John Henry "J.H." Taylor (19 March 1871 – 10 February 1963) was an English professional golfer and one of the pioneers of the modern game of golf. Taylor is considered to be one of the best golfers of all time. He was a significant golf course architect. Taylor helped to found the British PGA, the world's first, and became respected for his administrative work. He also wrote two notable golf books.

Biography

Taylor was born in

Northam, Devon Northam () is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in Devon, England, lying north of Bideford. The civil parish also includes the villages of Westward Ho!, Appledore, West Appledore, Diddywell, Buckleigh and Silford, and the residentia ...

. He was a member of the fabled

Great Triumvirate In U.S. politics, the Great Triumvirate (known also as the Immortal Trio) refers to a triumvirate of three statesmen who dominated American politics for much of the first half of the 19th century, namely Henry Clay of Kentucky, Daniel Webst ...

of the sport in his day, along with

Harry Vardon Henry William Vardon (9 May 1870 – 20 March 1937) was a professional golfer from Jersey. He was a member of the Great Triumvirate with John Henry Taylor and James Braid. Vardon won The Open Championship a record six times, and also won the ...

and James Braid, and 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 t ...

five times. Born into a

working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

family, and orphaned as a boy, he began work as a

caddie In golf, a caddie (or caddy) is the person who carries a player's bag and clubs, and gives the player advice and moral support. Description A good caddie is aware of the challenges and obstacles of the golf course being played, along with the ...

and labourer at the

Royal North Devon Golf Club Royal North Devon Golf Club, commonly abbreviated as RND, was founded in 1864, and is the oldest golf course in England. The course was designed by Scottish golfer Old Tom Morris. Geography RND is located on Northam Burrows between Northam a ...

(also known as Westward Ho!) at the age of eleven. He was employed as a caddie and houseboy by the Hutchinson family and was tasked to carry the bag of

Horace Hutchinson Horatio Gordon "Horace" Hutchinson (16 May 1859 – 27 July 1932) was an English amateur golfer who played in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Hutchinson won the 1886 and 1887 Amateur Championships. He had three top-10 finishes in ...

. He became a

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf p ...

at 19, and was employed by

Burnham & Berrow Golf Club Burnham & Berrow Golf Club is a 27-hole members golf club in Somerset, England which has hosted many of the leading amateur golf tournaments in Britain, including the Brabazon Trophy and English Amateur. History The club was first opened as Bu ...

, the Winchester (later Royal Winchester) Golf Club – while there winning in successive years the first two of his Open Championships – then the Royal Wimbledon Golf Club, before eventually moving to the

Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club The Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club is a private golf club and golf course comprising two 18-hole courses located in Old Deer Park in Richmond, south west London. Location The course lies in an arc of Crown Estate land on the east bank of the River ...

from 1899 until his retirement in 1946. In 1901, Taylor was a co-founder and the first chairman of the British Professional Golfers' Association. This was the first association for professional golfers in the world.

Bernard Darwin Bernard Richard Meirion Darwin CBE JP (7 September 1876 − 18 October 1961) a grandson of the British naturalist Charles Darwin, was a golf writer and high-standard amateur golfer. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Biography B ...

wrote that Taylor "had turned a feckless company into a self-respecting and respected body of men". Taylor was a factor 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 th ...

from age 22 in 1893, until age 55, when he tied for 11th place in 1926. His five Open victories all took place before the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. Open Championship wins: * 1894 –

Royal St George's The Royal St George's Golf Club located in Sandwich, Kent, England, is a golf club in the United Kingdom and one of the courses on The Open Championship rotation and is the only Open rota golf course to be located in South East England. It has ...

* 1895 –

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourt ...

* 1900 –

* 1909 –

Royal Cinque Ports Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club is an 18-hole links golf course in southeastern England, in the town of Deal in the County of Kent (the course is often known simply as "Deal"). Founded in 1892, its name derives from Deal's membership of an ancient ...

* 1913 –

Royal Liverpool Golf Club The Royal Liverpool Golf Club is a golf club in Wirral in Merseyside, England. It was founded in 1869 on what was then the racecourse of the Liverpool Hunt Club. It received the "Royal" designation in 1871 due to the patronage of the Duke of ...

Taylor captained the 1933 Great Britain

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named af ...

team to a win over the United States, and remains the only captain on either side never to have played in any of the matches. Taylor was also involved in designing courses across England including York Golf Club in 1903, Hindhead Golf Club in 1904, Andover Golf Club in 1907, Frilford Heath's Red Course in 1908, Hainault Golf Club's Upper Course in 1909,Hainault Golf Club
Heaton Park Golf Club (Manchester) in 1912, Hainault Golf Club's Lower Course in 1923, Bigbury Golf Club in South Devon in 1926, Pinner Hill Golf Club (Middlesex) 1927,
Axe Cliff Golf Club (Seaton, Devon) in 1920sFrom Wall Plaque at Axe Cliff Golf Club, Seaton, Devon and

Batchwood Hall Batchwood Hall is a manor house in St Albans, Hertfordshire History The house was designed in the Queen Anne style and built for Edmund Beckett, 1st Baron Grimthorpe in 1874. It contains the prototype of the Great Clock in the clock tower at the ...

