The Story of Young Tom Morris, arguably the world’s first young golf prodigy, has been turned into a colourful children’s picture book that aims to inspire a new generation of children to take an interest in golf.
Written by acclaimed St Andrews golf historian, Roger McStravick, and illustrated by St Andrews artist, Maria Amelia Randall, ‘Little Tommy Morris’ charts the childhood and subsequent meteoric rise to fame of Young Tom Morris, who was a four-time consecutive Open Champion before his untimely death aged just 24.
As well as the story book itself, local publishers Cartographie Press have designed a ‘story bag’ for schools, designed to make golf accessible to every child and to encourage a love of the sport. The pack includes games, classroom activities and even a hand-stitched puppet of Little Tommy to be used as a teaching aid.
“We believe that the story of Little Tommy Morris is a classic tale of a young sporting hero” explains publisher Gillian Gamble, “The story has the ability to inspire lots of different children with confidence to try a new skill, not just those who take an interest in golf. It’s also a beautiful story about a father and son, which we are sure parents will love”.
In order to achieve their aim of gifting the story bag to schools around the world, the team are turning to golf lovers for help.
“Primary schools often have tight budgetary constraints when it comes to purchasing resources” explains Gamble, “Therefore we have set up a crowd funding campaign on Indiegogo where sponsors can help us gift the packs to schools, while also receiving rewards themselves. We are aiming to raise enough to give the pack to at least 200 schools, and our supporters can choose from treats that range from first editions of the book, all the way to a golfing holiday in St Andrews”
The campaign can be found at http://igg.me/at/littletommymorris/x/8480627 The story book is due to be released this spring, with the full ‘Little Tommy Morris’ pack making its debut at a special event during the 2015 Open at St Andrews in July. Anyone wishing to get involved can find out more at www.littletommymorris.com or by contacting the publishers at cartographiepress@gmail.com
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