Old Tom Morris (1821–1908): The Grand Old Man of Golf

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

Open Championship results are well recorded. Course design attributions are less certain: in Morris's day "laying out" a course could mean a single day's walk and staking of holes, and later architects often reshaped his work. This card notes where an attribution is shared or partial.

The apprentice ball-maker

established Tom Morris was born in St Andrews on 16 June 1821, the son of a weaver and letter-carrier. Golf was already the town's game, and at 14 he was apprenticed to Allan Robertson, the leading player of the day and a maker of featheries, balls made by stuffing a wet leather case with boiled feathers that expanded as they dried. A good ball-maker might make only a few a day, and they were expensive.

established In the late 1840s a cheaper, more durable ball arrived: the gutta-percha, or "guttie", moulded from the dried sap of a Malaysian tree. Robertson saw it as a threat to his business, and in 1848, when he caught Morris playing with one, he dismissed him. Morris set up making gutties instead, on the right side of history.

Prestwick and the first Open

established In 1851 Morris moved to Prestwick on the Ayrshire coast, where the new club employed him to lay out and maintain its links, make and sell clubs and balls, and give lessons. It was there that the Open Championship began. In October 1860, after Robertson's death, Prestwick invited the leading professionals to compete for a red morocco Challenge Belt, and eight players took part. Willie Park of Musselburgh won; Morris was second.

established Morris won the Open the following year, 1861, and again in 1862 by 13 strokes, a winning margin in a major championship that stood until Tiger Woods won the 2000 US Open by 15. He won again in 1864 and, in 1867, at the age of 46, a record that still makes him the oldest winner of the Open.

Keeper of the Green

established In 1864 the Royal and Ancient Golf Club brought Morris home to St Andrews as Keeper of the Green and professional, a post he held until 1903. He found the Old Course rough and worn and turned it into something closer to a modern course. He widened fairways, built separate greens for outgoing and incoming holes on the shared double greens, and introduced practices that greenkeepers still use: top-dressing greens with sand, deliberately managing and placing hazards, marking distances and, it is said, being the first to use a push mower on greens.

The course designer

shared Morris laid out, extended or remodelled dozens of courses across Scotland, England and Ireland, and is often called the first golf course architect. Among those most often credited to him are Prestwick, Muirfield, Machrihanish, Lahinch in Ireland and the extension of Carnoustie, first laid out with ten holes in 1842. His last 18-hole design was Glasgow Golf Club's Killermont course in 1904. Some attributions are partial, since many of his courses were later redesigned and in some cases he made only an initial layout.

Father and son

established Morris's son Young Tom Morris, born in 1851, was the greatest golfer of his time. He won the Open four times in a row, in 1868, 1869, 1870 and 1872 (none was held in 1871), and kept the Challenge Belt outright after three straight wins. Father and son played challenge matches together for big money.

established In September 1875, while the two were playing a match at North Berwick, a telegram arrived saying Young Tom's wife was dangerously ill after childbirth. By the time they reached St Andrews, she and the baby had died. Young Tom died on Christmas Day that year, aged 24.

traditional The often-repeated phrase that he died "of a broken heart" is how St Andrews remembered it. The medical cause was probably a pulmonary haemorrhage or similar, and the romantic version should be labelled as tradition.

The Grand Old Man

established Old Tom kept playing in the Open into his seventies, though he withdrew in some of his last years, and became golf's elder statesman, photographed constantly outside the clubhouse with his white beard and pipe. He died on 24 May 1908, aged 86, after falling down the stairs at the New Golf Club in St Andrews. He is buried in the cathedral churchyard beside Young Tom.

established The 18th hole of the Old Course is named Tom Morris. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1976.

• Morris lost his first job for playing a new kind of golf ball.
• The first Open Championship in 1860 had just eight players.
• His 13-stroke win in 1862 was a major record until 2000.
• At 46, he remains the oldest man to win the Open.
• He was among the first to top-dress greens with sand, still standard practice.
• The 18th hole of the Old Course at St Andrews bears his name.

• Myth: Old Tom founded the Open Championship. Prestwick Golf Club organised the first Open in 1860, and he helped start it, finishing second to Willie Park.
• Disputed: which courses Old Tom designed. In his day "laying out" a course could mean a single day's walk and staking of holes, many of his courses were later redesigned, and some attributions are partial.
• Myth: Young Tom died of a broken heart. That is how St Andrews remembered it after his wife and baby died. The medical cause was probably a pulmonary haemorrhage or similar.
• Myth: Old Tom and Young Tom won the same Opens. Old Tom won in 1861, 1862, 1864 and 1867. Young Tom won four in a row in 1868, 1869, 1870 and 1872.