Old Tom Morris: The Man Behind the Old Course

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Every good story is about the journey. And this is the story of our journey trying to play the top 100 courses in the UK and Ireland in just 10 years. This is the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast. Episode 93. Old Tom. Golf is good at one thing, and that is making you look very stupid. Aside from the very obvious bit about playing the game, it’s also about your knowledge. A lot of people like to make you feel like you don’t know as much as them. You know who you are, stop it. I’m here today to clear up a little bit of information and give you some knowledge about one of those characters that I’ve encountered while I’ve been going around playing top 100 golf courses, and that is a man called Tom Morris, affectionately known as Old Tom Morris. Now I’m talking to you about him today because last week we did our preview of the old course, which is synonymous with the man. And next week, spoiler, we’ll be doing our review of the old course. And this man’s shadow hangs over this course and this club and our game, not in a bad way, but it very much looms large in a lot of the chat and talk about golf. I must admit I knew the name, I did not know much about him. So today’s episode is about giving you that information. We’re going a little bit behind the scenes as to how we put our podcast together. So what usually happens is I do my research and I make bullet points as I’m trawling the internet, not for that reason, and I try and gather them up into sort of sections, and from that I will then bring out what I think, and it is my podcast, so it’s my prerogative, what I think are the sort of entertaining and salient facts that you need to know. So I’m basically going to do that research for you today because I was doing that for our review episode into the old course. However, there is so much to cover about this man in particular that it warranted an episode in its own right. So today is me giving you the information behind the scenes of how our research goes about a fascinating man, a man whose picture you’ll have seen absolutely everywhere, a man whose name you’ll have heard, but I guarantee you’re going to find out a few things today that you perhaps didn’t know about this great man of golf. But before

Our Independent Podcast Awards Result

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we do all that, can I ask you out there to hit follow? If you’re listening to this podcast, hit follow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get this uh this podcast. If you’re watching on YouTube, hit subscribe, hit the bell icon, and you won’t miss an episode. The YouTube version goes out on Monday evening, so if you ever wanted to get a preview, you can do that. Uh our normal episodes go out on Tuesday mornings. Now, we all know about algorithms. Doing those two actions gives the algorithm the indication that they need to find more people like you, and you’re listening if you’re listening to me asking you to follow, then you obviously like the content, and it will serve that content to more people just like you, and that helps our podcast grow. Finally, before we carry on, I promised I’d fill you in on how we got on at the Independent Podcast Awards. Well, I’m back to the grind. I was there last night. Out of the five shortlisted uh nominees that were there, we came second. We got a high commendation uh for the quality of golf podcast that we produce, and it’s based on quality of content, the concept, and also then the production values. So it was a real feather in our cap, came so close to winning, and I hope you know when we enter next year we’ve got a really strong chance of doing that. But it’s in no small part thanks to you and you popularising it. So please continue to do so. Now let’s find out about the grand old man of golf, old Tom Morris. So

Old Tom Morris Timeline: 1821 to 1908

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I’ve got my trusty notes over here that give me an idea of what kind of thing I want to discuss with you today. So the first thing, let’s cover his life uh in bullets really and give you some brief idea of of the timescales we’re looking at. So uh Tom Morris was born on the 16th of June 1821, around about the time of the year that I was born, actually. Um, he then became an apprentice at the age of 14 to a gentleman called Allan Robertson. Now, Allan Robertson is a name that I spotted while we played at St

Allan Robertson, Prestwick and the First Open

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Andrews. His old house is right next to the 18th Green at St Andrews. So if you find yourself there, I think it’s now an R&A building, or it might be the one that’s right next door to it. It’s basically where the the the old course uh gift shop is. Um there is a blue, a blue plaque outside for Allan Robertson. I’d never really heard of the guy, I didn’t really know much about him, but I felt like I’d recognised his name, and it turns out Mr. Allan Robertson was the man who laid out the course at Carnoustie. So he’s got amazing pedigree, but he was the uh professional at St Andrews, and he’s widely regarded as the first professional golfer, and he used to, as professionals did in that day and age, he used to make golf balls and golf clubs for the members and patrons, and he was and his family were associated with making the original sort of featherie golf balls that they used to play with. Um, so that that’s where his sort of fame came from, and Tom Morris became his apprentice. Um, it is widely regarded that Roberts and Tom Morris never actually lost a Forsums match together, and they had a nickname which was the Invincibles. Now in 1850, so he became apprentice in 1835. In 1850, Tom Morris and Allan Robertson had a bit of a falling out because the new Gutty Ball was developed. And obviously, I mentioned just before his family had a history in making those golf balls and made their money from it, so he was dead against this new technology kind of coming into um into golf, and uh he that resulted in Tom Ross actually leaving um St Andrews and he went over to Prestwick, which was a new golf club at the time, and he became keeper of the Greens over there. Um now, in terms of uh Prestwick, Prestwick is actually the place where you might not have heard about it, uh if you have well done. Uh, but it’s one of these places that is incredibly historic. It’s actually the place where the very first open was played in 1860. So um Robertson actually died the year before that happened, uh, but it was reported at that first open that Tom Morris actually hit the opening Tee-shot. Unconfirmed, but apparently he did so. Now, in terms of his golfing prowess, Tom uh wins the open in 1861, 1862, 1864, and 1867. And in 1865 he returns to St. Andrews as custodian of the links, and he stayed there until his death in 1900. He actually died at the age of 86, which is incredible for that kind of day and age, uh, in on the 24th of May 1908, um, which was

