NORTH BERWICK Golf Courses Bass Rock Town History Origins of Golf 19th Hole PHOTO GALLERY East Links West Links North Berwick Gullane Tantallon Castle Old Photographs Accommodation Skeletons at Auld Kirk Berwick Law Results per page: 10 20 100 Match: any search words all search words FAMOUS GOLFERS Ben Sayers Catriona Matthew Jack White Dorothy Campbell Watt Brothers Davie Strath NORTH BERWICK GOLFING PIONEERS Club Makers Golf Professionals and Course Architect NORTH BERWICK LINKS IN THE 1890s by DOROTHY CAMPBELL DRONE VIEW of WEST LINKS

A History of Golf at North Berwick The Golf Meeting |  The Caddie |  West Links |  Clubmaker |  Professional Coastal Communities Museum School Road, North Berwick Closed Sat-Sun until Oct 2021 Tel: 01620 894313 13th West Links, North Berwick © Digitalsport UK Bass Rock Golf Club Secretary: Gordon Scholes bassrockgolfclub@hotmail.com Tel:01620 895182 North Berwick Golf Club General Manager: Stuart Bayne Tel. 01620 895040 Tantallon Golf Club Secretary: Andy Edwards Tel. 01620 892114   'Carry For You, Sir?' By Douglas Seaton North Berwick Factfile The origins of golf are open to speculation, but most historians agree that the ball and stick games played during the middle ages had certain common elements with golf and they almost certainly influenced one another. Evidence shows that golf, as it is played today evolved in Scotland and in the 18th century, began to spread to the rest of the world. According to Frank Morin the respected golf historian and former correspondent of The Scotsman - 'Golf was first played on Leith Sands, then Leith Links and then Musselburgh Links'. At North Berwick golf was played on the Burgh Common or East Links during the 17th century. By the 1790s, the golfers had moved from the Common and were playing their sport on the West Links. Today there are three Golf Clubs playing the West Links, North Berwick Golf Club (1832), Tantallon Golf Club (1853) and Bass Rock Golf Club (1873), a practice unique to many Scottish courses. In 1886, Willie Dunn Jnr. was asked by Horace Hutchinson to take charge of the links of the Royal North Devon Golf Club at Westward Ho!. During this period Dunn spent several winters at Biarritz in France where his brother Tom designed the course while still engaged at North Berwick. Charles Gibson a club maker with Tom Dunn at North Berwick joined Willie Dunn Jnr. at Royal North Devon Golf Club and started the Gibson golfing dynasty. When the links at Leith and Musselburgh became overcrowded the golfers moved down the coast and played their game at North Berwick and Muirfield, followed by the club and ball makers and caddies. The first club maker in North Berwick was Willie Dunn Snr. (1873-78). He was born in Musselburgh in 1821 and apprenticed under the Gourlay family, and was keeper of the green at Blackheath until 1872 when he returned to the Thistle Golf Club at Leith Links. Willie Dunn Snr. worked as a club and ballmaker from his house at Primrose Cottage, Lochend, Leith. In 1881 his son Willie Dunn Jnr. moved to North Berwick where his older brother Tom Dunn was appointed Keeper of the Green. Willie Dunn Jnr. was 15 years old when he played his first match against Ben Sayers at North Berwick and won. Although Sayers won the return match it brought Willie Dunn Jnr. to prominence. He partnered Sayers in a money match against the two Fernies at St Andrews in 1881. The first day was halved but the second day Dunn and Sayers won the match by five holes. Willie entered the Open Championship for the first time from North Berwick in 1883 and again in 1884, and 1886.

The Town Council realised the economic benefit of attracting visitors to play golf at North Berwick and began an advertising campaign, describing the town as the 'Biarritz of the North'. Posters featuring the golf courses appeared at railway stations all over the country, and are now highly collectible. This initially attracted the well-to-do but later as the game become more affordable the middle-class took up the sport. In 1902, the American Ambassador Joseph Choate rented Cheylesmore Lodge for the autumn season and during September he played golf everyday with Prime Minister Balfour, Duke Of Cambridge and Lord Rothschild. In August 1896 the Liberal Prime Minister, Right Hon. Herbert H. Asquith K.C and his wife Lady Oxford Asquith played golf at North Berwick. They regularly took part in a foursome match with Herbert Asquith partnering Lord George Hamilton and Mrs. Asquith was partnered by the local professional Davie Grant. During the Autumn from 1909 to 1911 the Asquith's resided in Archerfield House. The private course was screened with belts of woodland trees which offered privacy from the attention of the militant suffragettes. The Asquith's atended Dirleton Kirk for the Sunday morning service. The former Prime Minister Mr Arthur J. Balfour M.P. regularly partnered Asquith at North Berwick when he resided in the Bradbury Hotel, North Berwick. Lord Kitchener was another who enjoyed the privacy of Archerfield where he took lessons from George Sayers in 1910. Arthur James Balfour, Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister was a regular visitor to North Berwick. In 1887 Balfour was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland and as such was given round-the-clock protection. While playing on the West Links, Balfour was shadowed by two armed detectives discreetly following among the sand dunes. Each year, during the month of September, Balfour would take rooms in the Bradbury Hotel from where he played two rounds of golf each day and in the evening he attended to the affairs of State. The regular bodyguards while Balfour played golf were Detective Inspector John Sweeney of Scotland Yard and his boss Sir Robert Anderson. They also provided an armed guard for Queen Victoria, Empress Frederick, President Loubet, the Czarina of Bulgaria, and the German Kaiser while they visited Great Britain. Another essential requirement was decent sports equipment, and it was the advances in industrial technology that probably did more than anything else to drive the sporting revolution. This covers everything from the invention of vulcanised rubber for tennis balls, the production of high quality iron and steel for golf clubs, ice skates and lawn mowers, watches and clocks for accurate timekeeping and the invention in 1845 of the gutta percha golf ball. As golf clubs were established and national rules adopted, the next step was challenge matches with other clubs. This was conducted by letter, telegraph or even newspaper correspondence columns. These new technologies were now helping to transform nineteenth century society. Part of the West Links, (Elcho Green to the March Dyke) remains common land protected by the Scottish Natural Heritage. The remainder of the West Links was purchased by the Town Council in 1954. Following local government regionalisation in 1975, all the town assets including the East Course were administered by East Lothian Council who now own the land.

the beginning .......

The West Links was originally part of the Abbey Farm owned by the Nunnery and the feuars of the property in Westgate (Law Brae to Abbey Road) were granted the right to graze their animals on the West Links in place of ground near the Abbey. The term 'feu' in Scottish Law is a right to the use of land in return for a fixed annual payment (feu-duty). The feuars were each entitled to graze two cows or horses on the West Links, which stretched from Elcho House north of Church Road, to the March Dyke at Kaimend. Except from Candlemas to Whitsunday when cattle were restricted to the east side of the track called Ware Road, the remains of which cross the present second fairway. A cow herders hut was also sited in this area until 1895. It was the custom in 1826 when turf was taken from the West Links to cover a grave in the churchyard, sixpence was paid to the Feuars of Wetgate as compensation. In 1834 the feuars complained that the golfers were causing harm to the West Links and asked for compensation from the Lessees of the Private Green. In June 1834 payment was agreed at 18/- a year to each feuar who kept cows on the links, and this was collected from the golfer in the form of green fees. In 1881 only three people among the feuars kept two cows each, and by the early twentieth century the practice of grazing cattle on the links had ceased. A typical byre and adjoining cottage can be seen at 11 Abbey Road, where the last working tenant was carter and dairyman Alex Brown. In January 1954, workmen digging a trench for an electric cable on the East Links, near the tennis courts, unearthed a small iron object, a little larger than a golf ball. Carl Henderson who gained possession of the curio, regards it as a type of cannon ball but there might be a more interesting explanation of its origin. The ball might be what was believed to be the forerunner of the golf ball, or more rightly, the ball used in the game from which golf was thought to have derived. The game, known as "Klootschieten" or "Clotshot" was thought to have originated from the Low Countries, brought to Scotland by sailors on trading vessels and was still played in Fife and the Lothians at the end of the 19th century. Since the East Links used to be the town's common and was North Berwick's first golf course, it is probable that the game of "Klootschieten" was played there at some time and the iron ball, just unearthed was one of the original balls.

Left to Right: H. Taylor; H. Vardon; B. Sayers; W. Auchterlonie; A. Kirkaldy; W. Fernie; J. Braid; G. Causey; A. Herd (Open Champion); J. White;1902

the golf meeting ........

The town took on a festive mood at the start of the two day golf meeting. The carriages would arrive from the elegant country houses with the gentlemen and their house guests. The ground was cleared, a marquee erected, several holes cut from the turf and the local caddies and forerunners would line up to be hired. The golfers would bring donations of food to be cooked on the site adjacent to the marquee for the luncheon and dinner after the game. This included mutton, venison, pheasant, duck and from the local fishermen, lobster, crab and sand eels, all washed down with the best claret.

The first portable golf tee was invented in 1889 by two members of Tantallon Golf Club at North Berwick, William Bloxsom, secretary and Arthur Douglas.

John Gourlay, the finest feathery ballmaker of his generation was also a talented speaker and was often invited to be 'Master of Ceremonies' at the North Berwick golf meetings. By 1865 the committee of the North Berwick Golf Club were meeting at the Dalrymple Arms Hotel in Quality Street during the first week of May, June, July and September. Humans have always congregate together so group meetings on a convivial basis was a natural development. British Golf Clubs tended to run along segregated lines either by sex or by class, as well as having an occupational or economic basis, so it was no surprise that those wishing to pursue the traditional game of golf would follow a similar pattern. The Masonic influence was common to most golf clubs in those early days. When a person wished to join the club he was selected by each member placing a white or black ball into the Yes of No compartments of a wooden box which was vintage Masonic practice.. The candidate had to receive two thirds majority to be accepted. In 1864 this was reduced to one black was enough for the individual to be refused membership. No reason was given to the unsuccessful candidate, and nobody knew who had blackballed them. Often the captain was allowed to enter three members a year 'on the shake of a hand.' For over a hundred years from 1750 when there was no royal patronage of the game, the Freemasons kept the interest in golf alive. With the practice of bets being placed among the golfers, there was a requirement for rules and the Freemasons laid down a code of fair play for its members so that everything was equally shared out - hence the term fair-ways. The word 'fairways' was also used by fishermen meaning 'safe passage' for the journey out and back, like the nine holes out and nine back on the early courses. It was through the association with the Society of Freemasons that golf spread to North America and the British Colonies. Today our attitude to Freemasonry has changed considerably. We are now wary of the secrecy involved. In those bygone days Freemasonry was perceived as an organisation that promulgated the egalitarian views which would later be enshrined in the American and French Constitutions.

Harry Vardon tied with J.H. Taylor for the Open Championship at Muirfield in 1896. Before the replay he looked into Ben Sayers workshop beside the eighteenth tee on the West Links and his eye was caught by a cleek putter. It helped to give him his first 'Open' championship.

The minutes record that the North Berwick Golf Club was established in in George Sligo's mansion house at Seacliff on 8th May 1832 when 28 members were present. The first meeting of the club took place at North Berwick on Wednesday 4th July 1832 and the Teed Ball was struck by Captain Sir David Braid Bt. at 12 noon. The club afterwards dined at the North Berwick Inn, (Dalrymple Arms Hotel, 12 Quality Street) where Mrs. Blair served dinner. The second meeting took place on the 1st August 1832 when the Champion Medal was presented to the club by John Campbell of Glensaddell. The competition was played over three rounds of the six-hole course and the winner was William Oliphant with 105 strokes. The tall figure of Sir David Baird Bt. was a leading spirit in the formation of the club and presented three dozen bottles of champagne at the first competition and ladies where often present at the social events. The club had a limit of fifty members, of the wealthy leisured class and heavy betting was a feature of the club with large sums of money changing hands. The joining age was twenty-one years old, and throughout it's 130 year history the club has never owned a clubhouse but instead the membership preferred to use the traditional marquee for their lunch with dinner in the Dalrymple Arms in the evening. By 1894 interest in the Club had declined and for the next thirty years the members held only a single meeting each year. The use of a tent for the Club Meetings continued until 1960. This was reflected in the North Berwick Golf Club Local Rules and Regulations (1926). Rule 11. Any ball driven inside the tent or the ropes is to be lifted and placed outside without penalty. Rule 6. The Annual Meeting of the Club is to take place on the Thursday and Friday of the week immediately preceding the Doncaster September Race Meeting. The Business Meeting is to take place in the tent at 10.30am followed by the Medal competition at 11 o'clock, with Lunch served in the tent on the arrival of the last couple. Members can obtain Luncheon Tickets from the purveyor for themselves and their guests.

Rule X. No Candidate shall be admitted if fewer than fifteen Members ballot for him, in which case his name shall be withdrawn, and put up at the next ballot. One black ball in five shall exclude, but when fewer than twenty ballot, three black balls shall exclude, when fewer than twenty-five ballot, four back balls, and so on in proportion to the number of those who ballot. North Berwick New Club - Rules and Regulations 1891

