Harry Vardon was known as the leading member of the Great Triumvirate. The Great Triumvirate was made up of two other great golfers of their time namely JH Taylor and James Braid. He was considered the leading member of the Triumvirate because he was able to win more than sixty major golf tournaments before his retirement and has won six Open Championships, a feat that even Tiger Woods today has not achieved.
Vardon never expected to become a professional golfer, one of the famous players at that. He was born on the year 1870 in Grouville. He started out as a gardener working with greenery. Vardon never expected that he would make a successful living playing on the green. However, Vardon was exposed to the game because he was gardener to a man who loved to play golf and often caddied for his employer. He sometimes got the opportunity to play the sport when his employer would let him.
Vardon was still unsure of his ability when he played in a minor tournament held in England. Surprisingly enough for Vardon, he won. When he joined another tournament held in Scotland, he came in second. Vardon then followed in his brother’s footsteps who himself pursued a professional career in golf. Vardon became a professional golfer at the age of twenty.
It was said that Vardon’s rise to the top was a progressive one. In 1986 he beat Taylor for the first time and even managed to win the Open Championship later that year. Vardon was the first Englishman to have won the title. This was not enough for Vardon and he continued winning the Open Championship five more times in 1898, 1899, 1903, 1911 and 1914.
Harry Vardon was known for being a player who had accurate drives. He also popularized the overlapping grip on the golf club which is now famously called the Vardon Grip.
When Vardon was diagnosed with tuberculosis, the disease significantly affected his health along with his game. Vardon retired in 1934 and died on March 20, 1937. Harry Vardon along with the rest of the Great Triumvirate was known as the group who established golf as an international sport.