How Old Tom Died: The New Club Stairs

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just a few days short of his 87th birthday, and he fell down the stairs of a clubhouse just off the 18th Fairway at St Andrews. And the reason this piqued my interest is, and I didn’t know this at the time, but he fell down the stairs at a clubhouse, at a club called the New Club in St Andrews. That is actually the place we ended up having our post-round meal at St Andrews, and we walked up probably the very stairs that he fell down, which is a bit morbid, don’t get me wrong, but is incredible. Like that’s that kind of history that resides in that place, and sometimes it’s innocuous you don’t even know about it.

Featherie vs Gutty: The Falling Out

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So let’s talk a little bit about the Allan Robertson story. Uh Aaron Allan Robertson, as I said, his family company made these sort of featherie golf balls, and the the Gutty ball, which was then coming out in the 1850s, was cheaper to make, and obviously it was threatening his his business. Um now there is a uh story on Prestwick’s own club history because obviously they got Tom Morris as the uh keeper of the greens, uh, and legend has it that Robertson used to burn any gutties that he found, and he spoke of that new technology with utter contempt. And actually, the reason that Tom Morris and Allan Robertson fell out was because Tom was caught playing with the gutty ball, and that led to them falling out because it’s threatening his business. Now, the the thing about the gutyball, which we probably don’t realise, and you know, we talk about golf ball technology and and what have you, and it’s been largely the same for as long as I can remember playing. Um, but that ball was significantly cheaper, and actually Tom was a bit ahead of the game here because the cheaper ball and the accessibility to golf actually helped spread golf around Scotland a little bit more because it made it more accessible to people. So it’s really interesting that Tom had this instinct of backing new technology, and that’s something that we’ll really come back to later when we talk about his work in golf and green keeping and the developments that he actually came up with. So this episode is sandwiched in between our preview last week of the old course and our review next week uh of the old course.

How Old Tom Reshaped the Old Course

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So we’ll talk a little bit about what he actually ended up doing uh on the old course. So when Roberts died in in 1859, uh it’s it’s said that the old course fell into a bit of disrepair. So, but basically there’s a really vivid contrast between what’s you know, a relatively manicured links golf course now and what we see now, and what was left when he got there. So he obviously arrived in 1865, uh, and he started then making some significant changes to that golf course between 1864, 1865, sorry, and 1879. So the things that he’s done, and this is going to be the sort of thing that you’ll now recognise when you’re playing the old course yourself, or in St. Andrews in general. So, number one, he widened the fairways, he enlarged the greens, and St. Andrews, the old course, particularly, is famous for its massive greens. I can vouch for that. My GIR stats went through the roof. Um, he built two new greens, and that’s on the 1st and the 18th. Uh, he created separate teeing areas for each hole, and he began actively managing bunkers