Twenty of the original members of North Berwick Golf Club were also members of the Royal and Ancient Club in St Andrews and the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers at Leith Links. Including James Campbell of Glensaddell from The Priory in St Andrews, his friend J.O. Fairlie from Coodham near Prestwick, Archibald Montgomerie the 13th Earl of Eglinton, a landowner in Aryshire, Robert Liston surgeon to the Royal Infirmary in 1827, Sir David Baird of Newbyth, Robert Stuart of Alderston, Haddington and locals Captain William F. Brown who served at Waterloo with the Inniskilling Dragoons. Captain Brown (b.1784) resided in Cross Street, (1 Quality Street) North Berwick. John Buckle, born in England in 1792 moved north residing firstly at Newhall, Gifford, East Lothian and then at Wharton House, Edinburgh, where he died in 1863. Together they were able to set the dates for the various golf meetings to avoid the major race meetings in Scotland and England. Those gentlemen started the 'Big Professional Money' matches in the 1840s and ignited an interest with the press and public which formed the foundations of the popularity of golf today. Tantallon Golf Club, founded on 17th September 1853 by the merchants in the Royal Burgh, also held their golf meetings on the West Links. During the first thirty years of Tantallon, the Club organised the upkeep of the links before a Green Committee was established in 1876. The first portable golf tee was invented in 1889 by two members of Tantallon Golf Club, William Bloxsom, secretary (Cromwell Lodge, 11 York Road, North Berwick) and Arthur Douglas (Castle Mills, Edinburgh). Made of rubber with three vertical prongs to hold the ball in place. The tee rested flat on the ground, rather than being pressed into the ground. The patent No. 12941 was applied for in August 1889 and approved on 14th June 1890. The first known tee to pierce the ground was a rubber-topped peg sold commercially as the 'Perfectum' in 1892. The Amateur Championship was instigated by Royal Liverpool Golf Club and Tantallon was represented on the organizing committee by B. Hall Blyth who was also Captain of Royal Liverpool Golf Club. In August 1885 B. Hall Blyth chaired a meeting of deligates in the Windsor Hotel, 100 Princes Street, Edinburgh when he was instructed to contact the R&A with the proposal they should organise the first Amateur Championship and Tantallon was one of 25 clubs that contributed to the Amateur trophy. The Bass Rock Golf Club instituted on 24th April 1873 was one of the first independent artisan clubs in the country. The Club held their meetings on the West Links on Saturday afternoon. In October 1879, John Aitken resigned as secretary and treasurer as his conscience would not allow him to act with a body of men who held their meetings in public-houses. Aitken was the assistant head gardener at Leuchie where he resided in the Gardener's House Bothie. Although the membership was open to all in 1969 with a limit of 120, the Club to this day does not have a clubhouse. Bass Rock Golf Club organises the Esmond Trophy, first played for in 1926 among the artisan golfers of East Lothian. The silver model of Edinburgh Castle is recognised as one of the finest trophies among golf clubs in Britain, and ranks along with the Silver Frigate of the Thorpeness Club and the Antlers' trophy of Royal Mid-Surrey. In 1879, the North Berwick New Club was established and the following year they built their own clubhouse, situated beside the 18th green which was laid out with turf supplied by Sir Hew Dalrymple from his estate at Leuchie. William Cree, as winner of the Club Gold Medal was first Captain of the New Club in 1881. By 1962 the membership of the North Berwick Golf Club had declined to a point that the North Berwick New Club was approached to take over their assets including the trophies. On 1st January 1963 the New Club adopted the name North Berwick Golf Club and the new club controversially advertised itself as founded in 1832. Ladies's Course - First junior competition in August 1867 Since the 1860s the Visitor's Golfing Association held competitions for juveniles over the Ladies course and the seven-hole West Links, organised by James Lewis and secretary James Bryson. In August 1867, Major Archibald V. Smith Sligo organised the first competition for boys over ten but under fifteen years of age. Played on the short or Ladies course with bunkers and greens but no record has been kept of the first prize winners. Major Smith Sligo was promoted to Captain in 1860 and then to Major in 1867 in the Queens City of Edinburgh Volunteer Riffles. He resided in Inzievar House, Oakley near Dunfermline and owned houses at 5 Drummond Place, Edinburgh and the Vale in North Berwick. The Vale was on the site presently occupied by 49 Forth Street and Balderstone Wynd. The ground opposite (now 50 Forth Street) was grassed over with a timber pavilion. This is where the young golfers gathered for the prize giving. The Vale with elegant Doric Columns and decorative marble steps leading to the main entrance became the Vale Hotel and the pavilion opposite contained deck-chairs, croquet and golf putters for the hotel guests. 3rd hole on the Children's Golf Course. © Digitalsport UK In 1868, Lord Elcho presented a silver medal for a handicap competition among boys from families of visitors to North Berwick. Those over the age of ten played the Ladies course for donated prizes, while the boys under fifteen played two rounds over the 7-hole West Links for the Elcho Medal. The first winner was 13 year old Andrew Peacock who scored 66 less 30, carding a wining score 36. The best merit score ever registered was an 88 by Julian Martin Smith in 1895. During WW1 Smith trained as an interpreter in the Intelligence Corps and was killed-in-action during the Battle of Marne in France in September 1914. In 1869, there were two juvenile competitions, one in August and another in September. The competition played in September was for prizes donated by the organizing committee including Mrs. W. Nelson, wife of the Edinburgh publisher, golf balls gifted by A.B. Fleming (Ink and Chemical Works), Leith. and David Stephenson, cousin of Robert Louis Stephenson who gave a set of golf clubs and James Robertson, the publisher donated bound books. This tournament in September was open to all juniors and developed into a Scratch competition in 1889. On the same day a match was played over the Ladies' course by the young lady visitors which was won by Miss Nelson. In 1873 the Elcho Medal and Scratch competition were both open to all and played at the same meeting and in 1894 a gold medal was offered for the new 'Residents Scratch' competition. Played over the new eighteen hole West Links while those under ten years continued to play over the Ladies course. The clubmaker James H. Hutchison continued to donate clubs for prizes and Ben Sayers offered a prize for the best opening nine holes. Originally the medals and prizes were presented outside the house of Major Smith Sligo, in Forth Street. The Elcho Medal, purchased in 1868 from Mackay, Cunningham & Co, goldsmiths to Queen Victoria, 54, Princes Street, Edinburgh, continues to be played and is the oldest junior tournament in the world. At the age of twelve, Herbert Clarke son of the Marine Hotel manager won the Elcho Medal in 1908 played over the West Links with a score of 99-6=93. The following year he tied for the first prize with an outward score of 52 and an excellent inward 43 for a total of 95+2=97. In 1910, Clark won the Ben Sayers prize for the best nine-holes and the scratch prize over the West Links with 100+6=106. Clarke joined the Glen Golf Club at North Berwick and represented the Burgh club in the Amateur Championship at Sandwich in 1914. Following WW1 he joined Tantallon Golf Club and played in the Amateur Championship in 1920 (Muirfield), 1921 (Hoylake) and 1922 (Prestwick). At the Amateur Championship in 1920 at Muirfield, Arnaud Massy described H.B Clarke as the best amateur golfer he had ever seen. North Berwick Ladies Golf Club In March 1887, Baillie James Kendall of the Royal Burgh of North Berwick Town Council, wrote on his own behalf to Robert Higgins J.P, Land Agent and Factor to Miss Nisbet Hamilton at Archerfield requesting to feu a piece of land for recreational use. This was agreed and a field on Ferrygate Farm was provided (now the children's course). In 1888 the Ladies golf course was redesigned by Tom Dunn and officially opened by Sir Walter Hamilton-Dalrymple on Thursday 5th July. After tea was served in the grounds of the Marine Hotel a large crowd of ladies and gentlemen gathered outside Kaimend the house of Mr. Hall-Blyth (New Club). He welcomed everyone and made comment that some might think the gentlemen were a little selfish in getting the ladies by this means off the regular course, but no such spirit had actuated the committee in the matter. The entire credit of the enterprise was due to Sir Walter Hamilton Dalrymple and William Gibson Bloxsom, secretary of Tantallon Golf Club who also acted as secretary to the Ladies Club in his support in bringing the new green to fruition. The gathering then watched Sir Walter Hamilton Darymple drive the first ball and then nine couples were dispatched off the first tee by the professional Tom Dunn. The first monthly competition for the club's silver medal was played at four o'clock on Friday 27th July 1888 followed by a large crowd of spectators including the Marchioness of Tweedale, Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Laidlay, and former Provost Peter Brodie, captain of Tantallon Golf Club. Left to Right: Silvia Temple, Dorothy Campbell, Frances Teacher - 1909 Among the original 37 members was Margaret 'Rita' Gillies-Smith and her sister Adelaide 'Ada' Gillies-Smith. Rita who later played-off a handicap of scratch, was the first winner of the Ladies monthly competition on 27th July 1888. Rita went on to win the competition for the next four years and her sister Ada with a handicap of plus 1 won the competition in 1891 and 1893. Their father Adam Gillies-Smith C.A. was Manager of the North British & Mercantile Insurance Company and resided at 35 Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh before moving to 4 Cromwell Road, opposite the 17th tee on the North Berwick West Links. He was also Chairman of the North Berwick School Board and a member of the Parish Council. The Ladies competition on 27th September for the club medal (scratch) attracted twenty-two couples who were organised off the first tee by Tom Dunn. The sweep-stake was arranged in order of value, silver scent-bottle with a silver stopper, handsome opera glasses, silver-buckle stud, and a silver bottom-hook. Among the spectators was Right Hon. A.J. Balfour M.P. Chief Secretary for Ireland (Prime Minister 1902-05), who presented the prizes and former Provost Peter Brodie and Sir George and Lady Houstoun-Boswall. When Tom Dunn left the town in 1889 his official duties on the Ladies competition day was carried out by Ben Sayers. The Ladies Club built a timber clubhouse in the grounds of the Marine Hotel and employed Willie Law as their greenkeeper. Willie was the brother-in-law of Tom Anderson head greenkeeper on the West Links. The following is the list of holes. 1.Marine (70yds), 2.Kaimend (60yds), 3.Ferrygate (120yds), 4.Plantation (140yds), 5. Woodend (90yds), 6.Centre Park (115yds), 7.North Park (70yds), 8.Green Hollow (100yds), 9.Home (170yds). One of the earliest lady golfers was Violet Chambers who attracted a large following of spectators when she started, all intrigued to see a lady playing golf. Her father Robert Chambers was made a burgess of the Royal Burgh of North Berwick in June 1885 and he built St Baldred's Tower situated above the tennis courts in North Berwick. Violet often spoke at public meetings and wrote articles in the press about the appalling conditions for those working in agriculture and the fishing industry. Under her married name of Violet Tweedale she wrote several books on her favourite subject of spiritualism. In 1889 she moved to London and attended seances with Lord Haldane, Arthur Balfour, and his brother James Balfour. W. E. Gladstone also held sittings in her house. Violet was joined in the Ladies' Club by Madeline Orr and her sister Edith, Edith and Madeline Campbell, Helen Teacher and her sister Frances (later Mrs Mather), Elsie Grant-Suttie, Maud and Blanche Anderson, daughters of the Rector of St Baldred's Church. In 1905 Helen 'Maud' Anderson became the first Lady Golf Professional in Great Britain when she gave lessons at Princes Ladies' Club on Mitcham Common. In November 1892, B. Hall-Blyth wrote to the Green Committee suggesting that the leases might consider whether they could with propriety ask the Ladies Club to refrain from playing on the Long Links during the busy season by means of a Printed Notice, this was agreed by the Committee. In 1897, the Ladies' could play on the West Links before 9am and from 11am -1 pm, though mixed foursomes could play at any time. The Ladies held their annual meetings in July and September over the nine-hole course. In 1897 the July competition was played over two rounds of the nine-hole Ladies course which was won by Miss Helen (Maude) Anderson in 55 strokes, Miss Elsie W. Blyth held the ladies record of 28 strokes over the nine-hole course while the men's record 27 strokes is held by Johnnie Laidlay. In 1922 they had abandoned the small course and played all their meetings over the West Links. The use of the long course by the Ladies' was unusual and it has been suggested that this was the reason why the North Berwick Ladies' dominated women's golf during this early period. In 1905 the Ladies' used the premises at 25 Station Hill as their clubhouse, and in 1924 they used the basement of the Commercial Bank of Scotland at 12 Westgate as their base. In 1936 they amalgamated with North Berwick New Club which allowed the Ladies to become Associates and they moved into North Berwick New Clubhouse. The Ladies Club became full members of the North Berwick Golf Club in 2005. Many youngsters were introduced to golf on the Ladies' Course including Robert J. T. Digby-Jones who at the age of fourteen won the under-15 Scratch Medal in two successive years, 1890 and again in 1891 with an outstanding 85 strokes over the West Links. Eight years later he was killed in the Boer War and posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. The children's course was the chief haunt of Johnny Laidlay, twice winner of the Amateur Championship, where he learned to perfect his pitch shots. David Blair also learned to play on the Ladies' Course and he was the first Scottish School Boy's champion (1935) and Walker Cup team member in 1955-61. Raymond Russell another Walker Cup player, was introduced to golf on the Ladies Links when his father cut down his first set of clubs in 1982. Russell joined the European PGA Tour in 1993 and a career hightlight was closing with a 66 to finish fourth behind Mark O'Meara in the 1998 Open at Royal Birkdale and representing Scotland in the Dunhill Cup that year. Although most junior competition's were mixed, leaving the girls at a disadvantage, Catriona Matthew did manage to reach the final of the Balfour-Melville Cup in 1982 and 1983 before becoming three times North Berwick Ladies' Club Champion. Catriona joined the professional ranks in 1994 and won the Women's British Open in 2009. Nick Dougherty the Sky Golf commentator learned to play golf on the Children's course at North Berwick while on holiday with his parents in the Marine Hotel. Amateur Champions John E. Laidlay J.P. and Robert Maxwell have the unique distinction of being elected Captain of the North Berwick Club, Tantallon Golf Club, and North Berwick New Club during their careers and both won the Amateur Championship twice. Robert Maxwell lived at Balgone House, then The Lodge in Quality Street, before his father built Pointgarry House as his residence in 1898. Maxwell would play the West Links all day and walk the course in the evening. When U.S Amateur Champion, Walter J. Travis saw Maxwell for the first time at North Berwick he described him as 'A human battering ram, who can drive a ball half-a-mile'. Maxwell won the Amateur Championship at Muirfield in 1903 and 1909 and represented Scotland from 1902 until 1910. In 1903, for the second consecutive year he was leading amateur at the Open. During his first senior tournament in 1897, Maxwell defeated John Ball and Horace Hutchison on the first day. For many years Robert Maxwell was also President of the Rhodes Golf Club at North Berwick. The original watercolour drawing of Robert Maxwell published in 'Vanity Fair' was presented to the British Golf Museum by Tantallon Golf Club and is now on permanent display. Robert's brother Francis Maxwell, also a golfer, emigrated to Australia and extended the original Royal Adelaide course to 18 holes at Glenelg in 1903. David Myles Maxwell who is not related to Robert and Francis Maxwell won the Royal Melbourne Golf Club medal in 1891. He moved to Flinders in Victoria and founded the Flinders Golf Club in 1903. In WW1, Robert Maxwell enlisted as a private in the 8th Royal Scots, was awarded the Military Cross and by 1918 was commissioned Captain Robert Maxwell. Johnny Laidlay born in 1860 at Seacliff, two miles east of the town, learned to play the game over the links at North Berwick and Musselburgh while attending Loretto school. He was the last of the true gentlemen golfers and dominated the Amateur Championship for seven years from 1888, winning twice in 1889 and 1891 and runner-up 1888, 1890 and 1893. Laidlay was a member of a number of golf clubs and throughout his career won over 130 medals, many are on display at the British Golf Museum. In 1887 for example, he won 11 scratch medals at Prestwick, St Andrews, Hoylake and North Berwick. He played with an overlapping grip before Taylor or Vardon, the later is credited with popularising the grip. In 1899, Laidlay built Invereil House overlooking the eighth fairway on the West Links as his residence. Johnny Laidlay represented Scotland every year from 1902 until 1911, when he was fifty one. He also played cricket for Scotland, was a pioneer of wildlife photography and carved furniture for a hobby. Following the First World War, he moved to Sunningdale where his former caddie Jack White was the professional and called his house 'Auldhame' after his family estate at Seacliff, North Berwick. Benjamin Hall Blyth Benjamin Hall Blyth born 25th May 1849 at 26 Minto Street, Newington, Edinburgh, son of Benjamin Hall Blyth Snr. Civil Engineer and his wife Mary Dudgeon Wright. Benjamin Hall Blyth Jnr. was Captain of Tantallon Golf Club in 1896-98. He was also Captain of the Royal Liverpool Club (1885) and a life member of the Royal and Ancient Club. Hall Blyth was an engineer like his father also called Benjamin Hall Blyth who founded the firm of Blyth & Cunningham, which eventually became Blyth & Blyth. Hall Blyth Jnr. was a consultant engineer to the Caledonian, North British and Great North of Scotland Railway companies. He was responsible for the construction of Waverley Station, the North Bridge above and extending the North Berwick branch line to include stations at Aberlady, Luffness and Gullane. He was also President of the Scottish Football Union in 1875-76. Hall Blyth is credited with securing the transference of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers from Musselburgh to Muirfield and will always be associated with the acquisition of the Braid Hills as a municipal golf course by the citizens of Edinburgh. laid out by Peter McEwan and Bob Ferguson. As Captain of Tantallon Golf Club he supported the creation of the Amateur Championship and was one of the original members of the new Rules of Golf committee in 1897, serving as its chairman. His father Benjamin Hall Blyth (1819-1866) also had a long association with North Berwick and on his death he bequeathed enough funds to secure the building of the United Presbyterian Church (North Berwick Abbey Church) in 1868. Robert Bertram, born 1832 in North Berwick was one of the first to emerge from the town with a talent for golf. He joined Tantallon Golf Club at the age of 23 years in 1855, and was the only member playing off scratch. He was also a member of Dirleton Castle Golf Club whose members played over Gullane Hill and he won the Wotherspoon Medal in 1858 and 1860, and the Patron's Medal in 1858. (Left) Dorothy Campbell - 1904 In June 1857, Tantallon Golf Club received an invitation to play in the Grand National Foursomes Tournament at St Andrews which was instigated by Prestwick Golf Club. Tantallon paid one guinea entry fee but chose not to take part. Robert Bertram as the best player in Tantallon then decided to represent Dirleton Castle. Those invited to take part were Musselburgh, North Berwick, Perth, Carnoustie, Blackheath, St Andrews and Leven. The tournament took place on 29th July at St Andrews when Montrose, Bruntsfield, Dirleton Castle, Innerleven, Panmure and the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers were also invited. The Dirleton Castle team comprised of William Carse and Robert Bertram. This was the first attempt at running a national golf tournament open to all clubs, which dramatically altered the direction of the game. Golf became more organised and the Grand National Tournament developed into the Open Championship. Robert Bertram, an artisan among the gentry, played his part in the evolution of the game. Bertram died in 1871 aged 39 years and is buried in St Andrew Kirk graveyard in Kirk Ports, North Berwick. Tantallon Golf Club instigated the first inter-club golf tournament in East Lothian, played at Gullane in September 1864. At that time there were six golf clubs in the county, and four took part. They were Dirleton Castle and the East Lothian Club, both playing over Gullane Links; Thorntree from Prestonpans Links and Tantallon, each sending four representatives. East Links The East Links at North Berwick was originally nine-holes laid out in 1894 by the landowner Sir Walter Hamilton-Dalrymple. The Burgh Golf Club was established on 9th June 1906 and the following year James Braid and Ben Sayers supervised the extension of the course to 18 holes with the assistance of Peter Lees and Hugh Hamilton. In 1906, the golf magazines and newspapers carried a report that North Berwick Town Council was the first local authority in the world to build and manage a public golf course. Following the success of the venture by Provost Macintyre and the North Berwick Town Council other communities were encouraged to layout a golf course in their public parks. In a speech by William Howard Taft recognised as America's first golfing President he encouraged all State Authorities to build municipal courses just like Scotland for those who could not pay for costly club facilities. In 1934 the Burgh Golf Club adopted the name 'Glen Golf Club'. During WW2 large sections of the East Course were commandeered by the Ministry of Agriculture and ploughed over for the production of food. Following the conflict, Philip Mackenzie Ross restored the course which was reopened in March 1949. Mackenzie Ross resided at 17 Hamilton Road in North Berwick and during the 1950s was responsible for redesigning the Ailsa course at Turnberry.

