Young Tom Morris (Video) - by Peter Finch
Young Tom Morris (Video) - by Peter Finch

One of the true legends of the game of golf with a name which still echoes until today is Young Tom Morris who still holds the open record for the youngest person to ever to win a major championship, which he accomplished in 1868 at the age of 17. He also went on to win four consecutive opens all by the time he was 21. Unfortunately he passed away at only 24 so he could have achieved so much more if he only lived just a little bit longer but unfortunately that wasn’t to be the case. Now when Young Tom Morris was playing and when his father was playing of course Old Tom Morris the equipment that they used and the clothing that they wore was very, very old school. And to actually hit those shots, hit those clubs and hit those balls successfully was exceptionally hard. So many of the modern attributes of the swing wouldn’t have actually been present and wouldn’t have been possible for Young Tom Morris to actually use.

Now looking at still photographs what you can see is a very short action, so not a massive amount of arm extension away from the body, shoulders and body still turning quite a lot, right leg straightening with the arms very, very close. Now one of the reasons for this was because the clubs were obviously so difficult to hit, and the ball so difficult to make contact with, a massive wide ranging swing would have been, very, very difficult. So the arms close into the body, the right leg straightening, and from there, coming down into impact and also finishing in a quite a shortened position as well. Now these are the shots and these are the photographs that were set with his iron striking. So the short swing, into the there, just making a solid contact with the actual shot. Now that was when playing with the wooden clubs of the day, it might have been a bit of a longer swing to extend the ball out there a little bit further hitting of the top of course of the little piles of sand, no tees around in those days. But if you want to research the history of the game and find out how the old players used to play, then have a look at Young Tom Morris, a true legend of the game, and who knows what he could have achieved, if only he had lived just that wee bit longer. 2015-04-29

One of the true legends of the game of golf with a name which still echoes until today is Young Tom Morris who still holds the open record for the youngest person to ever to win a major championship, which he accomplished in 1868 at the age of 17. He also went on to win four consecutive opens all by the time he was 21. Unfortunately he passed away at only 24 so he could have achieved so much more if he only lived just a little bit longer but unfortunately that wasn’t to be the case. Now when Young Tom Morris was playing and when his father was playing of course Old Tom Morris the equipment that they used and the clothing that they wore was very, very old school. And to actually hit those shots, hit those clubs and hit those balls successfully was exceptionally hard. So many of the modern attributes of the swing wouldn’t have actually been present and wouldn’t have been possible for Young Tom Morris to actually use.

Now looking at still photographs what you can see is a very short action, so not a massive amount of arm extension away from the body, shoulders and body still turning quite a lot, right leg straightening with the arms very, very close. Now one of the reasons for this was because the clubs were obviously so difficult to hit, and the ball so difficult to make contact with, a massive wide ranging swing would have been, very, very difficult. So the arms close into the body, the right leg straightening, and from there, coming down into impact and also finishing in a quite a shortened position as well. Now these are the shots and these are the photographs that were set with his iron striking. So the short swing, into the there, just making a solid contact with the actual shot. Now that was when playing with the wooden clubs of the day, it might have been a bit of a longer swing to extend the ball out there a little bit further hitting of the top of course of the little piles of sand, no tees around in those days. But if you want to research the history of the game and find out how the old players used to play, then have a look at Young Tom Morris, a true legend of the game, and who knows what he could have achieved, if only he had lived just that wee bit longer.