Sports: Old Tom left big imprint on Old Course

Old Tom left big imprint on Old Course

Tiger Woods' record-setting Open score echoed through 138 years of history.

By BOB HARIG

The record stood for 138 years, through all the greats of the game. Harry Vardon and Ted Ray couldn't match it, nor could Bobby Jones or Walter Hagen. Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead couldn't touch it, nor could Arnold Palmer, Gary Player or Jack Nicklaus.

Not until Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach last month by 15 shots did the golf annals need to be changed.

Before that historic occasion, the record for widest margin of victory at a major championship was held by Old Tom Morris.

Who was Old Tom Morris? For that matter, who was Young Tom Morris?

They remain the oldest and youngest winners of the British Open, both claiming the title four times in the first 12 years of the tournament.

It is fitting that next week's Open Championship returns to the Old Course at St. Andrews, where Woods will attempt to become the fifth player to win all four major championships.

The Old Course reeks with history. It is the home of golf and considered the game's birthplace some 500 years ago. It is where 22 original holes were built (11 out, 11 back), scaled back to what is now the regulation 18 in 1764.

It is where the rules of golf were tinkered with, where gutta percha golf balls were produced.

It is also where Old Tom Morris spent most of his life.

Except for a 14-year tenure as greenskeeper at Prestwick, where the first 12 British Opens were played, Morris' world revolved around St. Andrews.

And he left a big imprint on the game.

He helped devise the first metal cups for firming up the hole; he learned how sand, scattered over bare spots, helped the growth of grass; he laid out golf courses across the British Isles (for one pound per day, plus expenses), including Muirfield and Royal Dornoch.

And he was a fine player, known for course management and accuracy from tee to green. His weakness was short putts, possibly making him the inventor of the yips as well.

"He was there just at the right time," said David Joy, the author of St. Andrews & The Open Championship. "You're talking about a life span that ranged from starting your career as a feather golf ball maker, through the gutta percha ball, to seeing trains link up the links land to the seaside courses, to playing in the first Opens, to winning it, to being the custodian of the (St. Andrews) links for nearly 40 years.

"He was involved in the major changes that occurred during the evolution of the game. It's unusual for a man to live to 86 at that time. ... He lived through some stunning changes in the evolution of the game."

Joy, 44, is a playwright, actor and engraver who directs plays at the local theater. As an actor, Joy often plays the role of Old Tom Morris, and has been seen playing the Old Course with wooden clubs and feathery balls, beard, coattail and all.

The idea came to Joy 10 years ago when the Open was played at St. Andrews. He did a one-man Tom Morris show at the Byre Theatre.

Joy did so much homework on Morris that he eventually wrote a book about St. Andrews and the Open. Another is in the works about Morris.

Morris served as an apprentice to Allan Robertson, considered the first true professional golfer. Robertson was the first player to break 80 on the Old Course, shooting 79 in 1858 when feathery balls traveled no farther than 170 yards. He died of jaundice in 1859 at age 44 -- a year before the first Open Championship was played.

Old Tom finished second to Willie Park by two strokes at the first Open in 1860. A year later, he won the title by four shots over Park and beat him again the next year by 13 -- a major championship record that stood until Woods' romp at Pebble Beach.

"Whenever he introduced that aspect of his life, he mentioned the 1862 Open," Joy said. "There had never been a better aggregate win. The fact that only four professionals were playing -- and probably no more than 20 or so in the entire field -- was a minor detail."

Old Tom won the tournament two more times, in 1864 and 1867, the last at age 46.

The next year his son, Young Tom, took the title at age 17, making him the youngest winner. Young Tom won four in a row, with no championship held in 1871.

Although Old Tom and Young Tom were accomplished tournament players, there was far more money to be made playing challenge matches. They barnstormed across the country, taking on all comers. One match was played Sept. 2, 1875, when the Morrises teamed to beat the Park brothers, Willie and Mongo, at North Bertwick, on the south bank of the Firth of Forth.

Upon their return by boat to St. Andrews, they learned that Young Tom's wife had died while giving birth. Soon after, Young Tom fell into despair.

"It was a great shame," Joy said. "He more or less hit the bottle from as soon as his wife and child died. It was the most dramatic story. Four months later, he was dying on Christmas Day. He more or less busted an artery in his lung."

Young Tom was just 24. Old Tom outlived him by 33 years. "He survived his whole family," Joy said.

And led a productive life, too. At the Old Tom Morris Golf Shop, which still sits adjacent to the 18th green of the Old Course, he made clubs from 1865 until his retirement in 1904. He lived upstairs in a flat that still is used by his descendants.

It became a tradition that Old Tom would act as starter for all the Royal & Ancient (golf's governing body) meetings and matches and tend the pin on the last hole for selected matches. And he was a prolific designer of courses.

"He was involved in every course you can think of that was a major course," Joy said. "He changed Carnoustie to 18 holes in 1866. He had a hand in Muirfield ... so many others. He was thoroughly involved. And he never raised his price in 50 years: 1 pound a day plus expenses. That was his way of giving back.

"And in all the research I did about him, I couldn't find a bad word about him. He was a caddie's friend as well as a gentleman's friend."