Rosapenna Golf Resort (Old Tom Morris)

In 1835, at the age of fourteen, Old Tom was apprenticed to Allan Robertson, who most historians consider as the first golf professional, and he worked in his mentor’s St Andrews workshop making golf balls and clubs. It’s said they were never beaten in a challenge match when paired together – especially in high stakes matches such as one for £400 against the Dunns of Musselburgh in 1849.

Vardon was born in Jersey, the son of an English gardener (Philip George Vardon) and a French mother (Elizabeth Augustine Bouchard), into a family of six boys and two girls. Both he and his younger brother Tom spent most of their summer holidays caddying on the local links.

Pat Ruddy was born in the small town of Ballina in County Mayo, but raised in the even smaller town of Ballymote, in County Sligo, where his father Martin (who was known as ‘Sid’) ran the local post office.