Sir Thomas Henry Cotton, MBE (28 January 1907 – 22 December 1987) was an English professional golfer. He won the

Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

in 1934, 1937 and 1948, becoming the leading British player of his generation. The Rookie of the Year award in European Tour is named after him.

Early life

Cotton was born in

Holmes Chapel Holmes Chapel is a large village and civil parish in the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Until 1974 the parish was known as Church Hulme. Holmes Chapel is about north of Crewe and south of ...

, then known as Church Hulme, near Congleton, Cheshire on 28 January 1907. He had an older brother, Leslie (born 1905), who also became a professional golfer. Cotton was brought up in Crystal Palace Road,

East Dulwich East Dulwich is an area of South East London, England in the London Borough of Southwark. It forms the eastern part of Dulwich, with Peckham to the east and Camberwell to the north. This South London suburb was first developed in the nineteent ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. He later went to

Reigate Grammar School Reigate Grammar School is a 2–18 mixed independent day school in Reigate, Surrey, England. It was established in 1675 by Henry Smith. History The school was founded as a free school for poor boys in 1675 by Alderman Henry Smith with Jon Will ...

, and then won a scholarship to

Alleyn's School Alleyn's School is a 4–18 co-educational, independent, Church of England, day school and sixth form in Dulwich, London, England. It is a registered charity and was originally part of Edward Alleyn's College of God's Gift charitable foundation ...

Dulwich Dulwich (; ) is an area in south London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark, with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth, and consists of Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, and the Southwark half ...

, South London. He was a useful cricketer, good enough to bat at number 3 for the school against Surrey Club and Ground, a team containing 5 professionals, at the age of 15. Cotton and his brother had already taken up a second sport, golf, at the Aquarius Golf Club in Honor Oak from 1920. In September 1921 the Cotton brothers played in the first

Boys Amateur Championship The Boys Amateur Championship is a golf tournament which is held annually in the United Kingdom. The competition is organised and run by The R&A. History The Boys Amateur Championship was first played at Royal Ascot in 1921. In 1921 boys had to ...

, then limited to boys under 16. Henry played the eventual winner, Donald Mathieson, on the first day, losing by 2 holes, Cotton was all square after 16 holes but lost the 17th after being incorrectly penalised for placing his bag in a bunker. Cotton also played in the 1922 Boys Championship, again losing in the first round. In June 1923 Cotton won the Hutchings Trophy, the Championship of the Aquarius Club.

Career

Cotton left school in the summer of 1923 and soon started his career as a professional golfer, joining his older brother Leslie as assistant teaching professional at

Fulwell Golf Club Fulwell Golf Course, operated by Fulwell Golf Club, is a golf course and centre comprising an 18-hole course located in Fulwell in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, west London. It is adjacent to the 9 hole Twickenham Golf Course, cu ...

under Fulwell's professional,

George Oke George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

, who had been at Honor Oak since 1921. Within a year Cotton had left and become an assistant at Rye Golf Club near

Rye, East Sussex is a small town and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England, two miles from the sea at the confluence of three rivers: the Rother, the Tillingham and the Brede. An important member of the mediaeval Cinque Ports confederati ...

. During his time at Rye, Cotton travelled to Scotland to try to qualify for the 1925 Open Championship. However scores of 85 and 82 left him well outside the qualifying mark of 158. In March 1926, aged 19, he became the professional at Langley Park Golf Club near

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley, in Greater London. Until 1965 it was part of the historic county of Kent. It is located south-east of Charing Cross, situated north of Elmers End and E ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, replacing Frank Ball who emigrated to America later the same year. Cotton remained at Langley Park until the end of 1932 when he moved to the Waterloo Golf Club near

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. While there, Cotton improved his game and by the time he left he was one of Britain's leading golfers. In 1926, Cotton again failed to qualifying for the

but later in the year qualified for the knock-out stages of the

Yorkshire Evening News Tournament The Yorkshire Evening News Tournament was an international golf tournament in the English Yorkshire area before the European Tour was founded. It was a match play tournament for most of its existence, but switched to stroke play in the 1940s. The ...

and the

News of the World Match Play The British PGA Matchplay Championship was a match play golf tournament that began in 1903 and ran until 1979. Between 1903 and 1969, the event was sponsored by the now defunct British newspaper the ''News of the World'', and was commonly known b ...

and ended the season by winning the Kent Professional Championship. Henry Cotton 1930

He achieved fame during the 1930s and 1940s, with three victories in

The Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later t ...

(1934, 1937, and 1948). His record round of 65, made during the 1934 Open Championship, led to the Dunlop golf company issuing the famous 'Dunlop 65' ball. Cotton placed 17 times in the top-10 at the Open. Cotton also succeeded in winning many titles on the European circuit during the 1930s. During this period he was a professional at the Ashridge Golf Club. Cotton was trained as a pilot since at least 1930. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he served with the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

, and raised money for the

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...

by playing exhibition matches and shows. This earned him an MBE. At this time he was stationed at RAF Halton and was closely involved with what is now the Chiltern Forest Golf club. He added three holes to the course (taking it from six to nine) and made other improvements. Cotton was a playing member of three British Ryder Cup teams, in 1929, 1937 and 1947, serving as captain of the team in 1947, and was a non-playing captain in 1953. He competed only occasionally in the United States, without notable success.

