TOM MORRIS

The "Grand Old Man of Golf" scarcely needs an introduction to golfers today.  St. Andrews ’ best known resident’s chief claim to fame is his Open victories, four of the first eight staged.  What is not as widely acknowledged is his role in instituting that tournament which accorded recognition to the earliest golf professionals and planted the seed to which tournaments and tours around the world owe their existence.

As an architect, Old Tom was in great demand to lay out links the length and breadth of Britain .  Courses like Crail and Westward Ho! exist today virtually unchanged from their original Morris layouts.  His superintendency of the Old Course was a labor of love and it is fitting that the 18th hole, running past his shop and home, would later be named in his honor.  

Tom Morris was named the first "honorary" professional to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and indirectly had a hand in the development of American golf.  Young John Reid, summering with an uncle in St. Andrews , was enthralled by stories of golf and golfers learned on summer evenings when Old Tom held court outside the door of his shop.  Reid later would found the St. Andrews Club of New York and be a founding father if the U.S.G.A.  

With all these superlative attributes it is easy to overlook the fact that Morris was a gifted club maker as well.  Apprenticed to Allen Robertson as a ball maker, he made his first clubs around the time he became the professional at Prestwick in 1851.  Club making was still a sideline for most professionals and was squeezed in with the all other activities which took a back seat to keeping the green.  Returning to St. Andrews in 1864, he began making clubs in earnest in about 1867 and by 1870 had at least three other employees.  

Tom was in his 70s and close to retirement when his business hit its apex.  In 1899, he had at least eight workers including another Open Champion Bob Martin.  He trained many other employees who became fine craftsmen as well as golfers including R.B. Wilson and Albert Tingey, Sr., the latter an accomplished wood putter maker.  Probably his best known hands were his two sons, Young Tommy and Jimie, both of whom died before their father.  

His woods were classic in form and sold extremely well. Tom was never was fond of the Park style bulger with its accentuated bulge-face.  Even up to his death in 1908, he continued to make "regular" (scare head) clubs although, as a concession to modern golfers, he also offered the newer socket heads.  

He was good friends with the young Tom Stewart and in Stewart's early days patronized him by both selling and personally using Stewart's pipe brand iron heads.  This endorsement was a major boost to the young cleek maker's career helping him to soon achieve his own legendary status.  Stewart, in turn, made Tom's two patent irons, the round soled cleek and patent lofter in the 1890s.  

St. Andrews , home to many of golf's 19th century champions, persisted as a source for old wooden long nose-type putters long after play clubs, spoons and baffies of similar cut ceased to be used.  Into the 20th century, the Morris shop helped maintain the focus on these archaic weapons, preserving the heritage of both the sport and club making practices simultaneously. 

Even after Old Tom's demise in 1908 at age 87, the firm bearing his name continued to make clubs. The well known Autograph series of Morris woods and irons was introduced four years after his death.  Many were made and though they are 20th century clubs they still carry a spark of magic just as if the great man had made them himself.