Vardon was born in Jersey, the son of an English gardener (Philip George Vardon) and a French mother (Elizabeth Augustine Bouchard), into a family of six boys and two girls. Both he and his younger brother Tom spent most of their summer holidays caddying on the local links.

Along with Ted Ray and a few others, the Vardons were part of a group that become known as the 'Jersey School' which emanated from the Caddies Competitions run by Royal Jersey Golf Club, allowing youngsters to learn to play the game on the course without a membership.

Tom Vardon turned professional first and headed off to England in search of golfing fame and fortune (he would later emigrate to the United States where he worked for twenty-five years until he died in 1938) with Harry following him across the Channel in 1890.

Harry became a farmhand before he’d even reached his teenage years then he was a gardener to a Mr Spofforth who was a golfer. Just like James Braid and J.H. Taylor, he joined a local Working Men’s Golf Club and was soon playing off a plus 3 handicap when he teed it up to play occasional rounds with his employer.

His first appointment in England was as the professional/greenkeeper at Studley Royal Golf Club in Ripon then he moved on to Bury Golf Club for a short time – playing in his first Open at Prestwick alongside J.H. Taylor at Prestwick in 1893 – before taking up a plum position at Ganton in 1896.

That year, after the County match between Hampshire and Yorkshire played at Ganton, club members raised money for a challenge match between Vardon and J.H. Taylor, the 1894 and 1895 Open Champion.

Vardon won this match 8&6 over 36 holes then went on a month later to win the Open at Muirfield, after a play-off against Taylor. He also won another two Opens whilst at Ganton (Prestwick in 1898 and Royal St George’s in 1899) then finished runner-up the following three years.

There were many big money, winner-takes-all challenge matches arranged in those days, with Vardon playing against others such as Ben Sayers and Willie Park Jr. His 1899 match play tussle against Willie took place over 36 holes at North Berwick and 36 holes at Ganton. Harry carried a 2-hole lead into the second game at his home club in Yorkshire, winning 11 &10 and collecting the purse of £200.

Vardon was at the height of his powers when he made his first tour of the United States and Canada in 1900 (he would later visit in 1913 and 1920). His sponsors, AG Spalding, had just brought out the "The Vardon Flyer" and they wanted their man to promote the new ball.

In effect, Harry became golf’s first international celebrity when he made this tour and it lasted almost twelve months, covering many thousands of miles. He played literally dozens of matches and exhibitions and it’s said he only ever lost two games (both against Boston professional Ben Nicholls) during the tour.

It was a highly successful overseas venture for Vardon, culminating in his 2-stroke victory in the 6th edition of the US Open at Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Illinois in October 1900, with J.H. Taylor in second place and eight Scotsmen occupying all of the other Top 10 positions.

After leaving Ganton in 1903 (succeeded by Ted Ray, his fellow Channel Islander, good friend and rival, who also went on to become an Open Champion and US Champion) he joined South Hertfordshire Golf Club, where he remained for the rest of his golfing career.

Vardon won the 1903 Open at Prestwick from his brother Tom, though he was ill during the tournament and subsequently spent more than six months at Mundesley Sanatorium in Norfolk battling tuberculosis, a condition he would continue to fight for years to come.

He challenged strongly every year for the Open up until the First World War and he won the tournament twice again, in 1911 and 1914. Together with James Braid and J.H. Taylor, Vardon formed what was dubbed “The Great Triumvirate” of golf, with these three claiming sixteen of the twenty-one Opens contested between 1894 and 1914.

Vardon toured North America again in 1913, accompanied by Ted Ray, and they played an extensive series of forty-five exhibition matches, winning thirty-six of them. He finished second in the US Open that year in a 3-way play-off against Ted Ray and eventual winner Francis Ouimet.

His last trip across the Atlantic came after the Great War in 1920, aged 50, and he was accompanied once more by Ted Ray, playing a gruelling schedule of nearly 100 exhibition and challenge matches over a 6-month period. He again finished second in the US Open, a stroke behind the champion, Ted Ray.

