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IT must have been with a
heavy heart, and the
consciousness of something vanished from his
life, that Tom would resume his play on the
links. He was never more to find in his dear
boy a partner worthy of himself, of whom he
was so proud, whom he loved as his own soul.
There was no dear career to watch with affectionate interest no more victories to recount
no wonderful play to chronicle. However, in
the true spirit of the Apostle, who, after his great grief, said "I go a-fishing," Tom tackled
his clubs again, and many famous matches
he was still destined to play.
Next year 1876 was a great one in St
Andrews, and one in which Tommy would be
more than usually missed. His Royal Highness
Prince Leopold was captain of the Royal and
Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, and, consequently, there was a great and distinguished
gathering at the Autumn Meeting. I remember
the occasion well more especially as I was
then minister of the Parish of Kelso, and his
Royal Highness came straight from St Andrews
to Floors Castle as the guest of my kind patrons
and dear friends their Graces the Duke and
Duchess of Roxburghe. I therefore had the
opportunity of seeing something of his Royal
Highness, both at St Andrews and in my own
parish; and I can bear my testimony to the
interest he took in golf and in the subject of
this memoir,, with whom he played at St
Andrews.
Arriving at the Club-House with his host, Mr Whyte-Melville, Prince Leopold came down
to the teeing-ground, and, amongst others, he
was introduced to Tom Morris. The two shook
hands and engaged in conversation. The Prince
was then instructed in his duties as captain of
the club. Tom teed his ball for him. The
Prince struck off in a manner which showed he
was no novice in the art. The crowd vigorously
applauded. The cannon was fired and the
opening of the meeting was an accomplished
fact.
Among the professionals
present were Jamie
Anderson, Bob Kirk, J. O. V. Morris, Tom
Kidd, and R. Martin St Andrews men; Davie
Strath was there also, but was at that time
stationed at North Berwick; and Mungo Park
was also present, as the representative of
Musselburgh professional golf. Alter the gentlemen had completed their round it was found
that Mr Leslie Balfour (now Mr Leslie Balforr-Melville) had won the first position with the
score of 91; and I may mention that he also
won it in the previous year with 93, and he won
the following year, the third in succession, with
89, thus tying with Mr Hodge's record ten
years before. The second medal the gold
medal given by the Club went to Mr Alexander
Stuart, with 92 strokes.
I cull the following account of the meeting
from the St Andrews Citizen, of September 30,
1876:-
"The members dined together at night
under the presidency of the Prince. The dinner
was largely attended, and the speeches, and
indeed all the proceedings, were extremely
interesting.
"On Thursday morning, September 28, Prince
Leopold attended the meet of the Fife Fox-hounds at Mount Melville (where he stayed
during the week from Monday till Friday),
and then left for St Andrews, arriving at the
Club-House a little alter noon." The St
Andrews Citizen tells us that, subsequently,
"Along with Tom Morris, the veteran custodier,
his Royal Highness played a short match
against Mr J. Whyte-Melville and Major Lockhart. The distinguished party were accompanied by a goodly following. The Royal
golfer showed by his play that he was not a
novice at the game, and made some excellent
shots. The first two holes were halved, but in
the third the Prince and Tom had the pull, and
the first gain of the day was placed to their
credit. At this point the players turned their
faces homewards. Coming in, Mr Melville and
the Major were unfortunate, being bunkered,
and another hole was won by his Highness and
the veteran, which made them 'dormy' 2 up
and 2 to play, and, the 'Burn' being halved,
the Prince and Tom stood victors by 2 up and 1
to play. They also got the last hole, and were
thus 3 up in all on the day's play."
In view of this account of the Prince's play
there seems to be as much truth as politeness in
the amusing and characteristic speech of the
St Andrews' caddie, "Be he Prince or deevil,
he canna play gowf a d---!"