Bunkers and the Birth of Strategic Design

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uh by thinning out some of the thin kind of gorse bushes around them. Um now bunker management is an interesting thing because again, I didn’t know this, but uh a bunker as a feature was predominantly because they were little sand scrapes that sheep used to hide in to get away from the brutal winds at links golf courses, and they were just a thing to be navigated around, you know, they weren’t designed to be played out of or anything like that, they were just bits of wasteland, really. But it was something that led to a bit of strategic golf. Now, because he then started tidying up the bunkers, he actually then started placing them and hazards in a way that it would enable players to start trying to navigate around them, and you could probably start calling that the real start of strategic design, not just let’s work with the land that we’ve got, let’s put something in the way to make people play a certain way so they experience the golf course in a particular way, and we’ll get to this in our review episode, but that’s absolutely the way that I took St. Andrew’s old course. So hats off to you, Tom. Um, now in one of the you know, a couple of things. Obviously, Tom Morris at this point isn’t a legend that he is now, you know, it’s not like he’s this person who’s got his picture up everywhere. But in 1891, he was reportedly told to dig out the bunkers properly and to roll the greens more than twice a year. So even a legend was micromanaged while he was uh custodian of the links at St Andrews. Um now that then got me into the kind of developments that that he had uh you know put into place to manage golf courses, and that’s that’s really his impact on the game, I think, that we still see today. We will talk a little bit about the courses that I’ve played that Tom Morris has had his hands all over. Um, and you know, he’s a prolific designer of golf courses, and many golf courses you go in clubhouses, particularly up in Scotland, you will see a picture of Tom Morris hanging up there because he had something to do with it, and because he’s so revered, it’s a picture everyone recognises. It’s it’s like a nice link. You know, there is a uh an organization called that that do something called the old Tom told Tom Morris Trail, and and it’s it’s courses that he designed and laid out, you know, and and it’s the interesting question there is you know how much of that is left now in the world for us to experience because of changes to golf courses and modernisation, and you know, it’s a wonderful thing with golf. There are it’s ever-changing. There are golf courses that have evolved and they continue to evolve, and they evolve because technology moves on, the challenge moves on. We’re all bigger, you know, as human beings, we are bigger than we were 120 years ago. We know more about nutrition, science, all this kind of stuff. Maybe not me, but that all changes the game, and the game evolves and the courses evolve. So there’s few, there’s only very few places you can go and you can play it as originally meant. And do you know what I’ll tell you now? Those are the ones that people say are quirky. Oh, that’s an interesting golf course. And you have to really get yourself. I’m gonna jump ahead actually here because I think I’ll give you an example of what I mean by that.

Cruden Bay: Old Tom’s Links as Golf Was Meant

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My perfect example of that is Cruden Bay. Now, Crude and Bay was it’s an old Tom Morris layout. And in the original course he laid out in 1899, and he was in his late 70s when he did that. So, you know, although Tom Simpson was an architect, he he laid out the the sort of design of it all, but a lot of his work is still there. Now, crude and bay is so far on our journey between me and Chris has been the only really divisive course. We’ve had our relatively similar opinions about all of them, and then rankings are a different matter. But Chris really didn’t like Cruden Bay, and I I loved it. And I’ll tell you why I loved Cruden Bay, and I’ll tell you probably why I don’t really know why I mean go and listen to the episode, maybe Chris might be able to explain it a little bit better. I think he for him it was more like the conditioning and things like that didn’t quite match up to his expectations. For me, what I liked about it was that ruggedness of that golf course, it was the fact that what probably 120 years ago was a tough or medium length par for is now you know, with a hybrid you can knock it to within 50-60 yards of the green and chip on, and it’s a nice easy in inverted commas easy par. But I like that because if you take it in the spirit of this is how golf was meant to be played, that’s how I’m gonna play it. I think you get an enriching experience from doing that, and you know, perhaps a crude and bay is a really good example of that. Uh, so you know, like I said, I’ve jumped ahead a little bit there on that one, um, but that I think that covers it perfectly. Now, going back to my episode structure, that’s my podcast, I’m gonna do it. Um,

The Sand Barrel Legend and Modern Greenkeeping

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the green keeping element. So, obviously, he was custodian of the links at St Andrews, he was keeper of the greens at at Prestwick, and that’s basically where he got his renown from. And there are a few things that he developed, and we talked about that embracing of technology. There are a few things he developed that greenkeepers still use to this very, very day, which is a testament to what he what he developed. Now, I’m gonna give you the bulleted list, but there’s one story that’s absolutely brilliant. So legend, or it’s a legend, I should say. So legend has it that when he was green keeping at Prestwick, he spilled a barrel of sand by the the 10th green, and he couldn’t pick it up. I mean, who can be who can pick sand up from uh from a green? So instead, what he decided was he’d just gotta spread it so it didn’t show as much, and a few weeks later he discovered that the grass was growing better. So he then kept a journal about it, and that’s where sanding of the green started. Now we’ve all been there when we’ve played and they’ve punched punched the greens and put a top dress of sand on. Uh that’s where it started. You know, we’re talking about a practice that’s like 140 years old, which is crazy to think about, maybe 150 years old, and we still do it now, you know. We haven’t moved on from that. And if you think about it, he’s playing long, he’s got link’s course, he’s got a plentiful supply of sand where he is. So um I thought that was fascinating. He

