Player Profile: Thomas Morris, Jr. (Young Tom Morris)

We’ve had the father of the game so let’s move onto the son.

Name: Tom Morris Jr.
Nickname: Young Tom / Young Tom Morris
Date of birth: 20th April, 1851
Place of birth: St Andrews, Fife
Date of death: 25th December, 1875
Place of death: St Andrews, Fife
Nationality: Scottish
Notable Wins: Won the Open Championship in 1868, 1869, 1870, 1872

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Other notable facts:

Tom Morris Jr was born into golf. With such a famous father this is no surprise.

He was naturally gifted with touch around and on the greens. He also hit the ball great distances (for the time) with a generally low ball flight.

Because his father was greenskeeper at Prestwick Golf Club, Young Tom bypassed the caddying and clubmaking roles, which were the usual entry to golf for young players at that time; he was the first future top player to do this.

He won his first Open Championship in 1868, succeeding his father, Old Tom Morris, who won his forth title in 1867. Tommy went on to win 4 Open Championships in a row (there was no Open held in 1871).

Until 2006, when his birth certificate was discovered in Edinburgh, it was thought that he was born on 10th May.

I would have liked to see the 1870 first round at the 12 hole Prestwick Course where Tommy shot 47. Folklore has it that this was one of the best rounds of golf ever played.

At the age of 17 years, 5 months and 8 days he is still the youngest ever player to win the Open Championship.

A memorial was erected at his grave bears the inscription: "Deeply regretted by numerous friends and all golfers, he thrice in succession won the Championship belt and held it without envy, his many amiable qualities being no less acknowledged than his golfing achievements."

When Morris won The Open in 1872, which was to be his last success, although he did finish as runner-up to Mungo Park when the tournament was held at Musselburgh in 1874.

Young Tom broke the course record over the Old Course at St Andrews by two strokes with a score of 77 for the 1869 St Andrews Professional Tournament; this score then stood as the course record for 20 years.

His self promotion really grew the popularity of the game of golf.

In 1865, aged just 14, Young Tom made his debut at the Open Championship.

In 1869, in keeping with the Rules of the Tournament, Young Tom was allowed to keep the original Championship Belt 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.

All four of his Open Championship wins were played at Prestwick Golf Club.

In December 1875, just three months after he lost his wife and baby son in childbirth, Tommy died.

In better circumstances who knows what he could have achieved.

“Beneath the sod poor Tommy’s laid,

Now bunkered fast for good and all;

A better golfer never played

A further or surer ball.”

Player Profile: Thomas Mitchell Morris, Sr. (Old Tom Morris)

I thought it would be fun to put together profiles of my favourite and influential players of the golf game.

With that being said, there are so many names that I had to choose from that I had no idea where to start. Did I choose people that inspired me as a youth? Or maybe the more modern players who have changed the game in recent years?

And then I realised the best place to start would be at the start of the very game I love - St Andrews. Who to choose then became an easy choice - the founding father of the modern game - Old Tom Morris.

Name: Thomas Mitchell Morris, Sr.

Nickname: Old Tom

Date of birth: 16th June, 1821

Place of birth: St Andrews, Fife

Date of death: 24th May, 1908 (aged 86)

Place of death: St Andrews, Fife

Nationality: Scottish

Notable Wins: The Open Championship 1861, 1862, 1864, 1867

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Other notable facts:

Age 14, he was hired as a caddy by the world’s first professional golfer, Allan Robertson.

Struck the first shot in the first ever Open Championship in 1860.

The first Open was held at Prestwick Golf Club, where Morris was the "Keeper of the Green, Ball and Club Maker” for 13 years from the club’s start-up in 1851. He also designed the original golf course there.

He holds the record for the largest margin of victory in the Open Championship at 13 shots. 

“For true success, it matters what our goals are. And it matters how we go about attaining them. The means are as important as the ends. How we get there is as important as where we go.”

When he returned to St Andrews in 1865 as a greenskeeper and professional, he commanded the sum of £50/year. 

He’s still the oldest ever winner of the Open at 46. 

He is buried in the grounds of the St Andrews Cathedral. 

In 1899, Old Tom Morris took on an apprentice greenskeeper at St. Andrews. That apprentice was Donald Ross, the future golf design genius. 

He played in every British Open until 1895 when he was 74. 

In 1868, his son, Young Tom Morris, won the Open Championship and Old Tom Morris finished second. It is the only time a son and father have finished 1-2. 

He outlived his son by more than 30 years. 

After his son's death, he said: "People say he died of a broken heart; but if that was true, I wouldn't be here either." 

His swing was classed as slow and smooth. 

His difficulty was always with the short putts. 

He was a fiercely competitive player. 

He produced or designed over 75 golf courses including Prestwick, Royal Dornoch, Tain, Muirfield, Carnoustie, Askernish Golf Club and Cruden Bay to name but a few. 

He is credited as the man who standardised the golf course to 18 holes.

He was Custodian of the Links in St Andrews - a position he held for nearly forty years - until he reached retirement age in 1902. 

The final hole on the Old Course bears his name. 

He said of Fifers: “We were all born with webbed feet and a golf club in our hand here.”

He was Custodian of the Links in St Andrews - a position he held for nearly forty years - until he reached retirement age in 1902. 

Morris received the sum of £3 as the runner-up at the first Open Championships, but the winner, Willie Park, received no prize money, making do with the honour of being named "The Champion Golfer" for that year.

He featured on a commemorative £5 bank note in 2004. 

He charged £1 per day plus travelling expenses to design golf courses. 

His first shop was located at 15 The Links in St Andrews.

“A goal is not the same as a desire, and this is an important distinction to make. You can have a desire you don't intend to act on. But you can't have a goal you don't intend to act on.”