The Cradle of English Golf – 160 years and counting…

To mark the 160th anniversary of Royal North Devon Golf Club, Stephen Proctor, author of ‘The Long Golden Afternoon: Golf’s Age of Glory, 1864-1914’, talks to RND member Dan Davies about the club’s early history and the pivotal role it played in the birth of English golf.

The conversation covers the first time golf was played on Northam Burrows, the early visits of Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris to North Devon, the club’s founding members, money matches on the links, the club’s ties with St Andrews and Hoylake, Horace Hutchinson and John Henry Taylor, and the huge impact they both had on the game in Britain, the formation of the world’s second oldest Ladies Club, and much more besides.

‘The Long Golden Afternoon’ was shortlisted for the 2023 Sunday Times Sports Book Awards and the USGA’s Herbert Warren Wind Book Award. Stephen Proctor’s previous book, ‘Monarch of the Green’, tells the remarkable story of Young Tom Morris, golf’s first superstar. Proctor previously served as a senior editor at The Baltimore Sun, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Houston Chronicle. He is an honorary member at Askernish GC and a co-presenter of the Duffer’s Literary Companion podcast.

so delighted to welcome Steven Proctor
the author of The Long golden
afternoon um the golf’s age of Glory
1864 to 1914 which is a wonderful
history um of the early years of English
golf um Stephen I really wanted to open
up by asking you about what the state of
the game was in 1850 in Great Britain um
three years ahead of golf first being
played on the Burrows at Northern
you know I think the game was in a
little bit of a chancy spot in 1850 in
Scotland first off it’s wise to keep in
mind that at that time the game hadn’t
even spread through all of Scotland
there was a lot of golf in Scotland but
there were still places in Scotland
where golf wasn’t played even then you
know there had been such social change
and disruption from the Industrial
Revolution by that time that it had
started to put a damper on Golf and and
and golf started to you know flicker
like a like a light in some places not
going as well as it used to do but what
really happened was uh right about 1850
and 1848 in fact the gutty ball came
along and that was something that really
gave golf another shot in the arm and uh
so just about
1850 that period of decline is coming to
an end with the introduction of the guty
ball and through the 1850s up to 1860
and really the pivotal event is the
institution of the Open Championship in
1860 that really gets the you know this
golf going on a great wave that will
carry it eventually South into England
and and then around the world how many
golfers do you think there were in
Scotland at that time in in say 1850 and
and how many how many in England as well
well in 1850 in England it would have
numbered in the tens if it had if there
were that many uh you know in 1850 in
Scotland probably in the low tens of
thousands you know Scotland was not and
still is not a very large country in
terms of population I think his
population is around five million now uh
would have been considerably smaller
then and so I would say there were I
don’t know I’ve never actually done a
study of this in terms of population
part of it but I would say in the 30 to
50,000 range probably maximum and the
the Scottish connection was was key in
terms of the first golf being played on
Northern Burrows in in North Devon um
Reverend Isaac goset his brother-in-law
was General George monrie and uh from St
Andrews and I think Reverend goset who
was the the founder of of raw North
Devon first came into contact with Gulf
in probably the 1830s or 1840s visiting
his sister who was married to to General
mon creef um but actually it was his
brother I think uh William Driscoll
goset who was an officer in the Royal
Engineers based at air who who who was a
person who probably pointed out the
suitability of golf at Northern borrow
you know it’s fascinating because
everywhere where you see golf get
transplanted There is almost without
exception a Scottish connection and it’s
Englishmen who know Scots that
introduced the game to England and uh
it’s it’s true at North Devon it’s true
at Bo Lake and it’s true to a lesser
extent at Wimbleton but let’s just start
with the north Devon
story William Goss get stationed at air
to make ordinance maps and in the
process of living there he comes to know
old Tom old Tom introduces him to golf
in the same way that General Mon creef
and had introduced Isaac to golf and
then he goes to visit uh I believe they
were cousins is what I understand but in
any case it’s the the relationship is
immaterial he he and and Isaac are
visiting at North Devon uh and um they
go take a walk on the Burrows and they
both decide right then and there that
you know this is perfect land for golf
the kind of land they play golf on in
Scotland and there isn’t any reason that
we shouldn’t be playing golf ourselves
here and so they do what they would you
know they do what what anyone would do
they ordered clubs from Old Tom they
ordered clubs and balls and they got a
set of them sent down and then they
started playing out on the buroughs and
naturally you know in a small town like
um like North Devon the neighbors are
going to take much greater note of what
what people are up to and uh and so some
of their English uh friends uh started
to join in and play with them and it it
it started to become increasingly
popular and um so in
1860 they had Tom you know Tom came to
help them put together a better course
so he laid out a kind of a rudimentary
course and then um you know so many
people started playing that they got the
idea that they would form a club and in
1864 they did form the north Devon and
west of England golf club which was as
it was originally known um and um in
1864 Tom came back and this time he laid
out a much more formal links for them
which was the first Seaside links ever
created outside Scotland and uh they
they had a you a meeting and they formed
a club and they had 51 members if my
memory is correct and of those three4 of
them were native born Englishmen
completely new to the game of golf and
this was the thing the point that made
North Devon revolutionary and gave it
the reputation that it richly deserves
as the Cradle of English golf because it
was the first place in Scotland I mean
excuse me in England where Englishmen
played golf golf had been played in
England for a very long time at black
Heath since since James the first came
in the 1600s with his uh with his
cabinet and things uh and the people
