(5) James Braid
Based on his golf course design work alone, James Braid would be a legendary figure. Born in Earlsferry, Fife in 1870 (the same year as Vardon), he was responsible for new courses or redesigns the length and breadth of the British Isles, including Blairgowrie, Carnoustie, Dalmahoy, Gleneagles, Lundin, Nairn and Royal Musselburgh. His legacy was either breathtaking new creations, such as the King and Queen courses at Gleneagles, or remarkably sympathetic reworkings, such as the weaving of MacKenzie’s original holes into his designs at Blairgowrie and his handling of Carnoustie. Only someone of his reputation and temperament would have been offered or indeed taken such responsibilities. However, it was his dominance of the Open Championship that gets him on to this particular list. At the 1894 edition, while still an amateur, he finished tied for tenth. He didn’t play in 1895, decided to turn pro and went on the finest run of major form ever seen. From 1896 to 1912 he finished in the top ten of every single championship, winning five times and earning three runner-up places, putting him one behind his arch rival Vardon on the all-time list. Renowned as a very long driver, his savage action enthralled spectators in much the same way Arnold Palmer did sixty years later.
