Collection of photos dubbed ‘Tutankhamun’s tomb of golf’ to go on show

A COLLECTION of photographs dubbed the “golfing version of Tutankhamun’s tomb” are to go on show to the public at the St Andrews Golf Festival, and later in New York and at the Open in July at Royal Lytham.

The 24 images – valued at around £350,000 – not only depict the legendary Old Tom Morris, who won the Open Championship four times in the 1860s, but also his son, Tom jnr, another famed golfer, and several of his main rivals, such as Willie Park, the first Open winner, and Allan Robertson.

The photos were discovered in the early 1990s, after the original owner phoned an English golf collector about selling a bag of old hickory clubs.

A few weeks later, he visited the owner at her home just outside St Andrews, along with a fellow collector from the United States. The clubs seemed of little value, and he asked the woman if she had anything else.

She replied: “Nothing really – just some old photos in a potting shed in the garden.”

Asked how she came to own the pictures, she said they belonged to Old Tom Morris and were passed down to her family after he died in 1908. Some of the photos were still in the black funeral frames they had been placed in after his death.

Months of negotiations followed, before the two enthusiasts finally bought the collection between them. Over the next decade, the pictures were studied and restored.

In 2006, the American collector died and his part of the collection was passed on to the English collector.

After the public exhibition it is hoped they will be bought by someone who will put them on permanent display.

• The St Andrews Golf Festival runs from 28 March to 1 April.