| Harry Vardon | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Vardon, circa 1908–1914 | |||
| Personal information | |||
| Full name | Henry William Vardon | ||
| Nickname | Harry, The Stylist | ||
| Born | 9 May 1870 Grouville, Jersey, Channel Islands | ||
| Died | 20 March 1937 (aged 66) Whetstone, London, England | ||
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) | ||
| Weight | 11 st 7 lb (161 lb; 73 kg) | ||
| Sporting nationality |  Jersey | ||
| Spouse | Jessie Bryant (d. 1946) | ||
| Career | |||
| Turned professional | 1890 | ||
| Professional wins | 49 | ||
| Best results in major championships (wins: 7) | |||
| U.S. Open | Won: 1900 | ||
| The Open Championship | Won: 1896, 1898, 1899, 1903, 1911, 1914 | ||
| Achievements and awards | |||
| |||
Henry William Vardon (9 May 1870 – 20 March 1937) was a professional golfer from Jersey. He was a member of the Great Triumvirate with John Henry Taylor and James Braid. Vardon won The Open Championship a record six times,[1] and also won the 1900 U.S. Open.[2][3]
Born in Grouville, Jersey, Channel Islands, Vardon, whose mother was French and father English, did not play much golf as a youngster, but showed natural talent for the sport as a young caddie in his teens. Harry and his brother Tom Vardon, younger by two years and also interested in golf, were very close. Their golf development was held back by poor family circumstances and their father was not supportive of his sons' golf interest. Tom moved from Jersey to England first, to pursue a golf career. Harry went to England in the spring of 1890, taking a job as greenkeeper at age 20, at Studley Royal Golf Club, Ripon, Yorks. A year later he became club professional at Bury Golf Club, and in 1896 the club professional at Ganton Golf Club, in Yorkshire. By his early 20s, Harry developed a demanding practice program, the most ambitious seen to that time. He was the first professional golfer to play in knickerbockers – discarding the "proper" dress of an Englishman in an uncomfortable shirt and tie with a buttoned jacket.[4]
In 1896, Vardon won the first of his six Open Championships (a record that still stands today). Vardon had rivalries with James Braid and J.H. Taylor, who each won five Open Championships; together the three formed the 'Great Triumvirate', and dominated worldwide golf from the mid-1890s to the mid-1910s. These rivalries increased the public's interest in golf.
In 1898 Harry Vardon won his second Open Championship at Prestwick Golf Club, beating Willie Park, Jnr by a single stroke. Park missed a makeable putt on the 18th green to take the match to a play off. So aggrieved was Park that he immediately offered a challenge to Vardon to play him over 72 holes, 36 holes at his home course of Musselburgh and 36 holes at a golf course of Vardon's choosing, for a wager of £100 per side. Park had offered similar challenges before; some years earlier he had met and defeated Ben Sayers at Musselburgh and North Berwick, and in 1897 Park defeated J.H. Taylor over two venues, also for £100 per side. Vardon refused Park's challenge; besides the £100 per side, Vardon had nothing to gain from such a match, and he most certainly was not going to play Park at Musselburgh, where fan partisanship was less than courteous to rival players.
Eventually Park conceded to play his home leg at North Berwick Golf Club instead of Musselburgh, and Vardon chose his home course of Ganton, Yorkshire. Golf Week magazine acted as both promoter and stakeholder, and the match took place in July 1899, by which time Vardon had won his third Open Championship. The British press billed the encounter as the greatest golf competition of all time. Such was the interest that 10,000 Scottish fans attended the match at North Berwick, and that on a day when the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) was making a State visit to nearby Edinburgh. Special trains were laid on to ferry fans from Edinburgh and other nearby towns. The format of the competition was match play. The first 36 holes at North Berwick ended with Vardon holding a two-hole lead. The second leg took place two weeks later at Ganton, and Vardon completed the rout, winning 11 up with ten holes to play, collecting the £200 prize and the glory.
During his career, Harry Vardon made three visits to North America, in 1900, 1913 and 1920. During all three trips he competed in the U.S. Open finishing 1st, 2nd and tied 2nd.
He became golf's first international celebrity in 1900 when he toured the United States and Canada. John Henry Taylor, the 1900 Open Champion and member of the Great Triumvirate, also traveled to the USA on a mini tour in 1900. Vardon played in more than 90 matches and capped it off with a victory in the U.S. Open, where Taylor was second. Vardon wrote that while on this tour, he lost only two matches[5] while playing head-to-head against a single opponent, and both were against the Boston professional Bernard (Ben) Nicholls,[6] older brother of Gilbert Nicholls; the Nicholls brothers had recently emigrated from the British Isles. In 1913, accompanied by Ted Ray, Vardon played in 45 exhibition matches winning 36 of them, and in 1920 at age 50, again accompanied by Ray, he played from July to the beginning of November in nearly 100 exhibition/challenge matches against the likes of Walter Hagen, Jim Barnes, Francis Ouimet and Bobby Jones.[7][self-published source]
Vardon was the runner-up, after a playoff loss to the 20-year-old Ouimet, at his next U.S. Open in 1913, an event portrayed in the film The Greatest Game Ever Played. He toured North America with Ted Ray that year, as he did once more in 1920. At the age of 50, Vardon was again tied runner-up in his third and final U.S. Open appearance, in 1920; he was leading with a few holes to play.
