History Notes

Note 1: J.H. Taylor may not have actually apprenticed with Gibson. But Gibson had a considerable influence on Taylor's start as a professional. Taylor, was from Northam, the village adjacent to Westward Ho! in Devon. Gibson, according to Stirk in his new book, Golf: History and Tradition was the architect for the first nine-hole course of the Burnham and Berrow Golf Club in Somerset. We find it more than coincidental that "in 1891", according to Stirk in his new book, "at the age of twenty, Taylor was given the appointment of professional to the new Golf Club at Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset."

With the English obsession for golf in the decades preceding the millennium, it was fashionable for a golf pro to be of Scottish origins. Gibson, from Musselburgh - the mecca of golf in the eyes of English society of the day - and already established at Royal North Devon, would most certainly have had a substantial input or even recommended Taylor for the position at the club he had designed.