Family fortunes

By Matt Cooper Last updated: 27th January 2010

Old and Young Tom Morris

Old Tom Morris was a giant of the game who lived in the home of golf, St Andrew's. Born in 1821 (he died in 1908), he worked as a player, green keeper, club maker, ball maker, instructor and course designer. Indeed he was responsible for turning around the fortunes of St Andrew's which had fallen into poor shape during the 19th century.

The highlight of his playing career was winning the Open Championship by 13 strokes in 1862 - the greatest winning margin in majors until Tiger Woods bettered it in the 2000 US Open. In total he won four Opens.

His son Young Tom Morris (1851-1875) first defeated his father at the age of 13 and together they went on to form a fearsome team partnership in the foursomes and fourballs that were popular in the 19th century.

Like his father he won the Open on four occasions and surely would have done so again and again had he not died at the tragically young age of 24 in dreadful circumstances.

He and his father had been playing against the other great golfing family of the age (Willie and Mungo Park) at North Berwick when urged by telegram to return home because Young Tom's wife had gone into a difficult labour. They completed the final two holes of the match and then rushed home by ship to discover that both his wife and baby had died. Broken hearted, Young Tom Morris himself passed away just four months later.

The Haas family: Jay, Jerry, Jay Jr and Bill (plus Uncle Bob Goalby)

Where to begin with one of the game's largest family trees?

Probably best to start with Bob Goalby, the unfortunate winner of the 1968 Masters. Why unfortunate? Because his win came after the Argentine Roberto DeVicenzo failed to notice that his playing partner Tommy Aaron had made a grave scoring mistake on the 17th hole. Poor Goalby may still have won the play-off, but his win was tainted forever.

Goalby's nephews were the Haas brother - Jay and Jerry. Jerry played on the European, PGA and Nationwide Tours but never established himself and now coaches college golf.

Jay was a far more successful player, claiming nine PGA titles (and no less than 14 Champions Tour events over the last five years). His son Jay Jr was also a fine player but has never established himself in the professional game, leaving the family legacy to his brother Bill who finally collected a long awaited first PGA title at the Bob Hope Classic.

The sister of Jay and Jerry (Jan) is also interested in golf - in her case because her husband is Dillard Pruitt, the winner of the PGA Tour 1991 Chattanooga Classic.

Truly the Haas family tree has a golf bag at the bottom of it.

Craig and Kevin Stadler

No father and son golfing combination looks alike quite so startlingly as The Walrus and The Baby Walrus. Is it nature or nurture that has allowed two shambling, over-weight men to hitch their trousers up in such an uncannily similar way?

Father Craig has had a seriously good career - 16 worldwide wins including the US Masters in 1982 (the year he topped the US money list). He has also claimed eight wins on the Champions Tour.

Like his father, Kevin loves to travel and is also a multi-winner, although as of yet not on the PGA Tour. His best win came in the 2006 Johnnie Walker Classic but he has also won the Argentine Open, four events on the Nationwide Tour and twice with his father in a Champions Tour end-of-season father/son challenge.

Jack and Gary Nicklaus

Many of the sons of good golfers have struggled to cope with the expectations placed on them by others. So imagine what it must have been like to have been the son of Jack Nicklaus!

That was Gary Nicklaus' task - to be the son of the man who won more majors than any other (18) and was admired across the globe for a career of astonishing consistency.

Gary made a good fist of trying to be a PGA player, but the odds were always stacked against him. In the 2000 BellSouth Classic he tied Phil Mickelson for the 54-hole lead before rain ruined the conclusion of the event. A play-off was needed to determine the winner and it took Mickelson just one hole to claim the title.

Two years later Gary was at Q School, supported by his parents Jack and Barbara, who walked the fairways supporting their son. It didn't work and Gary retired from touring only to make another bid for Q School glory last autumn.

"I love the game of golf and I miss playing," he said, before falling short once again.

Julius and Guy Boros

Julius, who also won two US Opens, claimed the 1968 PGA Championship when he was 48-years-old and seven years later he narrowly failed to win the Westchester Classic, eventually being defeated by Gene Littler. A naturally talented player, his son Guy was also an instinctive golfer but admitted there was a difference.

"The problem for me has always been simple," he said. "I never loved the game the way my father did. He loved being on a golf course - anywhere, anytime. I always had talent, and I could always play, but I was never really passionate about it."

Known on Tour as the "faucet" (because he could turn it on when he wanted), Guy became a Tour winner at the 1996 Greater Vancouver Classic but since then has drifted away from the top level of the game.

Bernhard and Steffan Langer

When the 17-year-old son of Germany's greatest golfer made his Tour debut in the 2007 Dutch Open he played better in the second round than in the first. But then, having only just broken 100 on the Thursday, that wouldn't have been difficult.

His two rounds of 98-91 left him 49-over-par as he made one birdie and 14 scores of double-bogey or worse.

About playing with his son, Bernhard said: "It's a wonderful thing - a big opportunity for him and a great experience to be in the same field together."

