Michael Morrison

@firmandfastgolf @dnormoyle @WorldGolfMuseum @USGA Shane, I listened last night. You and DM - excellent!

New episode out with @dnormoyle discussing some of the finer points of golf history and heritage. Enjoy! There’s an issue with the Apple Podcasts version atm but u can play it on Spotify and on link below Firmandfastgolfpocast.fireside.fm/76 @WorldGolfMuseum @USGA #golfhistory

@JohnMorton215 @pagolfhistorian Well done, John. You are making a fine contribution. Keep it going.

⛳️🎉This week marks the one year anniversary of Auld Grey Toun Golf Books.🎉⛳️ I am so grateful for the support of so many in the golf community as I endeavor to share and spread the history of golf! To celebrate this milestone, I’m offering a VERY special price on one of my favorite golf history books: “Why Are There Eighteen Holes?”. It shares the history of how golf courses evolved in the early years the game eventually settled on 18 being the “magic number”. Normally $49, ONLY through next Friday, I’m making it available at a special price of just $29.99! Grab a copy today for you and the rest of your usual foursome of golf buddies: tinyurl.com/yhyyk8ay @AGTGolfBooks

@JimHHartsell @SProctorGolf I have 1911 - wonderful. As is 1914. My most valuable one from that era is the LGU Yearbook. It gives the names, addresses and handicaps of every LGU member. A data trove. 😊

Nisbet’s 1911 Golf Yearbook seems to have been produced for @SProctorGolf

@SProctorGolf Looking very dapper, Mr Proctor. 😊

@JohnMorton215 Freddie Tait, Allan Robertson; Old Tom, Young Tommy; Balfour, HGH, JHT, HH? 😊

#ThrowbackThursday to a fun photo I took back in 2023 of a complete set of 1900 Copes Golfers cigarette cards. Quite a few legendary names can be seen in it! 🧐 Including: - An amateur who was killed in a war - A (metaphorical) King - A “Grand Old Man” - Golf’s 1st prodigy - A British Prime Minister - Multiple authors @prewarcards

@SProctorGolf Many congratulations, Stephen. Thoroughly deserved. Enjoy a wee dram. Cheers. 👍

I’m absolutely thrilled to report that Matchless has won the Herbert Warren Wind Award for golf book of the year. It is the honor of a lifetime. I am deeply grateful to the USGA. 🙏 Lemieux, Latshaw Sr., Proctor Earn USGA Honors usga.org/content/usga/h…

Golf holes, like golf clubs, used to have names, not numbers ....Sea Headrig...Ginger Beer... Postage Stamp.... There used to be a hole at Hunstanton called Mesopotamia (the green was between a burn and the river).. it is now called '2'. #golfhistory

@JohnMorton215 @jordanhardy @PrestwickGC Sea Headrig, the best named golf hole in the world. 😊

Favorite golf photo that I took this year would have to be one of these two: Left: @jordanhardy teeing off at Crail. Right: The rolling fairway of the iconic 13th at @PrestwickGC, called Sea Headrig.

@TheGolfDivoTee Great photo. What was the source? DM please.

The legendary James Braid in around 1905 -

My Christmas read, by my friend, Stephen Proctor. An important new work bringing golf history to life. #golfhistory #womensgolf #golf

@Richard08156270 I quote Old Tom Morris (I think): Nobody ever said it was meant to be a fair game.

The antithesis of what golf is about. Its whole point is to be a game of hazard, and not one of perfection, and always to accept the rub of the green. If you want more or less identical smooth playing conditions all the time, go bowling indoors😏

It’s publication day for Matchless in the UK. If you see a copy in your local book shop, post a picture. It’s alway a thrill for authors to see copies in the wild.

@SProctorGolf Sonny and Cher referenced Bernardo in The beat goes on. 😃

This calls to mind a Darwin phrase: And the beating went on without rest and without mercy.

@SProctorGolf 👍

@GolfHistoryMike We’ll want to knock it around The Worst Golf Course Ever together to be sure!

Even as I await publication of my latest book, ‘Matchless,’ I am delighted to report that I have reached agreement with my publisher on my next project — a literary biography of my muse, Bernard Darwin. This is the book I’ve been working all my life to write. I am over the moon!