who’s Entourage they played there was
golf played at kersel Moore also in
Manchester but that was played
exclusively by Scots there were no
Englishmen playing except maybe a stray
Royal but there were no uh what you
would call middle class English people
playing golf until Westward Ho came
along in 1864 and that was a hugely
revolutionary development yeah what was
the what was the sort of makeup of this
this nent gulf community at at Westwood
ho I mean what what type of people were
they what class of people were they from
only wealthy people played golf at the
beginning in Britain in in England and
that was true in Scotland as well and it
would become true in America when the
game spread to America for a couple of
different reasons one is that only
wealthy people would have the
connections with Merchant Scots that
would Lear would get them to know that
golf exist Ed as a game and that it was
something they could try and play so
they no one else would have such a
relationship secondarily golf was was
then and remains to some extent an
expensive Pastime it was particularly
expensive Pastime then uh and because
you know you had Club dues and all these
other things and only only well to-do
people could afford that and really only
welltoo people had sufficient Leisure
Time to pursue the game so the audience
in Britain would have been
only wealthy people well I would say
well until the middle of the
1890s uh when the broader
population uh ban to take the game up in
really really great numbers maybe
starting just a bit before 188 you know
about about 1888 89 and then by the time
it got to be by the middle of the 1890s
it was a fairly a big movement then a
substantial growth uh and of both men
and women in England playing golf and
that would be still be middle class to
upper middle class people not
necessarily that many Working Class
People but but still a lot of people
playing golf certainly think it’s safe
to say that those early Pioneers playing
golf at Westwood ho were viewed with
some suspicion by the graziers or the
pot wallopers who um who had their
animals on the Burrows at at uh at
Northern because at that time there were
2,200 sheep 200 Bullocks 150 horses 20
donkeys and 50 geese roaming the uh
roaming the borrow you know they uh
probably were considered Crazy by the
locals at the beginning I I and is in
his Memoir Horus Hutchinson who grew up
at at North Devon uh remarked that even
as late as the 1880s if you carried golf
clubs on a train you got strange looks
from people like what are you doing with
those bizarre implements and uh so it
was it was a very unknown thing when it
first came into England and certainly
you know the people who played at West
ho were the very first Englishman to
play golf in any serious numb we talk
about that period from from 1864 to to
1871 and the reason I I choose 1871 is
that’s the birth of of John Henry Taylor
but that that first seven years of the
club so much happened you know there was
you know not only at at at Ro at well at
the um North Devon and Western England
Golf Club but also um within English
golf because you had the formation of
London Scottish the the golf club on
Wimbledon common you had the formation
of of Liverpool Golf Club later Royal
Liverpool you had you know Tommy
Morris’s hatrick of open belts can you
talk a little bit about that um that
period if you like in the game you know
at the very beginning of your book you
know which covers the year 1864 to
1914 that first flare of popularity for
golf in
England you know yes and I think the big
Turning Point as it turns out is the the
uh founding of Hoy Lake uh Hoy Lake
being so close to
Liverpool was home to a lot of Scottish
M Scottish Merchants one of whom was
James Mir DOI who was related to by
marriage to Robert Chambers uh one of
the great golfers from Edinburgh who was
a winner of an early amateur
Championship uh early version of an
amateur championship and he also was the
publisher of Chambers Edinburgh Journal
which covered golf extensively and um so
when they formed Hoy Lake in 1869 they
were a group of really Progressive
forward linking people who were well
suited to make a big impact in the game
because of their location next to
Liverpool which was a huge uh gateway to
the world for England at that time and
you know it’s a little bit less so in
North Devon which is very remote uh to
be able it’s a little harder to assume a
leadership role in the game from that
distance whereas at Hoy Lake they were
well suited to it and you know horse
again quoting horse he he he said that
uh if it hadn’t been for the Forward
Thinking nature of the members of the
royal Liverpool Golf Club of which he
was also one he was the member of every
important Golf Club not just Westward Ho
um that you know the England might not
have come into its golfing Heritage
because they would go and do a lot of
really important things establishing the
amateur Championship establishing the
international matches uh really
turning to the Royal and ancient to kind
of ask them to take a leadership role in
things which is which is of course I
think what the majority of golfers at
that time wanted or how it turned out in
the long run but you know the the
leaders of Hoy Lake were well ahead of
everything the other thing is you know
Hoy Lake had a very strong connection
with the Morris Family itself you know
because Jack Morris who is the Tom’s
nephew the brother of his the son of his
brother George be is the first
professional at Hoy Lake and stays there
60 years every day of his all the way up
to the end of his life and so as a
consequence of that uh there was great
ties between St Andrews and Hoy Lake and
they came to be important in the way
I’ll describe here in the 30 seconds but
by by far the biggest influence on the
development of golf in England was the
Open Championship and there are a couple
reasons for that one is that London
gamblers thought the Open Championship
was a really excellent betting
proposition and they liked betting on it
and that naturally resulted in more
coverage in the newspapers and when you
get more coverage in the newspapers you
get more attention paid by average
people and more people are asking the
question what is this golf and maybe
moving toward taking up golf or you know
forming a club in their own community so
it all becomes part of a snowball effect
but the big event the huge event was
Tommy winning the belt three times in a
row as a teen age sensation when he was
17 18 and 19 and as far as North Devon
is
concerned Tommy had a a close connection
with North Devon because after they
formed the club in 1864 they hired his
childhood best friend Johnny Allen uh