During his career, Vardon won forty-nine individual titles and thirteen team events, nine of which were when representing England against Scotland. It’s said that over the two-year period of 1898 to 1899, he won fourteen of the seventeen events he played in, finishing as runner-up in the other three.

He struggled with health problems in his later years, turning to coaching and writing golf instruction books.

Extracts:

World Golf Hall of Fame: “Vardon taught himself the effortless, upright swing that would serve him the rest of his life. Still, as a child he played very few actual rounds of golf, never had a lesson and at age 13 became an apprentice gardener. He played in a few tournaments into his late teens and didn’t decide to make it a career until he saw that his younger brother, Tom, had turned professional and was doing well in tournaments.

But Vardon was made for golf. Although only 5-feet 9-inches and 155 pounds, he had enormous hands that melted perfectly around the club. He also possessed a sweet, peaceful temperament. Most of all, Vardon had a swing that repeated monotonously. His swing was more upright and his ball flight higher than his contemporaries, giving Vardon’s approach shots the advantage of greater carry and softer landing. He took only the thinnest of divots.

Vardon played in knickers (the first professional to do so), fancy-topped stockings, a hard collar and tie and tightly buttoned jacket, but still there was a wonderful freedom to his movement. He allowed his left arm to bend as he reached the top of the backswing, and there was a lack of muscular stress or tension at any part of the swing. 'Relaxation,' he said, 'added to a few necessary fundamental principles, is the basis of this great game.'”

From bleacherreport.com: “Due in large part to Hollywood’s depiction of the 1913 US Open in the popular film The Greatest Game Ever Played, most associate Harry Vardon with his unsuccessful trip to America in 1913. However, 13 years earlier in 1900, the Vardon Invasion occurred.

While in the prime of his career, Vardon toured America for several months, won at least 70 out of 80 exhibition matches and concluded his tour by winning the 1900 US Open by two strokes over J.H. Taylor. Vardon’s tour of America in 1900 more or less introduced this young nation to the game of golf.

Little did he know that 13 years later this introduction would come back to bite him at the Country Club in Brookline, MA.

When we think of winning streaks in golf, three things come to mind.

1) Bobby Jones' four consecutive Majors in 1930

2) Tiger Woods’ four consecutive Majors between 1999 and 2000

3) Byron Nelson’s eleven consecutive wins in 1945

But Harry Vardon has an impressive streak of his own, only it’s not recognized by most golf fans. During the prime of his career, Vardon had a streak of 14 consecutive wins in Europe. This is better than Nelson’s streak of 11, only it’s not recognized by most fans and analysts because it took place in Europe.”

Courtesy of Ganton Golf Club: “Vardon was an excellent all round sportsman playing cricket in his youth and whilst at Ganton first played centre forward and later in goal for the village football team.

Vardon's swing was much more upright than was the vogue at the time, and he played with a slightly bent left arm and a flying right elbow, when the fashion was for a rigid left arm. He was rare among great players in not taking a divot with any of his shots.

So precise was he with all his clubs that he could always sweep the ball off the turf cleanly, hardly disturbing the surface at all. He showed that rhythm and timing were more valuable than strength.

Nevertheless, Vardon had the reputation of being a long hitter, though the clubs he used were lightweight and never more than 10 in number. He popularised the overlapping grip, which became known as the Vardon Grip, although he did not in fact invent it.

Vardon was a kindly and considerate man of great courage. His name will live in golf annals. Not only was he the supreme player of his time but he was a catalyst to the development of golf in America and his methods are a link between the style of the early players and the modern approach.”

Tribute:

James Braid attended Harry Vardon’s funeral with J.H. Taylor and he paid this tribute to his departed friend and rival: “We have lost one of the immortals of our great game of golf. Harry Vardon was a name synonymous with all that is finest in golf and in a man. Harry was truly one of the pioneers of golf as we know it today. By his play and by his attitude as a player he accomplished a great deal in popularising the game he so much loved. His style was that of the old master. How his grace and accuracy could still be copied today. He will stand as the true example of a great golfer. In common with all my brother golfers I mourn his passing.”

Bibliography:

The Complete Golfer, Page & Co., New York 1922