The First Professional Golf Tournament

The origins of golf are disputed, but knocking a ball across country with a stick to hit it into a small hole in the ground seems a distinctively Scottish pursuit. ‘Gowf’ was well enough established in Scotland by 1457 to be officially forbidden because it interfered with practising archery. It flourished all the same and indeed Mary Queen of Scots played golf and so did James VI (later James I of England) I. In the 18th century groups of enthusiasts began to form clubs and organise competitions. The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers was founded in the 1740s, while the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews held its inaugural competition in 1754. It was at St Andrews that 18 holes was eventually established as the proper number of holes in a course. 

It became possible to make a living out of golf, not only by manufacturing balls and clubs, but by teaching aspiring players and the Robertson family of successful ball-manufacturers in St Andrews were among the first golf ‘professionals’. In 1851 the redoubtable Old Tom Morris of St Andrews, a former Robertson protégé, was hired to design a course for the new Prestwick club on the Ayrshire coast outside Glasgow. In 1860 the Prestwick club staged a competition for professionals only, with a special red leather belt with silver clasps as the trophy. Eight professionals competed and Willie Park Sr of Musselburgh won with 174 strokes for three 12-hole rounds. In the following year the competition was opened to all comers and this was the beginning of the famous Open Championship. It was won by Old Tom Morris himself with a score of 163, beating Willie Park Sr by four shots.

So firm a grip did Old Tom Morris, his son Young Tom Morris and Willie Park Sr take on the championship, that from 1860 through to 1870 there was only one year in which one of them did not win it. By taking the title three years running between 1868 and 1870, Young Tom Morris won the champion-ship belt outright.