who he played with growing up on The
Links at preswick Johnny Allen was the
son of a stonemason in preswick and he
and Tommy were very tight their whole
lives and he when he was preparing pring
to win the belt by winning it for the
third year in a row he started with the
training tour of England and he came and
he played in uh a couple a big series of
singles matches with Johnny Allen and
Bob Kirk Bob Kirk was uh one of Tom’s
Workman another close friend of Tommy
and a great golfer in his own right as
was Johnny Allen and they had a series
of singles matches that brought a huge
amount of attention to North Devon and
to England and were reported widely in
the newspapers all across Scotland and
then he went on to Hoy Lake and played
at Hoy Lake uh and so he was just you
know tuning himself up for the big event
in 1870 so in the spring of 1870 prior
to playing and winning the belt with his
um extraordinary score of 149 he had
made a training tour of England and that
you can imagine the tension that brings
at that time here’s the Superstar won it
twice everybody fig figes he’s even
money to win it a third time and claim
the belt and here he is at all these
prominent clubs of England playing golf
and that is something that was I feel
really helped to light the fire of the
eventual English golf yeah I think that
it’s really interesting that that
triangle if you like between um well
it’s not really a triangle but that
those connections that are being formed
between St Andrews Hoy Lake uh Royal
North Devon you know in terms of that
that sort of um transfer of of knowledge
of experience of competition Etc because
you know obviously there was the money
match with with Tommy Morris Bob Kirk
and and Johnny Allen at Westwood ho but
also um one of the great sort of early
characters in the history of of the club
at R North Devon was Captain Arthur
molesworth Who Um was you know the old
mle as he was known um was a big money
match player and he actually I believe
played in Tommy Morris’s last ever match
in the snow at s Andrew’s his suay oh
his son it was his son was it but I
thought it was a father and son’s match
was it not with with old Tom and no no
it was just Tommy verus Arthur Jr it was
a very complicated match you know Arthur
the old mole the big guy he came he was
a wow he was a wild character you know
he had a carriage that he would come
barreling across the Burrows in his
Carriage to the old iron Hut that was
the clubhouse there and he was a wild
Gambler and what happened was he came to
St Andrews his son was quite a player uh
and his son I’m sure he’s got to have
his name on the honor board at Royal
North Devon a million times he was quite
one of the better amateur golfers of the
age and his father came up and basically
challenged uh young Tommy’s backers you
know the players never set the matches
themselves money people that were
prepared to back them with big dollars
set the match matches up so the old mole
comes to town and he’s you know my son
will take on Tommy but he’s got to have
a third you know in other words six
Strokes for every 18 holes so there’s
huge huge huge sums of money are bet on
this match um and there were bets for
who won what the total number of Strokes
per player uh who won each round so
there was multiple multiple ways of
betting on this match and as I
understand stand it I think you know
well into the hundreds of pounds of
money was bet on the match and of course
the weather was horrible uh major
Hopkins that you were mentioning to we
before we got recording has a famous
painting of the match where they’ve
swept a little circle around the flag of
snow it snowed uh like substantially
during a portion of the match and they
just painted the balls red and played on
they were golfers back then they didn’t
you know do lift clean and play
because it might rain or anything silly
like that they played golf and uh you
know Tommy ended up winning the match
and all the money for his backers and so
forth and so on but it was that was the
last match Tommy played in it was
against Arthur
Jr uh and uh and you know it was a last
big money match he played in some
friendlies and stuff but so yeah no the
Arthur moles were senior the old Mo was
one of the great early characters of
golf and uh was certainly a prominent
figure on the scene wherever he went
whether it was St Andrews or his home in
North somebody who who got his nickname
because he found it quite difficult to
get the ball in the air but but had a
wonderful putting stroke apparently and
as I understand that he only played with
three clubs which was a a driver an IR
and a putter which were known
respectively as faith hope and charity
faith hope and charity yes you know it
was way more common to play with fewer
clubs then I think Tommy carried seven
most people carried fewer than eight or
nine at the most so it wasn’t until a
much later time that people carried that
many clubs and um then and now great
putting will make up for a lot of Mis
absolutely and actually looking at
talking of major Hopkins major Francis
Hopkins who was sort of better known as
as short spoon was one of the first
people to to really write about golf um
regularly in the field magazine in the
1870s but it’s more famous for his
watercolors and oil paintings which
depict scenes from you know the early
days of the games you know particularly
in England at Westwood ho which is where
he tired and really where he took up
playing the game but he also painted a
lot of scenes at at Hoy Lake and at
black Heath and at St Andrews as well
and and he has as you mentioned a
wonderful painting of of the mole the
old mole barreling down the uh the road
to the iron Hut at uh you know near the
Pebble Ridge at Westwood ho with his
sons in the background and I as I
understand I think I think it might have
been molesworth Jr was meant to be
playing against um Tommy and John B the
next year were they not at at Hoy Lake
there was meant to be a game was there
not where where yes where John B was
meant to be playing with his hero yes
that it was going to be uh Tommy and
John Ball Jr against Davey Strath and
Arthur molesworth if I remember
correctly uh and uh you know as it
turned out Tommy passed away before that
match could take place uh that was in
1875 and uh some years later as you as
you’ve read in the long golden afternoon
uh the match was played but Davey Strath
partner John Ball uh and I forget who
else was in it now I don’t have the book
in front of me but um no that was you
know obviously Tommy’s death is the
greatest tragedy in the history of golf
and one wers how many more opens he
might have won he was only 24 he had at