Push Mowers, Separate Tees and Seaweed

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he was also the very first person on record to cut greens with a push mower, which we take for granted now. Um, and he was the very first person to start managing bunkers instead of just leaving them as those sort of sand scrapes and craters and very unkempt sort of bits of land that he just played around. Those manicured bunkers that you see, that wasn’t even in anybody’s consciousness until he started doing that, and also placing them as as hazards. Um, he also developed having separate tees for every single hole, um, which obviously then spread the wear and tear and improved the turf because people weren’t just teeing off from any old place, there were specific areas and they could manage that turf better. Uh, it is said that he was the first person to start using yardage markers. There’s a credit, there’s a source that credits him online. Uh, whether that’s true or not, I don’t know, but you know what, I found I found a website that mentioned that. Um he started using metal hole cups on occasion and also used seaweed as fertiliser. Again, think about where he is. He’s at links courses, seaweed is a plenty over there. So and then the final thing is that uh rather than letting cattle be on the links land, he was more a fan of sheep because they were a little bit lighter underfoot and they didn’t wreck the terrain as much. So those are a few of the things that I mean, maybe the sheep, not so much. Uh and maybe the seaweed now isn’t a fertilised thing, but look at the the way his mind worked to try and manage a course and manage a course for the members and the patrons and the people enjoying the great game that he loved and that he was very good at. Um, I think, yeah, again, that’s that’s the kind of service that he gave to the game that I think that’s what people revere about him. Now,

Courses We’ve Played: Wallasey, Castletown, Carnoustie

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getting back to courses that I’ve played that Tom Morris has had something to do with. So I mentioned I knew of him, I knew of his work at St Andrews a little bit. You know, you you you think about all the places that have been credited to him, and I’ll I’ll get to the list in a minute, but the difficulties of getting around at that time, you know, railways were just coming about towards the end. There was a lot of boat travel, you know, horse-drawn car, all that kind of thing. So the difficulties of getting around is is uh you know, surmountable, um insurmountable, sorry, obstacles in some occasions, but in terms of courses that I’ve played, or me and Chris have played, where he’s had some good um input, I should say, um, Wallasey. There are still four greens that he laid out that remain, and you know, we covered that in our Wallasey review episode. Please go and watch that. Um and Wallasey have been really good at doing something, they put little plaques out everywhere where old Tom Morris had either left a green or its original hole design or anything like that. So, you know, and then also think about the course, you know, majority of courses that he would have worked with were links golf courses. You know, our our island is suffering from coastal erosion, and and that’s another reason why some of those golf courses are changing so much, because you have to guard against that. Very famously now it is Formby who’ve got this 50-year plan to tackle coastal erosion so they don’t lose holes into the into the sea. Um, and obviously, obviously Wallasey has suffered from coastal erosion in the past. Um, Castletown, so we played Castletown, a wonderful golf course on the Isle of Man. Um, big shout out to Andy, who’s the the general manager manager there, absolute legend. Uh, but you know, club formed in 1892. Tom Morris made a pretty epic journey over to uh to the Isle of Man uh and you know laid out a golf course on the side of an old race course. Um, and again he was in his early 70s then, so you know that was it, and that’s a wonderful golf course to go and play. Again, it’s got that kind of Rugged Irish links feel about it, and I think the conditioning matches that as well. You know, you’ve got the right bits of manicured and the right bits are left to look really natural. Carnoustie, you know, Allan Robertson laid out the original 10 holes. Tom Morris came along, extended it to 18. So big championship golf pedigree. I’ve talked about Cruden Bay already. If you get a chance to go and play that golf course, I would absolutely take that. It’s a wonderful place to go and play golf and spend some time in the clubhouse because you can practically see the whole course from the clubhouse. And there’s some fabulous views over at Cruden Bay. So, I mean, talking about the kind of list of courses that Tom Morris has had something to do with. So this is designed, laid out, whether he’s modified, anything like that. There is some discrepancy in the total number. I don’t think anybody’s really gone and gathered it up. They might have done actually. And if they have, please send us the source. That’d be great. But we’re looking at somewhere from between 60 and 75 courses that he’s either fully laid out and designed himself,

Royal County Down to Muirfield: 60+ Courses

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or he’s he’s amended and extended to 18 holes or whatever. Um, and you know, unfortunately, a lot of these courses have now been heavily modified. You know, a lot of them host tournaments, so they have to be lengthened, and you know, they probably had to change the challenge a little bit uh for modern golf. Uh, but I’ll give you a list here, and you know, as soon as I read these out, you’re gonna be in awe of the the the where he’s been. So in Scotland alone, we’re talking about Prestwick, we’re talking about St Andrews, old, new, uh, we’ve got Carnoustie, the championship course, we’ve got Muirfield, we’ve got Royal Dornoch, we’ve got Macri hanish, we’ve got Nairn, we’ve got Cruden Bay, Moray, we’ve got Crayle, we’ve got Luffness, we’ve got Lundin links, we’ve got Panmure. If you get into Ireland, we’ve got Royal County Down, which is number one on our list. You’ve got Royal Port rush, you’ve got La hinch, you’ve got Rosapenna. I mean, these courses all reside in the top 50, probably. Um, not all of them, maybe, but some of the ones the real big hit, as you’ve heard. Top 50 in GB and Ireland. You’ve probably got seven or eight that are in the top 50 in the world there, and that isn’t an accident, you know. The man obviously had a feel for what how you could use that land properly and the challenge that you can lay out. Yes, they’ve been modified now, of course they have, but the original idea to put golf there would have come from that man, and I think that speaks a lot about who he was. Now,

