Honorees

WILLIE ANDERSON

Willie Anderson’s place in U.S. Open history is right along side that of Bob Jones, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus. He was the first to win four U.S. Open championships, and no one else has won three straight, as Anderson did in 1903, 1904, and 1905.

JOHN BALL

John Ball was to England at the turn of the century what Bob Jones was to the United States 20 years later.  He won eight British Amateur championships, and he was the first Englishman and the first amateur to win the British Open, which he did in 1890.

JAMES BRAID

James Braid won the British Open Championship in 1901, 1905, 1906,
1908, and 1910, thus becoming the first man to hoist the old claret jug trophy
five times.  Braid did it with prodigious strength and a deft putting stroke.

HAROLD HILTON

Although Harold Hilton had already won four British Amateurs and two British Opens, when he traveled to the United States in 1911 his place in golf history was cemented. At 42, Hilton won the U.S. Amateur, becoming the first foreign-born player to take the cup out of the country.

J. H. TAYLOR

J. H. Taylor, a member of the “Great Triumvirate” that also consisted of
Harry Vardon and James Braid, was the first Englishman to win the British Open in 1894. He eventually went on to win four more. Most of Taylor’s later life consisted of writing books, making clubs, designing courses and forming the British PGA.