Shortlisted for The Telegraph Sports Book Awards Biography of the Year

'A splendid new biography. How good was young Tom Morris? Stephen Proctor makes his case cogently. Young Tom Morris was one of the greatest of them all' - Allan Massie

Young Tom Morris, the son of the legendary pioneer of golf, Tom Morris, was golf’s first superstar.

Born at a pivotal moment in history, just as the new and inexpensive ‘gutty’ ball was making golf affordable and drawing thousands of new players to the game, his genius and his swashbuckling personality would set a game that had been frozen in amber for four centuries on the pathway to becoming worldwide spectator sport we know today.

Exhaustively researched and beautifully illustrated, Monarch of the Green is a stirring and evocative history of Tommy’s life (which also includes, for the first time, a compilation of his competitive record in stroke-play tournaments, singles matches, and foursomes) and demonstrates how, in one dazzling decade, this young superstar dominated the sport like few others have ever done.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Chapter One: Hero’s Welcome
• Chapter Two: Prestwick
• Chapter Three: Thrust and Parry
• Chapter Four: Master Morris
• Chapter Five: The Gift of Golf
• Chapter Six: Dashing New Breed
• Chapter Seven: 1870
• Chapter Eight: Tommy Transcendent
• Chapter Nine: Dream Season
• Chapter Ten: Match Play
• Chapter Eleven: A Mortal Blow
• Chapter Twelve: A Winter of Mourning
• Chapter Thirteen: For Good and all
• Chapter Fourteen: Etched in Stone
• Chapter Fifteen: Final Rounds
• Postscript
• Appendix: Tommy’s Career
• Notes on Chapters
• Bibliography
• Historical Chronology and Synopsis
• Acknowledgements
• A Note on the Writing
• Index