Like any sport, golf has seen its fair share of young talents over the years and we’ve seen some moments of brilliance from the youth of the game.
The likes of Tiger Woods exploded on the scene in the 1990s, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth followed, while more recent times have seen exciting youngsters like Nick Dunlap and Akshay Bhatia emerge.
Still, while we see these young players arrive on the scene, the true test of how good they are comes in the form of winning majors.
Winning a major championship is the be-all and end-all for most golfers. In fact, many go their entire career without even getting close to success.
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So, when it comes winning a major and doing it before barely becoming an adult, it makes it all the more impressive.
And in terms of the youngest to ever get their hands on a major, we needn’t look any further than ‘Young’ Tom Morris.
How Young Tom Morris became the youngest ever major winner
While there’ll be debate from some circles in golf that Young Tom Morris’ win doesn’t count due to tournaments not being considered ‘majors’ back in the 1800s, he is undoubtedly the youngest winner.
Morris won The Open back in 1868 at the age of just 17, five months and 8 days.
It means he is comfortably the youngest golfer to ever win one of the big four tournaments and even in the ‘official’ era of the majors, he’d still be the youngest, with Johnny McDermott the next in line after winning at 19 years and ten months.
Coincidentally, Morris actually won the tournament ahead of Old Tom Morris as Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland played host to the tournament.
Played over just three rounds, Young Morris came home in 154 shots for his three attempts, seeing off Old Morris by three shots for the win.
Furthermore, that score of 154 set a new record at the time, taking eight shots off the previous record of 162, held by Andrew Strath.
In fact, the whole top ten was Scottish, marking one of the only occasions in history that the entire top ten has been made up of the same nation.
The youngest players to win a major in golf history
While Young Tom Morris holds the record, he’s not the only youngster to write his name into the record books as an early major winner.
Tiger Woods is the second youngest in the modern era to win one. He was just 21 when he blew away the field to win the 1997 Masters.
Others have also done it while young, with Jordan Spieth a notable player to do so having won two majors in 2015 at just 21.
The legendary Seve Ballesteros won The Open in 1979 at just 22, while over on the LPGA Tour, Lydia Ko won the Evian Championship as an 18-year-old, while Brooke Henderson won the 2016 Women’s PGA at just 18 and nine months old.
Quite who the next young superstar to win a major will be remains to be seen.
But it can be done, and in the coming years, we’ll no doubt see a fresh face shine on the major scene.
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