Golf Club (St Albans) in 1935. He is attributed with being the inventor of the 'dogleg', although holes of that form had existed on many courses before Taylor began golf course design (for example No. 7 at

Old Course at St Andrews The Old Course at St Andrews, also known as the Old Lady or the Grand Old Lady, is considered the oldest golf course. It is a public course over common land in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland and is held in trust by the St Andrews Links Trust under ...

and No. 4 at

Prestwick Golf Club Prestwick Golf Club is a golf course in Prestwick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. It is approximately southwest of Scotland's largest city, Glasgow. Prestwick is a classic links course, built on the rolling sandy land between the beach and the h ...

). He was made an honorary member of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in 1949, and was president of

Royal Birkdale Royal Birkdale Golf Club is a golf course in the United Kingdom in North West England, located in Southport, Merseyside. It is one of the clubs in the rotation for both the Open Championship and Women's British Open and has hosted the Open Champio ...

, whose course he had designed, in 1957. A housing development in his hometown of Northam was named in his honour (JH Taylor Drive).

Tournament wins

''Note: This list may be incomplete'' *1891 Challenge Match Play (Eng) *1894

*1895

*1900

*1901

Tooting Bec Cup The Tooting Bec Cup is a trophy currently awarded by the Professional Golfers' Association of Great Britain and Ireland to the association member born in, or with a parent or parents born in, the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland who returns ...

, Islay Tournament, West Lancashire Professional Tournament *1904

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 ...

*1908

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ve ...

*1909

Cruden Bay Professional Tournament The Cruden Bay Professional Tournament was a professional golf tournament played irregularly at Cruden Bay from 1899 to 1914. In the 1890s the Great North of Scotland Railway built the Cruden Bay Hotel and golf course, together with the associa ...

*1910

Southern Professional Foursomes Tournament The London Professional Foursomes Tournament was a professional golf tournament played annually from 1907 to 1911. In 1909 the southern section of the PGA took over the organisation of the event which was called the Southern Professional Foursomes ...

(with

Josh Taylor Josh or Joshua Taylor may refer to: * Josh Taylor (actor) (born 1943), American comedy and dramatic television actor * Josh Taylor (baseball) (born 1993), American professional baseball pitcher * Josh Taylor (boxer) (born 1991), Scottish professio ...

) *1912

German Open German Open is a name given to many sports events established in Germany, and include: *German Open (badminton), an annual badminton tournament held since 1955. * German Open (golf), was a golf tournament on the European Tour *German Masters, a snoo ...

*1913

*1919 St Annes Old Links Tournament *1920 Amateurs and Professionals Foursomes Tournament (with James Braid) *1921

Roehampton Invitation Tournament The Roehampton Invitation Tournament was a British golf tournament played each April at the Roehampton Club from 1920 to 1935. From 1922 the tournament was played over three days. There was 36 holes of stroke play on the first day with the leading ...

Major championships are shown in bold.

Major championships

Wins (5)

Results timeline

''Note: Taylor only played in

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

Team appearances

England–Scotland Professional Match The England–Scotland Professional Match was an annual men's professional golf competition between teams representing England and Scotland. It was played from 1903 to the start of World War I and was then revived in 1932 and played until the star ...

(representing England): 1903, 1904 (tie), 1905 (tie), 1906 (winners) 1907 (winners), 1909 (winners), 1910 (winners), 1912 (tie), 1913 (winners) * France vs Great Britain (representing Great Britain): 1908 (winners) *Coronation Match (representing the Professionals):

1911 A notable ongoing event was the race for the South Pole. Events January * January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are added to the Commonwealth of Australia. * ...

(winners) * Great Britain vs USA (representing Great Britain): 1921 (winners) * Seniors vs Juniors (representing the Seniors): 1928 (winners) *

(representing Great Britain):

1933 Events January * January 11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independence, against the wis ...

(non-playing captain, winners)

Writings

* ''Taylor on Golf: Impressions, Comments and Hints'', by J.H. Taylor, London, Hutchinson & Co., 1902. * ''Golf: My Life's Work'', by J.H. Taylor, London, 1953.

References

External links

John Henry Taylor
Profile at GolfEurope.com

The Great Triumvirate
John Henry Taylor
Profile at Golf Legends
Society of Hickory Golfers Archives
SoHG Archives *http://www.artisans.golf UK List of all Artisans Golf clubs {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, John Henry English male golfers Golf course architects Golf administrators Golf writers and broadcasters Winners of men's major golf championships World Golf Hall of Fame inductees People from Northam, Devon 1871 births 1963 deaths