least 10 good years to golf in him still
so and there was nobody close to him at
the time of his death except for Dave
Strath nobody who could really give him
regularly give him a good game so it’s
uh something that I think about a lot
actually how much he might have done had
he not passed away how much of the the
early years of the game in England were
informed by these money matches that
that happened you know at Great centers
like or the early the Early sort of
bastions of the game like Westwood ho
Royal Liverpool Etc is that how the sort
of popularity of the game was was
transmitted and and grew
that certainly did a lot to make the
game more popular in the sense that the
matches were much hyped in the paper and
things like that but you know honestly
the English almost from the outset
tended to prefer stroke play to match
play um and you know there’s um the
first really big tournament that happens
in England is when Tommy wins the belt
and there’s Discord at preswick about
what to do next and a year passes
without an open here again you have the
forward thinking of members of Hoy Lake
stepping into the breach they staged a
tournament in April Of 1872 called the
Grand tournament for professionals they
put up 100 pound sterling for the pot
which was a staggering sum at that time
they paid 15 pounds to the winner uh
which was more than twice what the open
paid and it was the largest purse that
had ever been given out in a
professional event at that moment and
you know they wanted the big names to
come to England and show off in England
and they also paid all the railway
expenses of any professional who decided
to come they picked up his tab which was
absolutely unheard of I mean the
Revolutionary nature of that is somewhat
difficult for a modern person I think to
wrap their mind around in such a class
conscious Society where you know the the
professionals who had their railw pass
played still couldn’t come in the
clubhouse you know but they came and
they all came every one of them came and
Tommy played and he and Davey ran neck
and neck for the first day Davey had the
lead and Tommy hunted him down in the
second 18 which is a script you always
want and uh so that you know that really
got English golf on the map and uh but
even you know U as you go along horse
Hutchinson of course he wrote badminton
golf but he also wrote something a year
years later called The Oval series of
games he wrote a book there about Golf
and he has an essay in there in which he
talks about how that golf was adopted in
England and he mentions that the English
preference for stroke play and that they
kept score in matches which made the
people they were play the Scots they
played matches against absolutely
berserk because they would putt out on
every hole even if they were conceded to
putt they would putt it out because they
wanted their score and so there was much
more of an interesting score play in
England from the very earliest days than
there than there ever was in Scotland
and I think that you know that turned
out to be something of a turning point
in golf because you know the game
changes a lot when score play as the
heart of the game as opposed to match we
we mentioned horis Hutchinson there I
mean obviously a a huge figure in the
history of of raw North Devon but also
in the early history of English golf um
and an extraordinary coming together if
you like of of two figures that were
pivotal in the early years of the game
in England you know Horus as a teenager
uh coming home from Oxford to play at
Westwood ho and the Little House boy
John Henry Taylor uh who works at his
his childhood home cading for him I mean
these what you know what can you tell us
about these two two characters from
their early days and the importance that
they had you know in the in the early
years of English Gulf I would say to you
Dan that those are the two most
important figures in pre-war golf in my
opinion Horus because of the fact that
he was the first great writer about Golf
and the writer an editor and he gave um
his Works were so influential they were
you know Darwin burner Darwin who would
become the most famous and greatest of
all GE writers grew up idolizing Horus
Hutchinson’s work and read his the
famous bad Mitten golf book which the
introduction of that book itself in 1890
was a really pivotal thing for the
success of golf the fact that it was
recognized with its own volume of the
badminton library of sports and pastimes
but horse wasn’t simply great as a
writer he was also influential in every
big Club he was a member at Hoy Lake he
was a member at the Royal and ancient
Horus Hutchinson was on the rules
committee when they had to make the
decision about whether the hasco ball
should be barred he voted for allowing
the hastle to continue by the way and
and carried the day with the majority
but he was at the epicenter of the game
at every moment of its existence from
his days at Westward hoe until his very
tragic death
uh he was also a great golfer himself he
won the amateur twice two of the first
three times that was played it was first
played in 1885 and won by a Scotsman
named Alan mcky who was actually lived
in in Liverpool and was a member there
but was a Scot by by birth and then
Horus won the next two uh in the second
one beating John Ball on his home course
Horus was quite a a formidable golfer
played in the open numerous times as
well
uh I think he played eight times in the
open and his best finish was sixth in
1890 uh but he had a number of top 10
and uh the big tragedy of his life as
far as the open was concerned is that in
1892 the open was played at 72 holes for
the first time at mirfield and after the
first 36 Horus had a huge lead uh he
fell apart in the final two rounds but
he always was one of his great regrets
that it hadn’t been a 36 hole opener he
might actually won he was very wild uh
he he himself described his own swing as
being one of bombastic freedom and uh
you know basically when he was swinging
all parts were moving furiously and he
was he really lashed at the ball and in
fact you know he developed a really
close relationship with Tom Moore Senior
partly because of his membership at the
RNA and his his um his you know frequent
visits to St Andrews but he and Tom
became quite close and um Tom Tom uh I
think saw a little bit of his son in the
way Horus just lashed at the ball you
know Tommy you know went after every
swing with everything he had and Horus
was that way too Horus was similar to
Tommy also in a sense he had tremendous
powers of recovery from the many
difficult spots he got himself into off
the te and he was quite a formidable
