John Ball

1861 - 1940

Taken from Vanity Fairs MEN OF THE DAY. - No. DXXXIV
Mr. John Ball, Junior.
Born at Hoylake eight-and-twenty years ago, he comes of an old Cheshire stock; his fathers having been farmers in the parish of West Kirby for several hundred years. Yet he might never have become famous had he not learned to play the ancient game of golf. He has, however, acquired so much skill in that means of passing time that he has won all the scratch prizes given in Hoylake. He has twice been amateur champion; has won the St. George Challenge Vase four times in succession, and - greatest triumph of all - has once carried off the Open Championship: a feat which has yet been achieved by no other amateur. He is now inclined to be the best non-professional golfer in England; and if he putted better he would probably be invincible. As it is, his cleek play is his best point.
He is a retiring, well-favoured young person, yet he is liked. He knows how to run a hurdle-race, he is a good man to hounds, and he is a fair shot. He also knows something about farming; and he is very nearly a teetotaller.
His common name is "Johnnie." Jehu Junior.

John Ball Jr. was an English amateur golfer of the late 19th and early 20th century. Ball's father, John Ball Sr., owned the Royal Hotel located near to Hoylake (as Royal Liverpool is frequently called). So John Jr. grew up playing at the famous ... show more

Taken from Vanity Fairs MEN OF THE DAY. - No. DXXXIV
Mr. John Ball, Junior.
Born at Hoylake eight-and-twenty years ago, he comes of an old Cheshire stock; his fathers having been farmers in the parish of West Kirby for several hundred years. Yet he might never have become famous had he not learned to play the ancient game of golf. He has, however, acquired so much skill in that means of passing time that he has won all the scratch prizes given in Hoylake. He has twice been amateur champion; has won the St. George Challenge Vase four times in succession, and - greatest triumph of all - has once carried off the Open Championship: a feat which has yet been achieved by no other amateur. He is now inclined to be the best non-professional golfer in England; and if he putted better he would probably be invincible. As it is, his cleek play is his best point.
He is a retiring, well-favoured young person, yet he is liked. He knows how to run a hurdle-race, he is a good man to hounds, and he is a fair shot. He also knows something about farming; and he is very nearly a teetotaller.
His common name is "Johnnie." Jehu Junior.

John Ball Jr. was an English amateur golfer of the late 19th and early 20th century. Ball's father, John Ball Sr., owned the Royal Hotel located near to Hoylake (as Royal Liverpool is frequently called). So John Jr. grew up playing at the famous

links course, where he often competed with and against another future Amateur and Open champion, Harold Hilton. Although he gripped the club tightly in the palms of both hands, Ball's swing was the most graceful and stylish of his era. The famous golf writer Bernard Darwin wrote, "I have derived greater aesthetic and emotional pleasure from watching John Ball than from any other spectacle in the game."

Ball achieved multiple firsts upon winning the 1890 British Open. He was the first amateur golfer to win the Open, the first English golfer to win it and the first golfer who was not Scottish to win it. Having won the Amateur Championship in 1890 as well, Ball was the first (and, along with Bobby Jones, still one of only two) to achieve that same-year double.
The 1890 British Open took place at Prestwick Golf Club and was contested over 36 holes. The first 18 holes played in the morning saw Ball tied with Hugh Kirkaldy in second place on 82, one stroke behind the leader who was Hugh's brother, Andrew Kirkaldy. Ball followed up the afternoon 18 again scoring 82 whilst Andrew Kirkaldy had an 89 and Hugh a 91. Ball finished on 164, three strokes better than the runners-up, Willie Fernie and Archie Simpson.

They say if major championships are the yardstick, no British player of any generation matches John Ball. He was 26 when he took his first title in 1888, and was in his 51st year when the eighth came his way in 1912.