Horace Hutchinson

Horace Hutchinson
— Golfer —

Caricature of Hutchinson (1890)
(from Vanity Fair magazine)
Personal information
Full name Horatio Gordon Hutchinson
Nickname Horace
Born 16 May 1859
London, England
Died 27 July 1932 (aged 73)
Chelsea, London, England
Height 5 ft 11.5 in (182 cm)
Weight 175 lb (12 st 7 lb; 79 kg)
Nationality  England
Spouse Dorothy Margaret Chapman
Career
College Oxford University
Status Amateur
Best results in major championships
Masters Tournament DNP
U.S. Open DNP
The Open Championship 6th: 1890
PGA Championship DNP
British Amateur Won: 1886; 1887

Horatio Gordon "Horace" Hutchinson (16 May 1859 – 27 July 1932)[1][2] was an English amateur golfer of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Hutchinson won the 1886 Amateur Championship and the 1887 Amateur Championship. He had three top-10 finishes in the Open Championship, his best result being sixth in the 1890 Open Championship.[3]

He was also a prolific writer of books on the subject of golf and other sporting themes.[4][5] Hutchinson was the first English captain of the R&A links at St Andrews Golf Club, Scotland.[6] He suffered from grave illness in the latter portion of his life and committed suicide in Chelsea, London, England on 27 July 1932. He was survived by his wife.[7]

Early life

Hutchinson was the third son of General William Nelson Hutchinson (1803–1895).[1] He began his golfing career at an early age playing at the Royal North Devon golf club (also known as Westward Ho!), a course founded in 1864 and designed by Old Tom Morris.[8] By the age of sixteen he won the club medal championship. He attended Corpus Christi College for a time where he was a cricket player[9]—then Oxford University from 1878–81[10]—and made an immediate impression by playing number one on the Oxford golf team and leading them to victory over arch rival Cambridge.

Hutchinson (1889)
(Photo courtesy National Portrait Gallery, London)

During his Oxford years he would spend vacations at home playing Royal North Devon accompanied by a young orphaned caddie who was employed by the Hutchinson family as a houseboy. The young lad went by the name of John Henry Taylor. Taylor's future exploits in golf—which included winning five Open Championships—would become legendary.[11] Hutchinson was a keen billiards player and enjoyed rowing, shooting and angling. He graduated Oxford BA with third-class honours in literae humaniores (1881) and entered the Inner Temple with a view to reading for the bar, but his health, always frail, temporarily broke down.[7]

Although he lived to be 73 years old, Hutchinson suffered with poor health most of his life, and was for the last eighteen years of life incapacitated by grave illness.[5] In 1890 he considered becoming a sculptor and studied briefly under G. F. Watts.[5] In 1893 he married Dorothy Margaret Chapman, daughter of Major Frederick Barclay Chapman of the 14th Hussars.[5][7][12]

The Amateur Championship

Hutchinson's major accomplishments in golf were his two victories in the 1886 and 1887 Amateur Championships. He became the first player to successfully defend the title by defeating the great John Ball on Ball's home course at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake. Hutchinson was an avid student of the mechanics of the golf swing, so he decided to put forth in writing his suggestions on methods of play. He said, among other things, "The great secret of all strokes played for the most part is to make the club travel as long as possible in the direction in which you want the ball to go."[11]

In 1896, showing his humorous side, Hutchinson said:

"If your adversary is badly bunkered, there is no rule against your standing over him counting his strokes aloud, with increasing gusto as their number mounts up: but it will be a wise precaution to arm yourself with the niblick before doing so, so as to meet him on equal terms." [13]

—Hutchinson in 1896 on golf etiquette

Legacy

Golf teaching professional Mike Stevens said of Hutchinson, "In my mind, there is no question that Horace Hutchinson was a teacher extraordinaire and is clearly the father of golf instruction."[11]

Walter Travis, in 1904—shortly after his victories in the 1903 U.S. Amateur and 1904 British Amateur—said of Hutchinson, "All things considered, the golfer whom I most admired as a player was Horace Hutchinson. Over here we have read so many of his books and spoken of him so long as a veteran that one is surprised to find he is only forty-seven years old. He plays every shot for what it is worth and in perfect style, as free as any supple youth, and, all told, I pronounce him, to my mind, the ideal golfer."[4]

Death

He left his home at Forest Row in Sussex and moved to 29 Lennox Gardens, Chelsea, London, where he committed suicide on 27 July 1932. He was survived by his wife.[7] According to his 1932 probate, his wealth at death was £26,337 (probate, 30 August 1932, CGPLA England & Wales).[7]

Results in major championships

Tournament 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912
The Amateur Championship 2 1 1 ? ? ? DNP ? DNP ? DNP ? DNP ? DNP ? ? ? 2 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? R256
The Open Championship T11 T16 T10 DNP DNP 6 T24 10 DNP WD DNP DNP DNP DNP CUT DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP

Note: Hutchinson played only in the The Amateur Championship and The Open Championship.

DNP = Did not play
CUT = Missed the half-way cut
WD = Withdrew
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10

Books written by Hutchinson

Note: This list may be incomplete

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Mr H G Hutchinson". The Times. 29 July 1932. p. 14.
  2. ↑ "Mr. Horace Hutchinson". http://www.spectator.co.uk''. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  3. ↑ Brenner, Morgan G. (2009). The Majors of Golf: Complete Results of the Open, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and the Masters, 1860–2008 1. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-3360-5.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Views of Travis – Says Hutchinson, the Noted Britisher, Is an Ideal Golfer". Rock Island Argus. 30 July 1904. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 "Oxford Index – Horace G. Hutchinson (1859–1932), golfer and writer". http://oxfordindex.oup.com''. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "50 Years of Golf, by Horace G. Hutchinson". http://www.gutenberg.org''. Country Life. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 "Oxford Dictionary of National Biographies – Horatio Gordon Hutchinson". odnb2.ifactory.com.
  8. ↑ Old Tom Morris Golf Course Architecture, 1 July 2006, accessed 30 January 2012.
  9. ↑ "Horatio Gordon Hutchinson". cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  10. ↑ "Players of Golf". The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.). 4 May 1895. p. 13. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Stevens, Mike. "The Father of Golf Instruction". usgtf.com. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  12. ↑ William, Arthur; Pollock, Alsager (1870). "The Army Gazette, War Office, Pall Mall". The United Service Magazine. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  13. ↑ "Hole 4 – Golf Etiquette". http://www.thegolfballfactory.com''. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  14. ↑ Victorian Entertainments: We Are Amused An Exhibit Illustrating Victorian Entertainment at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library of the University of Illinois (Item 31: Golf in 1890, Item 32: Skating in 1892, Item 33: Cricket in 1888, Item 34: Cycling in 1887) online at library.uiuc.edu. Retrieved 18 April 2015
  15. ↑ "Hutchinson, Horatio Gordon ('Horace'). The Golfing Pilgrim on Many Links". christies.com. Longmans. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  16. ↑ Hutchinson, Horace G. (1912). The New Book of Golf. London, England: Longmans, Green & Co. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  17. ↑ Hutchinson, Horace G. (28 May 1914). Life of Sir John Lubbock, Lord Avebury. Macmillan (London). Retrieved 18 April 2015.