Last year I attended the opening round of the Brabazon Trophy (the English Men’s Open Amateur Strokeplay Championship) at Alwoodley Golf Club to watch some of the world’s best amateur golfers. As the opening round unfolded, I formed the idea for an article, namely who was/is the ‘Greatest Amateur Golfer‘.
Over the next few days, I undertook an incredibly subjective exercise to compare and rank a shortlist of elite amateur golfers from different generations. The outputs from this exercise formed the basis for the article that was published in June 2019.
Sorry, but you will have to read the article to see which 12 amateur golfers made the shortlist and who I nominated as the greatest ever…but as a sort of an ‘Article Feedback Spoiler Alert’, several readers and golf historians thought that John Ball Jr should have not only been on the shortlist but possibly be thought of as the greatest ever amateur golfer.
Although they all recognised the subjective nature of the article, I thought it only fair to (one day) read more about the life and golfing career of John Ball Jr and hopefully publish an article. So pleased that I finally found/made the time and yes, he should have made the shortlist, but who I would have left out, well that is another story…!!
Hope you enjoy.
Early Life
John Ball was born on the 24th December 1861 in Hoylake, England. His father John (known at the time as John Jr) was the proprietor of the Royal Hotel, which was located on Stanley Road, Hoylake.
In 1869, the Royal Liverpool Golf Club was established and the Royal Hotel, which was adjacent to the course, was also used as the first clubhouse. Thus, from a very early age, John Ball was able to practice and play on these famous links. His first recorded success came in 1869 when he won a Handicap Prize in a competition at Royal Liverpool playing off a handicap of 36…historical records confirm that he was eventually playing off scratch within a couple of years (and an article in the Times Newspaper from 1904 showed he was then playing off a handicap of plus 7!!).
1878 Open Championship
Aged 16, John Ball played in his first Open Championship which was held on Friday 4th October 1878 at Prestwick Golf Club, the birthplace of the Open. At that time, these historic links had a unique 12 hole configuration and thus the competitors played 3 rounds on a single day. Scottish professional golfer Jamie Anderson was victorious (the 2nd of his 3 consecutive Open successes) with a winning score of 157 (53-53-51).
John Ball finished a very credible 4th with a score of 165 (53-57-55)…later in the day he then contested (and lost) a 4th place playoff over 12 holes against Bob Martin…though I have no idea why a playoff was required.
Amateur Champion
In 1885, the Amateur Championship was played at Royal Liverpool Golf Club. At the time it was actually an unofficial event and it was not until 1922 that the winner Allan Macfie was formally recognised by the R&A as the first-ever Amateur Champion.
John Ball played in this inaugural match-play championship and in the 3rd round he actually defeated his father!! He eventually lost in the semi-final to Horatio Gordon ‘Horace’ Hutchinson (an English golfer who went on to win the Amateur Championship in 1886 and again in 1887 when he beat John Ball by 1 hole in the final).
In 1888, the championship was played at Prestwick Golf Club and at the 4th attempt John Ball Jr finally won his first Amateur Championship, defeating Johnny Laidley of Muirfield Golf Club by 5&4 (Laidley was a Scottish amateur golfer who invented the overlapping grip and used this grip for a number of years before it was accredited to Harry Vardon!!).
The match play results from the inaugural 1885 Amateur Championship can be viewed by clicking on this link to the R&A website…makes fascinating reading. As you will see, there is a brief narrative stating that in time John Ball assumed the name of his father and thus became known as John Ball Jr.
Annus Mirabilis
The Latin phrase annus mirabilis means amazing, wonderful or miraculous year…for John Ball Jr, 1890 was certainly his year.
The Amateur Championship was played at his home course (Royal Liverpool) and he duly secured his 2nd Amateur, again defeating Johnny Laidley in the final.