Why He’s Revered: Four Opens and a 13-Shot Win

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talking of who he was, let’s go into a little bit more about why he was so revered. So I’ve divided this up into a few sections really, again, giving you behind the scenes of how our um research goes for each episode. So we’ll talk about the competitor. He won four opens, he’s still the oldest winner of the open at the age of 46. Um, and his winning margin in 1862 was 13 shots, and that winning margin stood as a major championship record for over a century, which is absolutely phenomenal. So he was a wonderful golfer. Um, he played the open into his mid-70s, and his last appearance was in 1895 or 96, just depends on which source you believe. Um, then you’ve got the craftsman. So he’s revered as a green keeper and a golfer, but also he had his professional shop there, and his original shop is by the 18th Green at St. Andrews, or Fairway, probably more. Um, oh Green Fairway, they always meld into one, really, don’t they? They’re they’re that good and well maintained. But he was obviously a club maker, he was a ball maker, and we had this notorious story about the the featherie golf balls, there’s the gutty golf balls. Uh got his shop by the 18th, and you know, when you go to St. Andrews, if you go to St Andrews, um there is that um shop is still there. Um he founded the practices that many green keepers still use today. You know, he was a green keeper, he was a golf architect, he was a golf course builder, a designer, player, just you know, all of the things that he had going about him uh have have the reason that he’s revered so much. And the character. Anyone who came across him, maybe Allan Robertson might disagree, but anybody who came across him, anybody who researches him, you know, you won’t find a bad word said about him. Um and it is said

Daily Sea Swims, a Funeral and Old Tom’s Legacy

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that he swam in the sea every day of his life, and he worked until the day he died. Now, having been up there when the weather was alright, but I can imagine when it’s wintery, it is cold up there. And that’s probably a little secret as to why he lived so long, if I’m honest. Um, and when he died, his funeral procession is said to have filled the whole of South Street in St Andrews. Now, as I said, he died falling down those stairs at the new new club clubhouse in St Andrews, and that’s all I’ve got, by the way. Uh but he died falling down the stairs at the new club, clubhouse in St Andrews, and you know, it’s kind of a bit fitting that it was right there on the 18th, you know, just probably having played or visiting and sorting something out, uh, that it was at that site. And when I read this fact, it was a bit of a strange feeling actually, because I sort of thought, wow, you know, like you just that you’re just there a few weeks ago, it was last week. Um which is it’s not spooky, it’s not weird, it’s not aerie, it’s just an interesting, really weird feeling. Like it’s not still like a weird connection you sort of feel somehow. It’s like, oh my god, like that happened there where we were sat. Um, but look, that that’s the man Tom Morris. This is this was a bit of a behind-the-scenes episode for you of how our research works and how we categorize it. I gave you the full the full lot there because I felt it deserved an episode in its own right. I’ve learned a hell of a lot about old Tom Morris that I didn’t know before and I didn’t appreciate, didn’t appreciate who he was. Um there will be uh a little doff of the cap every time I go past his his picture somewhere or his painting, I should say, anywhere, portrait, that’s the correct word, uh, anywhere in a clubhouse. You will see them all over Scotland. Uh Lannock is one another course that that he’s touched that you know um that I’ve played. And I think when you when you I would say if you’re playing a top 100 golf course or any golf course and you see that Tom Morris is associated with that, you know, I’d be excited about that because you are going back, you’re getting this direct line and link to how golf was way back when, and that’s what’s wonderful about our sport, and that’s what I find really magical about these stories that we get to tell you and the characters we get to bring to life. So, in a little rambling nutshell, that is old Tom Morris from me to you. We are gonna probably talk about a little bit about him in our review episode, but keep an ear out for that. That’s coming next week. Uh that should be good fun, actually. We’re gonna talk about our golf and our thought of the course and and just the whole couple of days there that we had, uh, which was which was magical, as you’ll have probably seen on our social media channels. But until next time on the top 100 in 10 golf podcast.