the caddie ......

The name 'caddie' is French for Cadet (junior) and was used in 18th century Scotland to describe a messenger or errand-boy. Originally the Caddies were a semi-official band of porters and messengers who hung about the market cross in the High Street, Edinburgh, touting and picking up what work they could. They carried luggage, took messages, directed visitors around town and were acquainted with the 'low life'. There is a 'Cadie Society' Poor Box on display in the Peoples Story Museum in the Canongate, Edinburgh. The only way for the boys in the town to learn the game was play the course in the evening with one club and a ball after the members had retired to the clubhouse. Often the club was shortened and the grip removed so when they played a full shot the hickory shaft would slip out of their fingers and travel further than the ball. As the caddie was obliged to give all his earnings to his mother, it was his winnings from betting among the caddies that paid for his first set of clubs. Gambling on their ability gave the caddie the confidence they could compete against their peers. Moving up the ladder from caddie to licensed professional on the West Links allowed them to play golf everyday and their game improved dramatically. In the 1860s there were over two dozen professional tournaments around the country and this had doubled by the 1870s with prize money averaging twenty-five pounds. With the introduction of the cheaper gutty ball the game became more accessible. This significant move away from only the privileged gentry playing the game towards the caddie, made golf in Scotland the game of the people, which it remains to this today. The other route to the professional ranks was by serving a five year apprenticeship as a clubmaker with James H. Hutchison and then applying to join, the artisan Bass Rock Golf Club at the age of eighteen years and receive a handicap. Winning the club scratch medal was their passport to being appointed a golf club pro and emigrating to America, Canada, Europe and Australia.

US Open champions, Willie Anderson and Fred McLeod lived in the same stair at 98 High Street when they were teenagers in 1893.

The first Open Championship at Prestwick was a competition for professionals. Prior to the event eleven clubs were written to directly with a request 'to send the names of the best players on your links, not exceeding three players'. The letter continued, they must be known and respected caddies. Professional Players not being Keeper of the Green have to produce a certificate of respectabilty from the Treasurer of the Club where they are attached. Only eight took part on 17th October 1860 and just before noon they gathered in the Red Lion at Prestwick and signed a sheet of paper stipulating the rules. Before darkness fell the players had completed three rounds of 12 holes and the winner was Willie Park with a total of 174. Old Tom Morris was two shots back and Andrew Strath was third. The scoring was so high that it encouraged amateurs to think they could compete. The following year some amateurs were included so the tournament has remained 'Open' ever since. The Caddie Superintendent James Crawford was paid 30/- a week from April to October and 15/- a week from October to April. When Crawford was appointed Starter, George Thomson became Caddie Master and then followed as Starter for many years. During the 1890s the caddies were organised by the Green Committee, who applied the rules of employment. The fee for the younger caddies was quite considerable and encouraged truancy and gambling. When the system of Inspection of Schools was set up in 1840 truancy from school to caddie became less of a problem. Even though it is recorded in the 1880s when a large golf meeting was held, the neighbouring schools at Dirleton and Gullane were forced to close due to the level of absentees. At a meeting of the North Berwick School Board in April 1891 the clerk reported several cases where boys had been suspended from school for acting as golf caddies. Oil Lamp Posts There are the remains of three former oil lamp posts on the West Links, the first is situated in the quarry below the first green dated 1875. It was erected beside the original club makers workshop where Davie Strath and James Beveridge made their golf clubs and balls. Strath resided in Pointgarry Cottage now the Tantallon Clubhouse. The second oil lamp was erected on the seaward side of the second fairway situated close to the herder's timber shelter which was demolished in 1895. During that period there were ten cows put on the west links by the Town Burgesses. The remains of Ware Road (Ware meaning seaweed used as a fertiliser) which crosses the second and seventeenth fairways, entered the beach close to the lamp post dated 1873 (below). The third lamp is situated on the north side of the 12th fairway, close to the First World War pill-box bunker which was pressed back into action during WW2. Weapon pits where dug overlooking the Eil Burn on the seaward side of the 13th fairway. Following the end of hostilities, Italian POW's stationed in Gosford Estate were employed to remove the miles of barbed-wire along the coast. Rather than completely removing the barbed-wire they buried it under the hillside above the 14th tee. Hope Rooms In May 1898 Miss Lucy Hope purchased the old Slaughter House in Forth Street and submitted plans to construct a building known as the 'Caddie Institute' or Hope Rooms. The building was constructed by John Muirhead & Co. of Dalkeith, using materials from the old town byre opposite. For many years the community spirited Miss Lucy Hope provided a building where the caddies could meet during the winter months. Lucy was born 1856 daughter of George William Hope MP, Luffness, Aberlady and his wife Caroline Montagu Scott. In 1890 Lucy resided in Angus House, 7 West Bay Road (now No.16) North Berwick. She not only assisted in the regulation of the Caddie Institute but had a sympathetic ear for the welfare of the men's families when times were hard. There was a billiard table, card games, daily newspapers and a roaring fire in the winter. The Institute closed in June and re-opened in late October. An annual golf match was played between Tantallon Golf Club and a team representing Lucy Hope's Angus Golf Club which included a number of local golfers who emigrated to America. Ben Sayers (North Berwick); David Grant (Biarritz GC, France); James Souter (Tuxedo GC, New Jersey); James Ferguson ( Spring Lake GC, New Jersey) ; George Sayers (Merion GC. Philadelphia); George Livingstone (Belle Meade GC, Nashville); James L. Fowler; William Hunter; George Pearson.; P.eter Purves, (Essex Falls Country Club); G. Thomson (Scarsdale NY) and William Hunter (Onwentsia, IL). The Tantallon team included John Gardener and two former Amateur Champions Johnny Laidlay and Robert Maxwell. In 1937 she was conferred with the Freedom of the Burgh for her work in the community. Lucy Georgina Hope died 14th March 1946, North Berwick aged 90 years. To meet the demand at North Berwick caddies would even walk the 16 miles from Musselburgh to North Berwick for work. The caddies were given a badge with a number. The badge was owned by the caddie and on arrival it was handed into the caddie master. When work arrived, they were engaged and their number was announced.

When the golfers emerged from the railway station they were jostled by a lot of urchins with 'Carry for you Sir' coming from all directions.

Boys attending school who wanted to carry clubs had to apply for permission from the School Board for an exemption from attending school. The regulations where laid down by an Act of Parliament in respect of the employment of juveniles. Typical was a widow who applied on behalf of her 13 year old son who had been offered three weeks employment as a caddie for a gentleman visitor. The boys mother explained that the money would help to buy clothes for the other children in the family. The board refused on the grounds that rules were rules. In 1909 only one girl applied for an exemption. Various misdemeanors were logged in the Caddie Master's book, the most frequent suspension was for 'refusing to carry clubs'. This occurred when a gentlemen golfer arrived who was deemed to be 'mean' for not offering a tip when the round was complete. The next caddie to be called and refused to come forward was disciplined. Other entries included, Dan Kenny suspended for four days for canvassing for work in the car park. (1897); James Souter suspended for three days after a complaint from George Dalziel who engaged Souter as his caddie, before Souter went off to caddie for Jack White (professional) (1893); Alex Lountain caught interfering with the rabbit traps. (1899); The Arundel twins were both suspended in 1904. James for three days after defacing the caddie shelter and John was banned for a month after stealing a golf ball. An extract from 1892 reads, The greenkeeper reported that Mr.Matthews stated to him that Robert Robertson had stolen an iron club belonging to him and that Cuthbert the box keeper had informed him that the boy's father had found it hidden in his coal cellar. This was corroborated by Cuthbert. 10 year old Robert Robertson was suspended by the Caddie Master from 10th October 1891 to 4th June 1892. William Merrilees was caught carrying clubs during school hours and when asked by the greenkeeper for his license he stated his mother had burnt it. The following day he was caught again carrying clubs, and was put off the links and reported to the Clerk of the School Board (1892). The Merrilees family stayed in Market Place and Willie's younger brother Peter Merrilees is recognised today as one of the earliest golfing pioneers in Australia. In May 1904 Sir Walter Hamilton-Dalrymple wrote to the Town Council complaining about the caddies playing golf on the ground east of the first tee. The area was covered in divot marks and holes cut by the caddies. The matter was raised by the Green Committee which consisted of R. Grant-Suttie, B. Hall-Blyth, (North Berwick New Club), George Dalziel (Tantallon GC) F. Campbell (Bass Rock GC), and they decided rather than to forbid such behavior they should layout a short course for the caddies which became the west putting green. Andrew Gilholm the head greenkeeper on the Burgh course was tasked with preparing the ground and laying out the 18 hole putting green in April 1919.

Rule XL. Caddies are not allowed to come within the chain enclosure of the Club-House on any pretence whatever. Members will therefore, when it is inconvenient to bring their Clubs into the Club-House themselves, be careful to instruct their Caddies to hand their Clubs to the servant at the back door of the Club-House. North Berwick New Club - Rules and Regulations 1893

In the 1920s unemployed men walked from Musselburgh to North Berwick in search of work as a caddie. They sheltered in makeshift tents beyond the Eil Burn and touted for work on the West Links and joined the band of young urchins canvasing at the Railway Station, all shouting 'Carry for you, sir'. Many of the caddies were fishermen who turned their hand to carrying clubs during the season, including Robert Millar, Sandy Smith and Robert Johnstone. Robert Millar Robert Millar was one of the first to be employed as a caddie on the West Links in the days of the gutta-percha ball. By 1893 he had given up the fishing and was employed full time as a licensed professional and caddie. Rev. John Kerr wrote about Millar in his Golf Book of East Lothian ' Were his wondrous scores authenticated, he might be set down as the record holder of the green! In 1906, Robert Millar applied to the Town Council for permission to provide donkeys for hire on the beach. The council refused to grant permission as the west beach was under the auspice of the North Berwick Estate and Sir Walter Hamilton-Dalrymple. Sandy Smith Alexander 'Sandy' Smith, originally from Musselburgh, was older than the other caddies at North Berwick. He was also a fisherman like his father John Smith. Sandy was described as a big fat man with a round red face and was always seen wearing a fisherman's blue jersey. Sandy married Mary Brown from Inveresk in 1861 and they lived in Kay's Wynd (Law Road) in North Berwick. Sandy regularly caddied for Lord Kingsburgh, Solicitor General for Scotland, Edward Blyth and Amateur Champion Robert Maxwell. Sandy Smith died in 1903. Robert Johnstone Robert Johnstone was a master of all trades, primarily a green keeper, sometimes a professional and caddie. His claim to fame was during the Open Championship at Muirfield in 1906, he had a hole-in-one at the 14th. He played with only one club throughout the championship - an adjustable head club. His sons John and Robert joined the professionals and took the game to South Africa and California. As the popularity of golf increased at North Berwick many caddies travelled from Musselburgh for work including such famous characters as John 'Fiery' Carey, Big Harry Crawford and Jack Campbell. John 'Fiery' Carey Fiery got his name because of his ruddy complexion, and was one of the first to be described as a professional caddie. Always dressed in a Scotch bonnet with streamers floating behind, he carried the clubs loose, out of the bag, beneath his arm. He was the regular caddie for Willie Park Jun. at Musselburgh and St Andrews. He was a first-class caddie at North Berwick and was given the Ticket No.18. His fellow caddie from Musselburgh was John Forman who was given Ticket No.19. Michael Flynn Michael Flynn who was granted his caddie badge on 16th August 1893 at North Berwick while living in Forth Street Lane. He was the regular caddie for Tantallon G.C member Sir Walter Simpson who wrote 'The Art Of Golf' and was a close friend of Robert Louis Stevenson. Henry Crawford 'Big Crawford' lived at 9 Market Place, and was a giant of a man who stood head and shoulders above his contemporaries. Crawford was described as a forceful character who expressed his opinions with a rugged outspokenness that gave him a distinctive place among his peers. Crawford commanded considerable respect and was quite at home in the company of many of the distinguished visitors to the West Links. For many years he acted as caddie to the Right Hon. A.J. Balfour, Tom Begbie farmer Queenston Bank, Dirleton and Ben Sayers engaged him for most of his big stake matches. Harry Crawford was born in Musselburgh in 1835 and as the golfers migrated down the coast in the 1870s he moved to North Berwick where he resided until his death in 1909 aged 73 years. One of the highlights of his career was caddying for A. J. Balfour when he played himself in at St Andrews as captain of the Royal and Ancient Club. Latterly Crawford was keeper of the ginger beer stand facing the ninth tee on the West Links. In June 1898 Harry Crawford applied for permission to erect a temporary stand on the East Links for refreshments on the occasion of day trips, which the Town Council approved. He had no children of his own but acted as a second father to many walf and stray and always had some young orchin to help at the tent. In 1908, Harry Crawford was one of six golf professionals invited to carry the coffin of Old Tom Morris to his grave. Crawford travelled to the funeral in St Andrews with Ben Sayers who was too short to reach the coffin and walked behind the procession. Harry Crawford's parents lived at 23 Wonder Street, Inveresk. Harry died in 1909, aged 72 years and after a short service in his house in North Berwick Harry's coffin was conveyed by road to Musselburgh where a large number of mourners gathered at Inveresk Church including Robert Maxwell, Francis Tennant, B. Hall Blyth, and Mansfield Hunter. Harry was buried in an unmarked grave beside his parents in lair 397. Jack Campbell John Campbell was a caddie and general labourer in Musselburgh before moving to North Berwick in 1876. The family lived in Park Place, North Berwick which today is Nos. 17-25 Old Abbey Road. Adjacent was a park which Sir Walter Hamilton-Dalrymple had provided for playing football (Redcroft). Jack Campbell's eldest son Willie Campbell (b.1862) is the best known of the professional golfers who made a new life in America. Willie was pro at the Country Club of Brookline in 1895 and his wife Georgina became the first lady golf professional in the USA. Jack Campbell's son Benjamin Campbell was a licensed professional at North Berwick and played in the Open Championship for over a decade from 1883. His highest finish was third at Musselburgh in 1886. Jack Campbell died in 1912 in Inveresk Poorhouse. In 1910, the caddies on the West Links contributed to a Caddies Provident Fund and in 1913 to a Caddie's Clubmaking Fund. Thatyear there was an account from clubmaker James Watt for 34 lessons @ 2 shillings each. 'Pop' Edward Samuel a young greenkeeper on the West Links, caddied for Cyril Tolley when he won the Amateur Championship at the 37th hole at Muirfield in 1920. By 1922 when David Henderson was Caddie Master on the West Links, a first class caddie earned 2/6d per round, and was allowed to work 12 rounds in a week. Three rounds a day were possible in summer which meant 54/- for a first class man and 27/- for a second class man. Boys over 12 years earned a shilling per round. Casual caddies could earn 2 to 3 pounds a week from June to October. Only 20 caddies were required up to June, but 70 to 110 from September to late October. Eighteen caddies were retained throughout the winter months. During the 1930s the system for hiring caddies on the West Links involved the purchase of a ticket from the Caddie Master, a two pence booking fee, and 2/- payment for the caddie. At the end of the round the caddie would receive the ticket from the player with a gratuity and then presented the ticket to the Caddie Master for payment. The Caddie Shelter was the low building between the starters box and the professionals shop. The floor was solid concrete and during the 1930s the caddies made five holes the size of egg cups gouged to a depth of one inch, sufficient for a golf ball to be rolled and held there providing it was not travelling too quickly. Putting, challenge matches between the caddies took place on this cemented floor and at times quite a commotion ensued when betting arguments took place against the instructions of Toby Johnstone the Caddie Master at the time. In April 1920, Major Kirkpatrick secretary of the Green Committee on the West Links wrote to the Town Council bringing to their attention the scarcity of accommodation for caddies during the season. The caddies were offered the use of the British Legion Hut situated in the war memorial garden adjacent to the vennel. The Council rules stated that no alcohol was to be consumed in the premises.

