Biography

Born in 1821, Tom Morris, affectionately called "Old Tom Morris," started his journey with golf at a young age working as a caddie. At just 14, he started his apprenticeship with Allan Robertson, the first professional golfer who managed the links at St. Andrews. Their partnership lasted for nine years during which they earned the nickname "The Invincibles" for their unbeatable performance. However, their connection ended abruptly in 1851 when Morris was fired for using the revolutionary 'guttie' golf ball, which Robertson strongly opposed.

Following the fallout with Robertson, Morris started working for the newly formed Prestwick Golf Club. As the custodian of the club, his responsibilities spanned from maintaining the course and giving golf lessons to managing the pro shop and organising tournaments. He is also credited for organizing the first Open Championship in 1860. In 1865, Morris returned to St. Andrews as "Custodian of the Links," where he undertook major improvements on the then poorly-maintained course.

During his tenure at St. Andrews which lasted for nearly four decades, Old Tom Morris pioneered modern green-keeping and introduced several new concepts and gardening techniques. He was the first to propose top-dressing greens with sand and regularizing the maintenance of previously neglected bunkers. Among his other notable initiatives were the use of yardage markers, push-mowers on greens, creating separate teeing areas for each hole, and strategic placing of hazards in such a way as to create a pathway around them.

In his career, Morris won four Open Championships and went on to make significant contributions as a course designer across the British Isles. Despite the limitations in terms of funding and the lack of advanced earth-moving equipment, he played a seminal role in the creation or re-design of 75 golf courses, including Prestwick, Royal Dornoch, Muirfield, and the Jubilee Course at St. Andrews. However, with the advent of the "Haskell ball," which could travel considerably farther than the guttie ball, many of Morris' designs had to be modified over time. Despite some of his work being lost, a notable amount of his original designs, such as the Cruden Bay and Royal Dornoch, still remain intact to this day.