The 16th of June 2021 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of the most iconic figures in the history of golf. Old Tom Morris was a champion golfer, a pioneer in course design and of greenkeeping practices. His fame brought golf into the public eye. Framed by cap and beard, his face remains one of the most recognisable in our sport.
The year 1821 was a seminal one in the history of golf in St Andrews. It was the year James Cheape of Strathtyrum purchased the links for the golfers, to prevent rabbit farmers taking over. And, on the 16th of June, Tom Morris was born in a weaver’s cottage at the links-end of North Street.
From the outset, golf was a feature in Tom’s life. He was christened “Thomas Mitchell” by a golfing minister from Perth, the Reverend Dr Buist, and was soon swinging a club.
“I wad be driving a stane wi’ a bit o’ stick as sune’s I could walk,” he later recalled.
School was a relatively brief affair for Tom, and little is known of what he did between leaving in 1831 and going to work with the master ball-maker and caddy Allan Robertson towards the end of the 1830s.
Tom was taken on as an apprentice and Robertson taught him to make a “feathery,” and also how to play the game of golf on the links.
Tom spent four years as an apprentice then became a journeyman, making balls for Robertson, caddying, playing matches and all the while improving at the game. By 1842 he was a rival to his supposedly unbeatable mentor.
Successes on the links
A group of the early professionals including Tom Morris and Allan Robertson (fourth and third from the right)
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Robertson and Morris won a series of foursomes matches together, forging a formidable reputation. But their partnership and friendship ended when Robertson spied Morris out on the links playing with a rubber “gutty” ball. A new invention made of “gutta percha,” it was more durable and cheaper than the feathery. Robertson was dismayed at the arrival of the gutty as it threatened his livelihood. It was no consolation that Morris had simply borrowed the gutty from a playing partner having run out of balls himself. Robertson cried out to Morris, never to show face again, and that was the end of it. Morris took his wife and young son Tommy across the country to Prestwick where he had accepted a job as “Keeper of the Green.”
As a player Tom was highly skilled, though not infallible. In his early matches with Robertson, he developed a reputation…
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