Why The Tom Morris Shop Is One Of Golf's Most Important Places And Why It Needs To Be Restored, ASAP

For those who have grown up when the professional golf shop was a vital gathering place, the resurrection of Old Tom Morris’s hub at 15 Links was yet another reminder that virtually all important golf development started in St. Andrews. Bear with me here, but seeing the Tom Morris name plastered over with the sterile "The Open" branding warrants a deeper dive into this retail space's past.

When the Links Trust restored this sacred spot in 2011, it was seen by the golf world as a nice tribute to the “Grand Old Man of Golf.” But the shop’s lineage, when imagined through the writings of early golf pioneers, becomes more clear. Or even profound.

Layers of carpet and dry wall covered the bones of Old Tom’s longtime hub of storytelling, golf ball sales and clubmaking. When the layers were peeled back to reveal the origins of the shop, the significance of this location became more clear to anyone with a little imagination.

There are the deep etchings in the floor from the days when a team of artisans were crafting clubs. Also revealed was that one-of-a-kind grey stonework that supported Old Tom’s footsteps, the fireplace where gutta was shaped, and most breathtaking of all, the wood counter where he or his team of craftsman could work while looking out at the Home green shaped by Morris.

Any golfer who has spent time in a pro shop with fellow aficionados can easily imagine the conversations, brainstorming, joke-telling, commiserating and idea-sharing that took place in this 870 square feet of prime golf real estate. And we know from select writings that many of golf’s most important early figures were influenced by their time spent at the Old Tom Morris shop.

Remnants from the old clubmaking days revealed under layers of carpet.

When a young Charles Blair Macdonald--widely considered the father of American golf after importing the best of Scottish golf principles to the States-- arrived in St Andrews, he was too young to be allowed in the Royal and Ancient clubhouse.

“The day after I arrived in St. Andrews my grandfather took me to genial and much beloved old Tom Morris and bought me three or four clubs,” he wrote in Scotland’s Gift—Golf. “He also secured a locker in Tom’s shop, for juniors were not permitted in the Royal and Ancient Club, to which both my grandfather and my uncle, Colonel William Macdonald, belonged.”

The man responsible for bringing the most important golfing principles to an America, at a time when the early game was a warped version of the sport thriving in Scotland, began his education in Old Tom’s shop.

“Old Tom was the Grand Old Man of golf,” Macdonald wrote, “The philosopher and friend of all youthful, aspiring golfers.”

We’ll never know what lessons were imparted to Macdonald by Old Tom during many visits there, but it is easy to imagine him learning about golf architecture, course maintenance, clubmaking or the impact an influential elder can have on an impressionable lad.

Morris great-granddaughter Sheila Walker looking out the window, 2015 Open Championship.

“He was always equable in temper, always courteous, much beloved by everyone.”

Two other vital American golf pioneers, Donald Ross and A.W. Tillinghast, were known to have spent much time around the shop, ruminating on the game with the Morrises and the team of artisans crafting clubs from around 1866 to Old Tom’s passing in 1908. Ross is best known for being America’s most prolific master designer, but the son of Dornoch was also a clubmaker, promoter and instructor whose inspiration was Old Tom Morris.

Tillinghast was also a vital early promoter of amateur golf, history, design and maintenance before establishing himself as a course-creating genius. He wrote lovingly of his time at St Andrews and in particular, with Old Tom.

“I met him in 1896 and although I never saw him again after 1901, he did write me several brief notes,” Tillinghast wrote in a magazine essay about the image he captured of Morris. “At the time when the photograph was taken we had been chatting in his shop and I happened to have with me my “Lantern” as Andra Kirkaldy used to call my camera. Old Tom was not at all inclined to pose for photographs but I cajoled him to the open shop door. This fortunate likeness was the result, for he declared it the best ever made of him. Aside from any merit as a photograph, I do know that it was very like him, for his true, kindly nature shows straight from his eyes. The picture shows him looking out over the Home Green, which he told me had been built over the bones of dead men, and where he still held the flag for the finish of all important matches. He used to potter around this green, often with a handful of sand to fill into holes, and it is more than likely that his oft-repeated advice to me, to use plenty of sharp sand on the putting greens, has exerted a lasting influence during many years of course construction.”

To an American impacted by Tillinghast, realizing that so much of his inspiration, wisdom and passion started in that shop, makes 15 The Links as sacred a space as the Old Course turf. Another American golf pioneer, Bobby Jones, did not have the opportunity to visit Old Tom in the shop, but he did take refuge here after he was mobbed on the 18th green upon winning the 1927 Open Championship, adding to the lore of the shop.

Like that historic day, we can only imagine what was said in this historic space and realize its role in shaping the sport outside of St Andrews. To generations of golfers over the century who have taken up the game since Old Tom’s passing, golf shops around the globe continued the tradition he started of providing questioning and impressionable golfers a refuge to simply linger and talk about this strange pastime with other like-minded souls. Certainly few golf shop mentors in golf ever carried the gravitas of Old Tom. But when you’re new to golf and some won’t take the time to welcome you to the sport, the role of golf shops as informal educational spaces has long been misunderstood in helping establish youngsters as long time participants, or keeping older, doubting types connected with others who love the sport.

In the last decade, at least in America, golf shops have lost the type of influence they once had with club sales moving to superstores or online. Which is why the Links Trust’s 2010 purchase of the space is so important to telling the story of golf. (There is also the preservation of the upstairs living space by Old Tom’s great granddaughter Sheila Walker—who still can be seen hanging out the top floor window taking in the best view in golf the way Old Tom once did—that adds to the lore of 15 Links.)

The £100,000 spent to preserve and modernize the shop allowed the space to function as a business, but to historians and romantics, was spiritually recouped when elements of the shop were uncovered. Looking at the façade as it has looked for over a century--including the stylish lettering on the signage that legions of golfers photograph daily—the golfer infatuated by St Andrews can savor this space. You can imagine the ghosts of visionaries like Macdonald or Ross or Tillinghast gathering around their hero.

Taking away the historic facade away to sell some Open Championship merchandise is as repulsive to those who admire Old Tom Morris as the words "British Open" are to the branding geniuses who thought it would be a good idea to cover over the Tom Morris name.