1899 Amateur Championship: John Ball wins at Prestwick Golf Club
John Ball won the 1899 Amateur Championship at Prestwick Golf Club in Prestwick, South Ayrshire, beating Freddie Tait won on 37th hole in the final.
Updated 23 October 2026
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- Edition
- 15th
- Dates
- 23 May 1899 to 26 May 1899
- Course
- Prestwick Golf Club, Prestwick, South Ayrshire
- Format
- match play
- Champion
- John Ball · age 37 · England · Royal Liverpool
- Champion's title
- 5th Amateur Championship title
- Runner-up
- Freddie Tait · age 29 · Scotland
- Final
- won on 37th hole (36-hole final)
- Match-play field
- 101
- Losing semifinalists
- G. C. Whigham and J. M. Williamson
- Defending champion
- Freddie Tait · lost in final
- Entries
- 101
What happened at the 1899 Amateur Championship
Final, 35th hole (the Alps): Tait's ball finished floating in the water-filled bunker; he waded in, got out, halved the hole and won the 36th to square the match
Final: John Ball won at the 37th with a three to Tait's four; Tait was killed in the Boer War the following February
The draw
Every match is recorded through the round of 16.
The final, 1899 Amateur Championship
| Winner | Beaten | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Ball | def. | Freddie Tait | won on 37th hole |
Semifinals, 1899 Amateur Championship
| Winner | Beaten | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Ball | def. | G. C. Whigham | 8 & 7 |
| Freddie Tait | def. | J. M. Williamson | 3 & 1 |
Quarterfinals, 1899 Amateur Championship
| Winner | Beaten | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| G. C. Whigham | def. | J. Thomson | 2 up |
| John Ball | def. | Robert Maxwell | won on 19th hole |
| Freddie Tait | def. | Harold Hilton | 1 up |
| J. M. Williamson | def. | C. L. Dalziel | 2 up |
Round of 16, 1899 Amateur Championship
| Winner | Beaten | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| J. Thomson | def. | Bernard Darwin | 5 & 4 |
| G. C. Whigham | def. | J. Livingston | won on 19th hole |
| Robert Maxwell | def. | Leslie Balfour-Melville | 5 & 4 |
| John Ball | def. | H. H. Harley | 3 & 2 |
| Harold Hilton | def. | J. R. Gairdner | won on 20th hole |
| Freddie Tait | def. | G. F. Smith | 5 & 4 |
| C. L. Dalziel | def. | R. Hunter | 2 & 1 |
| J. M. Williamson | def. | Johnny Laidlay | 3 & 2 |
How this was built
Every value is shown as recorded in GNN's Amateur Championship data set (research collected through 20 October 2026). "unknown" means no source confirmed it; nothing is estimated. Where sources disagree, the R&A's own record is used.
Values found only on Wikipedia, kept and flagged: champion_nationality, runner_up_nationality.
Data: the-amateur.json.