the west links ....

The West Links golf course is now in the centre of the town, but at one time the links land marked the town boundary. The North Berwick clubhouse which was opened in 1880 was built on the site of the Abbey Toll House where travellers entering the town from the west paid road tax, this tax was abolished in 1869. When the Burgh Police Act of 1892 was passed this gave to places like North Berwick the powers of enlarging their boundaries and purchasing ground for golf or other recreations. The boundary was extended and the town now surrounds the golf course. The West Links was originally six holes, before a seventh was added. Edward L. I. Blyth wrote about the course when he first played at North Berwick in 1856. At that time the first tee was between 100 to 150 yards east of the present pro's shop which was then a formidable bunker. The first drive had to land short of a burn crossing the fairway and the first green 'Pointgarry-Out' was seldom reachable in two, making it a tough opening par four. The second 'Sea Hole', was much like today with the 'horse' a small mound in the middle of the fairway. The third green lay east of the stone wall known as the March Dyke and the fourth (present sixteenth) had a green surrounded on three sides with a ditch. The fifth (present seventeenth) the golfer had to negotiate St Ann's Quarry with sheer sides and two feet of water in the base, before reaching the green which was shared with the first at 'Pointgarry-In'. The sixth, named the 'Gasworks Hole' lay to the right of the present eighteenth fairway and the Home Hole, a par four with the green near the clubhouse was often reached in three. There were no tee boxes during this period, the rules simply stated that the ball be teed up on a small mound of sand six-club lengths from the last hole played. It was not until 1875 that a separate teeing ground was provided. Edward L. I. Blyth (1854-1886) was a member of Tantallon Golf Club and winner of the Club Medal in 1862 and 1863. Blyth was the uncle of B. Hall Blyth Jun. (mentioned above) and both were directors in the family engineering business Blyth and Blyth Associates in George Street, Edinburgh. The course was extended to nine-holes during the winter of 1868, which then included the famous 'Redan' (6th) hole. The old quarry opposite St Ann's was filled in 1862. The course at that time was described as uncared for with no tins in the holes which looked like birds nests. They were also deep from the habit of taking sand from the hole to tee up the ball. There were few caddies available and a party could play all day without any other golfers being visible. Players like Sir Robert Hay, Sir David Baird, Earl of Wemyss and Sir Hew Hume Campbell had the green to themselves.

Cross bunker at 14th 'Perfection' - 1908

Ben Sayers on the beach beyond the 1st green.

In an article in Golf Illustrated in 1915, Dorothy Campbell reminisced about the West Links, she said "the 'pins' were simply sticks of wood to which skins of scarlet worsted were attached. Every Saturday night, my mother told me, the sticks were collected and brought in, so that the townspeople might not see them and thus be distracted from the sanctity of their Sabbath thinking. There were no tees, no markers, no putting greens as we know them today, no tins for holes. Fresh holes had to be cut in the 'greens' every Monday morning. Each golfer as he came along took sand from each hole in order to tee up his ball preparatory to driving down the next fairway. Thus, by Saturday night all the holes were as big as wash-tubs." EXTENDED COURSE The Scotsman 19th December 1876. North Berwick - The committee of the North Berwick Golf Club obtained permission from the Right Hon. Mr. and Mrs. Mary Nisbet Hamilton to play golf over new ground to the west of the present Links - making ten additional holes, thus increasing the round to nineteen holes in all. By the terms of agreement the committee are to pay to the tenant of the farm £45 a-year and are bound to have a man on the new green for the purpose of keeping it in order, and excluding all who have admission tickets, which will be supplied to golfers by Davie Strath, who was appointed to take charge. The course was laid out by Tom Morris and Davie Strath and superintended by Peter Brodie (chairman) and John Whitecross (secretary) of the Green Committee. Old Tom Morris returned in January 1877 to oversee the design and on Saturday 23rd April 1877 the extended course was officially opened when Davie Strath was given the honour of teeing the ball for Sir Hew Dalrymple who played the first stroke. His driving club was specially made for that occasion by Messrs Strath and Beveridge. A new rule was adopted that if a ball was driven into the grounds or plantation on the south of the course, it should be held as lost - although at the same time recoverable - the player also losing a stroke and distance and having to tee another ball. A new feature on the teeing ground was the provision of a box where the caddie could retrieve the necessary sand. The game which attracted the greatest number of spectators on the opening day was a match between Captain Kinloch and Davie Strath and David Brown and Tom Morris. After two rounds honours were even. A professional match was also played between Ben Sayers and Willie Fernie played a match against Jack Simpson and Andrew Kirkaldy. Although the course was short, it was practically all hazards with a sandy lie in the bents preferable to being wedged under the numerous walls around the 'Shipka Pass'. Many of the small putting greens were within reach from the tee so the condition of the fairways was not as important. Twenty workmen were employed on the extension which cost £200 and the tenant of Abbey Farm was paid £15 as compensation for lose of the land. (Left) Frances Teacher - 1909 The new holes started at the present 4th and stretched out over the quarry to the Eil Burn where the course turned for the back nine. The 14th a par 3, was described by Horace Hutchinson as one of the most sensational shots in golf with the high sandhills in front of the teeing ground curtailing the horizon and the putting green in front of the existing ridge and bunker crossing the fairway. He said you have to harden your heart to drive as it seems, into the midst of the German Ocean; but instead if you have played on the line laid down for you, you will find that you have carried a little corner of the beach, which bays in, and are lying on the putting green of a hole protected by sandhills from the waves which were splashing on the other side of them. If your heart fails and you drive to what looks something more like terra firma, to the right, you will find yourself wedged up against the stone wall of Carlekemp wood. The 15th tee close to the previous green required a cleek or iron shot which must pitch over another wall, so far and no further - and then a full drive or brassy shot to carry just over a bunker escarpment not inaptly called 'Redan'. The remaining holes were as before with crowds of children and nursemaids to contend with during the summer season. The shortness of the holes and the little pitch shots required over walls gave the course its beauty as well as its weakness with congestion and long waiting between shots. At the Autumn Meeting on Wednesday and Thursday 5th and 6th September 1877 the members played their new 18 hole course for the first time. The minutes noted 'The round gave great satisfaction, infact nothing could surpass the putting greens which were simply perfection'. Fourteen couples competed for the gold medal and the winner was Gilbert Mitchell Innes with a score of 80. Following the luncheon prepared in the marquee by Mr Johnston from the Royal Hotel the members played their foursome matches. Some of the golfing families who played the course were the Blyth's, the Bloxsom's, the Chamber's, the Stevenson's, the Lyall's and the Dunn's, particularly Willie Dunn, US champion and John D Dunn the well known golf coach both learned to play the game at North Berwick. The seemingly random size for the four and a quarter inch diameter hole was just that, it happened to be the width of the implement invented by Robert Gray in 1829 and first used to cut the holes at Musselburgh. In 1893 the R&A made the size mandatory.

Rule VI - LIFTING OF BREAK CLUBS, ETC. All loose impediments within twelve inches of the ball may be removed when the ball lies on turf. When a ball lies in a bunker, quarry or rocks, sand or the road, nothing whatever can be touched, and the player must take care in aiming at it that he do not alter or improve its position; if he do so he losses the hole. When a ball lies on clothes, or within a club length of a washing tub, the clothes may be drawn from under the ball, and the tub may be removed. A ball struck fast in wet ground or sand may be taken out and replaced loosely in the hole it has made. Rule VII - BALL IN WATER, OR IN A HOLE, ETC. If the ball be half covered or more with water, or lies in a hole where a club cannot reach it, or in a rabbit scrape, or in an old or supernumerary hole made for the purpose of golfing, the player may take it out, drop it behind the hazard, play with an iron and lose a stroke. If the ball be driven into the sea, it shall be taken out by the party and placed a club length in front thereof, he playing with an Iron and losing a stroke; if the ball be not recovered by the party, he shall lose the hole. Rules of Tantallon Golf Club - 1853. (Thomas Dall), Secy

In 1895, the course was lengthened west of the Eil Burn over Ferrygate and Linkhouse farmland, under the supervision of head greenkeeper Tom Anderson. He was instructed by the Green Committee to obtain as much turf as was required from Mr. Thomson at Muirfield costing 8d a yard. Many of the new holes required a long driver off the tee, rather than an iron or cleek as before and often a wooden club was required for the second shot. The course was widened at it's narrowest part the 'Shipka Pass' and was now three times as broad. For the first time 'Perfection' came into play. Like the old links, accurate approach play was still the outstanding feature of the course which measured three and-a-half miles. Several of the former North Berwick professionals returned to the West Links in June 1895 to play in the tournament at the opening of the extended course. They included Richard Kelly (Norwich), Richard Collins Jnr. (Ryton-on-Tyne) George Douglas (Hessle) Robert Millar (North Berwick), Jimmy Dalgleish (Nairn), Davie Brown (Musselburgh) and Willie Thomson (North Berwick). Alex Herd won, and following the tournament the Green Committee laid on a dinner for the professionals and caddies in the Masonic Hall in Forth Street. The 16th hole, named 'Gate', a 359 yard, par 4, has the most unique green in Scotland. The drive from the tee over a stone wall, has to clear a burn crossing the fairway at 195 yards. The green has a deep swale bisecting the middle of the green. Following the extension of the course beyond the Eil Burn in June 1895. George Dalziel Chairman of the Green Committee and Captain of Tantallon Golf Club called a meeting in October 1895 to discuss the new course and recommend any necessary alterations required. At that meeting the Chairman instructed Tom Anderson the head greenkeeper to make alterations to the 16th as minuted 'Make new putting green on table, east of present Gate hole putting green.' In 1895 a tent was erected beside the eighth green for a ginger beer stall where Neil McLeod was appointed to organised the refreshments. His youngest son Fred McLeod won the US Open in 1908, but sadly Neil McLeod died in 1897 and did not share in his son's success. Harry Crawford took over the ginger beer tent before it became a more permanent feature constructed of timber, selling sweets, aerated water and golf balls. Crawford's requested to sell golf clubs was turned down. The south wooden bridge over the Eil Burn was replaced in 1898 and an additional bridge constructed. Also that year the original tool house (present machine shed) at the corner of Carlkemp was constructed in 1898 to drawings by B. Hall-Blyth. Fidra Golf Course at Yellowcraig In 1902, overcrowding on the West Links was causing the Town Council concern and they proposed to build a relief golf course either to the east of the town on the Rhodes farm or to the west on land at Yellowcraig. A committee was formed with representatives from Tantallon GC, (Robert Maxwell, John Gairdner, Alex Ross and Donald Jackson) Bass Rock GC. (Frank Campbell, Thomas Himsworth) North Berwick GC and the Green Committee (G.F. Milne, F. Kinloch, J.E. Cree, C.L.Blackie). to discuss the matter. Plans for the relief golf course were drawn up by Donald Jackson, secretary of Tantallon Golf Club and the Burgh Surveyor Robert Blackadder and were submitted to Dundas & Wilson representing Mr. Hamilton Ogilvy owner of Yellowcraig and Archerfield. The Town Council held a meeting at the Eil Burn in September 1903 and Donald Jackson laid out marker posts to show the boundary of the proposed course. Dundas & Wilson intimated their client would prefer to lease the additional land rather than sell and the negotiations faltered. Discussions moved to the land east of the town boundary owned by Sir Walter Hamilton-Dalrymple which developed into the Glen Golf Course we know today. In April 1903, Alex Wright from Shingleton Farm, Reading was appointed head greenkeeper on the West Links and offered free accommodation in the Gardeners Cottage at Redholm owned by George Dalziel's. In October 1903 the Green Committee purchased St Andrews Cottage, North Berwick and Alex Wright and his family moved into that property. In May 1904 Sir Walter Hamilton-Dalrymple wrote to the Town Council complaining about the caddies playing golf on the ground east of the first tee. The area was covered in divot marks and holes cut by the caddies. The matter was raised by the Green Committee which consisted of R. Grant-Suttie, B. Hall-Blyth, (North Berwick New Club), George Dalziel (Tantallon GC) F. Campbell (Bass Rock GC), and they decided rather than to forbid such behavior they should layout a short course for the caddies which became the west putting green. In November 1906, as a reaction to the new golf balls and equipment, nine new bunkers were constructed on the West Links including one to the north of the 5th, two placed to the right of the 9th fairway and one before the 'Pit' where a cist had been unearthed. The 4th green was relaid and enlarged while the 10th tee was moved back some twenty yards. The work was carried out by head greenkeeper Alex Wright. In September 1907, his Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Michael of Russia, paid for Alex Wright to travel to Cannes in the south of France and give His Imperial Highness advice on how to improve his private golf course at La Napoule. In 1908 Alex Wright and his assistant David Hutton, applied for the position at the newly opened course at Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire. In October Alex Wright was appointed the first head green-keeper at Stoke Poges now Stoke Park Golf Club with a salary of £2 per week and the use of a cottage. Alex Wright was replaced at North Berwick by James Preston from Melrose. Preston was at West Herts Golf Club before moving to North Berwick in 1911. In March that year Preston sailed from Glasgow on S.S. Minneapolis and arrived in New York on 27th March 1911. On the ship's manifest Preston was listed as a tourist in Boston. He was followed at North Berwick by Alex Gow. John MacDonald a green-keeper at North Berwick was appointed head green-keeper at Swinley Forest Golf Club, Berkshire in 1908. That year he laid out the new course to Harry Colt's design and remained at Swinley Forest for thirty years. Another North Berwick apprentice, Alex Robertson was appointed head green-keeper in the Toronto Township in 1911. Alex Gow and the making of Royal Portrush Alexander Grant Gow, born 1861 in Longforgan, Perthshire was a jobbing gardener before moving to St Andrews Cottage (Invereil Lodge) on Dirleton Road, North Berwick in 1891. In 1900 he was working as a greenkeeper at Muirfield and resided with his wife Isabella and their six children at 5 Maule Terrace, Gullane. Alex Gow was a member of Dirleton Castle Golf Club winning the Stamford Hall Medal in 1896 and was elected Club secretary from 1898-1900. In 1906 Alex was appointed the first full time greenkeeper at Royal Portrush Golf Club, Ireland where he reconstructed the Old Dunlace Links. The following year Alex was asked to layout the Strand course at the neighbouring Portstewart which was opened for play in 1908. In 1901 Stuart Anderson from North Berwick was appointed the first secretary of Royal Portrush Golf Club at a salary of £80 per annum. He resided with his family in Glenmanus Manse, Portrush. The opening of a regular passenger boat service from Glasgow to Portrush made the northern counties of Ireland more accessible. In 1895, Ben Sayers and his nephew Jack White played in the first Irish Professional Golf Tournament at Royal Portrush. Sayers played the course again in 1898 and was a member of the Scottish team who played against an Irish Professional team at Portrush in 1906. The club retained the services of Ben Sayers and Sandy Herd to make recommendations on the layout of five new holes in the 1909. The work carried out by Alex Gow and his son Roy at Royal Portrush received high praise from the members. Alex and his family resided in Salisbury Terrace, Portrush and in 1911 they returned to East Lothian when Alex was appointed head greenkeeper on the West Links at North Berwick, a position Alex retained for 23 years, until he retired in 1934. His son Roy Gow was also a member of the greenkeeping staff and the family resided in St Andrews Cottage, 15 St Andrews Street, North Berwick. To this day Alex Gow is associated with the bunker to the right of the 14th fairway which bares his name 'Gow's Bunker'. Sir Walter Hamilton-Dalrymple offered to lease the ground on the West Links, east of the Ware Road to the North Berwick Town Council. In February 1911 an agreement was signed to lease the ground for 25 years at a nominal sum of 1/- per annum.In 1932, additional ground was leased in the area known as 'The Bents' which extended along the seashore to the north of the old 10th and 11th holes. The new alterations were carried out under the supervision of Ben Sayers Jnr. and Major Cecil K.Hutchison. In February 1933 The Scotsman gave an update on the alterations being carried out to the West Links. 'The first three holes remain as before but the fourth has been shortened, and the green has been made longer and narrower. The fifth has been entirely reconstructed and from April will function as an entirely new hole. Part of the sixth has been taken in, but instead of playing over the 'quarry' bunker on to the double green at the back, players will use a new green formed just short of that hazard. Three bunkers have been placed around this green. The old double green has been converted into a single one, and the sixth will be a short hole from the turnpike road to this single green beyond the 'quarry' A new tee has been laid down at the sixth. The new greens at the ninth and tenth have been played on since the autumn. Owing to the introduction of the new fifth, the present ninth and tenth will become the tenth and eleventh. The present eleventh will cease to function. A new green, close to the shore has been made as the twelfth and the thirteenth tee has been brought back thirty yards, making that hole so much longer. Two bunkers on the thirteenth fairway have been filled in, and new ones made near the green. The teeing ground at the fourteenth will be on top of a neighbouring hillock, which the workmen have reduced by several feet. No alterations have been made to the remaining holes.' Major Cecil K.Hutchison assisted James Braid to design and layout Gleneagles Kings and Queens courses and Carnoustie. He served in the Coldstream Guards and was a reserve in the Royal Scots during WW1. Hutchison was a talented golfer and finalist in the Amateur Championship in 1909, while a member of Tantallon Golf Club. In the 1920s Major Hutchison established a firm of Course Architect's in partnership with Sir Guy Campbell and Colonel S.V.Hotchkin. They designed many courses including Tadmarton Heath (1922), Kington (1925), Woodhall Spa (1925) Ashridge (1932) and they remodeled Ganton, West Sussex, Killarney and also worked on the Prince's and Rye courses.