After finishing 4th as a 16-year-old in the 1878 Open Championship, he only played once more in the Open before winning the 1890 Open which was played at Prestwick Golf Club, winning by 3 strokes from professionals Willie Fernie and Archie Simpson, to become the first Englishman and the first amateur to win the Open.
Thus, John Ball became the first golfer to win the Open and Amateur Championships in the same year…only Bobby Jones has repeated this feat, which he did in 1930 when he completed the Grand Slam. And in addition to Ball and Jones, only Harold Hilton has won the Open Championship as an amateur.
Leasowe Golf Club
The following year (1891), John Ball became the first captain of Leasowe Golf Club, a links course on the Wirral peninsula, situated only a couple of miles from Royal Liverpool Golf Club. Similar to Royal Liverpool, a room in the Royal Hotel served as the initial clubhouse for Leasowe Golf Club. In those early days, Leasowe was a 9 hole course and golf was played on Saturdays only!!
For the complete and fascinating history of Leasowe, including the nearby lighthouse, then please visit History of Leasowe Golf Club.
John Ball served as captain of this new club until 1894.
Dominant
During the last decade of the 19th century, John Ball continued to be the dominant amateur golfer of his generation.
In 1892 he finished joint runner up at the Open Championship, three strokes behind Harold Hilton. In the same year, he defeated Harold Hilton 3&1 at Royal St. George’s to become the Amateur Champion for the 3rd time. In 1894 he secured his 4th Amateur Championship, defeating Samuel Mure Fergusson 1up in the final played at Royal Liverpool Golf Club. The following year he was the beaten finalist when the Championship was played at St. Andrews, narrowly losing on the 19th to Leslie Balfour-Melville.
During this decade he also won the Irish Amateur Championship in 1893, 1894 & 1899.
1899 Amateur Championship
Prestwick Golf Club played host to the final Amateur Championship of the 19th century. The 36 hole final was contested between John Ball Jr and the defending champion Frederick ‘Freddie’ Guthrie Tait. Commentators at the time and since view this final as one of the greatest ever match play games.
After 18 holes Freddie Tait was 3 up but by the time they reached the penultimate hole John Ball had valiantly fought back to be 1up.
On the day of the final, the famous Sahara bunker guarding the 17th green was flooded after persistent heavy rain. Both players hit their approach shots into the flooded bunker. Hard to believe today, but at that time some balls actually floated!! In those days the rules of golf allowed players to hit a moving ball in any water and somehow both players miraculously played out and the hole was halved in bogey 5’s.
Tait birdied the final hole to take the match to sudden death but Ball prevailed with a birdie at the 37th to unbelievably clinch his 5th Amateur Championship.
(The rules were subsequently changed so that players could only hit a moving ball in a water hazard)
Boer War
Not long afterwards war was declared between the British Empire and the Boer States (the South African Republic and the Orange Free State)…and both of the 1899 finalists served their country in the Second Boer War.
Aged 38, John Ball Jr volunteered and for 3 years he was a trooper with the Denbighshire Yeomanry before being repatriated.
Aged 29, Freddie Tait was already a commissioned Lieutenant with the 2nd Batallion of the Black Watch. Sadly, on 7th February 1900, he was killed by a snipers bullet at Koodoosberg Drift. In his memory, the leading amateur at the South African Open is awarded the Freddie Tait Cup.
1912 Amateur Championship
Returning from the Second Boer War, John Ball Jr resumed his golfing career and remarkably, aged 46, he won his 6th Amateur Championship in 1907 at St. Andrews, defeating Charles Palmer 6&4 in the final. Then in 1910, he won his 7th Championship at Royal Liverpool, this time winning the final by the stunning margin of 10&9 against Collinson ‘Colin’ Charleton Aylmer.
The 1912 Amateur Championship was played for the first time on the historic links of Royal North Devon Golf Club, a club that was founded in 1864 and as such is the oldest golf course in England.
John Ball won his 8th and final Amateur Championship against Henry Abraham ‘Abe’ Mitchell but it was in many ways the hardest fought of all his titles with victory finally being secured at the 38th hole.
