John Henry Taylor

John Henry Taylor

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. He was also a significant golf course architect.

Taylor was born in Devon. He was a member of the fabled Great Triumvirate of the sport in his day, along with Harry Vardon and James Braid, and he won The Open Championship five times. Born into a working class family, and orphaned as a boy, he began work as a caddy and labourer at the Royal North Devon Golf Club (also known as Westward Ho!) at the age of eleven. He became a professional golfer at nineteen, and was employed by the Royal Mid Surrey Golf Club from 1899 until his retirement in 1946.

Taylor was a co-founder and the first chairman of the British Professional Golfers' Association. Bernard Darwin 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 from age 22 in 1893, until age 55, when he tied for 11th place in 1926. His five Open victories all took place before World War I.

Open Championship wins:

• 1894 - Royal St George's
• 1895 - St Andrews
• 1900 - St Andrews
• 1909 - Royal Cinque Ports
• 1913 - Royal Liverpool GC, Hoylake

Taylor captained the 1933 Great Britain Ryder Cup team to a win over the United States and remains the only captain on either side to have never played in the matches.

Taylor was also involved in designing courses in the south of England such as Andover Golf Club in 1907 and also Heaton Park Golf Course, Manchester in 1912. He was made an honorary member of the R&A in 1949, and was president of Royal Birkdale, whose course he had designed, in 1957.

Tournament wins

this list may be incomplete

• 1894 The Open Championship
• 1895 The Open Championship
• 1900 The Open Championship
• 1904 News of the World Match Play
• 1908 French Open, News of the World Match Play
• 1909 The Open Championship, French Open
• 1912 German Open
• 1913 The Open Championship
• 1929 Dutch Open

Major championships are shown in bold.

Major Championships

Wins (5)

Year	Championship	54 Holes	Winning Score	Margin	Runners Up
1894	The Open Championship	3 shot lead	(84-80-81-81=326)	5 strokes	Douglas Rolland
1895	The Open Championship (2)	3 shot deficit	(86-78-80-78=322)	4 strokes	Sandy Herd
1900	The Open Championship (3)	6 shot lead	(79-77-78-75=309)	8 strokes	Harry Vardon
1909	The Open Championship (4)	4 shot lead	(74-73-74-74=295)	6 strokes	Tom Ball, James Braid
1913	The Open Championship (5)	3 shot lead	(73-75-77-79=304)	8 strokes	Ted Ray

Results timeline

Note: The Masters Tournament was not founded until 1934 and Taylor never played in it nor the PGA Championship (founded in 1916).

NYF = Tournament not yet founded
NT = No tournament
CUT = missed the half-way cut
DNP = Did not play
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

See also

• Golfers with most major championship wins
• Most wins in one PGA Tour event

External links

• John Henry Taylor Profile at GolfEurope.com
• The History of the Game of Golf The Great Triumvirate
• John Henry Taylor Profile at Golf Legends
• Society of Hickory Golfers Archives SoHG Archives

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