In 1953, the proprietor of the Westerdunes Hotel offered to purchase the ground west of the March Dyke from the landowner Biel Estates. The Hotel proposed to alter the layout with the present 8th tee becoming the first and extending the course west over the former Fidra golf course at Yellowcraig. These discussions were at an advanced stage before the Town Council intervened and purchased the land in January 1954 for £9,700, safeguarding the rights of the local Golf Clubs and community. In April 1958 Sir Hew Hamilton-Dalrymple handed over the land east of the wall to the North Berwick Town Council. Today the golf course is own by East Lothian Council and measures 6458 yards with a par of 71. Charles Stevenson the cousin of Robert Louis Stevenson wrote about the holidays they shared at North Berwick. The Longskelly beach and Eil Burn (called the Cressy Burn in RLS's novel Catriona) was a favourite play area. In the 1860s the burn lay a mile west of the end of the golf course but today the Eil Burn cuts through the 7th and 12th fairways and is an integral part of the course.

the professional .....

The professional hierarchy could be divided into three sections, the keeper of the green; the professional club-maker; the professional player who would eke a living in the club-makers' shop and play during the season in foursomes with amateurs; the professional caddie who would be a professional player if they played well enough. The Keeper of the Green was engaged by North Berwick and Tantallon Golf Clubs with an annual salary to look after the ground, supervise a number of men to roll, sweep and mow the greens and fill up iron-divot marks. He collected the visitors green fees and was available to play the links at a set fee whether with skilled players or in the instruction of the game. He was supplied with a building or outhouse for a club-makers' shop where he would employ several men and work himself at spare times. He organised the 'professional players' to play with members, their guests and visitors or carrying their bags. In 1894 a first class caddie received 1/7d and a second class caddie received 1/1d, with a penny being retained for club funds. A professional was paid 3/6d a round while a teaching professional got 2/6d per hour. At the beginning of the twentieth century there were ten licensed golf professionals working on the West Links at North Berwick. Six were engaged in giving lessons while the remainder were available to play with the members and visitors. Many visiting familes would hired the pro for several days during their holiday. The professionals could teach up to the wall on the West Links before 10am on the ground between the 3rd and 16th fairways. This was deemed to be the public ground although it was part of the Dalrymple Estate. The Green Committee which approved the licenses was made up from representatives of the four golf clubs playing the West Links. The license was in fact a metal badge with a number attached to identify the individual who was sanctioned to act as a professional or caddie and to charge the appropriate fee. If the professional had no engagements he was allowed to work as a caddie. Although the Greens Committee had the final decision, it was the Starter who was the power behind the throne. He had the authority to recommend that an individual be awarded a license as a caddie or professional. He also had the ability to remove the license from anyone displaying bad behaviour. He was also known to have given the poorest caddie a shilling when times were hard. Challenge Matches The first recorded 'challenge' match at North Berwick was in 1844 between Willie Dunn and Allan Robertson, played over three courses, St Andrews, Musselburgh and North Berwick. The earliest foursome match on the West Links was played between Allan Robertson and Tom Morris from St Andrews against the Dunn brothers Willie and Jamie from Musselburgh. The matches were played each year from 1847 to 1850 but the only match to be documented was in 1849 which consisted of three games, 36 holes each, played over Musselburgh, St Andrews and North Berwick for a purse of £400. Following the matches at Musselburgh and St Andrews the game was all-square leaving the final result to be decided at North Berwick. Each side had it's own band of supporters, but with Musselburgh being closer to the links at North Berwick they had a larger following, lead by Douglas Gourlay the well known ball maker. The crowd were so anxious to see where the balls had landed, no sooner were the shots played, the whole crowd ran forward in a wild dash to see who had the best lie, shouting and waving vigorously in support of their side. They played six rounds of the six hole course at North Berwick, later a seventh hole was added named 'Gasworks' on the site of Duneaton House. The Dunn's were favourites with the backers as they held the lead four up and eight to play. Robertson and Morris fought back winning four the next six holes. At the penultimate hole (the present 17th) Allan drove the ball 130 yards, landing in a thick clump of grass. Tom hacked it out, but two shots later he and Allan lay four in the bunker in front of the green. The Dunns lay twenty yards away for two, but their ball came to rest on the cart track to the right of the fairway. The Dunn's took three shots to get out of the cart track, eventually using the back of the club to move the ball. Robertson and Morris won the hole and when Robertson sunk his putt at the last for a win, the tall figure of Sir David Baird, umpire for the day, then declared the St Andrews men winners by two holes. Brodie was always at hand to pass a cap among the crowd for a collection... ' silver if you please, sir' Sir Walter Hamilton-Dalrymple owner of the North Berwick estate said that although there was bad feeling between each section of supporters, Tom Morris and Willie Park had great respect for each other and they enjoyed each others company particularily in stroke-play events. The North Berwick Town Council realised how important golf was to the local economy and encouraged the 'challenge' matches played between the leading professionals. They attracted thousands of spectators to the town and the newspaper's dispatched their reporters to cover the story which increased the public interest. In 1872 the Town Council offered Young Tom Morris and Davie Strath, twenty-five pounds each to play a match at North Berwick. This was in effect appearance money which would have been frowned upon had the Council not kept the matter quiet. In 1888, when the amateur matches became more popular the Town Council organised a scratch golf tournament, open to amateurs, and Johnny Laidlay beat Horice Hutchinson in the final in front of a huge gallery. In 1875, Willie Park and his brother Mungo challenged Old Tom Morris and his son to a match over North Berwick links which was a repeat of the match from the previous year. They had arranged to take part in an Open tournament at North Berwick on Thursday 3rd September and agreed to play the foursome match on Saturday for twenty-five pounds. The Morrises travelled by train from St Andrews to Leuchars, then changed trains for Burntisland where they boarded a ferry crossing the Firth of Forth to Granton. A short train journey to Edinburgh Waverley Station and another down the coast to North Berwick. The journey took over six hours to complete. (Left) The Scotsman 13th January 1870. The Open tournament played on the Thursday was backed by several gentlemen visitors who subscribed to the purse which attracted twenty professionals. At the end of the third round of nine holes each, Young Tom Morris won the first prize of £7, Willie Park was second and received £3, while Davie Strath was third and pocketed £2. Late in the day Robert Cosgrove entered a scorecard one stroke better, but John Home W.S, North Merchiston House, Edinburgh who was umpire for the day, disqualified him for 'marking his card incorrectly'. Willie Dunn the local pro was also disqualified for the same reason. Bob Cosgrove protested but to no avail, and a few years later Cosgrove married a North Berwick girl and they lived in Melbourne Place where he worked as a golf ball maker. Old Tom and his son took lodgings in the Dalrymple Arms Hotel in Quality Street, and it was reported on the Saturday morning that Old Tom enjoyed a swim in the West Bay before walking to the West Links where the match started at 11 am. The Morris's took an early lead and were four-up but with three holes remaining of the final round, the Park's brought the match back to all square. The Morris's won the penultimate hole and the last was halved giving the St Andrews men victory by one hole. Immediately on the conclusion of the match, Young Tom received a telegram with the news that his wife was seriously ill in St. Andrews following the birth of their child. Young Tom Morris at North Berwick Over the years various authors have written and embellished the story of the tragedy surrounding the death of Young Tom's wife and child. This is a copy of the most accurate account published in The Scotsman on Monday 6th September 1875. 'Just as the balls were holed out on the last putting green of the concluding round and the match declared won by the Morrises, a telegram was put into the hands of Young Tom announcing that his wife was dangerously ill and requesting that he should get back to St Andrews with all possible haste. No train being available till seven o'clock in the evening, the Morrises were about to start for Edinburgh by road in order to catch the last train for Fife, when John Lewis, one of the summer residents in the town, hearing of the news that had been received, suggested that they should sail across in his yacht, which was lying in the harbour. Accordingly Tom and his father without a moment's delay got on board of this craft, and they had just cleared the harbour and were hoisting sail, when a messenger reached the pier bearing another telegram stating that Mrs. Morris had given birth to a son, but that both mother and child were dead. The purport of the message being made known to a number of Tom's friends who had been seeing him off, they agreed although the yacht was within easy hailing distance to allow it to sail without acquainting those on board with the distressing news, fearing that the shock to the unhappy husband would be too great. Meanwhile rumours of what had taken place found their way to the green, where another match between Park and Strath was in progress, and spreading among the groups on the Links, cast a gloom over the remainder of the play, much sympathy being everywhere expressed for Morris who has been married scarcely a year.' The health of Young Tom Morris deteriorated over the next three months and he died of an internal haemorrhage on Christmas morning, at the age of 25 years. John Lewis who sailed with the Morris's to St Andrews was the 22 year old son of James Lewis a Grocer and Spirit Merchant at 55, George's Square, Edinburgh. His father James was Captain of Tantallon Golf Club 1858-59. He purchased the land where the gasworks were situated in 1866 and built Duneaton House at 11 West Bay Road (now 1 Pointgarry Road). John Lewis continued the grocery business and resided in Edinburgh until his death in 1882. His sister Isabella Lewis (b.1855) lived in Duneaton House until her death in 1939 when she left instructions for the North Berwick Town Council to erect a drinking fountain at the top of the Quadrant which can still be seen today. Following the Park and Morris match there was another foursome played between Pringle and Paxton of Musselburgh against Martin of St Andrews and Lowe of Leven, over two rounds of the links. The result was in favour of the former couple by 6 up and 5 to play. Willie Park and Davie Strath played another match on Monday over four rounds with a purse of £10 which Strath won by two holes. Three days later Willie Park won the Open Championship at Prestwick for the fourth time. The earliest recorded greenkeeper on the West Links was local gardener Nicol Wright. He was employed by Tantallon Golf Club in 1855 to maintain the links and repair the flags with a wage of 30 shillings per annum. Nicol Wright, born 1813 in North Berwick, lived at 88 Westgate (now the site of Boots Pharmacy in the High Street). During the Summer and Autumn meetings Wright was assisted by Bernard Dall, Davie Miller and Robert Dobie. There was also reference in the Tantallon accounts to paying a man to clean out the ditches (present burn), carting turf, making holes, laying mole traps and the purchase of a cutter costing 5/- in 1858. North Berwick Golf Club employed George Todd from Dirleton to tidy-up the links before their club meetings. Tantallon employed Tom Dunn in 1869 at a salary of £3-2s to improve the course but he left the following year and joined his father Willie Dunn Snr at Leith Links. Tantallon relinquished the maintenance of the links when a Green Committee was formed with John Whitecross as chairman and Peter Brodie as secretary. David Strath Davie Strath was appointed the first 'Keeper of the Green' in 1876, then James Beveridge (1880), before Tom Dunn returned in November 1881 and remained for eight years. In 1869, Tom Dunn was the first professional to enter the Open Championship from North Berwick. He entered the championship again from the town in 1886. Strath, Dunn and Beveridge were all talented golfers, and fine teachers.

