Vardon won the first of his record six Open Championships in 1896 when he got the better of I. H. Taylor after a 36-hole playoff at Muirfield. Regulation play had reached a climax with Vardon needing a four at the last to win. The question was: should he go for broke with his second shot in the hope of making four, but thus run the risk of finding the pernicious bunker that guarded the green and then maybe taking six ? Vardon played safe. He made a solid five and the next day denied Taylor in his bid for a third consecutive Open. Instead, he was embarked on a record-breaking run of his own. Vardon won again in 1898 and 1899, and in between an endless stream of tournament victories and lucrative exhibition matches, he found time to go to America for more of the same in 1900. While there, he became the first transatlantic traveller to win either Open when he captured the US Open in Chicago. Vardon then took his fourth Open, his first with the gutty, in 1903. His brother, Tom, was second. Harry's health had been shaky and he had been advised by his doctor not to play at Prestwick. As it was, during the last round he almost fainted several times. Shortly afterwards, he found he had contracted tuberculosis. This weakened him considerably, some say irrepairably, but he recovered sufficiently to win the Open for a fifth time in 1911 and a sixth time in 1914. And he was close to two more US Opens. In 1913 he and Ted Ray were defeated by Francis Ouimet in a momentous playoff, while in 1920 Vardon dropped seven shots in the last seven holes, a fierce storm having sapped his stamina and shredded his putting stroke, and Ray beat him by-a stroke.

His frail health meant that Vardon did not build as many golf courses as he might have done, but Ganton and Little Aston are among the excellent English courses he bequeathed to the game. Harry Vardon gave a lot to golf and he remains, for the moment at least, the greatest non-American golfer of all time.

Harry Vardon - Winner of six British Open titles.