A lot may have changed but experts insist pioneers of The Open could still match today’s global superstars on the fairways
TWell, he might take a moment or two to adjust to the new clubs, balls and gear, but Old Tom wouldn’t find The Open courses so very different
he winner of the 147th Open Championship will not only claim the famous Claret Jug and a place alongside golf’s immortals – they will also leave with a cheque the size of a lottery win.
It is hard to imagine the reaction of the eight players who contested the first Open in 1860 if told this year’s winner will receive £1.3 million, part of a total prize pot of almost £7.5m.
With more than 100 of the world’s best golfers teeing off at Carnoustie next month, and more than 170,000 visitors expected to the Angus town between July 15 and 22, the founders would not recognise their championship today.
But, while technological advances have transformed clubs and balls and the potential rewards are unrecognisable, Hannah Fleming of the British Golf Museum at St Andrews says the sport’s spirit has remained the same since the championship began.
She said: “Some of the founder members at Prestwick Golf Club wanted to have a competition that would be open to golf professionals.
“At that point the word professional meant a person who earned money in golf – ball makers, club makers, caddies, working-class people. It was the gentlemen golfers who were members of the clubs, who were backing these players, and there would have been bets against each player in those early competitions.
“The Earl of Eglinton and James Ogilvie Fairlie were two instrumental people in the beginnings of the championship, alongside Tom Morris who had moved from St Andrews to Prestwick to become their professional golfer and set out their links and course. As a way of showing it off and what he’d achieved, they put together this event.
“The first one took place in October, 1860. Back then, golf was a winter sport, now The Open takes place in the summer. There were only eight entrants and there was no prize money.
“It was quite hastily put together, and although Tom laid out the course, he was beaten by his great rival, Will Park Senior. Tom did go on to win the belt four times though.”
In those early days before The Open’s iconic Claret Jug was created, the winner walked away with the Championship Belt made from red Moroccan leather, with a silver buckle. The founders created a rule that if the same person won The Open three years in a row, the belt would be theirs to keep. And it wasn’t long before it did indeed go home with a player.
“They set the rule, expecting that no one would be good enough to win three times running,” explained Hannah, “but Tom Morris Jnr did so just 10 years after that very first championship. Tommy was Tom Morris’s son and was really a child prodigy in golf, playing from a very early age.
“He first won The Open when he was 17, so he’s still the youngest winner, and Tom Morris is the oldest winner at 46. Tommy won in 1868, 1869 and 1870, so it was his belt to keep. I can’t imagine how proud Tom Senior must have been to see his own son win the belt. It was
a prize
– Hannah Fleming of the British Golf Museum
that even by that stage was prestigious.”
In 1872, Tom Morris Jnr won again. By that stage the Claret Jug had been commissioned and – in the interim year before it was first presented in 1873 – Tom won a gold medal which is now one of the star exhibits at the British Golf Museum. Fittingly, his name is the first engraved on the Jug.
A small amount of prize money was paid out early on in the Championship’s history – £6 for the winner in 1864 – but it didn’t prevent some players from enduring a life of hardship. Hannah, who is assistant curator, said: “There was a
small prize fund for the champions which was a fairly significant amount back then, but compared to winning something like £1.3m today it’s not much.
“Players mostly had to work to support themselves. Tommy, for example, would have helped his father in his golf shop, which was a big business in St Andrews. They had to do other work and it’s quite sad because some of the earliest champions in the 1870s and 1880s didn’t have illustrious careers and comfortable lives after winning The Open.”
But it’s not just the size of the championship that has changed. The science and technology around the sport is also world’s apart.
The original clubs used by early champions would have been hand crafted from wood, and balls made from dense, moulded rubber.
Hannah said: “In the very early period, players would have gone out in the clothing they had available to them. They may have had a particular jacket, but it was just their everyday clothing. For Tom Morris it would be a jacket, shirt and tie and trousers usually made from a heavier material to play in colder conditions in the winter. It wasn’t really until the 1920s that we started to see the introduction of knitwear.”
As someone who looks at the past rather than the future of The Open, Hannah, who tours schools to share the history of the Championship, often finds herself imagining what the earliest players would think of today’s event.
“I do often wonder what Tom Morris would have thought, but while he might have taken a moment to adjust to the lighter sportswear, clubs and balls. I don’t think he would find the courses so very different.”