Davie Strath regularly played the West Links partnering local golfers Peter Brodie John Whitecross. When the position of Keeper Of The Green was created Strath was the natural choice. Although it has been suggested that Young Tom Morris was also offered the position in 1873. Davie Strath was appointed Custodian of the Green on 5th September 1876. Tantallon Golf Club agreed to pay twenty-five pounds as their share of his salary and North Berwick Golf Club paid ten pounds. Strath was a keen sportsman and was often found in the evening lying out at the Eil Burn shooting wild ducks. Davie Strath and his wife Ann (Agnes) lived in the High Street before they purchased Point Garry Cottage, (now Tantallon Golf Club Clubhouse) in May 1877. Strath was runner-up in the Open to Young Tom Morris in 1870 and 1872 and in 1876 he tied for the Championship at St Andrews with Bob Martin but refused to play off because of a rules dispute. This was one of the most controversial Opens of all time as someone had forgotten to book the golf course and players were competing amongst the regular public players. The St Andrews Citizen reported competitors went out in 'a very straggling manner'. A protest was lodged against Strath alleging he played his approach to the 17th green and struck a spectator. The Royal & Ancient ordered the replay but Strath demurred and said if a decision wasn't taken forthwith, he wouldn't return. Martin walked the course alone and was hailed as the victor. After this debakle, Strath never played St Andrews again. The following year he entered the Open at Musselburgh and finished 4th in a small field of players. According to the Golf Book of East Lothian the orignal clubmakers workshop was situated in the quarry below the first green, which lies on the shore east of the Pointgarry putting green where Davie Strath and James Beveridge made clubs and balls. Strath and Beveridge were in business together for three years and there are only two examples of their clubs known, one a 'Long Nose Play Club' sold at Sotherby's in 1999. Strath's Box was situated between the North Berwick Clubhouse and the eighteenth green. In 1877 his cash book included a selection of his customers. Sir Robert Hay, Baronet of Haytoun. MacLeod Wylie 27 Beaufort Gardens, London; Lord Ruthwell. Windsor; David Smith, India Buildings, Edinburgh: Frank Bamford, Kelso: Sir Alexander Kinloch, Baronet of Gilmerton; Sir David Baird Baronet of Newbyth: H.W.Hope, Luffness: James Tweedie, Liverpool. The list below includes the local golfers who purchased equipment from Davie Strath. R. Thomson (clubmaker) Wimbledon: Mark Ormison (mason): George Brownlee; George; Strath (professional golfer) Glasgow: James Beverage: John R. Whitecross (grocer): David Arundel: Peter Brodie (Baker): James Webster (Gas Manager): John Lumsden (slater); James Brodie (baker); James Kendall (Plumber); William Forrest (mason). Strath suffered from consumption and facing another Scottish winter was advised to travel to Australia where the climate would alleviate an illness which also claimed the lives of his four brothers. It is thought unlikely that such advice would have been given by Dr. Hugh MacBain the Surgeon and Druggist in North Berwick, when alternative treatments were available in Europe. On 14th October 1878 Strath sailed from Liverpool with a first class ticket on the S. S. Eurynome, the fastest vessel of the time. During the 84-day voyage he contracted acute bronchial laryngitis and arrived in Melbourne in a poor state of health. He died 20 days later on 28th January 1879 aged 29 years. Strath died in a house on Royal Terrace, Fitzroy in the Carlton district of Melbourne, but due to a clerical error his death was recorded as 'David Struth' and his remains buried in an unmarked grave in the Presbyterian section of the Melbourne General Cemetery. It was not until 2005 that two golf historians discovered the truth and were able to erect a headstone over his grave. Davie Strath's wife Agnes and their two children Ronald (2 years) and Daisy (1 year) remained in North Berwick. Agnes died less than a year later on 8 January 1880. The official cause of her death was peritonitis but she probably died of a broken heart, aged 36 years. Her orphaned children were taken to Dundee to be looked after by relatives. In May 1880 the Trustee's of Agnes Strath's estate sold Point Garry Cottage to Archibald Smith, a Coal Merchant in Lothian Road, Edinburgh. Point Garry Cottage, was convereted into a clubhouse for Tantallon Golf Club in 1896. James Beveridge and Tom Dunn James Beveridge, born 1851 in St Andrews son of Peter Beveridge, a joiner to trade and his wife Jane Burns. James apprenticed as a golf club and ball maker in the workshop of Tom Morris and lived with his parents, three brothers and a sister at 26 Argyle Street, St Andrews. His father died in 1876 and James, his younger brother Daniel and their mother moved to North Berwick. James joined the artisan Bass Rock Golf Club and won their scratch medal in 1877. James was appointed clubmaster when the North Berwick New Clubhouse was completed in June 1880. Daniel was employed as a club and ball maker and his mother was cook in the clubhouse and they resided with James Combe at 5 Tantallon Terrace.

In August 1879, 28 year old Beveridge organised one of the most successful tournaments to be held on the West Links. Twenty eight professionals took part including the top ten golfers in Scotland. The first pairing of Jamie Anderson (St Andrews) and Bob Ferguson (Musselburgh) played the best golf, but the largest gallery followed the old-timers Tom Morris and Willie Park. Bob Ferguson an expert with an iron to hold the plateau greens at North Berwick won the tournament. The following year he won the first of his three Open championships in succession In 1882, James Beveridge, was appointed greenkeeper on the newly opened nine-hole-course at the Royal Isle of Wight Club. Along with his brother Daniel and their mother Janet they resided on St Helen's Green. In 1894 he was persuaded by Judge Horace Russell (Assistant District Attorney of Manhattan and Judge of the Superior Court) to visit New York for the summer and Beveridge arrived in America on 4th June 1895. He decided to stay and was appointed club-maker and instructor to the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on Long Island. It had been arranged for Andrew Kirkaldy to take over the position of head professional at Shinnecock following a recommendation by Tom Morris but Kirkaldy failed to turn up. In 1898, the club advertised in the British press for a 'first class man' to give lessons during the summer and Beveridge was asked to assist with the selection. Following dozens of applications Willie Smith from Carnoustie was chosen. James Beveridge died in his workshop at Southampton, Long Island, New York on Sunday 25th June 1899, aged 48 years. James was joined in America by his brother Daniel Beveridge in March 1896. During the summer months they worked from the Shinnecock Hills clubhouse and in the winter they opened a new store on Hill Street, Southampton, Long Island, NY where he sold golf clubs and balls. His advert at the time, stated 'All clubs were made by experienced workmen from the best seasoned materials.' It also said that during the winter Beverage would be available every Saturday to give instruction or at a time to suit parties if notified. Telegraphic address 'James Beveridge, Southampton, LI'.Following the death of James Beveridge in 1898, Daniel returned to the Isle of Wight where he died in 1901. In 1898, the club advertised in the British press for a 'first class man' to give lessons during the summer and Beveridge was asked to assist with the selection. Following dozens of applications Willie Smith from Carnoustie was chosen. James Beverage died in his workshop at Southampton, Long Island, New York on Sunday 25th June 1899, aged 48 years. On 2nd July 1899 his death was noted in the New York Times. 'Quite a sever loss was sustained by lovers of golf by the death last Sunday of Mr. James C. Beveridge, who for the last six years enjoyed the privilege of manufacturing golf clubs for the Shinnecock Hills Club. Mr. Beveridge who was a native of Scotland was brought from that country to Southampton and proved himself a most valuable acquisition for the club and was looked upon as a fixture. His death which was entirely unexpected is regretted by the members of the club." When he arrived in the United States there were only twenty five professionals and he is recognised today as one of America's golfing pioneers.' Tom Dunn returned to North Berwick in 1881 and was living with his family in Dunedin Lodge, 60 Forth Street where his daughter was born. His second son Seymour according to the registrar was born on the West Links. Tom's children attended North Berwick Public School until the age of twelve when John and Seymour were sent to Clydesdale College in Hamilton to continue their private education. John studied up to the age of 15 years with a view to becoming a doctor and sat the entrance examine for Edinburgh University. Every professional made his own brand of gutta balls and there was a lucrative trade in remaking old balls. On a Saturday morning Tom Dunn stood at the first tee where he would dispose of two big sacks of remade 'six pennies' to trainloads of golfing youth out for a day from Edinburgh. Tom's younger brother Willie Dunn Jnr. described as a slim boyish looking fellow, moved to North Berwick where he apprenticed as a clubmaker. Willie was 15 years old when he played his first match against Ben Sayers at North Berwick and won. In 1882, Willie partnered Sayers in a money match against the two Fernies at St Andrews. The first day was halved but the second day Dunn and Sayers won the match by five holes. Willie entered the Open Championship for the first time from North Berwick in 1883 and again in 1884, and 1886. In 1886, Willie Dunn Jnr defeated Willie Park at North Berwick going the first round in 70 to Park's 71 and established a new record for eight holes in 28 strokes. When news of his brilliant play reached the town the shopkeepers closed their shops and made for the links to watch the second round which resulted in a win for Dunn at the thirteen hole. Willie Dunn Jnr. immigrated to the USA in 1891 and most historians now recognise the outstanding influence he had on American golf during the early years of the sport. In 1889, Tom Dunn left for France without informing the Green Committee of his absence as his son John Dunn had taken over his father's duties at the Club. The committee also received complaints that Tom Dunn in his capacity as club master at North Berwick was failing to attend to his duties. Dunn returned in October and was in his customary position on the first tee to see off the Tantallon members for their Autumn Meeting. Tom Dunn replied to the complaints on 8th November 1889, " I understand my services as custodian of the private green are no longer required. I accept my departure from North Berwick could have been misunderstood as an abandonment of my position as green keeper, but my doctor insisted".

Thomas Arundel was the first club maker to enter the Open Championship from North Berwick in 1879. Tom Arundel was born 24th March 1862, at 41 Westgate, and he served an apprenticeship as a club maker with Davie Strath and James Beveridge in their workshop situated in the quarry below the first green on the West Links. When Tom Dunn moved to North Berwick in 1881, he employed a number of club makers including Arundel in his workshop beside the first tee on the West Links. In 1887, the old timber workshop beside the first tee was taken down and a new club-makers workshop constructed, which is the present professionals shop. Built by Peter Whitecross to plans drawn up by Tom Dunn and paid for by the landowner Sir Hew Dalrymple. There is an outstanding example of a 1885 mid-spoon made by Tom Dunn at North Berwick in the British Golf Museum. Ben Sayers took over as clubmaster for two years and was in attendance at all the North Berwick New Club meetings. In 1889, Dunn was appointed to Tooting Bec G.C. where he laid out the Furzedown course. Tom Anderson - Head Greenkeeper In 1889, Tom Anderson was second assistant greenkeeper to Tom Dunn on the West Links, before Dunn left and Davie Plenderleith took over. Plenderleith resigned after a few months and was appointed to the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers at their new venue of Muirfield where he followed the design staked out by Tom Morris. When Plenderleith resigned as head greenkeeper the secretary of the Green Committee was instructed to telegram Tom Anderson, his former assistant now at Luffness Old Golf Course to 'Come to North Berwick tomorrow at 11 o'clock'. In February 1890 Anderson was offered the job with a salary of £70 per annum which was increased the following year to 30/- a week. He joined George Hunter (1892-1894) and Bob Dickson as greenkeepers. In 1895, Tom Anderson carried out the work to extend the course beyond the Eil Burn and create many new holes including the 14th named 'Perfection'. According to Rev.John Kerr, credit for the layout of the 14th hole was due to 'the fertile imagination of the energetic young secretary of the Green Committee', John McCulloch. Jack and his brother Sydney were members of Tantallon Golf Club, both wining the Club Medal, Jack in 1889, 1897 and Sydney in 1892. The final of the Tantallon Club Medal in 1894 finished in a tie between Jack McCulloch and A.M. (Sandy) Ross. In those days the crowd watching the play-off was so large it had to be kept in order with a rope. At the age of 25 years Jack was appointed secretary of the Green Committee, supervising the extension of the West Links golf course in 1895. The majority of the old course remained as before with the new holes laid out beyond the Eil Burn, but it was the 14th 'Perfection' which gained the most praise. Apart for the railway sleepers (ties) being removed from the back of the cross bunker on the 14th, the hole remains to this day as Jack McCulloch's 'fertile imagination' designed it.

Ben Sayers was primarily a ball maker until 1894 when he began to employ clubmakers in his timber workshop constructed on the garden wall of Inchgarry House adjacent to the 18th tee on the West Links. This was extended in 1896 where he sold golf clubs and balls until 1918 when it was taken down. Sayers had a reputation for making good quality gutta percha golf balls which he supplied to Thornton & Co. a sports equipment store in Edinburgh. Clubmakers were associated with the professional ranks and were often refused membership of a golf club. When Ben Sayers began to employ men solely as clubmakers the golf Clubs relented and allowed them membership but they could not enter any Club competitions. In 1912, Sayers opened a retail outlet at 21, Station Hill. As the hardship of WW1 began to bite and the clubmakers were conscripted into the armed forces, the shop in Station Hill was closed and Sayers business moved to the vacant workshop on the West Links (present pros shop). When Ben Sayers was invited to layout a new golf course it was the practise to take with him an assistant to hold the yardage marker. Sayers would then recommend that his young assistant be employed by the Club as their green keeper and professional to supervise the new course as it matured. The assistant would have been just the latest to show promise as a golfer or clubmaker at North Berwick. The town was small and Sayers knew all the families. Over the years the licensed professionals on the West Links included Willie Dunn Snr., Willie Park, George Kay, Ben Sayers, Bob Ferguson, Davie Grant Snr, John Arundel (Meadowbrook C.C. MI), Willie Auchterlonie (Glen View IL), James Braid (Walton Heath), Alan Brodie (Lakeside VA), Benjamin N Campbell (Musselburgh) David Grant Jnr. (Dinard Club), Harry Gullane (Philadelphia C.C-1899), Peter Hendrie (Ulen C.C Indiana), James L. Hutchison (Philadelphia C.C-1900), John Johnstone (Port Elizabeth SA), Robert Johnstone (Seattle G.C. WA), Dan Kenny (North Toronto), Harry Logan (North Berwick), Arnaud Massy (La Nivelle), Robert Millar (Kalamazoo MI), James Milligan (Wyoming Valley C.C. PA), Robert Murray (Dresden), R.G.MacDonald (Indian Hill, Winnetka IL), Ben Sayers Jnr. (Wimbledon), James Souter (Tuxedo Park NY), William Stuart (Elderslie G.C. and Ralston G.C UK), George Thomson (Lenox MA), Robert Thomson (Romford), Willie Thomson (Riverton NJ), Philip Wynne (Tooting Bec), John Morton (Freeport C.C IL), Peter Purves (Essex Fells NJ), Thomas Stevenson, George Turnbull (Midlothian C.C. IL), Mungo Park Jnr. (Buenos Aires); Harry Turpie (Glenview IL), Jack White (Sunningdale), Alex Lumsden (Bristol and Clifton G.C), Richard Kelly (Royal Norwich G.C), Alex Stuart (Caernarvonshire G.C), Alex Marr (Wearside), John Thorburn (Kilmacolm G.C), James Kelly (Bramhall G.C), Alex Wilson (Lucerne C.C). By the late 1890s golf was becoming more popular in Europe especially in France. In 1895 there were eleven golf clubs in France, three in Holland, two each in Belgium and Switzerland and one each in Spain and Italy. By 1902 there were 21 golf clubs in France and with the expansion of the railways the Scottish based professionals were playing more exhibitions and tournaments in Europe. Access more detailed information on the Golf Professionals and Club Makers listed above

Outside Hutchison's workshop circa 1894. Standing (Left): Tom Anderson greenkeeper, Standing (Right): James Crawford starter. Seated (Left to Right) Willie Parker, James H Hutchison clubmaker and George Thomson caddie master.

