The Open: Young Tom Morris, Old Tom Morris and how it all began
- Published
Young Tom Morris wearing the 'Challenge Belt' he got to keep in 1870 for winning three successive Open Championships
Young Tom Morris was just 13 years old when he first beat his dad. This was no ordinary victory though. Old Tom Morris was the reigning Open champion.
The Scot would go on to become the youngest Open champion, winning the 1868 title at the age of 17, and also the next three to set records that are yet to be bettered some 150 years later. However, his life ended in tragic circumstances at the age of 24, dying of what many say was a broken heart.
This week's Radio 5 Live Sport podcast, building up to July's 150th Open Championship, looks at the tournament's humble origins and the stories around those pioneers who founded what has become the oldest and most revered of all majors.
It all began with the death of Allan Robertson in 1859.
"He was the champion golfer In the 1840s and 1850s," said renowned golf historian Roger McStravick. "He was untouchable. Some competitions wouldn't let him play because he was so good.
"But when he died, aged 43, he left that question, who is the champion golfer and that is why Prestwick created the Open Championship."
Prestwick had only been in existence for nine years when it hosted the first Open on the afternoon of 17 October, 1860. Eight golfers whizzed around the 12-hole links course three times and had a spot of lunch at the Red Lion in five hours.
"It comes as a surprise to many to hear that the Open was first played at Prestwick because it tends to be assumed it must have been at St Andrews," says club archivist Andrew Lochhead.
"The reason it came to Prestwick is James Ogilvie Fairlie, an Ayrshire landowner who had been captain of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club at St Andrews."
Fairlie wanted to build a course on the west coast of Scotland and in 1851 recruited Old Tom, who had just been fired by Robertson for using a new-fangled guttie ball that was threatening the featherie that Robertson made and sold.
"It shows how much respect Old Tom had for Fairlie to leave St Andrews," said Lochhead. "It was a big leap of faith to move across country with his wife and son to a place he'd never visited before.
"He became Prestwick's keeper of the greens, ball and club maker and it was thanks to the skills of Morris that the 12-hole course quickly established its credentials as a proper test of golf."
In the mid-19th Century golf was an expensive hobby, predominantly for the rich, so the professionals, like Robertson and Old Tom, made a living from playing for bets, being employed as a caddie or making balls and clubs.
Many players would bring their caddies to Prestwick from the east coast of Scotland and, following the death of Robertson, Fairlie invited 11 clubs, 10 in Scotland and Blackheath in London, to send a "respectable caddie" to determine his successor.
The winning prize, donated by the Earl of Eglington, was a red Moroccan leather 'Challenge Belt', thought to be influenced by his passion for sports like boxing and medieval pageantry.
Willie Park senior of Musselburgh edged out Old Tom by two strokes to become the first champion.
"Tom designed Prestwick so he would have been favourite," said McStravick. "He was looking really strong and then fell in the last couple of holes. He would have felt like he'd let everybody down.
"He was the best golfer in the world and he would go on to win it in 1861, 62, 64 and 67."
Park would also go on to win four titles, as would Young Tom, who won all his in successive competitions.
"Young Tom was the Tiger Woods of his day," continued McStravick. "He was the first all-out professional. He was not a ballmaker, he was not a caddie, just a professional through and through. When he went on tours in England he was paid to play.
"He won the Open Championship three times as a teenager, aged 17, 18 and 19.
"He was exceptional and took the game to a different level."
His victory as a 17-year-old still stands as a record as the youngest major champion, while no player since has matched his run of four successive titles.
Tommy registered The Open's first hole-in-one in 1869 and the following year he became the first player to average under four strokes per hole when he carded a 47 for 12 holes. His cause was helped by holing his third shot from 200 yards at the 578-yard opening hole in the first round - this was at a time before holes had par scores.
"According to the rules of The Open when it started, if anyone won the belt three years in a row they got to keep it so Young Tom won it outright in 1870," said Angela Howe, the R&A World Golf Museum's heritage director.
Because there was no prize sorted in time for 1871, the event was not played. But by 1872, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, Prestwick and the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers had put their heads together and come up with a new trophy - the Claret Jug.
Young Tom was victorious for a fourth successive time but although the trophy was not ready for presentation, his name was the first to be etched on it.
"The game was exploding and Tommy was King," said McStravick, "and it's tragic how it all ended".
It was 1875 and Tommy and his father had just won a big money match at North Berwick when he received a telegram to say his wife was in labour. Before they could set off in the boat back to St Andrews - the Morris family had returned to the east coast in 1864 - another telegram arrived saying his wife had died in childbirth.
"He was just broken-hearted. For the next three months he was inconsolable," said McStravick.
"People tried to get him to play matches and he did play one. At 4UP he broke down and lost the last five holes."
Tommy moved back in with his parents. He spoke with them on Christmas Eve before saying goodnight but when he didn't appear in the morning, his dad went to wake him.
Old Tom found his son lying in his bed. He was 24 and had effectively bled to death of a burst aneurysm in his left lung.
"It was tragic," said McStravick. "It's like Tiger Woods dying before his seventh major. What would he have won? What could he have done? How many courses would he have designed? He was such a maverick."