Tom Morris Snr
 | Tom Morris was one of the founder members of the St Nicholas Golf Club. He was Greenkeeper to the Prestwick Golf Club from 1851 to 1864 when he returned to St Andrews as Greenkeeper to the R&A. He took up his duties early in July 1851 an finding quite a number of golfers outside the newly formed Prestwick Club he visualized the possibility of this playing the game in their spare time forming the nucleus of another club. The idea was pursued by Morris and when there was sufficient interest a meeting of those interested was held in the Red Lion Inn on 3rd November 1851.
He proposed that the Club should be known as The Mechanics Club, but it changed in 1858 to St Nicholas Golf Club. He was an Honorary Member of the Club. |
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Charlie Hunter
 | Being half of the famous pair of golfers in the old black and white picture of our original members, Charlie Hunter was a prodigious golfer winning the Eglinton Medal a number of times before becoming an apprentice to Tom Morris. This was the beginning of a life-long friendship. At the age of nineteen Charlie Hunter became Captain of St Nicholas 1856-58, and played in the very first Open with Morris in 1860.
He became Professional at Royal Blackheath and in 1868 he returned to work at Prestwick Golf Club until his death in 1921. He laid out various courses including our Monktonmiln Farm course, our Prestwick Moor course and finally our current course at Grangemuir Road. He was an Honorary Member of the Club. |
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Andrew Strath
 | Strath was the only player to challenge the early dominance of Willie Park and Old & Young Tom Morris in The Open Championship, winning the belt in 1865 to become the only person other than Park or the Morrises to have his name on the belt, before Young Tom made it his property ,with three successive wins, in 1870. Strath also finished second in The Open Championship in 1864, third in 1860 and fourth in 1863 & 1867.
When Tom Morris left Prestwick to return to St. Andrews in 1865, Andrew Strath succeeded him as keeper of the green at Prestwick, where he died of tuberculosis in 1868, aged 32. His grave can be found in the burial ground of the Auld Kirk, overlooking the present first green of the Prestwick course. |
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