Park v Vardon Challenge Match (North Berwick) 1899 In an article in Golf Magazine in 1898, Willie Park Jnr. challenged Harry Vardon to a 72 hole match; two rounds at North Berwick (West Links) followed by two rounds at Vardon's home course at Ganton. The following year Vardon eventually accepted the challenge and each man deposited twenty pounds of their own money into the hands of the editor of Golf Magazine. The first round was played at North Berwick in July when over 7,000 spectators arrived by special trains to watch the match. In June 1899, a deputation from the Merchants met with the Town Council and asked them to recommend the partial closure of the shops on the occasion of the Park v Vardon Golf Match. Provost John McIntyre granted permission for the shop-keepers to close their premises to follow the afternoon round. The size of the gallery surprised the organisers as the Prince of Wales was visiting Edinburgh on the same day. Harry Vardon travelled to North Berwick with his brother Tom as his caddie, carrying the clubs in a new canvas bag that had recently come onto the market. Willie Park's caddied named 'Fiery' was of the old school and bunched the clubs under his arm. The links were so crowded that many could not see the green, and a white flag with a red letter P for Park, and a red flag with a white letter V for Vardon, was lifted in the air to inform the crowd which player won the hole. The referee for Park was Amateur Champion Freddie Tait and the forecaddie was Norman Hunter, the Cambridge University amateur golfer, while the umpire was Edward L.I.Blyth a member of Tantallon G.C. at North Berwick. Park played poorly throughout and over the double Vardon was the clear winner of what has now been recognised as the last true challenge match ever to take place. According to the report in The Scotsman on Friday 7th July 1899, the links were favoured with brilliant sunshine, while the heat was so great as to be oppressive there being but a very light easterly breeze. Play commenced at 11 o'clock and Park being the challenger had the 'honour' of teeing off first. Both used their driving mashie, and both balls landed short of the road crossing the first fairway. Vardon's second was a high shot which reached the green. Park's shot landed on top of the hill a few yards from the edge of the green. His run up to the pin was well played and though Vardon got within his ball, Park holed a six foot putt to open the match with a half in four. Remarkably the first ten holes were halved in par. Vardon won the 10th and Park won the next two. At the 13th hole Park failed to clear the dyke giving Vardon the hole. Park won the 14th, Vardon took the next and the Englishman extended his lead at the 16th when Park was unable to clear the dry ditch in two. The final holes of the morning round were halved and Park was up by one hole. During the tournament at North Berwick twenty policemen and twenty rope men were required and the members of Bass Rock and Tantallon Golf Clubs acted as stewards. Seventeen year old, Dorothy Campbell was among the crowd watching the match between Vardon and Park and was taken by the size of the gallery and how well the enormous crowd behaved. Not realising that within a few years Campbell herself would play in front of 6,000 spectators, mostly dock labourers and miners, at Troon in the final of the 1907 Scottish Championship, in which Frances Teacher from North Berwick defeated Campbell at the twenty-first hole. Also among the spectators was 22 year old Frenchman Arnaud Massy who was enormously impressed with Harry Vardon during the challenge match against Willie Park Jnr. The second round commenced at half-past three o'clock and Vardon won the first hole (Pointgarry-Out) to square the match. Park won the second and third holes followed by a string of halves up to the ninth which Vardon won in four to go one up. The Englishman hit a majestic approach at the tenth which laid him four yards from the pin. Down in four Vardon was two-up with eight holes to play. At the eleventh Park won back a hole and when Vardon missed a two yard putt at the 12th (Quarry-In), Park squared the match. The 1st and 17th greens were shared, and the 5th green (Hole Across) was situated south of the present fifth fairway close to the left bunker. The 6th (Quarry-Out) was a par 4. The ninth hole was shorter than at present with the green situated adjacent to the end of the wall. The course then turned eastwards and the 10th and 11th holes were laid out where the practice area is now. The 12th tee (Quarry-In) was forward towards the Eil Burn and shared the green with the 6th (Quarry-Out). The Scotsman report continued. "At the 13th (The Pit) Park took a dangerous line to the left and lay to all intents hard up against the dyke. Vardon lying nicely on the course for the pitch across. For the second time in the round, Park had to have recourse to his left-handed iron. He was not very successful in his effort. He struck the dyke and rebounded and with his next again fell foul of the obstruction taking in all five to get over. To the general astonishment, Vardon failed to get across in two. He pitched a high ball but without sufficient distance and dropped on the near side of the dyke all but hard up. He played a straight forward stroke scrambled over and reached the green in three which practically settled the hole in his favour and made him one in hand with five to play. Vardon was fortunate at 'Perfection' when his second shot hit a spectator and was diverted from reaching the beach. The hole was halved and when the players reached 'Redan', Park's tee short was trapped in a bunker beyond the green. Vardon got down in three and was one up with three to play. At the 'Gate' both players attempted to carry over the bunker with their second and both were trapped. Park was so far favoured that his ball lay in grass and he could sole his club. Unfortunately he topped the ball and was still in the hazard. Vardon got down in five which gave him the hole and was dormy two on the first half of the match. At the second last hole Vardon was too strong with his approach and the ball rolled over the green on to the beach. Park was short but his pitch recovered with such great style that he earned a hearty round of applause, and the hole was halved. Still two up Vardon led the way to the last hole and struck a long ball about twenty yards beyond his opponent. Park judged his pitch shot well finishing ten yards from the pin, but missed his putt for a three and the hole was halved in four. The disappointed Scots who had lost money on the day, crammed into the Commercial Hotel (County Hotel) to take a dram and wash away some of the pain. The landlord was an Englishman named Harry White. Vardon v Park Challenge Match (Ganton) 1899 Two weeks later Park and twenty of his supporters travelled to Ganton. At the request of Vardon, Charles G. Broadwood the captain of Ganton Golf Club acted as referee on his behalf. Ganton was a short parkland course with no fewer than seven out of the eighteen holes reached from the tee and the remaining holes were the distance of a driver and an iron approach. The match was played on Saturday 22nd July and attracted over 1500 spectators and wet weather prevailed throughout the day. The result of the challenge match was reported in The Scotsman on Monday 24th July. Vardon struck his first drive down the fairway while Park found the bunker and that mistake cost him the hole. Vardon was quickly up by two. He won the 3rd but Park turned the tables on his opponent at the 4th hole by sinking a two-yard putt to reduce Vardon's lead to one. At the fifth Park pulled his tee shot after being distracted with a disturbance in the crowd and his ball landed in a hollow which was almost unplayable. Vardon won the hole in four and again stood two up. Park lost the 6th and at the 7th a driver, a brassie and an approach iron were needed in order to reach the green. Park had a two-yard putt for a half in four but it lipped out. The Englishman played the hole perfectly going down in four to increased his majority to four holes. By the 11th hole Vardon was five up on the day's play. At the 16th Vardon won the hole in four to go six up. Park was short with his pitch in playing the putt he laid the Englishman a stymie. Vardon tried to negotiate it with his lofter, although a good yard form his opponent, it put him out of holing distance. Park lost the next two to finish the first round down by eight. Of the eighteen holes, Vardon won eight, park won two and eight were halved. Adding the two holes by which Vardon won the first half of the match at North Berwick to his majority of six holes on Saturday left the Englishman eight holes up, with eighteen to play. The first three holes of the second round were halved and at the 4th, Park's second shot found a nasty ditch running along the right edge of the green. The forecaddie had marked the spot were the ball landed but so thick were the reeds that a brief search made it apparent that the ball was lost and Park accepting the inevitable gave up the hole. The next two holes were halved and Vardon won the 7th hole with a four to go dormy up, and won the eighth and won the match by eleven up and ten to play. A hearty cheer by the crowd greeted Vardon's decisive victory and on all hands he received congratulations. Vardon was declared the winner and presented with the £200 prize money. Willie Park Jnr. wrote to North Berwick Golf Club thanking them for the way the tournament was organised and a letter was received from Charles Broadwood, Captain of Ganton Golf Club where Harry Vardon was the professional in Scarborough. The clubmaster at North Berwick complained that nobody requested a meal during the tournament and asked for compensation from the club for the provisions he had purchased. In March 1899 a boy with a red flag was stationed at Pointgarry in July, August and September to signal the Starter when each group leaves. Throughout WW1 the professionals who remained in North Berwick had to make their wages during the summer months. Starting at 7 am, they could give as many as 12 lesson before dusk and earn 2/6 per hour. In 1923 the Town Council appointed Robert Thomson as golf professional on the Burgh course. Thomson was born in North Berwick in 1876 and was a licenced professional on the West Links. In 1903 and 1905 he finished in the top six in the Open Championship. In 1904, he replaced James Braid at Romford Golf Club. Five years later he returned to North Berwick and in 1909 won the Scottish Professional Championship. Robert 'Bob' Thomson (below) represented Scotland in the Home Internationals from 1903-1912 and that year he was assistant to the International team captain James Hepburn from Carnoustie. The picture below of the 1909 Scottish Team at Deal, includes Robert Thomson and Ben Sayers's son who played from 1906 -1909.

Scottish Team 1909 Back Row Charlie Smith, Jimmy Braid, Jack White, Robert Thomson, Ben Sayers Jnr. Front Row Ben Sayers Sen. Sandy Herd, George Duncan, Frank Coltart, Andrew Kirkaldy

the club-maker ......

The original club-makers workshop was situated in the quarry below the first green where James Beveridge and Davie Strath made clubs and balls. A metal lamp-post dated 1873 is all that remains of the oil lamp used by the club makers. Willie Dunn Snr. was one of the first professionals to teach the game at North Berwick during the 1850s. He was greenkeeper at Blackheath before being dismissed in 1864 for inappropriate behaviour and he returned to the Thistle Golf Club at Leith Links. The Thistle Club leased No.8 Vanburgh Place as their clubhouse where Willie Dunn Snr resided with his workshop situated in Vanburgh Place Lane. In 1869 he was joined by his son Tom Dunn and they lived at No.7 Vanburgh Place. Willie Dunn Snr remained at Leith Links for ten years before settling at North Berwick. He died at Millhill, Inveresk in 1878 at the age of 59 years. Tantallon Golf Club employed Tom Dunn in 1869 at a salary of £3-2s to improve the course but he left the following year and joined his father Willie Dunn Snr at Leith Links. When Tom Dunn returned to North Berwick in 1881 he was joined by his younger brother Willie Dunn Jnr. a professional at Chingford and Charlie Gibson a 22 year old clubmaker from Musselburgh. Gibson rented a room from Ann Denholm at 42, Westgate and among the other boarders was North Berwick girl Helen Ramage who Gibson later married and they lived at 27 Westgate in 1889. Gibson apprenticed as a cabinetmaker and joiner in the business run by his father and uncle, Charles and John Gibson at 8 Millhill, Inveresk since 1868. When they retired in 1880 Charlie Gibson began clubmaking with Tom Dunn and moved to North Berwick when Dunn was appointed Keeper of the Green in 1882. Tom Dunn was the first to occupy the timber workshop constructed in the hollow where the present professional's shop is situated. This was demolished in 1889 when the present building was erected to Tom Dunn's design. Charlie Gibson and Tom Dunn trained many fine clubmakers at North Berwick including Jack White in 1885. Willie Park Snr. spent two years as a club and ball maker in the town (1873-75) before returning to Musselburgh. Ben Sayers, Robert Cosgrove and Davie Grant Snr. were the only other ball makers in North Berwick. Prior to 1872 the golf balls were supplied by A & M Edington from their general store at 89-91 High Street. Displayed in the British Golf Museum is a Ball-Marker Press (circa 1890), manufactured by J. & A. Bridges at their North Berwick foundry. The other clubmakers were William Sutherland in Market Place, William S. Storie at the Marine Hotel and Henry Wilson at 6 Shore Street (Victoria Road). Wilson entered the Open Championship from North Berwick in 1884. Willie Dunn Jnr. was asked by Horace Hutchinson in 1886 to take charge of the historic links of the Royal North Devon Golf Club at Westward Ho!. Willie was a popular figure in North Berwick and when he left for Devon in 1887 he was presented with a gold watch and chain, subscribed to by over a hundred North Berwick golfers. Two years later when Dunn left the North Devon club he recommended Charlie Gibson from North Berwick as his replacement. Bert Way was Dunn's apprentice at North Devon and when Dunn left Shinnecock Hills on Long Island, he recommended W.H. 'Bert' Way as his replacement. Jack White continued his friendship with Charlie Gibson and visited Westward Ho! on many occasions. In 1899, Willie Park Jnr. bought the property at 15 Beach Road, North Berwick for the staggering sum of £3,000 at the time, which he converted into an elegant shop on the ground floor and clubmakers workshop to the rear with the upper floor as his residence. He brought Robert Sullivan a club maker for Musselburgh to manage the business. Willie Park Jnr. was the first to patent a golf club, it had a concave face and the Patent No. 5042-1889. The idea was not new but Park monopolized the design for a considerable period. Park entered the Open Championship from North Berwick in 1899. Sunningdale and the North Berwick Connection In 1898 when Willie Park Jnr. was asked to layout the course at Sunningdale he took with him Hugh MacLean from North Berwick. MacLean originally from Inverness was employed by Willie Park to supervise the construction of the course which was opened in 1901. Jack White was appointed professional at Sunningdale and in 1910 White recommended James Sheridan from Ferrygate Cottages, Dirleton for the position of caddie-master. Sheridan was granted a caddie license on the West Links on 15th July 1899 while living at 11 Victoria Road. As boys at North Berwick Jack White and Jimmy Sheridan caddied for amateur champion Johnny Laidlay who retired to a house he called 'Auldhame' beside the Sunningdale course. MacLean stayed on as greenkeeper and Jimmy Sheridan was caddie-master at Sunningdale for over 56 years and elected an Honorary Member. Thomas Arundel a gardener, born in North Berwick in 1858 was the first local to enter the Open Championship in 1883. He was followed by Henry Wilson (Prestwick 1884); Andrew Anderson (Muirfield 1892); Alexander Stuart (Muirfield 1892); Alexander Lumsden (Prestwick 1893); Stuart L. Anderson (Prestwick 1893); Willie Thomson (Muirfield 1896); Harry Gullane (Muirfield 1896) Alex Marr (Muirfield 1901); John Johnstone (St Andrews 1905) and James Souter (Deal 1909). A significant improvement in clubmaking came about with the introduction of the gutty ball, when instead of splicing the end, the hickory shaft was fitted into a hole in the club head made of a harder wood such as beech. With the increase in the popularity of iron heads many Scottish blacksmiths abandoned their other areas of trade for clubmaking full time, calling themselves Cleek Makers. A set of clubs around 1900 might consist of a driver, long spoon, a brassie, short spoon, cleek, mashie, iron, iron niblick for bunkers and putter, although most golfers of the time usually played with five or six clubs. Some golfers even had baffies and bulgers. The bulger was invented by Willie Park Jnr. and sold for five shillings.

