[GPStyles]

Before there was Tiger Woods - before there was anybody else in golf history, for that matter - there was Young Tom Morris. A prodigy of such accomplishment that he was a legend in his own time. So accomplished was Morris that he was responsible for the creation of the Claret Jug, the now-traditional trophy for the winner of the Open Championship.
But Morris' life was all too brief: He died tragically, on Christmas Day, at the age of 24.

Morris' father - Tom Morris Sr., a k a Old Tom Morris - had won four Open Championships himself, the last in 1867, one year before his son's first British Open title.

But Young Tom Morris had been winning tournaments before that. His first big win, according to the World Golf Hall of Fame, was an exhibition match in Perth at the age of 13. At 16, he won a big professional event at Carnoustie.

When he won the British Open in 1868, he was only 17 years old. Young Tom won again in 1869 and 1870. At that time, the winner of the tournament was presented with a "championship belt," officially called the Challenge Belt. The rules stipulated that anyone winning the belt three straight years got to keep it. Morris did just that, and the belt was his permanently.

Which left the tournament organizers with a problem: They no longer had anything to present to the winner.

There was no tournament in 1871, but by 1872 the now-famous "Claret Jug" was ready, and Young Tom Morris won that trophy in its first year.

Three years later, Morris was playing an exhibition match when he received word that his wife and child had both died during childbirth. Morris himself died mere months later, on Christmas Day, 1875, at the age of 24. The cause is not known, but most people at the time blamed it on a broken heart.

Young Tom Morris would be outlived by his father, Old Tom Morris, by more than 30 years.


more to come!