Willie Park, Sr.

Golfer

• Born: June 30, 1834
• Birthplace: Wallyford, near Musselburgh, Scotland
• Died: July 25, 1903
• Place of death: Edinburgh, Scotland

Sport: Golf

Early Life

Willie Park, Sr., was born on June 30, 1834, in Wallyford, a Scottish village near Musselburgh and Edinburgh. His birthplace is on the side of the Firth of Forth opposite that of St. Andrews, the legendary home of golf. It was a fitting place for Willie to grow up, as he was to become the first winner of golf’s first major tournament, the Open Championship, which later became known as the British Open outside Great Britain.

Willie was the brother of Mungo Park (evidently named after the Scottish explorer of Africa), another noted golfer and Open champion, and the father of Willie Park, Jr. (1864-1925), who won the Open Championship twice. Willie’s son also became the first professional player to write a monograph on the game of golf and become a noted golf-course architect. Another brother, David, also became a respected golfer.

The Road to Excellence

The game of golf originated in Scotland and was played at Musselburgh at least as early as the year 1672. According to legend, Mary, Queen of Scots played there more than a century earlier. In the early twenty-first century, the Musselburgh golf course was still used and ranked as the world’s oldest course still in use.

Musselburgh was also home to two families who played significant roles in the early development of modern golf. One of these families was the Parks. The son of a farm laborer, Willie began his golfing career as a caddy during an era in which golfers used hickory-shaft golf clubs to hit featherie balls, which were made of goose feathers bound tightly in leather. In those days, some of the best golfers were caddies. By the time he competed for the first Open Championship in 1860, he was able to use the recently invented gutta percha balls.

The Emerging Champion

The first Open Championship took place at the Prestwick course in South Ayrshire. Only eight players—all either professional golfers or caddies—participated. The tournament committee was concerned that the professional players might not compete in the proper spirit of the game, so gentlemen markers were appointed to ensure that the rules of the game were strictly followed. The competition consisted of three rounds of twelve holes each, all to be completed in a single day. Although the event took place in mid-October, when days were noticeably shortening, the entire field completed all 36 holes before darkness fell.

Willie won the tournament with an aggregate score of 174, beating his major challenger, “Old” Tom Morris, who represented Prestwick, by 2 strokes and Andrew Strath, a St. Andrews player, by 6. The other competitors were Robert Andrew of Perth, William Steel of Bruntsfield, Charles Hunter of Prestwick St. Nicholas, and George D. Brown of Blackheath.

Continuing the Story

After the inaugural Open Championship, Willie went on to win the tournament three more times, in 1863, 1866, and 1875. He was also the runner-up four times. He achieved all his other Open victories at Prestwick. His brother Mungo won the Open in 1874 and his son Willie, Jr., won it in 1887 and 1889.

Over a period of twenty years, Willie posed a standing challenge, which he first posted in the pages of Bell’s Life magazine, that he would take on any golfer in the world for a prize of one hundred pounds—a substantial sum during the late nineteenth century. According to an unsubstantiated report, Willie occasionally played challenge matches using only one hand and standing on only one leg while taking his strokes.

Willie’s most frequent and fiercest opponent was Tom Morris, Sr. (1821-1908), who was known as “Old Tom Morris” to differentiate him from his son, Tom Morris, Jr., another noted golfer. Like Willie, both Old Tom and his son won the Open Championship four times each. On the whole, Willie and Morris shared golfing honors fairly evenly over the years and enjoyed a mutually respectful relationship. However, a serious controversy arose between them on one occasion. During a match played at Musselburgh, an official stopped play because of the unruly behavior of Willie’s staunch fans. When Morris refused to finish the contest, Willie completed the closing holes on his own and claimed the prize.

In 1870, Willie established his own club and ball-making company, which he based in nearby North Berwick. That time period was the start of an era that saw a rapid growth in the export of Scottish-made golf equipment throughout the world. Willie’s business expanded quickly to include facilities in Musselburgh and Edinburgh. Willie also took up golf-course design and the reconstruction of existing courses. He provided advice on green-keeping and supplied golf clubs and balls of the finest quality. Willie designed several golf courses but never achieved the reputation in this field that his son later enjoyed. Willie, Jr.’s masterpiece is the Sunningdale Old Course, which opened in 1901 near the famous Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire, England.

Summary

When Willie Park, Sr., died in 1903, he was rightly regarded as one of the greatest golfers of the nineteenth century. Both a powerful striker of the ball and a noted putter, he deserves his place alongside the other great Scottish pioneers of modern golf. In 2005, he was inducted into the veteran’s category of the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida. A suite in the conference wing of the Old Course Hotel in St. Andrews bears his name.

Bibliography

Baddiel, Sarah. Golf:The Golden Years—A Pictorial Anthology. London: Studio Editions, 1989.

Campbell, Malcolm, and Glyn Satterley. The Scottish Golf Book. Edinburgh, Scotland: Lomond Books, 2001.

Elliott, Alan, and John Allan May. Golf Monthly Illustrated History of Golf. London: Hamlyn, 1990.

Ironside, Robert, and Harry Douglas. A History of the Royal Musselburgh Golf Club 1774-1999. Musselburgh, East Lothian, Scotland: Royal Musselburgh Golf Club, 1999.

Park, Willie, Jr. The Art of Putting. 1920. Reprint. Edinburgh: Luath Press, 2007.