200th Birthday of Old Tom Morris
June 16, 2021 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Old Tom Morris, the grand old man of golf. For golfers making the pilgrimage to St Andrews, Old Tom Morris and his achievements make a significant part of what a trip is all about. His life story is woven into the lore of the Old Course and the Open Championship. Born in St Andrews on June 16, 1821, Old Tom started out as a teenage apprentice to Allan Robertson, feathery golf ball maker and undisputed champion golfer, and he also learned the craft of a master clubmaker. His relationship with his employer famously came to an end when Robertson caught him playing the new gutta percha ball in 1851. Gutta percha, the natural form of rubber, was first used to make golf balls in 1848 and quickly threatened the long-established livelihoods of the feather-filled leather ball makers such as Robertson.
Old Tom was soon hired by the newly established Prestwick Golf Club to lay out and maintain its links on the west coast of Scotland as well as make and supply clubs and balls to its members. There he further developed a close relationship with James Ogilvy Fairlie, organizer of the first Open Championship in 1860, which was created to identify the champion golfer after the passing of Allan Robertson the year before. Old Tom came second in that inaugural Open, but he then won four of the next seven championships, with his son, Young Tom, winning the next four.
In 1864, Old Tom was hired back to St Andrews by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club to be “keeper of the green,” i.e. superintendent of the Old Course, which was in poor shape at the time. There he developed greenkeeping techniques still used today. Old Tom remained in his post until 1903, and such was the gratitude of his accomplishments that the R&A continued to pay him a full salary until his death in 1908 at the age of 87. He left behind an amazing body of work in the form of numerous golf courses that he designed and remodeled, in addition to some of the finest golf clubs and balls of the mid to late 1800s.
Old Tom was also an elder of ‘town kirk,’ Holy Trinity, whose minister Rev. Patrick Playfair (great grandfather of Playfair Golf Travel’s Edward Playfair) conducted his funeral and interment in St Andrews’ Cathedral Cemetery. His tomb, alongside his son Tommy and close to many other champion golfers, is a place of homage for golfing tourists. Other monuments around town are a bronze relief of Old Tom’s face on the wall of the Royal & Ancient clubhouse overlooking every opening tee shot and closing putt on the Old Course, an historical marker in North Street where he lived, and a memorial plaque inside Holy Trinity kirk.
Old Tom’s impact on the game of golf might most easily be understood from a summary of his achievements:
- The oldest winner of the Open Championship
- Father of the only father and son to win the Open Championship
- “Father of Modern Greenkeeping”
- The first professional to be engaged by a club to provide service to its members
- The first professional to design and build a course from scratch
- Pioneer of golf course architecture, who designed or remodeled many of the finest courses in the world, including the following favorites of golfing travelers:
o The Old Course, St Andrews
o The New Course, St Andrews
o Carnoustie
o Muirfield
o Prestwick
o Royal Dornoch
o Cruden Bay
o North Berwick
o Panmure
o Nairn
o Machrihanish
o Askernish
o Royal Portrush
o Royal County Down
o Lahinch
To mark Old Tom’s bicentenary, the British Golf Museum and the St Andrews Heritage Museum & Garden are putting on an online celebration, free and open to all on his actual birthday, June 16, 2021 (in addition to other events through the year). For more details and to register, please click on the below link. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/st-andrews-memories-celebrating-the-bicentenary-of-old-tom-morris-tickets-157048394977?fbclid=IwAR2cKukdsrysT3w-mAD7v14gcPc5Fqb9ieN0_RaIKcHWP-womaj-_jdr_T8