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Antique Golf Clubs from Scotland
Clubmakers
Tom Vardon
Ilkley/Sandwich/Minnesota
Tom Vardon Harry Vardon’s little brother by two years, born in Jersey in 1872, Thomas Alfred Vardon, was the one to become a professional first, initially at his home course, Royal Jersey, but then in England ay St Anne’s on Sea in 1890 which is what encouraged his brother to leave the island. He moved to Ilkley in 1893 and to Royal St Georges from 1900-1911. In 1909 that club gave him leave of absence to be professional at the Onwentsia club in New York for four months, which also allowed him to enter the US Open that year, and to begin his association with America which continued with him becoming permanent professional at Onwentsia in 1913 and saw him still playing in the US Open at Interlachen in 1930.

Tom was a fine player but what must it have been like to have Harry as a brother? He had nine top-ten finishes in the Open Championship between 1892 to 1909, most notably a second place finish in 1903 at Prestwick behind … who else, big brother! I leave the description of his play to Bernard Darwin, doyen of golf writers,

‘ …. a very fine, dashing golfer, of a cheerful character, who took the game more lightheartedly than his brother. He was not a pretty player, with his right thumb down the shaft and a perceptible lift – it might be called a jump – in his up swing. But he was uncommonly good, quite how good perhaps only those knew who played with him at Sandwich. They thought unutterable things of him.’

He died on 13 October 1938 (I mention this only because so many secondary sources get it wrong) in St Paul, MN having lived for many years in nearby White Bear Lake. In 1916 he had become the second professional at the White Bear Yacht Club (aye, there’s a joke in there about water hazards, surely), essentially a Donald Ross course although Vardon had some input, where Scott Fitzgerald spent the summer of 1921 (before getting kicked out!) and which provided much of the milieu and background for the short story Winter Dreams and, inevitably, The Great Gatsby. Vardon remained professional there until his retirement in 1937.

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