Personal life and retirement

On 11 December 1939 Cotton married Isabel-Maria Estanguet de Moss, the daughter of a

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

beef merchant, who was taking golf lessons from Cotton and was known by her nickname 'Toots'. She supported Cotton during his golf competitions and affected the way he would dress for them. Following his retirement from competitive golf in the early 1950s, Cotton became a successful architect of golf courses, including designing the Penina Golf and Resort and Pestana Alto Golf on the

Algarve The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese). The region has it ...

, Portugal. He was hired by Baron

Edmond Adolphe de Rothschild Baron Edmond Adolphe Maurice Jules Jacques de Rothschild or Baron Edmond de Rothschild (30 September 1926 – 2 November 1997) was a French-Swiss banker, the founder of the Edmond de Rothschild Group in 1953. His investments extended to vineyard ...

to design the golf course in

Megève Megève (; frp, Megéva) is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Southeastern France with a population of more than 3,000 residents. The town is well known as a ski resort near Mont Blanc in the French ...

Haute-Savoie Haute-Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè d'Amont'' or ''Hiôta-Savouè''; en, Upper Savoy) or '; it, Alta Savoia. is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France, bordering both Switzerland and Italy. Its prefecture is Ann ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. Cotton wrote 10 books, and established the Golf Foundation, which helped thousands of young boys and girls get started in golf. Cotton loved the high life, including champagne and bespoke tailored clothes. He lived for a while in a suite in a 5-star hotel, and later bought an estate complete with butler and full staff, traveling everywhere in a

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

. Cotton stated in his book "''This Game Of Golf''" that his hero was

Walter Hagen Walter Charles Hagen (December 21, 1892 – October 6, 1969) was an American professional golfer and a major figure in golf in the first half of the 20th century. His tally of 11 professional majors is third behind Jack Nicklaus (18) and Tig ...

who was a flashy dresser and a high-roller. Cotton marveled at how Hagen would stay up all night playing cards for money on the eve of a tournament and how Hagen would go straight to the first tee without even warming up beforehand.. Cotton was inducted into the

World Golf Hall of Fame The World Golf Hall of Fame is located at World Golf Village near St. Augustine, Florida, in the United States, and it is unusual among sports halls of fame in that a single site honors both men and women. It is supported by a consortium of 26 go ...

in 1980. He was knighted in the New Year's Day Honours of 1988, named a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are th ...

. This was reported in some media as a "posthumous knighthood" because he had died by the time it was publicly announced. However, the Queen had approved the award and he had accepted it, before his death.

Tournament wins (37)

Important wins (30)

Other wins (7)

''Note: This list may be incomplete.'' *1926 Kent Professional Championship *1927 Kent Professional Championship *1928 Kent Professional Championship *1929 Kent Professional Championship *1930 South Open (Argentina), Kent Professional Championship *1948 White Sulphur Springs Tournament (USA)

Major championships

Wins (3)

Results timeline

''Note: Cotton never played in the

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...

.''
NYF = Tournament not yet founded
NT = No tournament
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Team appearances

* Ryder Cup (representing Great Britain):

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

(winners), 1937, 1947 (captain),

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yug ...

(non-playing captain) * Seniors vs Juniors (representing the Juniors): 1928 *France–Great Britain Professional Match (representing Great Britain): 1929 (winners) *Coronation Match (representing the Ladies and Professionals): 1937 *

Joy Cup The Joy Cup was an annual men's professional team golf competition between teams representing the British Isles and the Rest of Europe. It was played from 1954 to 1958. The British Isles won all four contests that were played. The trophy was provi ...

(representing the British Isles): 1954 (winners, captain), 1955 (winners, non-playing captain), 1956 (winners, captain)

Gallery

Leslie and Henry Cotton 1921.jpg, Leslie and Henry Cotton (right) at a Boys Golf Championship in 1921 Henry Cotton 1923.jpg, Cotton after winning the Pilling Challenge Cup in 1923 Henry Cotton 1937.jpg, Cotton after winning the Open in Carnoustie in 1937

References

External links

*
Sir Henry Cotton Championship Course
at Penina.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Cotton, Henry English male golfers Winners of men's major golf championships World Golf Hall of Fame inductees Ryder Cup competitors for Europe Golf writers and broadcasters Golf course architects People in sports awarded knighthoods Knights Bachelor Members of the Order of the British Empire Royal Air Force officers Royal Air Force personnel of World War II People educated at Dulwich College People educated at Alleyn's School People from Holmes Chapel 1907 births 1987 deaths