Ivor Robson, who died at the age of 83, never wanted to be famous, but as an official starter, he spent more than 40 weeks of his life on the first tee at the Open Championship, watching Seve Ballesteros, Sir Nick Faldo, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Rory McIlroy, and Tiger Woods play. Millions of people around the world watched on TV.
Robson started as an official starter for the Open in 1975 at Carnoustie, where Tom Watson won the first of five Claret Jugs. Interestingly, both of them retired in 2015, and at St. Andrews, where Watson played his last round, he gave Robson an 18th-green flag that said, “We have traveled the road together.” Best of luck with your retirement. Watson, Tom.”
Robson did a great job with his first job, which was just nine days after starting at the sports goods company Accles and Pollock as the official starter. He did this by making his introductions simple. There were no personal introductions; instead, he sent players on their way to becoming “champion golfer of the year” with a simple “On the tee” message. He did this 18,995 times in a beautiful Scottish voice that people all over the world would copy.
In reality, Robert Ivor Vincent Robson was English. He was born in Kimmerston, Northumberland, in the Borders, on September 10, 1940. After stopping school at age 15, he worked on a farm to save money for an accordion. His father, Robert, was the stableman and his mother, Mary, was the maid.
He met his future wife Lesley at one of the village of Lucker’s regular dances. After they got married, they moved to Gretna Green, where he ran the Lovers’ Leap Motel. Later, they moved to Moffat, Dumfriesshire, and he took on the same job at the Annandale Arms Hotel.
His first job in golf was as a greenkeeper and club manager at Moffat Golf Club in 1967. He made £10 a week in that job. After working for a short time in a sports store, he joined the sport goods sales team at Accles and Pollock. In 1974, the company made its first starter for the European Tour. In 1976, Robson joined the circuit as it was just starting to grow.
He was a very good golfer by that time, and Ken Schofield, who was the executive director of the European Tour at the time, asked him to play on the Queen’s Course at Gleneagles. George O’Grady, Schofield’s coworker, and the famous Scottish golf writer Jock MacVicar completed the foursome.
“Ivor was not at his best,” O’Grady remembered. “In fact, he was terrible for six holes because he was so nervous playing with two “very important” administrators and the famous Jock MacVicar.” On the seventh, Ivor hit another drive over “mid-wicket.” That’s when I asked him, “Ivor, when did you decide to stop being a pro golfer?” Then Ivor played the last few holes in well under par and took the money. We all had a good laugh.
Robson spent a lot of time on the road, sometimes for seven weeks at a time. The Bonnington Hotel, which Moffat bought in 1984 and Lesley ran, was his safe place to return to. No matter what the weather was like, he never wore a rain suit to work. Instead, he wore a jacket and tie. He was very private and didn’t want to be famous, but he became famous for not taking breaks to go to the bathroom even when he was on stage for 10 hours straight. “I didn’t drink or eat anything,” he said. “I thought that you shouldn’t have any output if you don’t have any input.”
Robson did not have to quit even though he was told he had type 2 diabetes. When he heard that the Open would be back in St. Andrews in 2015, he set his sights on the “Home of Golf,” which was very important to him, as the time and place to go. The Royal & Ancient asked him to the annual Champions Dinner on Tuesday night and gave him a copy of the Claret Jug with the names of all the winners written on it.
In one of the comments about his retirement, Tiger Woods said, “Thank you, Ivor, for making each of my Opens memorable.”
An accordion player from Moffat named Willie MacRoberts played live music at Robson’s funeral. This included a song called “The Ivor Robson March” that was written for him by the accordion player Ian Holmes many years ago.
The people who loved Ivor Robson the most are his wife Lesley and their two children, Julia and Philip.
He was born on September 10, 1940, and died on October 14, 2023.
