hole in standard play, Harrington arrived at the final hole with a one-shot lead. Widely acknowledged as the toughest finish hole in championship golf, the Irishman hit both his tee shot and his third shot into the Barry Burn. Bravely getting up and down for double-bogey, he now trailed Sergio Garcia – playing in the group behind him – by one stroke. Also needing a par at the last to win, the Spaniard failed despite taking a more conservative approach by hitting 2-iron off the tee. Failing to make par from the left greenside bunker, his putt grazed the left edge but stayed out. Having missed the opportunity to win his first major, Garcia then lost a playoff with Harrington. RAF flying instructor Marc Rodriguez's decision to swoop down to 400-feet over a crowded course at Carnoustie in Scotland landed him in front of a court martial on 15 April... Admitting a charge of low flying during the 2007 British Open, Rodriguez turned to the student he was teaching and said: "Let's go and have a look at the golf." An experienced pilot, he flew low over the tenth and the eighteenth holes before regaining height and flying back towards the North Sea. Unaware that a spy satellite was tracking his flight and recording every movement, he had taken off from RAF Leuchars near St Andrews on July 20. Prosecuting council, Squadron Leader Jim Morris, told the hearing: "He even dipped the right wing of the aircraft so he could have a better view. He was fined £1,500 and given a severe reprimand. Lorena Ochoa wins the Ricoh Women's British Open on the Old Course at St Andrews. The first ever professional tournament for women held at the Home of Golf, it was her first major win. Leading from start to finish the Mexican professional beat Maria Hjorth of Sweden and Jee Young Lee of South Korea‘s by four strokes on a five-under par total. Setting a new record for the Links Trust booking website, 1,100 applications to play the Old Course at St Andrews were received in 15 minutes after the advanced reservations opened on 5 September. Tee times available were from 28 June to 31 October 2008. 2008 Environmental expert Professor Jan Bebbington, Director of the St Andrews Sustainability Institute, has warned the year 2050 could see the Old Course crumble into the Eden Estuary. The Scottish government approve controversial plans by U.S. tycoon Donald Trump to build a huge luxury golf resort on the country's east coast near Aberdeen. 2009 2010 Rory McIlroy cursed his luck as well as the high winds that caused a brief halt in play in the second round of the British Open at St Andrews. The 21-year-old from Northern Ireland was leading overnight after equalling the lowest ever major round of 63 but fell apart in high winds to post an eight-over 80. Embarrassing as it was, it was still five strokes behind the record for the biggest variation over two rounds in golf‘s oldest major. That went to Frederick Fitzjohn who shot a first round 105 followed by a third round 83 in 1892 and Robin Davenport who had a first round 94 followed by a second round 72 in 1966 – a difference of 22 strokes! Lodewicus Theodorus "Louis" Oosthuizen won the British Open at St Andrews. With scores of 65-67 the little-known, South African golfer led by five strokes at the halfway stage. A third round 69 took him to 15 under par, four shots clear of second-place Paul Casey. Rarely threatened in the final round he stretched his lead to eight strokes at one point and eventually won by seven over Lee Westwood. Presented with the silver claret jug on Nelson Mandela‘s 92nd birthday he followed Bobby Locke, Gary Player and Ernie Els as South African-born winners of the Open Championship. The Old Course at St Andrews provided both the easiest and hardest closing two holes in major championship golf in 2010. The par four eighteenth averaged 3.627 for all four days of the British Open. Playing downwind most of the week it gave up 6 eagles, 186 birdies and 20 bogeys or worse, The toughest hole was the newly extended "Road Hole" seventeenth with an over par average of 4.665. Stretching just under 490-yards it yielded just 16 birdies all week with 174 bogeys and 68 double bogeys or worse. |
||
