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The Father of Golf – The Story Behind Old Man Tom Morris

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When most golfers think of the home of golf, St. Andrews is pretty much the first track that comes to mind.
 
But if St. Andrews is the home of golf, who is the father of golf? 
 
Is it Jack Nicklaus? Tiger Woods? Arnold Palmer?
 
Or someone else…
 
Surprisingly enough, it’s not actually any of these legends but instead, Old Man Tom Morris. Not to be confused with Young Tom Morris, his son, who was also a legendary Scottish professional golfer.
 
In his life, he made a tremendous impact on the game and is still known as the Father of Golf today. Keep reading to learn more about this legend of the game and why he is loved by golfers worldwide.
 

Who is Tom Morris?

It’s only right that the father of golf was born at the home of golf, St. Andrews. From an early age, Tom was obsessed with the sport, even though it was relatively new at the time.
 
By the time he was 14 years old, he was caddying and became an apprentice for Allan Robertson. If this name isn’t familiar, it should be, as he is known as the first professional golfer ever!
 
The two men became great friends and played as a team in alternate shot formats, never losing when paired together. In fact, they were even nicknamed “The Invincibles.”
 
Sadly, the relationship ended on a sour note after Tom was fired by Allan for playing a different type of golf ball (Allan was the manufacturer of the main competition). After getting fired in 1851, he temporarily left St. Andrews and started a business at Prestwick Golf Club.
 

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The Open Championship

After joining the Prestwick Golf Club, he helped start The Open Championship. In fact, he hit the very first shot ever in the now iconic event!
 
During the inaugural event, he went on to place second and won the following year in 1860. Maybe the craziest thing about Tom is that he only played with five clubs in the bag!
 
Yet, he continued to dominate the Open Championship and won three more times (1862, 1864, and 1867). What’s even more impressive is that he won his last Open at 46 years old. The same year, his son came in second place, making it an epic finish for the family.
 

Young Tom Morris

Speaking of his son, commonly referred to as “Young Tom Morris” was also an incredible golfer as well. By the time he was 13, he first beat his father for the first time, who was the Open champion.
 
Young Tom and his dad played tougher in challenge matches and found a ton of success as a team. During one match, Young Tom got a telegram to come home as his wife was having birth complications.
 
After winning their match, they came back but sadly, his wife and child had passed away unexpectedly. Unfortunately, young Tom Morris also died very young at only 24 years old in 1875.
 

Return to St. Andrews

After his success at the Open Championship, he was hired back to his home club, St. Andrews in 1864 as the course was in bad condition. He brought the course back to its glory with new greenskeeping techniques and became a major golf course architect. He came back to work there for 39 years as both a head professional and greenskeeper.
 
Eventually, he passed away just before he turned 87 after living a long and prosperous life. His grave is located close to his sons and is a must-see attraction for anyone who visits St. Andrews. Players from around the world love to pay their respects to this legend of the game.
 

Old Tom Morris – 10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know

Want to learn more about Old Tom Morris? 
 
Check out these 10 awesome facts about the life of this golf icon:
 
1. Tom started golfing at the age of 10 but not with traditional balls and clubs. Instead, he used wine bottle corks pierced with nails before working in the golf industry.
 
2. In 2017, a movie titled “Tommy’s Honour” was released based on the complex relationship between Old Man Tom and Young Tom Morris.
 
3. He played competitive golf until he was 74 years old (could you imagine if PGA Tour players did that in today’s world?)
 
4. Tom competed in 36 consecutive British Open championships.
 
5. Between him and his son, they have a combined eight Open championships.
 
6. Tom also designed golf clubs too. Not to mention built golf courses, worked as a head professional, and a world-class greenskeeper.
 
7. He also did redesigns of courses and worked on over 75 courses in his life. Some of his most significant redesign projects were Muirfield and Carnoustie Golf Links.
 
8. Tom served as a mentor to Donald Ross, the famous golf course architect who is responsible for Pinehurst No. 2.
 
9. He was just the second player ever to break 80 on the Old Course at St. Andrews.
 
10. Tom was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1976. His son was also awarded the prestigious honor as well.
 
Let’s never forget the Father of Golf and all that he did for the sport we love!
 
 
Written By Michael Leonard

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Meet The Canadian Open Qualifier Tied To ClickIt Golf!

“This week was incredible,” he said. “A dream come true.”

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Josh Goldenberg doesn’t plan to quit his day job. But he had a great time dabbling in his old career.

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He gave up on pro golf, then qualified for his first PGA Tour event.