Rather more ominously he added: "He has picked a very tough golf course to start on, particularly as he is trying to change his swing. I played with him yesterday and he struggled a bit.

"I don't expect him to make the cut, to tell the truth. It's a brutal test, especially when the wind blows as it is now. You can lose six or eight balls out there - hopefully, we'll have some good spotters with sharp eyes."

Steffan might have been taught a harsh lesson that day - although he still plays in father-son challenges with his dad, he hasn't returned to the main tour.

Antonio and Ignacio Garrido

The Spanish version of the Haas family, Antonio and Ignacio became the second father and son Ryder Cup combination (after Percy and Peter Alliss).

Antonio was a tough competitor who claimed five European Tour wins between 1972 and 86, making his one Ryder Cup appearance in 1979 when, alongside Seve Ballesteros, they became the first Europeans to compete in the competition. His brother German also won on the European Tour, taking the Madrid Open in 1973.

Ignacio has enjoyed a long career on the Tour - he won the German Open in 1997, the PGA Championship at Wentworth in 2003 and went very close to claiming the Wales Open in 2009.

Maintaining the family tradition of being involved in historical Ryder Cups, he participated in the first match to be held on the continent in his home country Spain.

Camilo and Manuel Villegas

In the last few years Colombia's Camilo Villegas has risen from promising youngster best know for his extravagant manner of eyeing up putts to the top ten of the world rankings (following his victory in the 2008 Tour Championship).

His younger brother Manny has so far had less success as he plies his trade on the Tour de las Americas (plus other minor tours) - his best effort so far was 11th in the Colombia Masters.They might be brothers, but Manny uses another 'family' name when referring to Camilo.

"I call him ' Grandpa'," he reveals, "because he's very organized. Growing up he'd get on at me, tell me to put things away, like an old man. He numbers his socks. He's weird like that."

Rafa and Emma Cabrera Bello

Brother and sister Rafa and Emma Cabrera Bello are two of the brightest young players on the European and Ladies European Tours.

Last September Rafa stunned the golfing world - and Benn Barham in particular - by shooting a last round 60 to claim his first title, the Austrian Open.

Emma is yet to win but is getting closer - she was second in the Spanish Open and third in the Madrid Masters.

Brought up in Tenerife, alongside a driving range, there is also a third member of the family - their little brother Miguel. Rafa and Emma help each other out on and off the course, comparing strategies and playing against each other; and Emma says that young Miguel could give them both a good game.

Tiger and Cheyenne Woods

Tiger is not the only member of the Woods family to be useful with a golf club - his niece Cheyenne is not bad either.

Eighteen years ago she was pushed around the Riviera GC in Los Angeles in a pram whilst her uncle played in his very first PGA Tour event.

Now a successful student and member of the golf team at Wake Forest, Cheyenne made her LPGA debut on a sponsor's invitation last year at the Wegmans event in New York.

She shot 75-74 to miss the cut but impressed observers with her poise in the face of the inevitable press and gallery attention.

David and Bob Duval

The PGA Tour has eight winning father-son combinations but there is believed to be only one father-son combination which won on the same day.

That happened when David Duval won the 1999 Players Championship on the very Sunday that Bob Duval won the Emerald Coast Classic on the Champions Tour.

There was added poignancy to this story because Bob, who had been a teaching pro, had been persuaded to play on the Champions Tour by his son after they had been reconciled following the messy divorce of Bob and David's mother.

The Ozaki brothers

Alongside Isao Aoki and Tommy Nakajima, and before Ryo Ishikawa, Japanese golf was represented by the Ozaki brothers, an extraordinary trio who dominated the Japanese Tour over 30 years and were frequent fixtures at the majors.

The best player was Masashi, better known as Jumbo on account of his size, who was a professional baseball pitcher in the 1960s before turning to golf.

Within six years of that change he had finished eighth in the Masters (he was also good enough to finish sixth in the 1989 US Open).

He is Japan's most consistent golfer, having topped the money list 12 times and won 94 titles. He also spent almost 200 weeks in the top ten of the world rankings between 1989 and 1998.

Naomichi (Joe) Ozaki never had quite the success of Jumbo, especially when travelling to the majors, but he still ranks fourth in the list of most Japanese wins with a tally of 32.

Third brother Tateo (Jet) claimed 15 wins, making a remarkable tally of 141 wins for the Ozaki family.

Edoardo and Francesco Molinari

The last five years have seen the rise of the Italian Molinari brothers to the brink of the European Ryder Cup team.

Edoardo was the first to show his talent when winning the 2005 US Amateur Championship, but he then took a back seat as younger brother Francesco claimed the 2006 Italian Open and became one of the most consistent performers on the European Tour.

But in 2009 Edoardo rediscovered his form, winning three times on the Challenge Tour and once in Japan before joining his brother in China for the Mission Hills World Cup.

There they overhauled the Irish team to claim the title in dramatic style, prompting a victory celebration that was bursting with family, as well as national, pride.

Both in the world's top 50, later this year they will become the first brothers since the Ozakis to appear at the Masters in Augusta.

Matt Cooper