Old Tom Morris: the man who shaped the links

A weaver’s son from St Andrews

Thomas Mitchell Morris was born in St Andrews on 16 June 1821, the son of a weaver, and was educated at Madras College. He started golf by the age of ten, knocking wine-bottle corks pierced with nails around the streets. At 14 he was apprenticed to Allan Robertson, generally regarded as the world’s first professional golfer, who ran the St Andrews Links and an equipment-making business.

Robertson often chose him as a partner for challenge matches. It was said that the pair never lost a team match played on even terms, and they became known as The Invincibles. In 1848 Robertson fired Morris on the spot, after catching him playing the new gutta-percha ball, a rival to the featherie that Robertson made.

Prestwick and the first Open

In 1851 Morris was hired by the newly formed Prestwick Golf Club as Keeper of the Green, Ball and Club Maker. He designed and built the original 12-hole course, ran his own business selling gutties and clubs, gave lessons and organised events.

He was influential in beginning The Open Championship in 1860 and struck the very first shot. He finished second that year, then won in 1861, 1862, 1864 and 1867. His margin of 13 strokes in 1862 stood as the largest in a major until Tiger Woods won the 2000 US Open by 15, and he remains the oldest winner of the Open, at 46.

Home to St Andrews

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club called him back to St Andrews to take charge of the links as Keeper of the Green and professional. The course was in poor condition. He widened fairways, enlarged greens, built new greens on the 1st and 18th, and managed the hazards. He held the post until 1903, and the R&A kept him on afterwards at full salary.

His innovations still guide greenkeepers. He introduced top-dressing greens with sand, was the first to use a push mower on greens, and placed hazards so that a ball could be routed around them, the beginning of strategic design. He also initiated separate teeing areas to spread play.

The courses he shaped

Morris helped Allan Robertson to lay out ten holes at Carnoustie in 1842, and in 1867 extended Carnoustie to 18. At Forfar in 1871 he created the first course in the world originally designed with 18 holes. The Honourable Company’s own history credits him with creating Muirfield in 1891, where he laid out 16 holes, extended to 18 for the Open the following year.

At St Andrews he was responsible for the initial design of the New Course, which opened in 1895, and the Jubilee Course in 1897. His list also includes Machrihanish, Askernish on South Uist, Lahinch and Rosapenna in Ireland, and Westward Ho! in Devon. Killermont, for Glasgow Golf Club, was his last 18-hole design, opening in 1904.

Last years and legacy

Morris worked until his death, just before his 87th birthday. He died on 24 May 1908 after falling down a flight of stairs in the clubhouse of The New Golf Club in St Andrews. He is buried against the eastern wall of the cathedral churchyard, beneath the monument to his son, Young Tom, who died in 1875. In 1976 he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

The 2016 film Tommy’s Honour tells the story of father and son.

Our advice: walk to the cathedral churchyard in St Andrews, find the Morris graves by the eastern wall, then go to the 18th green he built and look back up the course.