A Tribute to Tom Litster
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The Club is deeply saddened to learn that one of our most active and popular members, Tom Litster, died suddenly yesterday morning, aged 74. The news comes as a huge shock to everyone who knew Tom, both in the club and across the wider community.
Our thoughts and sympathies go out to Tom’s wife Alison and his two daughters, Andrea and Jennifer, as well as the wider family and his close friends.
One of the most prolific winners on the seniors’ circuit, Tom was one of the most recognised faces in the club and certainly made the golf course his second home following his retirement in the late 1990s. A talented junior golfer, he won the Boys Championship in the early 1960s but put his golfing career on hold to work in the family business, Litster Photography, after leaving Peebles High School, where he’d been a class-mate of former club secretary Hugh Gilmore.
Taking up the game again in 1997, he looked like he had never been away. His long flowing swing helped him quickly get his handicap down to low single figures, topping the leaderboard on numerous occasions, collecting prize vouchers for fun and regularly qualifying for the Club Championship, even into his 70s. He had a spell as Match & Handicap Convenor and served on the competitions sub-committee, taking a keen interest in all things Peebles Golf Club.
One of his recent highlights was his 2015 victory in the prestigious Captains & Vice-Captain’s knock-out trophy, winning it for a second time remarkably 53 years after his first victory as a 16-year-old! In the same season, he achieved another incredible feat, firing two holes-in-one during the same round in a Seniors club match against St Boswells at the 7th and 12th holes (a 1 in 64,000,000 feat!). Indeed, over the course of his career, he had no fewer than 13 aces – nine of which were in competitions – with our Club Pro Steve Johnston suggesting that Tom should enter the ones sweep instead of the twos.
Throughout his retirement years, he lived and breathed golf, playing in almost every club competition each season and travelling the country with his group of friends to compete in Open Competitions and Club Matches. He was an avid watcher of the European Tour on Sky Sports, read Bunkered magazine from cover to cover, followed every inch of Martin Dempster’s golf coverage in the Scotsman and was never slow in coming forward with his views on the latest debates in the game, or what Scottish Golf was up to!
He was great company on the golf course and despite his competitive nature and talent, he never appeared to take the game too seriously, telling stories to his player partners of his latest foreign travels or recalling recent travails in a far-off Seniors Open. He certainly enjoyed the clubhouse camaraderie with the Tuesday and Thursday morning coffee crew, entertaining the staff with his cheeky charm and devilish wit…as well as the odd suggestion or two to improve things at the club. And although he was very much missing his golf during the lockdown period, he’d been enjoying his daily walks “without going up 0.1 every day!”
His fellow seniors were in awe of his length of the tee and he continued to be a great ball striker to this day, constantly toying with the latest club technology, in his words “to keep within 50 yards of Jamie Morris…”. His self-deprecating humour was legendary at the club and he used to joke that anyone who was paired with him in a competition should sign the book so that they did not have to play with him again.
Tom, we are all so glad we did get the opportunity to play with you. You will be sadly missed my friend.
A gentleman, a great companion and a champion. Rest in Peace.
We received the following message from Willie Clark, a regular visitor to the Peebles Open:
To the family and friends of Tom
I’m so sad to hear the very sad news of Tom’s passing, I played with Tom more than once in the Peebles Open! Needless to say, he scored better than me! Every year we came to the Peebles open he always made a point of coming to say hello to myself and the rest of the Gifford boys!
He was always fishing for our thoughts on the course and greens were playing, Tom played with a few of the Gifford lads over the years. The ones that did play with him always commented on how competitive he was, and he seemed to enjoy it if he was hitting it farther than any of the younger ones!
But he always made us feel welcome and appreciated for making our annual trip to your open, he was a wonderful ambassador for Peebles Golf Club. So, on behalf of the (Peebles Open) Traveling Gifford Boys I would like to pass on our thoughts to Tom’s wife family and all the members at Peebles Golf Club. RIP Tom
Sincerely Willie Clark (Gifford Golf Club)