player you know but at any great moment
in history you’re likely to find horse
one of the people that Walter Travis
beats in the last few matches of the
1904 amateur uh was horse uh and you
know when that was probably the most
shocking thing to happen in Britain in
the early part of the 1900s was Walter
Travis coming from America he was
actually Australian but he came from
America to win the amateur and uh you
know I think people expected Bobby
backwell to to thwart him eventually but
you know Horus came up with one of those
days where he played brilliantly he
knocked out Maxwell but it knocked
himself out trying to knock Maxwell out
and then got knocked out by Walter
Travis later that same afternoon so he’s
he’s there at every moment and then you
know so he’s very influential in all
ways as a writer as a thinker as an
administrator in the game and he is the
first Englishman who isn’t a royal to be
named the captain of the royal and
ancient golf club which just goes to
show you uh the uh the Eminence in which
he was held there’s a beautiful portrait
of horse that hangs in the big room of
the royal and ancient even today so he
was one of the most important figures in
the history of the game you know I
actually don’t think though that he was
the most important figure in his own
household uh the most important figure
in his household was the boot black uh
John Henry Taylor who who uh who started
his life uh black in the boots for
Colonel William Nelson Hutchinson
horus’s father and Horus and the family
and he sometimes caded for horse at
North Devon also uh but eventually um
North Devon had the first working man’s
club in golf uh and John Henry Taylor as
he would be all his life was one of the
leaders of that club and they as all
these working clubs do I think still
today but you would know better than me
they played an annual match against the
members of North Devon themselves and
Taylor was matched against Hutchinson
his his one-time boss and uh and he U he
played brilliantly against him
he had to play again he was uh putting
tar on some of the
um sleepers that hold up bunkers in the
morning and had got his only pair of
pants splattered with tar so he had to
play against Horus to his great shame in
a pair of work overalls that were
completely splattered with tar and uh he
ended up beating Hutchinson and they had
a rematch some years later over at
Burman Barrow when John became a pro
over there and uh beat him again so John
Henry Taylor the reason I think he’s so
important to golf is that a couple
different things he was the leader of
his generation among the great trium of
Varden braid Taylor Taylor was the UN
Undisputed leader of those men uh and
Andrew kotti has a wonderful quote in my
book about about how all golfers in the
world look up to John Henry Taylor he is
the person who led the formation of the
the professional golfer
Association in the early
1900s excuse me what happened was around
1900 clubs started deciding that you
know what we’re not going to let the pro
have the Pro Shop anymore we’re going to
get make the Pro Shop an independent
business that goes to the highest bidder
if the pro can bid the highest then it
can be theirs and that just cut off
onethird of the salary of every Pro if
you did that and the pros got all up in
arms and a a pro named Peter Paxton
wrote a letter to the editor say well if
Pros are in Earnest let John Henry
Taylor stand up people called right on
him at the beginning and he did stand up
and he got the PGA formed and he was
quite close friends with George riddle
the newspaper proprietor and uh George
riddle ran the news of the world and the
News of the World put 200 pounds up to
create a series of tournaments that were
qualifying tournaments that led to the
news of the world and so not only did
they thwart to take over the Pro Shop
but they also created a tour for the
midling professional you know John Henry
Taylor and Varden and brave they made
good money because they got to play in
the big championships but the middling
Pros could barely survive and this new
tour gave them a lot of opportunities to
go play and earn money competitively and
keep their head above water so Taylor is
the man who’s responsible for that when
he retired he was um he focused on
getting the first public golf course
ever built in London it drove Taylor
crazy that all Scottish courses
practically were public and no English
courses were public he didn’t like that
he was dead set on changing that and he
and riddle he riddle helped him again to
get Richmond Park built in London which
Taylor himself designed and it was so
successful that a second 18 was built
the following year Taylor also was
instrumental and like I said he was
instrumental in forming the work the
North and working man’s club but he was
also instrumental in forming the artist
and golfers ass assciation to sort of
Empower all Artisan golfers all over
England and in his retirement years he
served on the council until his late age
so he was always working on behalf of
golfers and in particular on behalf of
public golf and that’s why I feel like
Taylor is golf’s IND indispensable man
is the way I referred to him in the long
golden afternoon so it’s just such a
such a feather in the cap of North Devon
that they produced these two
heroically important figures in the game
of golf and they should be so proud of
yeah mean I think this it’s beautifully
put but the you know the the connections
with the birth of The Artisans the the
the birth of the PGA but also you know
going back further still in
1868 um Westwood ho ladies Club was
formed you know the first of its kind in
in England you know and you know the the
the and the only the second in the world
well um yeah no that was a big deal that
was a big deal and there’s a lot of
interesting things to say about that
first off once again it’s the St Andrews
connection because in
1867 old Tom laid out the uh what is now
known in in Scotland as the Himalayas
but at that time was known as the ladies
links and um the ladyes St Andrews Golf
Club was formed in 1867 it’s the oldest
women’s golf club in the world the
second oldest is the one formed the
following year at North Devon it didn’t
last forever I think it faded out around
1879 or 80 and then was resuscitated a
decade later but uh so once again North
Devon is in the lead of women’s golf
being taken up in England and it’s uh my
my fellow historian and friend Michael
Morrison has a wonderful book called The
Great English golf boom in which he has
done a lot to document the growth of
individual clubs and the rate at which
clubs grew and one of the more shocking
findings in that book is that is in the
