Early Golf Development
Morris learned golf from a young age over the Prestwick Golf Club links, which had been laid out by his father, the Club's professional and greenkeeper, in 1851. He bypassed the caddying and clubmaking roles, which were the usual entry to golf for young players at that time; he was the first future top player to do this.
Morris beat his father for the first time at the age of 13 in 1864 in a friendly game at St Andrews; at the time his father was Open Champion. Young Tom, just before his 13th birthday, travelled with his father to a tournament at Perth in April 1864, but was not allowed to compete in either the professional or amateur sections. The organisers instead arranged a match with a local youth champion. Young Tom won this match decisively and was awarded a prize of five pounds, a significant amount at the time; the two young stars had been followed by a large gallery. His match score would have won the professional tournament.
Read more about this topic: Young Tom Morris
Famous quotes containing the words early, golf and/or development:
“The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“My attitude toward punctuation is that it ought to be as conventional as possible. The game of golf would lose a good deal if croquet mallets and billiard cues were allowed on the putting green. You ought to be able to show that you can do it a good deal better than anyone else with the regular tools before you have a license to bring in your own improvements.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“On fields all drenched with blood he made his record in war, abstained from lawless violence when left on the plantation, and received his freedom in peace with moderation. But he holds in this Republic the position of an alien race among a people impatient of a rival. And in the eyes of some it seems that no valor redeems him, no social advancement nor individual development wipes off the ban which clings to him.”
—Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825–1911)