Who was Old Tom Morris and in what ways did he shape modern golf?
“He’s Scotland’s greatest golf icon, he really is,” said Roger McStravick, a St Andrews-based golf history writer, as he spoke with boundless enthusiasm about Morris on the occasion of his 200th birthday.
“There isn’t one element of golf that he hasn’t touched upon in his own lifetime and still reverberates today, right from being a caddie as a boy up to being a player and, in later life, he set that formula as a golf professional who designs courses. He did so many fantastic things.”
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Hide AdThe son of a weaver in the Fife town, Morris was educated at Madras College before he started to work for Allan Robertson, one of the game’s first professionals, when he was 18.
“By then, he would have been a superb golfer,” said McStravick of the man who came second in the first Open Championship in 1860 before landing four wins in sport’s oldest major - in 1861, 1862, 1864 and 1867.
The second of those successes was by virtue of a resounding 13 shots, which stood as a record in the majors until Tiger Woods romped to a 15-shot victory in the 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach.