Robert Maxwell (golfer)

Early life

Maxwell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 12 May 1876. He was the son of Francis Maxwell and Adelaide Maxwell (née Hay). At age four, he was living in North Berwick, Scotland with his parents, two brothers, and a sister. He received his education at Eton College and was an energetic boy. While at Eton, he acquired a "short and concise" manner of speaking.

As a youth, he was adroit at football and rowing. By age seven, Maxwell had already honed his golf game and, thanks to golf lessons he had received from Ben Sayers, the precocious young lad carded a 74 in two rounds on the Ladies' Course at North Berwick. As a young man, he had powerful arms and wrists, a quick swing, and was a long hitter of the golf ball.

In 1909, Walter Travis, editor of The American Golfer magazine, described Maxwell as "... a big, tall, powerful man with massive proportions and a fine pair of legs under him. His style is rather forceful, and perhaps, as some would say, a trifle clumsy. He hits hard, but unlike many other hard hitters he is most wonderfully accurate. He employs an open stance ... and uses the Vardon grip with his right thumb down the shaft. With his irons he is wonderfully accurate ... and he uses an iron putter—and his style does not look as if it would make for delicacy, but he has an extraordinarily fine touch, and as a matter of fact he was about the best putter there was at Muirfield, hardly ever missing a short one."

Golf career

Maxwell, the upstart youngster, first entered the Amateur Championship when he was only 21 years old. He made news in the 1897 tournament at Muirfield by beating John Ball, the 4-time (and later 8-time) Amateur champion, and also knocked off Harold Hilton.

In his match against Ball, Maxwell stymied the great champion on three of the first eight holes, and eventually finished him off by the score of 6 & 4. Maxwell finally fell victim himself when James Robb beat him 1 up in the fifth round.

Known as "Bobbie" by his fans and those who knew him, Maxwell was skilled enough at golf by 1900 to begin winning tournaments. He notched three wins in the North Berwick club championship from 1902–04. In 1903 he added the Amateur Championship to his list of tournament wins.

In total, he entered the British Amateur thirteen times and played in The Open Championship seven times between 1900 and 1909. Maxwell had nine caps for Scotland when he represented his country against England in international matches. In several of those matches he was paired against John Ball, crushing him on three occasions–once by 12 & 10 and twice by 8 & 6 margins of victory. He won the Glennie Medal at St Andrews three consecutive years from 1901–03.

1902 Open Championship

The 1902 Open Championship was held 4–5 June at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England. Scottish professional Sandy Herd won the Championship, a stroke ahead of runners-up James Braid and Harry Vardon. Maxwell carded rounds of 79-77-79-74=309 and finished in fourth place, only two shots behind Herd. Maxwell was the only player in the tournament to score less than 80 in all four rounds.

1903 Amateur Championship

Maxwell won the 1903 Amateur Championship, held at Muirfield, by the score of 7 & 5 over Horace Hutchinson.

1909 Amateur Championship

Muirfield was the host course once again for the Amateur Championship in 1909. Dressed in his normal brown tweeds and smoking his short, straight pipe—which he put into his pocket while still lit before hitting shots—Maxwell was in good form during the tournament and beat C. K. Hutchison 1 up in a closely contested match.

Retirement from tournament golf

He retired from tournament play at age 35 in 1911. Maxwell came out of retirement and played in the Amateur Championship one final time after World War I concluded, but it was largely a ceremonial appearance at Muirfield where he had so many fond memories of past success.

Death and legacy

Maxwell died at his home in East Gribton, North Berwick, on 25 July 1949, aged 73. He is best remembered for winning the Amateur Championship twice, in 1903 and again in 1909. He also had four top-10 finishes in the Open Championship, including a superb fourth-place finish in 1902.

Results timeline

Note: Maxwell played in only The Open Championship and The Amateur Championship.

LA = Low Amateur
DNP = Did not play
"T" indicates a tie for a place
DNQ = Did not qualify for match play portion
R256, R128, R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in match play
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10

Sources: The Open, 1897 Amateur, 1899 Amateur, 1901 Amateur, 1902 Amateur, 1904 Amateur, 1905 Amateur, 1906 Amateur, 1907 Amateur, 1910 Amateur