The greatest golfers of all time
Who are the greatest golfers of all time? National Club Golfer takes a look at some of greatest golfers that have played the game
Harry Vardon
Majors
US Open – 1900
The Open – 1896, 1898, 1899, 1903, 1911, 1914
Harry Vardon became one of the most famous names in golf during the late 1800s and early 1900s due to his triumph in six Open Championships and a lone US Open win in 1900.
Racking up a total of 49 professional wins across his career, he turned pro in 1890 after moving to England and taking up a job as a green keeper at Studley Royal. A few years later he took the job as club pro at Ganton in Yorkshire and in that same year he won his first Open at Muirfield beating J.H. Taylor by 4 strokes.
He had 15 straight top-10 finishes from 1894-1908, and in that spell he won four of his six Open titles. The 1903 Open at Prestwick saw Vardon beat his older brother and fellow professional Tom Vardon by six shots.
Vardon and Ted Ray, another British professional golfer at the time, both lost the 1913 US Open to amateur Francis Ouimet in a play-off and this was dramatised in the film ‘The greatest game ever played’.
Tom Irwin
Tom is a lifetime golfer, now over 30 years playing the game. 2023 marks 10 years in golf publishing and he is still holding down a + handicap at Alwoodley in Leeds. He has played over 600 golf courses, and has been a member of at least four including his first love Louth, in Lincolnshire. Tom likes unbranded clothing, natural fibres, and pencil bags. Seacroft in Lincolnshire is where it starts and ends.