@SProctorGolf Let's do that. When approximately are you planning to come over. I have material from his undergraduate golfing life at Cambridge in the mid 1890s.

@GolfHistoryMike That is so true! I hope I’m up to it. Plans include an extended research trip in England — which, of course, means golf and good times together! We should catch up soon.

@JohnMorton215 Best named hole at Prestwick has got to be the wonderful 13th, Sea Headrig . 😊

Let’s talk hole names at Prestwick. And there are some great ones… Himalayas. Alps. Cardinal. Arran. Clock. One of the more under-appreciated hole names is at the 9th - called Eglinton. One of Prestwick’s founders was the 13th Earl of Eglinton, whose massive portrait can be found in the dining room in the clubhouse. He was instrumental, along with James Ogilvie Fairlie, with founding the club and creating The Open!

Excited about this talk on 30 September as part of National Sporting Heritage Day in the R&A World Golf Museum, talking about Champion Golfer Allan Robertson. For 19 years be reigned supreme but with his early death at 43 and the game exploding, people turned to Tom Morris, who in time became the Grand Old Man of Golf. Allan's true story has been somewhat lost. Hopefully with Bill and my new research, we can get Allan restored as the rightful King of Clubs.

@R_McStravick Definitely. 👍 🍺

@GolfHistoryMike Thanks Mike. Truly grateful. Hopefully catch you for a dram at the meeting.

This will be a special night at the R&A World Golf Museum chatting with curator Hannah Fleming on 30 September National Sporting Heritage Day about Allan Robertson and other books. From the museum’s FB post… In this evening, we delve into the life and times of Allan Robertson and Roger’s new book with the late Bill Williams about the St Andrews legend. Allan Robertson was born in StAndrews in 1815, son of Champion Golfer Davie Robertson. Davie died in 1836, the year after he lost the title to Tom Alexander of Musselburgh. Allan stepped up, defeated Alexander, and became the Champion Golfer in 1840. It was a title he would hold for the next 19 years. With victory after victory, Allan became the feted ‘King of Clubs’. Allan has been overshadowed by his apprentice Tom Morris, but in his day Allan reigned supreme. Kids following his matches would scurry behind gorse bushes to swing like Allan. Caddies waiting for a game by Allan’s golf parlour would do the same. A photograph of Allan by Thomas Rodger adorned walls of friends, fans and golf clubs. Poets of the era would wax lyrical about him. Such was his fame. He was revered by all classes for his unique scientific approach to the game, including analysing green undulations, clubs and the ball. As a man of business, Allan employed Tom Morris, five years his younger, to help him make featherie balls. As playing partners, these close friends were never beaten. In 1858, Allan played the golf of his life, shooting 79 on StAndrews links – the first to do so. The King was in his best form but sadly, in 1859, he took ill and died, aged only 43. His death led to the creation of the Open to find the new Champion Golfer. History broadly forgot about Allan … until now. His story is a remarkable one. On the night we will discover who the real Allan Robertson was. Roger McStravick is an award winning golf historian. His book St Andrews In The Footsteps of Old Tom Morris won both the USGA Herbert Warren Wind Book Award and the British Golf Collectors Society Murdoch Medal. St Andrews - The Road War Papers won the USGA HWW Book Award for the second time for the 2020 book of the year. His latest book is Allan Robertson of St Andrews, The King of Clubs, 1815-1859 by Roger and the late and much missed Bill Williams. Held on the 30th September, National Sporting Heritage Day is an annual event to celebrate sporting heritage. The day is for everyone involved in sport and heritage who want to promote how sport can be used for inspiration and celebration. #NSHD2025 sportingheritage.org.uk/content/catego… Doors will open from 6.30pm with the evening beginning at 7pm. Tea and coffee will be availiable on arrival.

To put that rarity into further context: # of Hugh Philp clubs auctioned in the past 30+ years? DOZENS. # of Tom Morris clubs? DOZENS. # of Tom Morris autographs? DOZENS. # of Allan Robertson feather balls? 10-20. The rarity of this ball simply can’t be overstated.