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GOLF IN THE EARLY DAYS THIS WEEK AT LIVEAUCTIONTALK.COM |
Old Tom Morris in bunker at the St. Andrews, Scotland; photogravure; circa 1900; 12 inches by 9 ¾ inches; sold for $1,920. Photo courtesy of PBA Galleries.
Old Tom Morris liked to tell the story of the first British Open in 1860. It seems eight players showed up to play golf. One had spent the previous night in jail nursing a hangover. Several other golfers signed the register with an “X” because they couldn’t read or write.
A motley crew, the golf host ended up handing out matching checkered jackets for the group to play in. They looked more like lumberjacks than golfers.
Tom came in second at the first British Open behind Willie Park. Park was a local who grew up swinging a golf club carved out of a tree branch. Tom followed up his loss by sweeping the Open in 1861, 1862, 1864, and 1867.
Tom was legendary in golf history, its first superstar. He grew up in St. Andrews, Scotland, and understood the turf as well as the game better than most. He played in every British Open until 1895.
Morris still holds two British Open records, one for the oldest champion, age 46, in 1867. The other is for the largest margin of victory, 13 in 1862.
His son Tom Jr. was the youngest to win the Open, at age 17, in 1868. The father-son finished 1-2 in the 1869 British Open, with Tom Jr. placing first.
Back then fans were part of the game. They cheered and booed. They stood in greenside bunkers watching the players putt and bumping them as they swung.
During one match a bystander kept kicking Old Tom’s ball backwards.
“This isn’t golf,” he said as headed off the course on his way to the pub. He sat nursing his whiskey as the crowd howled.
It was Old Tom who modernized the game. He moved golf from bumpy pastures to smooth green courses with 18 holes. He shaped 69 courses, 52 of which are in Scotland. His courses include Muirfield, Prestwick, Carnoustie and Royal Dornoch. And he did it without a bulldozer.
Old Tom started out as an apprentice to greenkeeper Allan Robertson. Robertson was considered by most to be the first golf architect at St. Andrews. He shaped the centuries-old course into what it is today.
It seems Old Tom parted company with his mentor Robertson in 1850 over golf balls. Apparently, Tom ran out of “featheries” one day while playing a round and switched to a new “gutta percha” ball he found on the course.
The problem was Robertson was a “featherie” craftsman who didn’t appreciate competition. Not to mention the fact that the gutta percha ball soared farther and more consistently than his own balls.
Old Tom left for Prestwick, the site of the first Open Championship, until 1864. Then he returned to St. Andrews as the “Custodian of the Links” until his death in 1908.
On Feb 18, PBA Galleries, San Francisco, featured the famous photograph of Old Tom Morris in a bunker at the St. Andrews Links in Scotland in its Fine & Rare Golf Books auction. The circa 1900, 12 inch by 9 ¾ inch, photogravure from the Library of John M. McClelland Jr. sold for $1,920.
Here are current values for other golf lots in the sale.
Golf
Book; “Tom Morris of St. Andrews: The Colossus of Golf: 1821-1908”; first edition; signed by authors; $780.
Steel Engraving; “The Golfers: A Grand Match Played Over the St. Andrews Links,” hand-colored; 1850; 25 inches by 36 inches; $4,200.
Mug; three-handled; ceramic; Lenox; filigreed sterling silver rim; painted scene features man about to chip the ball; pre-1900; $5,100.
Bone China Plate; golf scene; blue painted; stamped Doulton Burslem; 12 ¼ inches diameter; $10,200.
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