Young Tom Morris - Champion of Scotland

Champion of Scotland

Young Tom won the Open Championship in 1868, 1869, 1870, and 1872 (there was no Open Championship in 1871). No one else has since repeated this feat of four straight Open Championships. All four championships were played at Prestwick Golf Club, the course where he had learned golf as a youth. His 1868 win, at the age of 17, made him the youngest major champion in golf history, a record which still stands. In 1868, he scored the first recorded tournament hole in one, not only in the Open Championship, but in any tournament, on the 8th hole at Prestwick, sinking a shot of 166 yards. In 1869 his father finished second to him, a unique family occurrence in the Championship. Young Tom was allowed to keep the original Championship Belt, made of red Moroccan leather with an engraved golf scene on its front silver buckle, after his hat-trick of victories. The famous Claret Jug was purchased for the tournament in 1873, and his became the first name to be engraved on it, as he had won the Open Championship in 1872. During his 1870 win, he began the tournament by scoring a 3 on the first hole of 578 yards, using hickory shafts and a guttie ball, holing a long fairway shot of about 200 yards; given the distances which were possible at that time, this may have been the first-ever albatross (double eagle), assuming a par of 6 for that hole; the term 'par' had not yet been formally invented. His first-round Open score in 1870 of 47 over the 12-hole Prestwick course was the first competitive round anywhere which averaged under four strokes per hole.

The Tom Morrises, father and son, frequently competed as partners against all challengers for match stakes, winning most of the time, although their success rate dropped once Old Tom passed 50, as he sometimes struggled with his putting. Young Tom also toured Scotland and parts of England, both on his own and with fellow golfer David Strath, playing exhibition matches on their own account, without official sanction; this was the first time this had been done. Young Tom and Strath received some criticism for this, as it challenged the established structure of competition at that time. They were also the first players to insist on receiving money up front before a match was to be held; this was the foundation of appearance money, and prior to this the players were at the mercy of the result and the match's patrons. Morris also bet against members and other takers at St Andrews that he could score below a given standard over the Old Course, and won seven times straight. This form of betting was also an innovation at the time.