later part of the 1890s in England
growth among women golfers exceeds
growth among men golfers that’s how
strongly women took up the game and uh
you know it’s that original Nexus North
Devon Hoy Lake Wimbledon in particular
Wimbledon where the ladies uh really
become strong you know ISAC Pearson is a
member of the royal Wimbledon Club in
1893 she and William L law pervis who is
himself a Scotsman from Edinburgh uh
form the ladies golf Union and uh and
then you know ladies golf really starts
to grow and make a world of its own
that’s quite a great story which is the
story I’m currently working on so uh
North Devon again right there at the
epicenter of things at the very
beginning it’s it’s it’s had an amazing
sort of role in the early history of the
game just going back to John John Henry
Taylor uh for a minute just in terms of
his personality I mean you know his
achievements are incred in you know
there’s an amazing plaque as you come
into the clubhouse at Raw northe which
says John Henry Taylor Northern caddy
boy and five-time open Champion um which
is you know and his locker is still in
the in the locker room there and his his
portrait is obviously in the clubhouse
and some of his clubs are there and you
know he is somebody who is absolutely um
at the core of the club if you like his
his story and his his his legacy if you
like proudly um you know looked upon at
the club but just about him as a sort of
personality I mean some of the things
that I found some of the descriptions or
adjectives used about JH Taylor
determined Square short compact tense
highly strong straight religious you
know in terms of his his personality but
also as a golfer I mean I understand
that he played everything off off the
right foot and had a very sort of you
know very sort of piercing trajectory to
his to his shots but also that in the
way that he he tackled the game and he
approached the game and he approached
his life he was um he was sort of
formidable but but but very sort of
straight character wasn’t
he yes he was you know he was a natural
born leader for starters he was he just
took leadership roles everywhere and
people looked to him to lead them as we
were discussing earlier so that’s one
thing he was a reader you know he kept
reading all his life you know like most
workingclass children his parents his
father was a laborer and his mother took
in washing uh and so he was at the very
very Bottom Rung of society when he was
a young man and um but he he did
exceptionally well in school he he was
obviously quite bright uh and he
continued to read all his life I think
his uh his favorite writer was uh Samuel
Johnson who uh uh who is you know
the the dictionary writer and he also
enjoyed Dickens but he read all of his
life um he was um as far as a golfing
personality was concerned he he he his
when he Swang it was as if his feet were
nailed to the ground he somebody would
ask him how do you play he’d say
flat-footed golf sir flat-footed Golf
and it was like his his legs were like
post attached to the ground and he had a
short clipped swing that was you know
created a really low trajectory that
would bite and so um you know when Horus
Hutchinson wrote a book called The Golf
book of golf and golfers where he
highlighted most of the great swings of
the day uh he did not highlight John
Henry’s swing and he said so why even
though he had won many opens was that
his swing was very unorthodox and it
wasn’t one that could be copied just by
any person uh you know John Henry was
really strong man physically quite
strong and you’d have to be a strong man
to swing the club the way he did and get
the distances he did uh from his shots
everything was like a three quarter
swing um he is without any doubt the
greatest foulweather player golf has
ever known and that speaks a lot to his
personality I think Bernard Darwin wrote
of him my how he tugged his hat down and
stuck his chin out and lashed the ball
into that Gale you know he just he he
was a Relentless person uh very kind and
intelligent though and I think um
everyone loved John Henry Taylor except
maybe uh Scotsman you know at the
beginning because uh he he was the first
English professional to take them down
and uh the first time he did at 1894 at
Royal St georgees you know some of that
was John Henry grew up in North Devon
his first assignment was Burnham and
Barrow he was not afraid to play in Wind
he’d been playing in a gale all his life
so you know the Gales that blew in off
pegwell Bay during that open didn’t phas
him at all and and not with the way he
hit the ball wind was never a problem
for him and uh so he won that open com
ably but I definitely his proudest
moment and he says so in his Memoir is
uh the following year 1895 everyone is
like no way he can repeat that at St
Andrews not with the fiery greens we
have he won’t be able to stop his ball
and so forth and so on now it did rain
kind of heavily during that tournament
but the bottom line is he went to St
Anders and he knocked them all down
again and that was the single greatest
moment in English professional golf up
to that time uh so for an Englishman to
win at the at St Andrews you know
against all the greats of St Andrews was
quite a thing and John Henry was by far
the most celebrated golfer in England
even the first few years after Varden
started making a name for himself Taylor
was still considered the big man just
looking trying to judge how good those
at those players were you know the great
tra for horis Hutchinson you know John
Ball Tommy Morris I mean if we’re
looking at at at John Henry Taylor you
know as you said he won his first open
in 80 in 94 rather repeated defeat in
95 I think it was was it 1913 at Hoy
Lake he played in some of the worst
weather ever and and that was when he he
literally PR he framed those score cards
produced this in this absolute he framed
those scorecards he was so proud of
those two rounds you know he shot 7775
and an absolute Gale as he walked up to
the first t uh the wind Swept Away all
the tents all the Press tents all the
accommodation tents they were just blown
away in a gale he just put a tea in the
ground and marched forward and shot 77
and uh he framed the scorecard from that
because he thought it was the greatest
golf he’d ever played and he was
particularly proud to have won at all
the major venues St George’s Hoy Lake
and St Andrews you know Varden never won
at St Andrews or at Hoy Lake and uh
braid never won anywhere except on
Scottish soil either so Taylor was the
one who won at every great venue who had
the traveling game and I think maybe
that’s something that’s he doesn’t quite