At this meeting Tom Morris and Jamie
Anderson played Davie Strath and Mr Andrew
Smith (Glasgow). Strath was in line form, but
none of the others seemed to be playing at the top
of their game. Tom and Jamie won the first
hole, but lost the second. Then followed a long
succession of halves, when Mr Smith and Strath
won the ninth hole, and turned 1 up. At the short hole in they were all even, and eventually
they were all square and 1 to play. The last
hole was indifferently halved, and Mr Smith
threw away the chance of a half by taking a
leaf out of Tom's book during the round, and
missing a short putt. Tom and Jamie thus won
the match by one hole. The scores were:
Morris and Anderson, 45, 47 - 92; Mr Smith
and Strath, 44, 49 - 93. "Not at all discreditable," says a newspaper report, "when
the unfavourable weather is taken into
account."
In 1876 the contest for the championship
also took place at St Andrews at the September meeting. Tom and Willie Park played together,
and to their play "no little attention was paid."
Those who showed special interest in this direction had an opportunity of witnessing, if not
the most brilliant, at all events a pretty steady
game; Tom, indeed, if a couple of mistakes on
the putting-green be excepted, was in capital
form for the first 13 holes. Tom was 44 out,
Park 49; in, 56 and 45; Tom 90, Park 94. In
the next round, however, Park "warmed to
his work" and kept Tom mostly on the higher
side of the card. The scores were: Park, out
44, in 45 - 89; Tom, out 46, in 49 - 95. Park's
total for the two rounds was two lower than
Tom's 183 and 185. Park, however, did not win the championship. The real
struggle lay between Davie Strath and Bob Martin. And it
was not decided without "a row." It is thus
recorded in a contemporary account:
"By Strath and Martin some very fine
practice was made. The chances of the former
had all along been greatly fancied, and the
expectations of his backers Davie fully justified
by his powerful game. In driving, it is true, he
was not always so well on the course as he might
have been, notwithstanding the wind, but his
short game was, on the contrary, almost uniformly deadly. In his first round the most
noticeable incident occurred at the sixth hole
'in.' Here Davie had to play a ball which was
lying within two or three inches of the hole,
and, with a want of caution not quite unblameable, he went carelessly up to it, touched it in
passing with the reverse side of his club, failed
to hole it, and in this way lost a stroke. In
approaching the last hole but one in the second
round Strath again unfortunately got himself
into grief. It having become known by this time
that Martin had accomplished the first round
in 86, and the second in 90, and that Davie, to
win, would require to take both the remaining
holes in 5, there was now the greatest excitement
manifested. Every shot was watched with
eagerness, and it was with the eyes of several
hundreds upon him that Davie came to play
his third shot for the disc in question. The
distance between him and the hole was that of a
full drive, and innocently enough, as at all
events it appeared to us, Strath played his ball,
notwithstanding that there were players on the
putting-green who had not holed out. The
ball, as it chanced, was helped along a good
deal by the wind, and most of those who were
watching its course expected that it had been
carried on to the road. When, however, the
putting-green was reached it was found that
the drive had been stopped short by a legitimate
enough 'rub on the green,' and, nothing being
said of the matter, the hole was played out,
5 being taken to it. In his short game for
the 'Home hole' Davie was faulty, and a total
of 6 being run up, it was expected by nearly
everyone that a tie would be declared. Not
many minutes elapsed, however, before it was
announced that one of the competitors, upon
whom Davie had played as indicated above,
insisted that a disqualification should follow
upon what he held to be a violation of the rule
providing that no one shall approach a putting-green on which there are players. To this
objection there was added the contention that
Strath's card had not been accurately kept by
the marker one of those who had been specially provided. While these points
were being deliberated upon by a committee of the Royal
and Ancient Club, the result was left in doubt
for some time. It was not, indeed, till about
seven o'clock that it was officially stated that
the tie would be played off to-day (Monday)
under protest."
I have no record of the playing of the tie,
but Martin must have won, as in the Golf Year-books he appears as champion.
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