A Scottish golfer scores the first recorded hole-in-one - September 16th, 1869

On this day in 1869, legendary golfer Tom Morris Junior scored the first hole-in-one ever reported.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show for those interested in the big and small
moments of history. I'm Gabe Louizier, and today we're talking

(00:22):
about the first golfer to ever mark a one on
their scorecard. The day was September eighteen sixty nine. Legendary
golfer Tom Morris Jr. Scored the first hole in one

(00:43):
ever reported. He made the shot on the eighth hole
of the Prestwick Golf Links in Scotland during the tenth
British Open Championship. Although there are four major golf tournaments today,
the British Open was the first and the only one
existed in eighteen sixty nine. This means that morris Juniors

(01:04):
hole in one was not just the first reported, but
also the first in any major tournament. To be clear,
this probably wasn't the first ever hole in one, but
it was the first to be recorded on a scorecard,
which is still on display at Prestwick today. In case
your golf's a little rusty. A hole in one is

(01:26):
when a golfer hits the ball directly from the team
ground into the hole on the green in just one
stroke because the score for the hole is one. This
is also called an ace, and as you might expect,
hitting an ace doesn't happen often, and your chances of
doing so very according to skill level and to the
distance of the whole. Most hole in ones occur on

(01:47):
the shortest holes, ranging from less than a hundred yards
to over two hundred According to a study made for
Golf Digest, the odds of a professional player making an
ace are three thousand one, but for an amateur player
it's more like twelve thousand to one. But don't give
up hope, because luck still plays a big part and

(02:08):
scoring a hole in one, so keep on swinging. As
for Morris Jr. Amazingly scoring the first hole in one
wasn't even his greatest achievement. Born in eighteen fifty one
during the early days of golf, he was the son
of another legendary golfer, Tom Morris Sr. Old Tom As
he was called one four of the first eight British

(02:31):
Opens and helped perfect the clubs and balls that would
go on to become standard for the sport. Young Tom
learned to play at an early age and would go
on to become the first true golfing prodigy. In eighteen
sixty four, when he was just thirteen, he managed to
beat his father in a match for the first time.

(02:52):
This was quite an accomplishment because at the time, Old
Tom was the reigning champion of the British Open. One
year later, Young Tom played in that tournament for the
first time, and three years after that, in eighteen sixty eight,
he won the British Open, succeeding his father as champion
at age seventeen. But Old Tom didn't do so bad himself.

(03:15):
He won second place that year, marking the only time
that a son and father have claimed the top two
spots in the tournament. As of one, Tom Morris Jr.
Remains the youngest winner of the British Open, but even
that is not as great as claim to fame. In
eighteen sixty nine, Young Tom finished first again during the

(03:39):
same game that he scored his landmark hole in one.
A year later, Tom won the British Open for the
third consecutive time. This winning streak actually caused a problem
for the tournament organizers. The rules stated that if someone
ever won the championship belt three years in a row,
they could key the prize for good. They clearly hadn't

(04:03):
accounted for a player of Young Tom's skill, so when
he claimed the belt permanently with his third win, the
tournament found itself with nothing to present to next year's winner.
Partly because of this, the British Open skipped a year
and didn't resume until eighteen seventy two, after a new
trophy had been commissioned. Of course, when the tournament did resume,

(04:27):
Young Tom won the new prize too. This would prove
to be Tom's arguably most impressive achievement, the most consecutive
Open winds of all time with four. Unfortunately, he would
not live to win a fifth. Three years later. In
eighteen seventy five, Tom Morris Jr. Was in the middle

(04:47):
of an exhibition match when he received word that his
wife and baby had both died during childbirth. Morris himself
died a few months later, on Christmas Day, at the
age of tw before. The official cause of death was
listed as a pulmonary hemorrhage, but the public sentimentally said

(05:08):
he had died of a broken heart. Old Tom Morris
outlived his son by more than thirty years. He pushed
back on the heartbreak narrative saying quote people say he
died of a broken heart, but if that was true,
I wouldn't be here either. Tom Morris Jr. Was one
of golf's first and greatest champions. He was widely respected

(05:30):
both on the green and off, and his talent and
passion for the game inspired countless others to pick up
a club and try for that elusive pole in one.
I'm Gabe Louzier and hopefully you now know a little
more about golf history today than you did yesterday. If
you have any feedback or suggestions for me, you can

(05:53):
drop me a line at this day at i heart
media dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show,
and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here
again tomorrow for another Day in History class. For more

(06:13):
podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.