Prestwick honours unsung Open hero, found in a pauper's grave

Champion went to pauper's grave at 32

NEGLECTED in an unmarked grave for 140 years, buried in a churchyard which overlooks the first green at Prestwick, the club which employed him as a professional, Andrew Strath has finally received acknowledgement for winning the Open championship in 1865 and ending the duopoly of Old Tom Morris and Willie Park senior.

After historical research detected Strath's remains lay in a pauper's grave in St Nicholas' church, representatives of Prestwick golf club and South Ayrshire council came together to unveil a plaque in the graveyard which commemorates the life of a man who finished in the top four five times at the Open and is perhaps best known today for lending his family name to the bunker in front of the 11th green on the Old Course.

Ian Bunch, the secretary of Prestwick golf, explained yesterday how the joint venture with the council to commemorate a forgotten past Open champion came about. "David Malcolm, the St Andrews-based historian, has just written the definitive book with Peter Crabtree about Old Tom Morris," he said. "During his research, David came to see us quite a lot, because of the connection between Prestwick and Morris. He asked us: 'Do you realise the pro who took over from Morris, Andrew Strath, is in an unmarked grave in the churchyard which overlooks the first green?'

"Public records confirmed that Strath was there. When he died of tuberculosis at the age of just 32, money was collected by the members of the club which went to his widow. But with a family to raise and bills to pay, there wasn't enough for a gravestone.

"When we found out about this, we spoke to South Ayrshire council and told them there was an Open champion in an unmarked grave. We wanted to do something and they said they wanted to be involved. So we did it together."

Details of Strath's life are scant, to say the least. One of a family of golfing brothers, Strath was born in St Andrews in 1836. George was the first pro at Troon and David was runner-up in the Open. By a twist of fate, David, who also died of consumption, ended up in an unmarked grave in Melbourne where a headstone was erected in 2006.

According to Golf in the Making by Ian Henderson & David Stirk, which includes a list of Scotland's clubmakers, Andrew took up club making as an apprentice in 1856 at the age of 20 and continued to ply that trade until his death in 1868.

The world of golf was a very different place in the 19th century. Having thrived on the east coast of Scotland, the popularity of the sport eventually spread to Ayrshire. Prestwick was founded in 1852 after a letter dispatched to 69 local enthusiasts encouraged the golfers to attend a meeting at the Red Lion Inn. An impressive majority of these merchants and landowners, 57, founded the club and Old Tom Morris was recruited from St Andrews on a stipend of 25 a year to execute the duties of greenkeeper, clubmaker and ballmaker. His myriad responsibilities also included golf course architecture since he laid out the original 12 hole links.

Given the popularity of the sport in the Lothians, Fife and Angus, Prestwick sought to raise the profile of golf on the west coast by organising an annual competition for professionals. The first staging of the Open took place in 1860; a pattern for the early years of the championship was established when Morris and Park consistently overshadowed their rivals.

As with the first five Opens, the sixth was played at Prestwick on Thursday, 14 September,1865. Only a dozen players took part, completing three rounds of 12 holes in one day. Given the manner in which Morris and Park took control of an event "open to all the world" – only two other pros turned up to oppose them one autumn - the fact Strath was able to seize the lead with an opening score of 55 was noteworthy in itself.

Leading by a stroke from Willie Dow and Park, with Morris one shot further adrift, Strath would have noticed his great rival's son, Tommy, making his debut in the event with 60.

Strath surrendered his advantage to Park in the second round when the Musselburgh man carded 52 for 108. He was a shot adrift. Both Dow and Morris dropped out of contention after rounds of 61 for totals of 117 and 118. Young Tom also fell away, posting 119 before scratching. He was 14-years-old and, within three summers, would become champion in his own right.

As the closing round of the Open unfolded, Park signed off with 56 for 164. Playing the best golf under pressure, Strath posted 53 for what was a new record low score of 162. He was acclaimed as the champion golfer of 1865, the first player apart from Morris and Park, to achieve that distinction.

"It said a lot for Strath that he was the first golfer to split the force of Park and Morris," Bunch recalled. "Unfortunately, just three years later, at 32, his life was cut short by tuberculosis."