Jock Hutchison, a naturalized American citizen, won the 1921 British Open, the first American citizen to ever capture that prize. This blog is dedicated to his accomplishment.I am writing a book about that event entitled "Grooves." Jock used self built clubs which were designed with large striations, or grooves, cut into the face of his mashie-niblick, mashie and niblick irons. With these clubs he was able to stop his shots quickly on the small, fast greens of the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland where the 1921 Open was contested.
Controversies over golf club grooves have been major issues with professional golfers on three occasions since the turn of the century in 1900. Hutchison's clubs had large grooves, quite unusual at the time for any club to be so designed, and caused such controversy that the addition of grooves was forbidden by the rules of golf promulgated by the Royal and Ancient Club of St. Andrews, the rules arbiters for Europe and most of the rest of the world, and the U.S. Golf Association, the rule making authority for the United States. Those prohibitions were effective after the 1921 British Open.
There was another grooves controversy over Ping Eye golf clubs in the late 1980's and today the design of golf club grooves for clubs used in 2010 and beyond are bound to affect the world of professional golfing. That controversy rages even as you read this.
With the assistance of his grandson, Dryke, and many others, such as Roberta Nichols, Archivist for the Glen View Club in Golf, Illinois, and the patience of my wife, I have assembled a great wealth of information about Jock. The writing doesn't come easy, but I am making great progress and would like to finalize my efforts in time for the 2010 British Open which will be played at the Old Course in St. Andrews, just 89 years after Jock's historic victory.
I am still on the lookout for additional items that I can use and I am searching for hard validation of his naturalization. (Many newspaper articles of the era report him to be a naturalized citizen, but you can't always trust newspapers sports reporters.)
I am new at blogging and will be adding items to this site from time to time. Any suggestions, leads, or artifacts that relate to Jock are of interest to me.
Thanx for visiting my blog.
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ReplyDeleteI was fortunate to caddy for Jock Hutchison on several occasions at Glen View Club during the period of 1963 to 1966. By this time Jock was already about 80 years of age. He was a man of small stature, always nattily dressed with a long sleeve white shirt and a colorful ascot. He truly was a gentleman as evidenced by the polite way in which he treated the caddies.
ReplyDeleteA few of the times that I caddied for Jock he played with the (3) brothers who were the owners of Bishop's Lumber. The Bishop brothers were unique characters in their own rite, anyone who ever caddied for them knows exactly what I mean. During one particular round, Jock hit his drive right down the middle of the 3rd hole which was a long and challenging par 4. As Jock took his smooth as silk swing for his second shot, something went wrong and he topped the ball for a distance of about 60 yards. I was absolutely stunned and stood opposite him in silence not knowing what to expect. As Jock took a step towards me to hand me his 3 wood, he winked at me and quietly said "That's OK caddy, now we'll get 'em betting."
My two older brothers (9 and 10 years my senior) caddied at Glen View Club for several years during the 1950s and often had the opportunity to caddy for Jock. My oldest brother Richard, who was the assistant caddy master under Willard "Hammy" Hand and became an Evans Scholar, once told me that he caddied for Jock once when a bet had been made that Jock could break 40 for 9 holes using only a mallet head putter and a blade putter. Jock won the bet!
Jim O'Brien
Rockford, IL