The Golfer as Gentleman
Portraits of the Company
The Blackheath Golfer, the captains of the Company, and Old Tom Morris.
The founding portraits of the clubhouse wall: Abbott’s Blackheath Golfer (William Innes, 1790), David Allan’s William Inglis (c. 1787), Reid’s Old Tom Morris (1903), and the period photographs of the Grand Old Man on his own ground. Long-dead British figures, the house’s “clear” publicity lane throughout.
1787–1903 · Britain
The Blackheath Golfer (William Innes)
Captain Innes in scarlet, caddie behind with the bottle — the most reproduced golf image of its century.
William Inglis, Captain of the Honourable Company
The surgeon-captain on the links at Leith — Edinburgh golf’s founding portrait.
Old Tom Morris at the Home of Golf
The old champion on his own ground — the photograph every clubhouse knows.
Young Tom Morris with the Championship Belt
The prodigy in the Morocco belt he won outright — golf’s first superstar, gone at twenty-four.
The Great Triumvirate — Braid, Taylor, and Vardon
The three who won sixteen Opens between them — the professional game come of age.
Old Tom Morris on St Andrews Links
The keeper of the green painted on the ground he kept.
Harry Vardon
The grip that every golfer alive still uses, and the man who owned the decade.
John Gray of Newholm
Raeburn paints a golfing gentleman — Scotland’s great portraitist on the Scottish game.
Sir James and Sir Alexander Macdonald
Two boys with golf clubs in the 1740s — the earliest golfing portrait in the house.