3¾ inch ornament shows Santa squatting down to accept a golf ball, with a red Christmas bow, from a little mouse friend. Santa is wearing a red and green ball cap, blue sweater vest over a green and white striped shirt, red pants, brown and beige golf shoes and orange gloves. Santa is holding his putter in one hand and resting the other hand on his knee as he looks down at his mouse friend.
Golf Immortals.
Allan Robertson, 1815-1858, was the club maker and ball maker at St. Andrews, Scotland and the greatest player of his day. He died two years before the first British Open championship was held.
Tom Morris, Sr., 1821-1908, began as an apprentice to Allan Roberson in the golf shop at St. Andrews, Scotland and from 1865 to 1904 was keeper of the green for the Royal and Ancient Golf Club there. Morris won four British Open championships between 1861 and 1867.
Tom Morris, Jr., 1850-1875, followed in his father’s foot steps but probably was a far better player. He succeeded his father as British Open champion in 1868 when he was 18 year old and won four championships.
John Ball, 1861-1940, was the first great amateur golfer. He won the British Amateur championship eight times between 1888 and 1912. No other man has ever won it so many times. Ball also was the first amateur to defeat all the best professionals in the British Open championship, which he did in 1890.
Harry Vardon, 1870-1937, created a record by winning the British Open championship six times between 1896 and 1914. He also won the United States Open championship in 1900. He was the first great golfer to use the overlapping grip.
John Reid, 1841-1916, came from Scotland and introduced golf at Yonkers, N.Y., on February 22, 1888. The round that was played in Yonkers on that day led to the founding of the St. Andrew’s Golf Club.
Charles Blair Macdonald, 1872-1927, was educated at St. Andrews University, in Scotland and devoted his great energies to shaping the game of golf in the United States according to the patterns developed in Scotland. He was the first United States amateur champion and constructed several famous course, notably the National Golf Links of America, at Southampton, N.Y.
Francis Ouimet, 1893-1967, learned golf as a caddie. In 1913, at the age of 20, he became the first amateur to win the United States Open championship. To do it, he had to defeat the famous British professionals, Harry Vardon ad Ted Ray, in a play off. He later won the amateur championship twice. He was the first American to be elected captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf club of St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1951.
Walter Hagen, 1892-1969, is the American professional who greatly elevated the status of golf in both America and Britain by breaking down many social barriers. He won the United States Open championship twice and the United States professional championship five times. British professionals dominated the game until the 1920’s but Hagen won the British Open four times between 1922 and 1929.
Robert T. Jones, Jr., 1902-1971, is the greatest amateur the United States has produced. He won thirteen national championships between 1923 and 1930, including the United States Amateur five times, the United States Open four times, the British Amateur once and the British Open three times. In 1930 he won all four of the major championships of the golfing world, in the same calendar year and then retired at the age of 28. The remarkable thing about Bobby Jones is he did all this while remaining an amateur.