get as much credit for as he should I
don’t think he was quite the golfer of
either Varden or braid honestly uh they
had more length on him and I think they
had more shots in their bag but he just
was a determined soul and a you know if
you get if I wouldn’t want to be nose to
nose with John Henry Taylor down the
stretch let’s put it that way because
you know he is uh he’s not quitting
until the last one drop and um he I
think at Hoy Lake that year that he won
at Hoy Lake in 1913 he barely qualified
I think he had to sink a six-footer to
qualify and it kind of wobbled around on
the putt edge of the hole like a drunken
man and finally toppled in and burner
Darwin turns to a friend and said it’ll
be just like John to win it all now you
know and of course he did go out and win
it all so you know I think also you know
one so I think growing up at Raw North
Devan you know playing in the gals and
the and the sheeting rain and the wins
that you that you get when you play play
at Westwood ho um like you say just just
armed him and and gave him that great
ability to play in the wind and like you
say it didn’t phase him at
all no he and I agree with you 100% Dan
is that he had the right kind of
upbringing and uh you know he um he just
was uh a really interesting man I think
maybe his proudest moment in life was
that his son uh the son of a boot black
got to play in the Varsity match at
Oxford at Burnham and Barrow which was
where John had his first job as a
professional his mother sent him off
with all of his clothes in a box and a
pound in his pocket and that was
everything he had and off he went to
burnam and Barrow and made a great
success of
himself what men those guys were you
know to to uh to hang with it all that
time and to to fight their way up and I
think the other thing that John Henry is
the leader in this too uh but vard and
Taylor vard and bra also deserve credit
which is they earn the respect of these
gentlemen who J basically looked down
their noses at them at the beginning and
in the end you know um that they were
really really respected figures you know
braid would be invited to dinner with
the Prince of Wales his daughter would
call him up the next morning and say did
you get to sit next to the prince and
Bray would say no he sat next to me you
know so they he helped to lift those men
up and they all lifted up the profession
in a way that they deserve tremendous
credit for um I think every golf
professional earns money today should
give a nod of respect to John Henry for
starting just in terms of the equipment
they were using Stephen you know if you
look at what Horus and and John Henry
were using you know in their early days
and and the scores that they put up and
the scores that you see in the record
books on the on the honors boards at at
r northe you know the courses elves I
mean even let’s even if we rewind a
little from 1894 when John Henry Taylor
Wins his first open but if we’re looking
at you know uh raw North Devon in the
early days in in its first 25 years
Green’s pretty rough you know nothing
like the condition that you have today
and even today the golf course is one of
the most natural tests you’ll ever
you’ll ever find you know you still have
you know sheep grazing the course and
you know it’s not it’s not as defined as
as as many other links are but that’s
part of its great charm but you know the
courses in those days were you know you
look at the early pictures of of major
Hopkins AKA short spoon and the greens
were just slightly shorter bits of
Fairway the te’s were next to the greens
um you know they were playing with
long-nosed
clubs um I mean obviously not not John
Henry but these guys were playing with
equipment and producing scores that is
it’s hard to hard to really have them
isn’t it how good they probably
were these were great great great
golfers and you know I think a modern
player might look at John 77 at Hoy Lake
in that driving R and not think well
that’s not such a big deal but I just
here’s the example I will give you and
we got to go back to Tommy to do this
you know in
1870 press was a 12 hole course and you
played three rounds of 12 Tommy’s
opening round in the 1870 Championship
was 47 which is a staggering number for
12
holes in the year of the 150th open
Champion preswick recreated the 12f
course identical to the way that it had
been when Tommy scored the
47 they invited several hundred golfers
from around the world to come and play
with whatever equipment they chose to
most people played their modern
equipment
and many people a few people tried to
take him on with Hickory clubs uh which
were of course the clubs that he played
uh and only one person was able to shoot
a score lower than 47 all these years
later so to me that’s the greatest
evidence of all of the degree to which
these men played great golf you have to
keep in mind John Henry Taylor probably
played with eight Hickory
clubs uh which did not have grooves on
the faces they would have had little
dots so you couldn’t really stop the
ball except by means of applying uh some
sort of spin as you hit it and uh so
they had to be artists at stopping the
ball uh they had to be incredibly
resilient the Agronomy was terrible
compared to what it is now you your lies
were horrible most of the time um the
gutty ball was difficult to get airborne
uh without a perfect strike and I play
Hickory clubs all the time now that is
my regular game when I’m playing in
anything I play with hickories and a
mish hit with the Hickory is going to be
a terrible shot unlike a mishit with a
modern club which will be a modestly
decent shot so I think one of the
biggest things that I’ve tried to do
with my books is to get people to
understand how great this golf was and
that you can’t look at it simply as a
number uh you know that the the me the
way these men were able to play and
women uh staggers the imagination it
really does and uh John Henry Taylor um
I think when he first became noticed by
Harold Hilton he shot a 73 at preswick
uh in about 1893 I think it was or 92
but anyway uh 73 at preswick and the
kind of wind you get there and the
terrible conditions of the of the
fairways and things that time is just
it’s it’s mindboggling so they were
great great players yeah absolutely and
um obviously coming up the end of the
period which your book covers you know
which is the it finishes in 1914 but in
1912 Horus um probably due to his
connections with the RNA and his
standing at the RNA managed to persuade
or managed to persuade the organizers of
the amate championship to bring the
amateur Championship to to Roy North
Devon in
1912 and and his sort of great friend
