Ivo Harrington Whitton (9 December 1893 – 2 July 1967) was an Australian amateur

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

er, who, along with Greg Norman, is the only Australian to have won the Australian Open five times (1912, 1913, 1926, 1929 and 1931). Whitton was born in

Moonee Ponds, Victoria Moonee Ponds is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Moonee Valley local government area. Moonee Ponds recorded a population of 16,224 at the 20 ...

, his father

Percy Whitton Percy Whitton ISO (28 January 186114 March 1923) was a senior Australian public servant. He was Comptroller-General of the Department of Trade and Customs The Department of Trade and Customs was an Australian government department that exi ...

was a senior public servant. The younger Whitton took up golfing at the age of 14, joining his father in the Caulfield Golf Club (later the Metropolitan Golf Club) the next year, and winning the club championships three times. In 1911, he began working at a

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

broking firm which allowed him time off to play golf during the off-season. In 1914, he competed at

The Amateur Championship The Amateur Championship (sometimes referred to as the British Amateur or British Amateur Championship outside the UK) is a golf tournament which has been held annually in the United Kingdom since 1885 except during the two World Wars, and in 19 ...

Royal St George's Golf Club 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 ...

. He returned to Australia but then came back to England during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

to serve with the

Royal Garrison Artillery The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was formed in 1899 as a distinct arm of the British Army's Royal Regiment of Artillery serving alongside the other two arms of the Regiment, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) ...

after being rejected by the Australian Imperial Force.A. G. L. Shaw
Whitton, Ivo Harrington (1893 - 1967)
'' Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 12, Melbourne University Press, 1990, p. 480. In 1912, Whitton won his first Australian Open championship, and went on to win four more in 1913, 1926, 1929 and 1931. He also won the

Australian Amateur The Australian Amateur is the national amateur golf championship of Australia. It has been played annually since 1894, except for the war years, and is organised by Golf Australia. Having traditionally been a match play event, from 2021 it has b ...

twice, the

Victorian Amateur Championship The Victorian Amateur Championship is the state amateur golf championship of Victoria, Australia. It has been played annually since 1899, except for the war years. Two players have won the championship six times, Michael Scott between 1904 and ...

five times, the New South Wales Amateur and the Queensland Amateur and Open. In 1920, Whitton won the Helms Award as the most outstanding Australasian athlete. He returned to the wool industry as a wool appraiser for the

Australian government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government ...

, but ended up as a general manager for the Spalding sporting goods company. The Victorian Golf Association established the Ivo Whitton Trophy in 1960 for the lowest average stroke score in designated tournaments held each year. Whitton himself presented the award to the inaugural winner, Kevin Hartley, who went on to win it a further eleven times.Ivo Whitton Trophy
Victorian Golf Association. In addition, the

Royal Melbourne Golf Club Royal Melbourne Golf Club is a 36-hole golf club in Australia, located in Black Rock, Victoria, a suburb southeast of Melbourne. Its West and East courses are respectively ranked number 1 and 6 in Australia. The West course is ranked in the t ...

instituted the Ivo Whitton Cup in Whitton's memory. One of the streets in

Kambah Kambah () (postcode 2902) is the northernmost suburb in the district of Tuggeranong, Canberra. It is located just south of Mount Taylor in the Canberra Nature Park. It is located north of the suburbs of Greenway and Wanniassa. It is bounded b ...

, a suburb of Canberra, is named Ivo Whitton Circuit. After his death, Whitton was buried in the Cheltenham Memorial Park, Melbourne. A group of local Melbourne golfers regularly play-off in a 9-hole stroke play event for the Ivo Whitton Perpetual Trophy at Burnley Golf Course to honour his memory.

Tournament wins

*1912 Australian Open, Riversdale Trophy *1913 Australian Open. Riversdale Trophy *1919

*1920

*1922

*1923

, Queensland Amateur *1924

*1925 Riversdale Trophy *1926 Australian Open, Riversdale Trophy *1928

Queensland Open The Queensland Open originally called the Queensland Championships and also known as the Queensland Lawn Tennis Championships and the Queensland State Championships was a tennis tournament played in Brisbane, Australia, from 1888 to 1994. Th ...

*1929 Australian Open, New South Wales Amateur *1931 Australian Open

Team appearances

* Kirk-Windeyer Cup (representing Victoria): 1927 *

Australian Men's Interstate Teams Matches The Australian Men's Interstate Teams Matches were an amateur team golf competition for men between the states and territories of Australia. The event started in 1904 when New South Wales played Victoria. Until World War II the event was played a ...

(representing Victoria): 1912 (winners), 1913 (winners), 1920, 1921 (winners), 1922, 1923 (winners), 1924 (winners), 1926 (winners), 1927 (winners), 1929 (winners), 1930 (winners), 1931 (winners), 1932, 1933 (winners), 1935, 1938

References

External links

Friends of Cheltenham and Regional Cemeteries Inc.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitton, Ivo Australian male golfers Amateur golfers Golfers from Melbourne Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees British Army personnel of World War I Royal Garrison Artillery officers Military personnel from Melbourne People from Moonee Ponds, Victoria Sportsmen from Victoria (Australia) 1893 births 1967 deaths