Ivo Harrington Whitton (9 December 1893 – 2 July 1967) was an Australian amateur

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

er, who, along with Greg Norman, is the only Australian to have won the

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

five times (1912, 1913, 1926, 1929 and 1931).

Early life

Whitton was born in

Moonee Ponds, Victoria Moonee Ponds is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Moonee Valley Local government ar ...

, his father Percy Whitton was a senior public servant. The younger Whitton took up golfing at the age of 14, joining his father in the Caulfield Golf Club (later the Metropolitan Golf Club) the next year, and winning the club championships three times. In 1911, he began working at a

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

broking firm which allowed him time off to play golf during the off-season. In 1914, he competed at

The Amateur Championship The Amateur Championship (sometimes referred to as the British Amateur or British Amateur Championship outside the UK) is a golf tournament which has been held annually in the United Kingdom since 1885 except during the two World Wars, and in 19 ...

Royal St George's Golf Club The Royal St George's Golf Club is a golf club located in Sandwich, Kent, England. It is one of the courses on The Open Championship rota, and the only one in South East England. It has hosted 15 Open championships, the first in 1894 when it b ...

. He returned to Australia but then came back to England during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

to serve with the

Royal Garrison Artillery The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was formed in 1899 as a distinct arm of the British Army's Royal Artillery, Royal Regiment of Artillery serving alongside the other two arms of the Regiment, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse ...

after being rejected by the Australian Imperial Force.A. G. L. Shaw
Whitton, Ivo Harrington (1893 - 1967)
''

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

'', Volume 12, Melbourne University Press, 1990, p. 480.

Golf career

In 1912, Whitton won his first

championship, and went on to win four more in 1913, 1926, 1929 and 1931. He also won the

Australian Amateur The Australian Amateur is the national amateur golf championship of Australia. It has been played annually since 1894, except for the war years, and is organised by Golf Australia. Having traditionally been a match play event, from 2021 it has ...

twice, the Victorian Amateur Championship five times, the

New South Wales Amateur The New South Wales Amateur Championship is the state amateur golf championship of New South Wales, Australia. It was first played in 1898. History In early 1898 Lord Hampden, the Governor of New South Wales, presented a solid silver cup to th ...

and the Queensland Amateur and Open. In 1920, Whitton won the Helms Award as the most outstanding Australasian athlete. He returned to the wool industry as a wool appraiser for the

Australian government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

, but ended up as a general manager for the Spalding sporting goods company. The Victorian Golf Association established the Ivo Whitton Trophy in 1960 for the lowest average stroke score in designated tournaments held each year. Whitton himself presented the award to the inaugural winner, Kevin Hartley, who went on to win it a further eleven times.Ivo Whitton Trophy
Victorian Golf Association. In addition, the Royal Melbourne Golf Club instituted the Ivo Whitton Cup in Whitton's memory. One of the streets in Kambah, a suburb of

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

, is named Ivo Whitton Circuit.

Death and legacy

After his death, Whitton was buried in the Cheltenham Memorial Park, Melbourne. A group of local Melbourne golfers regularly play-off in a 9-hole stroke play event for the Ivo Whitton Perpetual Trophy at Burnley Golf Course to honour his memory.

Tournament wins

*1912

, Riversdale Trophy *1913 Australian Open, Riversdale Trophy *1919 Victorian Amateur *1920 Victorian Amateur *1922

, Victorian Amateur *1923 Australian Amateur, Victorian Amateur, Queensland Amateur *1924 Victorian Amateur *1925 Riversdale Trophy *1926 Australian Open, Riversdale Trophy *1928

Queensland Open The Queensland Open, originally called the Queensland Championships, and also known as the Queensland Lawn Tennis Championships, Queensland Grass Court Championships and the Queensland State Championships, was a tennis tournament played in Bris ...

*1929 Australian Open,

*1931 Australian Open

Team appearances

* Kirk-Windeyer Cup (representing Victoria): 1927 * Australian Men's Interstate Teams Matches (representing Victoria): 1912 (winners), 1913 (winners), 1920, 1921 (winners), 1922, 1923 (winners), 1924 (winners), 1926 (winners), 1927 (winners), 1929 (winners), 1930 (winners), 1931 (winners), 1932, 1933 (winners), 1935, 1938

References

External links

Friends of Cheltenham and Regional Cemeteries Inc.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitton, Ivo Australian male golfers Amateur golfers Golfers from Melbourne Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees British Army personnel of World War I Royal Garrison Artillery officers Military personnel from Melbourne People from Moonee Ponds, Victoria Sportsmen from Victoria (state) 1893 births 1967 deaths 20th-century Australian sportsmen