Johnny B won his eighth and final amate
championship at rawal North Devon um
what can you tell us about I mean John
Ball is it over who was also an artisan
golfer so there’s a sort of perfect
circularity around um around that but
John Ball is obviously a huge figure the
central figure in the long golden
afternoon but what can you tell us about
that 1912 amateur championship at at
Royal North
Evan well a couple things one is um ball
did not want to play he was uh 50 years
old then and he had really sort of
gotten tired of the competition and
gotten tired of he hated being famous
above all things and he had just gotten
tired of the agulation the people
meeting him at the train station and
everything else like this so uh a
Mitchell comes up and is joking with him
and says you know I hear next year
they’re going to establish an age limit
to which ball replies I wish they’d done
it this year I only came because it
meant so much to my friends you know
people obviously Hoy Lake adored John
Ball uh a love affair with the offer
that might might be unequal at at any
time in history uh is the way that
people of ho Lake admire John you know
John is the greatest one of the greatest
match play golfers in the history of the
game eight amateur championships you can
be sure that that’s a record that will
be stand for all time there is no I mean
I think Sir Michael balik I hope I’m
pronouncing his name right um is the
closest anyone’s gotten and that’s five
he still had four to go to pass him uh
so it’s just an staggering
accomplishment but to me John Ball’s
biggest importance is um you know I as I
said I think Tommy lit the flame of golf
in England by coming down and making
that grand tour before he won the belt
but when John Ball in 1890 won the Open
Championship as an amateur see it’s
really really really important that he
wanted as an amateur because all the
golfers that were just taking up the
game in England were Rich amateurs uh uh
like like his father and him and uh so
it was really heartening to them to see
that they could beat the pros and he had
set the way and then honestly in that
decade amateurs became intensely
competitive were intensely competitive
with Pros they won three of the 10 opens
in the decade two by Hilton one by ball
and they were close a lot as Horus
himself was in 1890 finishing Sixth and
10th another time so they were right
there and it was ball who got that all
started so I think you know ball was the
first real hero of English Golf and
importantly he beat Scots one there’s
nothing that gets an Englishman more
excited than beating the Scots I don’t
think uh just uh so I think that really
stirred I know this Willie Park Jr had
to stop playing golf for two years after
John Ball won the open because he got so
many golf club orders from England that
it was everything he could do to keep
them full he was just sending clubs
South every day uh and that’s just the
proof of that just shows you uh what
Ball’s Victory did to stir interest of
among English golfers and you know ball
had a lifelong relationship with
Westward Ho one thing I didn’t get to
mention earlier is that there were
always interclub matches and one of the
first and best interclub matches is was
between Westward Ho and Hoy Lake they
had an annual home and home match where
the golfers from Hoy Lake would come and
play westw ho and vice versa and that’s
why on your honor board you see so many
Hoy Lake names they Hilton’s on your
honor board numerous times just just to
sum up Stephen you know
your opinions and your views on Raw
North Devon’s place in the history of
the game um not only for the you know
the Incredible characters and the
personalities and the and the the
Pioneers if you like that it’s produced
but you know it it sort of place in
terms of Firsts you know not only being
the first English links but um you know
where you see it in the history of the
game I think Royal North Devon is one of
the most important clubs in the history
of golf and certainly one of the most
important clubs in the history of
English golf you know uh with for
multiple reasons one is I have not had
the pleasure of playing it but from
everything I know it’s a brilliant golf
course that presents a wonderful natural
test and has you know been a great test
for Champions All Through Time not just
men Royal 7 also hosted early women’s
championships they hosted the
championship in 1900 uh and in 1910 also
so twice before the war they hosted the
women’s which they never thought of
calling it an amateur Championship
because at that time there was no
concept that there would be any such
thing as women’s professional golf but
so they hosted the Women’s Open
Championship there in 1900 Rona Adair
the great Irish golfer one went on that
year to play two matches against old Tom
that were much reported in baly Hood so
it’s been at the Forefront of golf in
every way in women’s golf in in men’s
championship golf in being the first
Seaside link in England and and and
having one of the great natural courses
of the world and also in the two figures
that It produced Horus Hutchinson
probably the leading writer and thinker
of his age and John Henry Taylor the
indispensable man of the game who helps
make public golf and professional golf a
reality uh all through
England and um so I feel that very few
clubs uh have as much to to to be proud
of as nor Devon and um if your members
haven’t read it I think one of my very
favorite pieces of golf literature is a
a little profile that Pat Ward Thomas
wrote about Han John Henry Taylor on his
90th birthday you know when he finally
retired at 75 from midsi golf club he
moved back home to North Devon and
stayed there the rest of his days
overlooking the links and uh that essay
by Ward Thomas about John Henry Taylor
is just one of the great pieces of golf
literature and and I think you know a
fitting way for him to be remembered and
of course Berard Darwin’s writings on
John Henry Taylor are always worth I
must have read his essay on John Henry
15 or 20 times uh so definitely one of
the great clubs in the world uh it’s my
dream to come play it with you one of
these days Dan and uh I um I envy you
being able to play that golf course and
uh I just have endless admiration ation
for for Westward Ho and all the things
they’ve meant to the game we’d love to I
know I speak on behalf of all the
members at Raw North Dev certainly I
speak on behalf of all the members we’d
love to uh love to welcome you and um
see you playing the playing the Great
Links the crad of English golf thank you
very much for your time
Stephen I was delighted to be here Dan
and happy 160th to Royal North thanks
very much
cheers
for