During his career, Vardon won 48 tournaments and 21 team events; that was the most titles won by a single player to that juncture in golf history. He won the German Open in 1911 and the British PGA Matchplay Championship in 1912. Between 1898 and 1899 Vardon played in 17 tournaments, winning 14 and coming 2nd in the other three. Vardon popularised the overlapping grip that bears his name, one still used by over 90 percent of golfers; this grip had been originated by Johnny Laidlay a few years before Vardon adopted it. In his later years, he became a golf course architect,[8] designing several courses in Britain, Llandrindod Wells Golf Club, Woodhall Spa and Radcliffe-on-Trent being notable examples.
Following a bout with tuberculosis in 1903,[9] Vardon struggled with health problems for years, but turned to coaching and writing golf instruction and inspirational books.
After his comeback to the game following a prolonged absence while recovering from tuberculosis, he experienced serious problems with his short-range putting as a result of nerve damage to his right hand, and several commentators claim that he could have added to his list of majors had this disability not afflicted him.[4] Vardon and James Braid collaborated on several editions of Spalding Athletic Library "How to Play Golf".[10]
Vardon died in 1937 at the age 66, of pleurisy or possibly lung cancer,[11] at his home at 14 (now number 35) Totteridge Lane, Whetstone, London,[12][13] and is buried in St. Andrew's Church cemetery in Totteridge after a funeral service on 24 March.[14] That year, the PGA of America created the Vardon Trophy, now awarded annually to the player on the PGA Tour with the year's lowest adjusted scoring average. The British PGA also created the Harry Vardon Trophy which now serves as the award for the winner of the European Tour's Race to Dubai. In 1974, Vardon was chosen as one of the initial group of inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame. His most prestigious medals, including those from his six British Open Championships, are on display in a tribute to him at the Jersey Museum. In the annals of golf, he is considered one of the greats of the game. In 2000, Vardon was ranked as the 13th best golfer of all time by Golf Digest magazine.[15] Vardon is often called "The Stylist", "Mr. Golf" and "The Icon of Golfing"; another nickname attached to him was "Greyhound".
Vardon was also well known for the Vardon grip, or overlapping grip, the grip most popular among professional golfers. In the Vardon grip, one places the little finger of the trailing hand (the one placed lower on the club – right hand for a right-handed player) in between the index and middle finger on the leading hand (the hand that is higher on the club). The leading-hand thumb should fit in the lifeline of the trailing hand. Vardon actually took up this grip some time after Johnny Laidlay, a champion Scottish amateur player, invented it.
A visual depiction of the Vardon Grip is the logo of South Herts Golf Club where Vardon was the club professional from 1902 until his death in 1937
Major championships are shown in bold.[11][self-published source]
He won team events from 1899 to 1928.[11]
| Year | Championship | 54 holes | Winning score | Margin | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1896 | The Open Championship | 4 shot deficit | 83-78-78-77=316 | Playoff 1 |  J.H. Taylor
|
| 1898 | The Open Championship (2) | 2 shot deficit | 79-75-77-76=307 | 1 stroke |  Willie Park, Jr.
|
| 1899 | The Open Championship (3) | 3 shot lead | 76-76-81-77=310 | 5 strokes | Jack White
|
| 1900 | U.S. Open | 4 shot lead | 79-78-76-80=313 | 2 strokes | J.H. Taylor
|
| 1903 | The Open Championship (4) | 7 shot lead | 73-77-72-78=300 | 6 strokes | Tom Vardon
|
| 1911 | The Open Championship (5) | 3 shot lead | 74-74-75-80=303 | Playoff 2 |  Arnaud Massy
|
| 1914 | The Open Championship (6) | 2 shot deficit | 73-77-78-78=306 | 3 strokes | J.H. Taylor
|
1 Defeated J.H. Taylor in 36-hole playoff by 4 strokes
2 Defeated Arnaud Massy in 36-hole playoff: Massy conceded on the 35th hole
| Tournament | 1893 | 1894 | 1895 | 1896 | 1897 | 1898 | 1899 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Open | NYF | NYF | |||||
| The Open Championship | T23 | T5 | T9 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| Tournament | 1900 | 1901 | 1902 | 1903 | 1904 | 1905 | 1906 | 1907 | 1908 | 1909 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Open | 1 | |||||||||
| The Open Championship | 2 | 2 | T2 | 1 | 5 | T9 | 3 | T7 | T5 | T26 |
| Tournament | 1910 | 1911 | 1912 | 1913 | 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Open | 2 | NT | NT | |||||||
| The Open Championship | T16 | 1 | 2 | T3 | 1 | NT | NT | NT | NT | NT |
| Tournament | 1920 | 1921 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Open | T2 | |||||||||
| The Open Championship | T14 | T23 | T8 | T17 | CUT | CUT | T47 | CUT |
Note: Vardon only played in The Open Championship and the U.S. Open.
NYF = Tournament not yet founded
NT = No tournament
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
