PART I
FROM "MY GOLFING LIFE"

CHAPTER I
LEARNING THE GAME ON THE ISLAND OF JERSEY

CHAPTER II
I BECOME A PROFESSIONAL

CHAPTER III
BREAKING THROUGH IN THE 1896 BRITISH OPEN

CHAPTER IV
MY HISTORIC MATCH WITH WILLIE PARK

CHAPTER V
1900: MY FIRST AMERICAN TOUR

CHAPTER VI
THE RUBBER-CORED BALL, ANOTHER OPEN VICTORY,
AND ILLNESS

This stone slab was erected to mark Harry Vardon's birthplace in the town of Grouville in Grouville Parish on the Channel island of Jersey. The house bordered the Gory common land behind the Bay of Grouville where the Royal Jersey golf course was first laid out in 1877 when Harry was seven years old.

The Gory Village school in the Parish of Grouville where Harry Vardon was taught by Mr. Boomer, father of champion golfer, Aubrey Boomer, and legendary golf teacher, Percy Boomer. In addition to Harry, Mr. Boomer taught many other excellent golfers: Harry' brother, Tom and Alfred, the three Guardians, Renouf and Ted Ray

LEARNING THE GAME
ON THE ISLAND
OF JERSEY

I was born on May 9th, in the year 1870, at the little town called Grouville, which is a few miles from St. Helier on the island of Jersey. My parents were both natives of Jersey, and my father was a gardener there all his life. We were a large family, consisting of seven boys and two girls. My brothers, George, Phil, and Edward, all came before me, Tom and Fred coming after in that order.

It appears to have been generally accepted that my brother Tom, who was the professional to the Royal St. George's Club at Sandwich for many years, and who has been in America for some considerable time, was my senior. This, however, is not the case. My youngest brother Fred is also a professional, and was for many years located at Weston-super-Mare. Fred started his career as my assistant when I was at Ganton. His first professional appointment was to the Foley Golf Club in Yorkshire and later he occupied the same position at Biggleswade, Herts

I had always thought Fred would turn out to be the best golfer in the family. He was a fine natural player. That he did not fulfil my expectations has been a source of regret to me.

Mr. Boomer, the father of those two fine golfers, Aubrey and Percy, was the schoolmaster at the village school in Gory which we all attended. I am sorry to say that learning had little attraction for me in those youthful days, and my old schoolmaster had certainly no reason to be proud of me at that time. Schooling was very different at this period from what it is today. Our parents paid the sum of twopence a week for each of us to attend the school, and both my brother Tom and myself were guilty on many occasions of playing truant. The one subject more than any other which I disliked was the lessons in French. Whenever it was possible to do so, we would spend the school fee on something more enjoyable than French. I particularly remember that at the arithmetic lessons Mr. Boomer, for some reason or other, always placed me at the head of the class. It was not long, however, before I was at the other end, and it was perhaps only right that I was considered the dunce of the school. I recall, on one occasion, when I had hastily passed from the top to the bottom of the class, that Mr. Boomer told me to go and clean out his rabbit hutch. To some boys this might have served as a punishment, but to me it was a happy release. Anything in the nature of activity appealed to me far more than the acquiring of knowledge. I was as enthusiastic as it was possible to be in any games that were played, and one of my first ambitions was to excel at cricket. I retained my liking for this fine sport all my life and played often in my later years.

It was when I was about seven years of age, in the year 1877, that the event which was eventually to map out my career for me came to pass. The people of Grouville lived a quiet, undisturbed life, and had, as is usual with those who live a somewhat uneventful existence, a wholehearted respect for the sanctity of the Sabbath Day. It so happened, however, that this should be the very day which a small party of strange gentlemen selected to make their appearance on the common land. They brought with them instruments with which to survey and mark out places for tees and greens. The story that preparations were being made to play a game called golf was soon spread about the village. The indignation of the tenant farmers was quickly aroused, and they thought out and discussed every possible means by which they could expel these trespassers from the common land. Indignation spread through Grouville, and these golfers were regarded in anything but a friendly light. Having obtained the necessary authority and permission from the constable of the parish, their position was quickly made secure, and from that day a new feature entered into our lives. The natural state of the land was so perfect that little work needed to be done, and possibly no good golf course was ever so easily made. The grass was short and springy as it is on all good sea coast links. Sand was plentiful and natural hazards were everywhere. The grass was of such splendid texture that it was only necessary to put the mower and roller over the selected space and superior putting greens were made. I have, personally, supervised and laid out many golf courses during my career as a professional golfer, but never have I seen a first-class course so easily designed. A little inn close by was immediately renamed the Golf Inn. Thus the headquarters of the Jersey golfers was established. That in brief was the start of the Royal Jersey Golf Club.

The links when they were completed proved to be excellent, better in fact than they are today. One of the chief reasons for this is that most of the bunkers have since been filled with clay, which spoiled them. It was necessary to do this to prevent the sand from them being blown over the course by the strong winds which frequently sweep across the island. When everything was in readiness for play, many golfers came over from England to enjoy this, to us, new game.

I was first introduced to golf along with many other boys my age. We were enticed to carry the clubs of the visitors. As far as I can remember we did not think very much of this new game, but after carrying a few times we began to see possibilities in it. It was only natural that we should wish to try our hand at playing ourselves. This, however, was not so easily done. There were many difficulties to be overcome. Apart from not having any links on which to play, we had no clubs or balls. So keen, however, were we to play that these difficulties were eventually solved. As a start, we laid out our own course, consisting of four holes, each about fifty yards in length and for boys of our age quite good enough. When we had marked out and made our teeing grounds and smoothed out the greens, there next came the question of balls, and in the absence of real gutties we decided the most suitable article for us was the big white marble, which we call a taw, and which was about half the size of an ordinary golf ball. The question of clubs was a more difficult proposition, and caused a good deal of anxiety in our young minds. On reflection, I think great credit is due to us for the manner in which we solved this problem. As nothing would be really satisfactory except a club which resembled a real golf club, it was necessary to make many experiments before we were able to get the desired article. As a start, we decided that we must use as hard a wood as possible, and the wood from a tree which we called the "Lady Oak" was suitable for our purpose. First of all, we cut a thick branch from the tree, sawed off a few inches from it, trimming this piece as near as we possibly could to the shape of the heads of the drivers of those players for whom we had been carrying. As splicing was impossible, it was agreed that we must bore a hole in the centre of the head. This we did with a red-hot poker. The shaft sticks were made of thorn, white or black, and when they had been trimmed and prepared, we proceeded to fit them into the holes. Then after tightening them with wedges, the operation was complete. All things considered, we were able to hit a long ball with this primitive driver. After a time, as we grew more accustomed to making these clubs, we became quite expert young club makers. The brassies seen on the links had made a big impression upon us, and as we had experienced some trouble with our oak heads-since they were green, they were rather inclined to crack-we eventually decided to sheathe the heads entirely with tin. This was not an easy thing to do, and we were further handicapped by the fact that our fathers declined to lend us their tools, and we had to "borrow" them when the proper occasion presented itself.

These tin-plated drivers, which we called our brassies, were an enormous improvement over our original clubs. So expert did we become at making them that occasionally one would stand out as far superior to the others. The reputation of the maker of this club was assured, and he did a good business in making clubs for others. A big price in marbles was demanded and paid to this expert club maker.

We played our elementary kind of golf whenever possible. I recall that most of our best games took place in the moonlight, which was exceedingly bright in Jersey, and enabled us to see quite well. We arranged competitions on the medal system by scores, and frequently got...