Tour Scotland photograph of the Tom Morris Gravestones in the Cathedral graveyard cemetery in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. Thomas Mitchell, Tom Morris, Senior, 16th June 1821 to 24th May 1908, otherwise known as Old Tom Morris, was one of the pioneers of professional golf. He was born in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, the home of golf and location of the St Andrews Links and died there as well. His son Tom Morris, Junior, died 1875, best-known as Young Tom Morris, was also a champion golfer.
Tom Morris Senior was an apprentice to Allan Robertson, generally regarded as the first professional golfer. He worked as a greenkeeper, clubmaker and course designer, as well as playing tournament golf. He came second in the first Open Championship in 1860, and won the following year. He followed this up with further victories in 1862, 1864 and 1867. He still holds records as the oldest winner of The Open Championship at 46. Also he was part of the only father and son couple being winner and runner-up. Morris played a role in designing courses across the British Isles, including Muirfield, Prestwick, Carnoustie, Moray, Warkworth in Northumberland, in the same year (1891) as Muirfield, Askernish links in South Uist and Rosapenna links in Ireland. There is currently a road in St Andrews, Fife named after him. The 18th hole at St Andrews golf course is named after the golfer in memory of his commitment to the course, and to golf in general.
Tom Morris was also the father of modern Greens-Keeping. He introduced the concept of top-dressing greens and introduced many novel ideas on turf and course management, including actively managing hazards, in the past, bunkers and the like were largely left to their own devices, becoming truly "hazardous". In course design he standardized the golf course length at 18 holes, St Andrews had at one time been 23 holes, and introduced the concept of each nine holes returning to the club house. He also introduced the modern idea of placing hazards so that the golf ball could be routed around them. Before his times hazards were thought of as obstacles that either had to be carried or were there to punish a wayward ball. Old Tom Morris held the record for largest margin of victory in a major championship, 13 strokes, in the 1862 Open Championship, which stood until Tiger Woods won the 2000 U.S. Open by 15 strokes. Old Tom fell down the stairs of the St Andrews clubhouse in April 1908 and died a couple of months later due to the injuries sustained. He is buried in St Andrews in the cathedral grounds and his grave attracts thousands of golfers who wish to pay homage to one of the founding fathers and greatest golfers to ever play the game.
Tom Morris Junior, 20th April 1851 to 25th December 1875, known as Young Tom Morris, was one of the pioneers of professional golf. He was born in The Home of Golf, St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, and died there on Christmas Day, 1875 at the age of twenty-four. His father, Old Tom Morris, was the greens keeper of the St Andrews Links and had won four of the first eight Open Championships. For many years it was thought on the basis of a baptismal certificate that Morris was born on 10 May, 1851, but in 2006 his birth certificate was discovered in Edinburgh, Scotland. Young Tom won the Open Championship in 1868, 1869, 1870, and 1872; all four championships were played at Prestwick Golf Club, the course where he had learned golf as a youth. There was no Open Championship in 1871. In 1868, he scored the first recorded hole in one of the Open Championships on the 8th hole at Prestwick. 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 after his hat-trick of victories, so the famous Claret Jug was purchased for the next tournament in 1872, and his became the first name to be engraved on it. During his 1870 win, he scored a 3 on the first hole of 578 yards, using hickory shafts and a gutty ball, holing a long fairway shot; 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. A monument at Prestwick marks the feat.
The Tom Morrises, father and son, frequently competed as partners against all challengers for match stakes, and it is said that they never lost a match. He toured Scotland and parts of England with fellow golfer David Strath playing exhibition matches. In a match play in September 1875 between Old and Young Tom and Willie and Mungo Park, Young Tom received a telegram that his pregnant wife, Margaret Drinnen, had suddenly got very sick. Old Tom and Young Tom hurried home but when Young Tom got there his wife and newborn baby were dead. Young Tom never got over this, and he died on Christmas Day the same year.
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