He was one of the founding fathers of golf and a gentleman of the game who quite literally did more than anyone to shape its landscape in its early days.

James Braid was a five-times Open Championship winner in the early years of the 20th century, who went on to design courses the length of the UK, counting some of the most fabled fairways and greens among his creations.

The man was behind the toughest holes at world-renowned courses such as the King’s and Queen’s at Gleneagles, Carnoustie in Angus, East Lothian’s Royal Musselburgh, the Highland links at Brora, Bruntsfield in Edinburgh, founded in 1761, and the Championship course at Dalmahoy.

And now the 150th anniversary of his birth is to be honoured with its very own open championship, played just as the great golfer would have known – with traditional hickory wood clubs, plus fours and bunnets.

The James Braid 150th Anniversary Hickory Open will tee off on February 6, Braid’s birthday, and see players tackle the course using equipment from a bygone era which would seem archaic today but would have been the stock in trade of players in Braid’s time.

Born in Earlsferry in Fife in 1870, James Braid was a founder of the world’s first Professional Golf Association and a member of the “Great Triumvirate” of British golf, who along with Harry Vardon and JH Taylor dominated the Open Championship from 1894 to 1914.

Said to be “the shining example of the difference between the golfer and the hitter of golf balls”, Braid was the first person to score under 70 at the tournament and was famed for his quiet courtesy on the course and sense of fair play.

His 1906 victory in the Open Championship was the last successful defence of the title by a European until Pádraig Harrington replicated the feat in 2008. Dressed in a Tweed cap and Norfolk coat, always accompanied by a collar and tie, he cut a dignified figure, and his game was said to have only suffered from a relatively poor skill at putting. But when he switched to innovative aluminium-headed putters on hickory shafts, he is said to have become lethal on the greens, banishing his early problems completely.

Yet while his golfing ability was said to be remarkable, it is his for eye for the architecture of golf for which many hold him in high esteem today.

With his vast experience of tournament play and his understanding of design and construction, Braid set the standard in golf course design which the rest of the world would follow, inventing such features as the dog-leg hole and the pot bunker.

During a career which stretched more than 50 years, he had a hand in designing around 200 courses, and helped revitalise many more. The total number is vague, but it is reckoned his influence can be found on 400 different courses in the UK, though a lifelong dislike of travelling meant he never visited the US, and only one course in America was made to his specifications, though he never visited it. As well as being one of the top tournament players of his day, Braid was a club professional at Walton Heath in Surrey, where he lived from 1905 until his death in 1950. The last course he designed was Creachmore in Stranraer, which opened shortly after his death.

The James Braid Anniversary Open is the first match in a Scottish “hickory tour” taking place throughout the year. The tour is the first time since the 1930s a group of golfers have staged a multi-course competition using the sort of clubs and equipment professionals would take to the greens with before technology took a hold of the game from the 1940s on.

The tour will see the world’s top 20 professionals and best 40 amateurs compete to qualify to participate in a final in October. Players will tee off at the Anniversary Open at Braid Hill in Edinburgh, and will also gather at the nearby Thistle Club, where Braid was a member in 1891, at noon for a toast. Hickory golf has become increasingly popular in recent years, and the World Hickory Open Championship is staged in Scotland each year. Sandy Lyle, winner of the Open in 1985 and US Masters Champion in 1988, has won the event twice. The current champion is Swedish professional Johan Moberg.

Playing a round using traditional equipment is said to require a greater degree of skill than modern clubs, as the ball cannot be hit as far or with the same accuracy.

Boris Lietzow, organiser of the James Braid Open, runs Scotland’s only specialist hickory golf shop, Jack White in Gullane, East Lothian. He said the tournament would be played in the same spirit as the game was in Braid’s day.

Leitzow said: “The Scottish Hickory Tour has been created after a tournament culture in hickory golf has been established over the past 20 years by bodies such as the British Golf Collectors’ Society, the Society of Hickory Golfers of America or the World Hickory Open Championship.

“The vision is to create a circuit on which hickory golf is played to a high level by professionals and amateurs, and to play golf with wooden shafts brings the etiquette and style of the game in the 1920s into the foreground. If hickory is played with vintage clubs, the carbon footprint of the equipment is zero, since it is based on 100% recycled material.”

He added: “The inaugural match of the Scottish Hickory Tour will not count into the tour’s points system, but is an anniversary celebration.

“It is a social event in which about 30 players will participate, among them players from Switzerland and the United States, along with several professionals.”

Peter Stanbrook, captain of the James Braid Golfing Society, said: “Even while he was winning tournaments, Braid turned his talents to golf course design. He originated classic courses and a number of ‘village gems’ – smaller courses up and down the land which are known for being ‘thinking men’s golf courses’.

“He developed this into a lengthy and outstanding career, both originating courses and revising existing layouts. In all, nearly 400 courses have felt the benefit of his design expertise in some way. His legacy remains and he is up there with the very best of golf architects through the ages. To all of these achievements he added personal characteristics of charm, common sense and integrity. He was an enormously well-respected figure in 20th century British golf.”

Stanbrook added: “So, it is quite fitting to be remembering him and celebrating his legacy in 2020, the 150th anniversary of his birth.

“I am delighted to see that the hickory golfers are undertaking this extended tour of golf courses with Braid connections. I wish them all the best in their venture.”