Montford memories:: Ben Crenshaw a true gent

BEN Crenshaw is rightly regarded as a true golfing gentleman and a keen student of the game. I asked him to be photographed beside the memorial to Young Tom Morris in the grounds of St Andrews cathedral – an invitation he was happy to accept. He told me that he had visited the grave "many times".

We got the picture, to my great delight – but the elation turned to horror when we discovered the photographer's film was blank. I had to ask Ben to do it again the next day as soon as he finished his round, and without a quibble he did it there and then. As I said, a gentleman. Young Tom was one of Scotland's greatest golfing heroes, and one of our most tragic figures. He won the Open championship belt outright with three successive wins, one of them by 12 strokes at Prestwick, and his is the first name inscribed on the Claret Jug.

Playing in a money match with his father at North Berwick, set up many months earlier, he received an urgent telegram from St Andrews. He arrived home to learn his wife and baby had both died in childbirth. He never recovered, played golf only twice more, and died aged 24.