Read the full story here
https://golf.com/news/josh-goldenberg-rbc-canadian-open/?amp=1

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Bets & Babes: Betting on Birdies

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In this latest episode of Bets and Babes join me and my special guest Robert from the World Series of Golf as we tee up a whole new way to think about betting on the green.

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We break down golf betting basics, share hilarious stories and talk about how to bet in a way that might resonate with us ladies.

Whether you’re a total newbie or just curious how to make golf Sundays more exciting, this episode delivers fun, flirty, and smart tips to get you in the game. 🎧⛳💸

Click below to listen to the entire episode and leave your comments and suggestions for future episodes.

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The Bogey Man’s Guide to Accidental Course Exploration: Or, How I Found My Ball (Eventually) in the Rough of Life

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Ah, golf. The gentle game of precision, patience, and occasionally, profound personal humiliation. You know, the kind that makes you question all your life choices, particularly the one where you decided to spend your Saturday morning chasing a tiny white ball around 18 acres of manicured torture.

Boo here, reporting live from the depths of a particularly thorny patch of “rough” that I’m fairly certain wasn’t on the course map. My mission? To recount a tale of a golf shot so spectacularly off-target, it became less about breaking par and more about breaking new ground. Literally.

It was a glorious Tuesday. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and my swing felt… well, it felt like something. I was on the par-4 7th, a hole notorious for its deceptive dogleg and a bunker that swallows balls faster than a hungry teenager devours pizza. My plan was simple: a nice, controlled fade, landing gently just short of the green. A textbook approach, really.

What actually happened was less “textbook” and more “abstract expressionism.” My driver, bless its misguided heart, decided that “fade” was merely a suggestion, and “controlled” was a concept best left to professional pilots. The ball, a brand-new, gleaming Titleist Pro V1 (because, you know, optimism), launched with the trajectory of a startled pheasant and veered sharply right. So sharply, in fact, it cleared the cart path, hopped over the maintenance shed, and disappeared into what I can only describe as a dense, untamed jungle previously known as “the woods bordering the 7th fairway.”

Now, a lesser golfer, a more sensible golfer, might have declared it lost, taken a drop, and moved on with their dignity mostly intact. But I, dear readers, am Mr. Bogey Man. And the Bogey Man doesn’t abandon his children, especially when they cost $5 a pop.

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So, armed with a 7-iron (optimism again, clearly), a profound sense of misplaced determination, and a faint hope that perhaps a deer had picked it up and was using it as a chew toy, I plunged into the abyss.

The first five minutes were a blur of tangled vines, unseen roots, and the distinct feeling that I was being watched by small, judgmental woodland creatures. My pristine golf shoes quickly became mud-caked relics. My carefully tucked-in shirt became a casualty of low-hanging branches. I swear, I heard a squirrel snicker.

Then, a glimmer! A flash of white amidst the green. “Aha!” I cried, startling a family of robins. I pushed through a particularly stubborn bush, only to find… a discarded plastic water bottle. My heart sank faster than my last putt from 3 feet.

I pressed on, muttering to myself about the unfairness of golf, the existential dread of lost balls, and whether it was too late to take up competitive napping. Just as I was about to give up and declare the ball a permanent resident of the arboreal underworld, I saw it. Nestled perfectly at the base of an ancient oak, gleaming defiantly, was my Pro V1.

The triumph! The sheer, unadulterated joy! It was like finding the Holy Grail, if the Holy Grail was spherical and prone to slicing. I carefully extracted it, brushed off a few leaves, and held it aloft.

Then I looked around. I had no idea where I was. The fairway was a distant, hazy memory. The cart path? A myth. I was utterly, gloriously lost.

It took another fifteen minutes of bushwhacking, a brief but intense wrestling match with a particularly aggressive thistle, and the accidental discovery of what I’m pretty sure was a very old, very moldy sandwich, but I eventually stumbled back onto the course. My playing partners, who had long since finished the hole and were contemplating sending out a search party (or at least ordering another round of drinks), looked at me with a mixture of pity and amusement.

My score on the 7th? Let’s just say it involved a number that would make a mathematician weep. But the story? The adventure? The sheer ridiculousness of it all? Priceless.

So, the next time your ball decides to take an unscheduled tour of the local flora and fauna, don’t despair. Embrace it. See it as an opportunity for accidental exploration. You might not break 80, but you’ll definitely have a story. And isn’t that what golf is really about? (Besides the frustration, the lost balls, and the occasional snickering squirrel, of course.)

Until next time, keep those swings (mostly) in bounds, and remember: even a bogey can be an adventure.

Boo

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