(As a side note, I first came across the beaten finalist Abe Mitchell when researching an article I published last year on the historic Leeds Cup. He was a long-time friend of Samuel Ryder and from 1925 was hired as Samuel Ryder’s personal golf instructor at Verulam Golf Club, St Albans. Samuel Ryder paid homage to his friend and coach by requesting that the golfer atop the lid of the Ryder Cup be modelled on Abe Mitchell!!)
Thus, John Ball’s final Amateur Championship came at the age of 50, a gap of 24 years between the first and last…in today’s world it is hard to believe that this record will ever be broken.
Bradmanesque !!
Although never again reaching the same pinnacle of golfing achievements, John Ball continued to play ‘very competitively’ with his last appearance in the Amateur Championship being in 1927 at the age of 66, fittingly at his beloved Royal Liverpool Golf Club.
At this stage, an element of artistic license on my part!! In cricket, the greatest cricketer of all time, the Australian legend Sir Don Bradman, needed to score only 4 runs in his final test innings to finish with a batting average of 100…he was out from the second ball he faced and finished with an average of 99.94. In 1927, John Ball Jr. only needed to win in the 2nd round to record his 100th winning match at the Amateur Championship but it was not to be so he finished on Won 99, Lost 22, a win percentage of 81.8%.
Don Bradman and John Ball will be in the record books for their respective achievements Ad infinitum.
Mr David Brown
The acclaimed golf writer Bernard Darwin once wrote that John Ball had “a strong vein of hostility and if he wanted a particular player’s blood, he would fight his way through a tournament with the sole object of getting at him…that was not a personal hostility, but rather a desire to measure himself against a foe really worthy of him”.
Whilst researching for this article I came across an excellent article in the Daily Telegraph from 2nd September 1921 which brilliantly illustrated another facet of John Ball’s character that is less well known or publicised…it also shows how times have changed when it comes to reporting!! To paraphrase:
‘Mr John Ball helped a Mr David Brown win the 1st Welsh Championship that was played at Porthcawl in 1921. Mr Brown had developed a chronic slice. But Mr Ball diagnosed the horrid symptoms and put the sufferer on the high road to golfing health’.
Retirement
Not long after his final appearance at the Amateur Championship, John Ball retired to a farm in Holywell, North Wales, which is not surprising as on some of the UK Census records his occupation was stated as ‘Farmer’.
In 1932 he married Nellie Williams and on the 1939 England and Wales Register his personal occupation was recorded as ‘Retired Farmer’ whilst Nellie’s was recorded as ‘Unpaid Domestic Duties’.
John Ball Jr died at the farm on 2nd December 1940 aged 78.
World Golf Hall of Fame
John Ball Jr was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1977. A summary of his golfing achievements is listed on their website, which you can view by clicking John Ball Jr Achievements.
To Finish
I hope you have enjoyed this abridged narrative of the golfing life of John Ball Jr as much as I have enjoyed the research. As I honestly called out in the introduction he should have made the shortlist in the original article on the greatest amateur golfer.
As always I look forward to receiving your thoughts and comments.
Acknowledgements
And finally…once again the golfing community have been so supportive in allowing me to use various photos to augment an article, so I just want to say a big thanks to:
- Ken Goodwin ~ Secretary of Prestwick Golf Club
- Mark Evans ~ General Manager of Royal North Devon Golf Club
- Leasowe Golf Club
Hi Paul
A great read about John Ball jr and some insight from past golfing history. I think all the people that played golf back then pocessed great skill to get that leather ball into the hole, I can just imagine that wet leather ball, looseing its shape and you are 1 shot ahead going down the 18th.
Hi Richard
Great to hear that you enjoyed reading about John Ball Jr…your comments are much appreciated. As you say, it is difficult to envisage in today’s world with all of the modern golf technology what it must have been like back then. Just proves how skilful he must have been.
Best regards
Paul