Horace G. Hutchinson

Horatio Gordon "Horace" Hutchinson (16 May 1859 – 27 July 1932) was an English amateur golfer who played in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Hutchinson won the 1886 and 1887 Amateur Championships. He had three top-10 finishes in the Open Championship, his best result being sixth in the 1890 Open Championship.

He was also a prolific writer of books on the subject of golf and other sporting themes. Hutchinson was the second English captain of the St Andrews Golf Club, Scotland. Onesiphorus Tyndall Bruce was the first Englishman to captain the R&A in 1838. Hutchinson suffered from grave illness in the latter portion of his life and committed suicide in Chelsea, London, England, on 27 July 1932.

Early life

Hutchinson, born 16 May 1859 in London, England, was the third son of General William Nelson Hutchinson (1803–1895) and Mary Hutchinson (née Russell). He began his golfing career at an early age playing at the Royal North Devon Golf Club—also known as Westward Ho!—a course founded in 1864 and designed by Old Tom Morris. By the age of 16, he won the club medal championship. He attended the University of Oxford's Corpus Christi College from 1878 to 1881, where he was a cricket player, and where he made an immediate impression by playing number one on the Oxford University golf team, and led them to victory over arch-rival Cambridge in the University Golf Match.

During his Oxford years he would spend vacations at home playing the Royal North Devon course accompanied by a young orphaned caddie who was employed by the Hutchinson family as a houseboy. The young lad went by the name of John Henry Taylor. Taylor's future exploits in golf—which included winning five Open Championships—would become legendary.