John Henry Taylor

J.H. Taylor
Personal information
Full name John Henry Taylor
Born (1871-03-19)19 March 1871
Northam, Devon, England
Died 10 February 1963(1963-02-10) (aged 91)
Northam, Devon, England
Nationality  England
Career
Turned professional 1890
Retired 1946
Professional wins 18
Best results in major championships
(wins: 5)
U.S. Open 2nd: 1900
The Open Championship Won: 1894, 1895, 1900, 1909, 1913
Achievements and awards
World Golf Hall of Fame 1975 (member page)

John Henry "J.H." Taylor (19 March 1871 – 10 February 1963) was an English professional golfer and one of the pioneers of the modern game of golf. Taylor is considered to be one of the best golfers of all time. He was also a significant golf course architect.

Taylor was born in Devon. He was a member of the fabled Great Triumvirate of the sport in his day, along with Harry Vardon and James Braid, and he won The Open Championship five times.[1] Born into a working-class family, and orphaned as a boy, he began work as a caddy and labourer at the Royal North Devon Golf Club (also known as Westward Ho!) at the age of eleven. He was employed as a caddie and houseboy by the Hutchinson family and was tasked to carry the bag of Horace Hutchinson.[2] He became a professional golfer at 19, and was employed by Burnham & Berrow Golf Club, the Winchester (later Royal Winchester) Golf Club - while there winning in successive years the first two of his Open Championships - then the Royal Wimbledon Golf Club, before eventually moving to the Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club from 1899 until his retirement in 1946.

In 1901, Taylor was a co-founder and the first chairman of the British Professional Golfers' Association. This was the first association for professional golfers in the world. Bernard Darwin wrote that Taylor "had turned a feckless company into a self-respecting and respected body of men".

Taylor was a factor in the Open Championship from age 22 in 1893, until age 55, when he tied for 11th place in 1926. His five Open victories all took place before the First World War.

Open Championship wins:

Taylor captained the 1933 Great Britain Ryder Cup team to a win over the United States, and remains the only captain on either side never to have played in any of the matches.

Taylor was also involved in designing courses across England including Hindhead GC in 1904, Andover GC in 1907, Frilford Heath's Red Course in 1908, Hainault Golf Club's Upper Course in 1909,[3] Heaton Park GC (Manchester) in 1912, Hainault Golf Club's Lower Course in 1923,[3], Bigbury Golf Club in South Devon in 1926, Pinner Hill GC (Middlesex) 1927,[4] Axe Cliff GC (Seaton, Devon) in 1920s[5] and Batchwood Hall GC (St Albans) in 1935. He is attributed with being the inventor of the 'dogleg',[5] although holes of that form had existed on many courses before Taylor began golf course design (for example No. 7 at Old Course at St Andrews and No. 4 at Prestwick Golf Club). He was made an honorary member of the R&A in 1949, and was president of Royal Birkdale, whose course he had designed, in 1957.

A housing development in his hometown of Northam was named in his honour (JH Taylor Drive).

Tournament wins

A group photo of the 1903 English golf team prior to their international match against Scotland. Taylor is seated in the front row, third from the left, with Harry Vardon to his left. Albert Tingey, Sr. is seated on the far right, front row, with Ted Ray seated to his right. James Sherlock stands in the back row, far left.

Note: This list may be incomplete

Major championships are shown in bold.

Major championships

Wins (5)

YearChampionship54 holesWinning scoreMarginRunner(s)-up
1894 The Open Championship 3 shot lead 84-80-81-81=326 5 strokes Scotland Douglas Rolland
1895 The Open Championship (2) 3 shot deficit 86-78-80-78=322 4 strokes Scotland Sandy Herd
1900 The Open Championship (3) 6 shot lead 79-77-78-75=309 8 strokes Jersey Harry Vardon
1909 The Open Championship (4) 4 shot lead 74-73-74-74=295 6 strokes England Tom Ball, Scotland James Braid
1913 The Open Championship (5) 3 shot lead 73-75-77-79=304 8 strokes Jersey Ted Ray

Results timeline

Tournament 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899
U.S. Open NYF NYF DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP
The Open Championship T10 1 1 2 T10 4 4
Tournament 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
U.S. Open 2 DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP
The Open Championship 1 3 T6 T9 T2 T2 2 2 T7 1
Tournament 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
U.S. Open DNP DNP DNP T30 DNP DNP DNP NT NT DNP
The Open Championship T14 T5 T11 1 2 NT NT NT NT NT
Tournament 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929
U.S. Open DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP
The Open Championship 12 T26 6 T44 5 T6 T11 49 DNP CUT

Note: The Masters Tournament was not founded until 1934, and Taylor never played in it nor the PGA Championship (founded in 1916).

NYF = Tournament not yet founded
NT = No tournament
CUT = missed the half-way cut
DNP = Did not play
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

Team appearances

See also

References

  1. ↑ "1894 J.H. Taylor". The Open. Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  2. ↑ Stevens, Mike. "The Father of Golf Instruction". usgtf.com. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  3. 1 2 Hainault Golf Club Archived 27 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ Pinner Hill Golf Club – The Course Archived 20 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. 1 2 From Wall Plaque at Axe Cliff Golf Club, Seaton, Devon
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