Old Tom Morris

YOU NEED look no further than the 18th hole at St Andrews to find testament to a golfing luminary whose legacy lasts longer than perhaps any other.

For the tale of Old Tom Morris, whose name still graces the most famous finishing hole in world golf, invokes all the qualities of a sports legend: triumph, dedication, invention and tragedy.

Morris, born within a short chip shot from the Old Course in St Andrews, Fife, in 1821 (previously reported as 1851), won four Open championships with the game in its infancy - in 1861, 1862, 1864 and 1866. He still holds the record as the oldest winner of the Open at age 46.

His early apprenticeship under Allan Robertson – considered by historians as golf's first "professional"- at Prestwick helped Morris build an appreciation for golf-course design. He would go on to sculpt many of the great Scottish courses: Carnoustie, Muirhouse, Royal Dornoch and St Andrews, where he would later lay the sod for the 18th green as head greenkeeper.

After 11 years at Prestwick - then, historians note, "the cradle of the Open", which was played on the west-coast links from 1860 to 1870 - Morris would also help develop the rules of golf and many of the hickory clubs favoured in the day.

Morris also pioneered the "gutta percha" golf ball that would replace the "feathery" that nearly all players used on Scotland's links. The change would greatly enhance the game. Morris's advocation of the gutty would result in a split from Robertson, who would protest the introduction of the resin ball until his death of feather inhalation in 1859.

By then Morris would be joined at St Andews by his son, "Young" Tom Morris, a prodigy who would win four straight Open titles before the age of 30.

The two Morrises would often compete against other players on surrounding courses for money and bragging rights, sometimes for sums as high as £25. Young Tom, a great putter who would often "top" his putts to achieve a what pros now call "a good roll" toward the hole, would joke when his father left a putt short: "The hole'll no' come ta ye, Da.".

But on one fateful day in September 1875, with Old Tom and Young Tom celebrating a win in a high-stakes match in North Berwick, East Lothian, there would come the news that Young Tom's wife and baby would die during childbirth.

Young Tom, the greatest golfer of his generation, and perhaps that has ever lived, would die "of a broken heart" 17 days later, on Christmas Day, discovered by his father after failing to rise for breakfast. The official report stated a burst blood vessel in his lungs; his father suspected alcohol.

Old Tom played in every Open until 1895. He died in 1908 after a fall down stairs, mistaking a wine-cellar for a toilet after a clubhouse gathering - perhaps also a victim of alcohol's curse.

Old Tom Morris lies next to his son in the Cathedral Church Yard in St Andrews. They remain the only father and son to come first and second in the same major golf championship - with Young Tom triumphant - lying together in death as in life.