J. H. Hutchison - Long Nosed Spoon   Hutchison Irons   J. H. Hutchison 1890s Cleek Mark Access The North Berwick Golf Club-Makers Collection

Many of the former North Berwick professionals returned to the town in June 1896 to play in the Open Championship at Muirfield. They included Charlie Gibson (Westward Ho), Jack White (Mitcham), Andrew Denholm (Brighton) and the local pros Jack Ross, Willie Thomson, Philip Wynne, Alex Marr and Harry Gullane. Ben Sayers Snr was the best placed, local tieing for eighth. Harry Vardon tied with J.H. Taylor for the Open Championship that year. The following day, not expecting to be involved in 36 hole play-off, the two players were committed to a pre-arranged tournament at North Berwick. Vardon with one eye on the Open play-off reserved his energies, and strolled round, finishing ninth. While Taylor's competitive spirit forced him into joint first place, with Ben Sayers Snr and they shared the wining prize money of £8 each. While in the town Harry Vardon visited Ben Sayers timber workshop beside the eighteenth tee, and his eye was caught by an old cleek discarded in the corner. He thought it would make an excellent putter with a new, shorter shaft. The clubmaker obliged, and Vardon used it to great effect in the play-off, winning his first Open Championship. Harry kept the cleek as a memento, and never used it again. The fascinating story of the cleek was first revealed in Harry Vardon's book "The Complete Golfer" in 1903. D & W Auchterlonie, from the famous St Andrews clubmaking family opened a workshop at the Glen course in 1907. David was the clubmaker while Willie Auchterlonie, the 1893 Open Champion gave lessons. Clubs stamped with Auchterlonie - North Berwick are highly collectable. At the 1909 Open at Deal a golf exhibition tent was introduced for the first time, where the leading manufacturers and retailers displayed their wares. D & W. Auchterlonie won first prize in three categories, for their drivers, brassies and wooden putters. The judges were Willie Park, Charles Gibson (mentioned above) and Peter Fernie. Alex Marshall, the club maker at 27 Station Hill took over the workshop at the Glen course in 1911 where he repaired clubs. He was followed in 1919 by Robert Thomson who was appointed Burgh golf professional from 1923-1938. Following WW2 the Town Council appointed Arthur Fennell (1910-1974) as professional. He rented a timber building beside the first tee where he sold clubs and balls and arranged golf lessons. He also had a sports equipment shop at 27, Quality Street. In 1889, James H. Hutchison took over the club-makers workshop beside the first tee on the West Links. The workshop was extended in 1896 when a Caddie Shelter was built. Hutchison was club-maker on that site for twenty one years. He was the nephew of Peter McEwan from the famous Musselburgh club-making dynasty. Hutchison was also the club-maker for the Hon. Company of Edinburgh Golfers at Muirfield and was granted several patents. He produced the Dalrymple hammerhead clubs designed by Sir Walter Hamilton-Dalrymple. Hutichison's workshop also had lockers for rent and in 1891 Willie Cuthbert was the 'Box Keeper'. In 1895 James Hutchison employed five club-makers including Tom Williamson from Grantham who was appointed professional at Notts Golf Club in 1896. Williamson was Midland Stroke Play Champion on several occasions and played for England against Scotland nine times (1904-07, 1909-1913). Jim Hutchison and Alex McLaren trained together in James Hutchison's club-makers workshop at North Berwick and are recognised today as pioneers of golf in Australia. In 1909 Hutchison's son-in-law Andrew Bisset took over the business and his apprentice David Watt, the bother of James Watt mentioned below was Scottish Professional Champion in 1914. David Watt was killed in WW1 serving with the Gordon Highlanders. Ben Sayers continued the club making tradition on the site at the first tee from 1917. In 1904, Donald MacKay, a club-maker from Dornoch arrived in North Berwick and he opened a club-making business at 1 Station Hill. He was joined by James Watt from Dirleton who served his apprenticeship as a club-maker with William Park & Son in their workshop at 15, Beach Road, North Berwick. Although Park's main clubmaking business was situated at Newbigging in Musselburgh, he opened a retail shop in London where Jim Watt worked for a short period. In 1907 they were joined by Robert G. MacDonald, Dan MacKay's brother-in-law also a club-maker from Dornoch. MacDonald was granted a professional license on the West Links while MacKay remained an amateur and joined the Rhodes Golf Club. Mackay emigrated to America in 1909 and MacDonald followed a year later, while Jim Watt continued the club-making business at 1 Station Hill until he retired in the 1960s. In 1919, the New York Times listed Robert G. MacDonald as the fourth best tour pro in the USA. Seymour Dunn wrote a monthly article in the American 'Golf' magazine under the pseudonym 'Tantallon'. Club-making dates back to when the Dutch played their golf from 1300-1700. The game died out after that date because they did not have the correct wood to make the clubs. The shaft on the early Dutch clubs was made from hazel and the head was lead. The size of the head did not matter as distance was not important, they just scuffed the ball along the ice towards a stake in the frozen canal. Golf was brought to the east coast of Scotland by the wool merchants who travelled to Holland to sell their wool in the markets. The merchants played the Dutch form of golf and brought the game back to Scotland. The feathery ball also originally made in Holland was copied by ballmakers in Scotland. A man could produce two feathery balls in a day making them very expensive and only the wealthy could play the game. During this period the Scots made the best clubs because the bow-makers had turned their skills to clubmaking as the invention of fire arms had put them out of business. The clubs had beech heads and ash shafts, spliced together and bound with twine, with the grip made of sheepskin. Haskell Ball The use of gutta-percha in the manufacture of golf balls was a major influence on the game. Gutta-percha was a gum like rubber and when placed in boiling water it softened and became malleable like putty that retained whatever shape it was moulded into when cooled. Gutta-percha was also completely waterproof and became a vital application in the insulation of underwater cables which connected the first telephone lines between the UK and Europe. The ball was orginally smooth, but was found to fly better when the surface was hacked with a knife or hammer. Later the ball was made in a mould when a regular pattern could be applied to the outer surface. The clubs used with the gutta-percha balls were heavier, had a bigger splice, lots of lead on the back and a brass plate screwed to the bottom to protect the club from damage. In 1850 there were only 15 golf courses and by 1900 this had increased to 2,300 in the world. This was due to the gutta-percha ball which was cheap and durable. The iron headed clubs before 1900 had a smooth face. When the Haskell ball was invented, which was made with a centre core, bound with rubber thread then surrounded with an outer skin, the club heads were marked with grooves or dots which made the ball fly better and further. With the introduction of the more lively Haskell ball other woods were discovered for the shaft such as hickory and instead of beech for the head they used persimmon with inserts of various materials adding the smack. Persimmon was a very hard wood which could be bored to allow the shaft to be secured in the clubhead socket. When the supply of hickory and persimmon began to run out other materials were tried and steel became the preferred option. Steel shaft suppliers in the UK were Accles and Pollock with the 'Appollo' shaft and British Steel Golf Shafts Ltd. with the 'True Temper' shaft. In 1912, a good driver cost five or six shillings with the top of the range costing ten shillings and after WW1 the price doubled. Hickory shafts without the head cost sixpence to ninepence and in 1920 the same item cost seven shillings and sixpence. The wooden head clubs were coloured with a natural stain known as 'Keel'. It was nothing more than coloured water collected from the Glen or Eil Burns and used by Park and Sayers, which produced a light to dark tan. The rainfall determined how much sediment was moved which effected the colour. Water from the area further inland to Port Seton gave keel a much darker colour as it was in a mining region which produced a black dust. The rainwater which flowed into the river Tyne from the Lammermuir Hills gave a reddish brown water which when soot was added was reputed to 'give a handsome colouring effect'. A number of fine examples of the club-making skills from Hutchison, Bissett, Sayers and Watt, can be seen in the North Berwick Museum. The coastal defences - An old First World War pill-box on the seaward side of the 12th fairway was pressed back into action during WW2. Weapon pits were dug overlooking the Eil Burn, above the 13th green and on the seaward side of the 14th fairway . Following the end of hostilaties Italian POW's were employed to remove the miles of barbed-wire which remain in a pit north of the 14th tee.

Willie Dunn Jnr. worked with his brother Tom Dunn at North Berwick, before moving to France for five years. He sailed to the USA in 1894 and won the Championship of America. His outstanding influence on the early game in America is now being recognised. Far Right: John Dunn grew up in North Berwick and trained as a club maker under his father Tom Dunn. He followed his uncle Willie Dunn to America and became a respected golf instructor.

Willie Dunn Jnr.

John Dunn

Alex Denholm pro at Royal Queensland GC in Australia, could remember many of the early golfers making their own golf balls. It was not uncommon to see a line of dark brown gutties, like walnut shells drying out on the window ledge before they were painted white. Alex could remember Henry Gullane causing quite a stir when he hit a drive of 400 yards with a guttie into a strong wind at North Berwick in 1895. By the turn of the twentieth century, the guttie ball was well and truly gone and the rubber-core ball encased in gutta-percha was in general use. This design improvement added about twenty-five to fifty yards to drives and immeasurably changed the game. Harry Vardon was given his first Haskell ball at North Berwick by Henry Gullane a local professional just returned from America. North Berwick's Golfing Pioneers On New Years Day 1898 a professional tournament was arranged by the Ocean County Hunt and County Club of Lakewood (NJ) as a holiday attraction for the members. Seventeen professionals took part with twelve from North Berwick making it the largest gathering of North Berwick golfers outside Scotland. The pioneers included Jimmy Campbell (Torresdale, PA); Tom Harley (New Jersey C.C); Robert M. Thomson (Merion Cricket Club); Harry Gullane (Philadelphia C.C) Harry Reddie (Saint Andrews G.C. NY); James Litster (La Cosse); Willie Collins, John Forman (Dutchess C.C), Willie Anderson (Watch Hill, RI). three Fitzjohn brothers (Otsego G.C.) Tom Gourlay, Willie Norton, Charles Thomson, and the local pros Horace and Harry Rawlins. This resulted in a tie between Val and Ed Fitzjohn and on the play-off was won by Val Fitzjohn. Ed Fitzjohn was second, Charles Thomson third, Horace Rawlins, fourth. The purse was $150 and was divided as follows, Val ohn $75, Ed Fitzjohn $37.50, Charles Thomson $22,50 and Horace Rawlins and James Litster divided $15, the fourth money. In January 1896 there were only 6 courses with 18-holes in the USA. In 1898, the salary for a golf professional in America was between $10 and $20 per week, almost twice as much as a tradesman's wage in Scotland. Added to that was teaching fees of 50 cents to 1 dollar each lesson. In 1899, Shinnecock Hills refused to pay their pro a retaining salary and instead his salary was made up from the sale of goods and from the fees for golf lessons. In 1902, the pros could earn $3000 during the winter in Florida alone, lessons were $2 per hour and some of the New York clubs were paying $75 per month. Jack Hobens and James R. Thomson were founder members of the PGA of America, and Hobens helped to draft the constitution. Many secured work in New Jersey, Illinois and Pennsylvania, moving south during the winter months to open up Florida where there were only four golf courses in 1897. Others would return home on vacation, sailing on the RMS Lusitania to impress their family and friends. Built in 1906 the Lusitania sailed from Liverpool and was the fastest liner in the world, taking five days to complete the crossing. One of the most famous amateur players in America was Walter J. Travis, who was born in Australia and became a citizen of the United States. In 1908 Travis became founder and publishing editor of 'American Golfer', one of only two monthly publications for domestic readers interest in golf. Travis won four US Amateurs and a US Open between 1907-1915. He visited North Berwick in 1901 and played Muirfield with Ben Sayers. Travis was the first foreign winner of the British Amateur Championship at Sandwich in 1904. That year he practiced at North Berwick in preparation for the championship. Travis played in many exhibition matches with Dorothy Campbell in the USA, he wrote an instruction book with Jack White and invited Ben Sayers to his home in 1914, during Sayers first visit to America. Walter J. Travis was North Berwick's golfing ambassador in the USA, promoting the town's golfers at every opportunity.

Ellis Island Passenger List: SS Celtic, 18th March 1903 Frederick McLeod 20 years, James Hutchison 24 years, William Hobens 20 years, George Thomson 21 years. Copyright © Ellis Island.

The 1911 Open Championship at Royal St George's Golf Club, Sandwich in Kent was the end of an era for the North Berwick golfers. Never again would so many men from the West Links qualify for the Championship. The field included, John Johnstone, James Souter, Robert Thomson, David Stephenson, Andrew Grant, and Willie Watt. North Berwick's adopted son, Frenchman Arnaud Massy came so close to winning his second Open that year but was defeated in a play-off by Harry Vardon. At the 1913 US Open Championship at the Country Club of Brookline eight former North Berwick men entered the tournament. This was the championship featured in the book 'The Greatest Game Ever Played' by Mark Frost. When Harry Vardon and Ted Ray where beaten in a play-off by the American amateur Francis Ouimet. In the first qualifying round Fred McLeod partnered Harry Vardon and on the second day of qualifying Jack Hobens played with Ted Ray. Hobens described as a small stocky man with pop-eye fore-arms, was a long hitter like Ray. They both launched the ball off the first tee amidst shouts from the gallery and they took over a thousand spectators with them. Tom Anderson Jnr wore flamboyant clothes and enjoyed the press attention. A young Walter Hagen was so impressed with him that he copied Anderson's entire wardrobe. James Milligan and Jimmy Campbell failed to qualify but the Thomson brothers James and Robert played all four rounds. Their older brother Alex Thomson was personal golf instructor to Lord Northcliffe who sponsored Vardon and Ray's trip to America. Northcliffe sailed to Boston to watch the championship and followed the Ray, Hobens match. Bob MacDonald, the club-maker with James Watt also qualified and finished twenty-eighth. The majority of the North Berwick golfers stayed in the Copley Square Hotel in Boston.   Scottish Team in 1903 (Prestwick) (standing) R. Smith, G. Coburn, J. Braid, R.Thomson, W. Park, W. Fernie. (seated) J. Kinnell, J. Kay, A. Herd, J. White, B. Sayers, J. Hepburn, The team included five Open champions. On 5th August 1933, the US Open Champion Walter Hagen and Denny Shute played an exhibition match on the West Links against Robert B. Denholm and William B. Torrance. The Americans were in Britain as part of the US Ryder Cup team which was defeated that year by Great Britain and Ireland at Southport in Lancashire. The New York Times reported that over 3,000 spectators swarmed over the West Links, North Berwick causing long delays. This was Shute's first visit to Britain and the American duo beat the famous International amateurs Denholm and Torrance 3 and 2. Three years later Denny Shute defeated North Berwick's Jimmy Thomson in the final of the US PGA Championship. In the 1950s TV stations were delivering live sports on a Saturday afternoon directly into every living room and the number of members joining a golf club fell dramatically. It was another two decades before the TV images of the swashbuckling Arnold Palmer was the saviour of the sport and interest began to slowly return to the Royal and Ancient game. 1973 Ryder Cup, Muirfield The Ryder Cup was first played in Scotland at Muirfield in 1973. The official Ryder Cup dinner was held in the Marine Hotel, North Berwick where the players were based throughout the tournament. That year there was a spy in the American camp in the shape of Scottish caddie Sonny McMullen from Easter Moffat in Lanarkshire. He was on the bag of American Chi Rodriguez having been on Englishman Peter Townsend's bag for the previous two stagings of the event. The Scots heroes in the Great Britain & Ireland team were Brian Barnes and Bernard Gallacher who won their foursome and fourball matches against Lee Trevino and Billy Casper. They also thrashed US Masters champion Tommy Aaron and Gay Brewer. Unfortunately the dynamic duo had to be split-up as Gallacher suffered from food poisoning. The team also included Tony Jacklin, two times Major Champion and the reigning leader of the European Order of Merit Peter Oosterhuis. The United States pairing of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer defeated Maurice Bembridge and Irishman Eddie Pollant. In the afternoon Trevino and Homer Blancas defeated Christy O'Connor and Neil Coles. After the first two days the teams were level on eight points each but the Americans turned on the power on the final day and lost only three of the 16 single matches to lift the trophy by 19 points to 13 on the windswept Muirfield course. " It has been said in East Lothian that if the land is unsuitable for golf, it was used for farming."