Peter Thomson – 23 August 1929 – 20th June, 2018. Five-time Open Champions. AGW Vice-President.
The golf world is mourning the passing of five-time Open Champion, Peter Thomson.
Peter had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for more than four years and lost his brave battle at home in Melbourne surrounded by family at 9.00 a.m. Born on 23 August 1929, he was two months short of his 89th birthday.
Peter was the first Australian to win The Open and went on to secure the title five times and, in fact, he won the national open of 10 countries.
The Association of Golf Writers was very honoured when Peter agreed to become a vice-president of the Association and now with his passing the AGW offers condolences to his lovely wife, Mary and family.
Jack Nicklaus – AGW Vice-President
Peter Thomson was a great golfer and a wonderful ambassador for the game. Peter and I were competitors over the years, and then became good friends when we had the opportunity to captain against each other in the @presidentscupin 1998 the same year we honored him at the @memorialgolf.
I remember my first introduction to Peter Thomson came when I was just 17 years old and playing in my first @usopengolf, which was held at Inverness in my home state of Ohio. After I missed the cut, I recall that I went out to watch some of the players. I crawled on my knees and up a bank at the 15th tee, and peeked through the legs of spectators to watch Peter Thomson and Roberto De Vicenzo of Argentina. That was my first of many memories of Peter Thomson.
Peter and I then had the opportunity to play together a fair number of times throughout the years. He always played the game as it should be played—with great competitiveness, respect, integrity and sportsmanship. Any golfer who won five @theopen titles had to be a very special player, and Peter was. But while that record certainly cemented Peter’s place in history, it might have been Peter’s ability to give back to the game after his years of competition that will underline his global legacy.
Peter was instrumental in helping launch The Presidents Cup, serving as International Captain three times. I know he was passionate about The Presidents Cup, and he gave the matches immediate and lasting credibility. I think the @pgatour would give Peter Thomson a great deal of credit for the success they enjoy today.
My wife @barbaranicklaus and I send our heartfelt thoughts, prayers and love to his wife Mary and his family.
Goran Zachrisson, Present President
In 1956 Peter Thomson played an Exhibition Match at my home club in Sweden. I can still remember his cool, his way of expressing himself and the simple way he played.
For him it was natural and later on, while discussing matters in St Andrews he confessed that he rarely visited driving ranges. Instead he played a few holes with several balls in the evening, when the course was empty.
”Practise must have a meaning”he said. ”Practise is as important as playing and that is what I always worked on”.
Whenever he visited The Open I seeked him out and asked him to visit our studio for Swedish TV. He was delighted and invariably said:
”Let me just say that I can only sit for a few minutes”.
One afternoon at Birkdale I had promised Renton Laidlaw to bring Peter over, once we were finished. But it was hard to stop Peter, so much later I managed to walk him through the tv compound. Renton forgave me, he knew Peter well.
Peter Thomson was the most delightful company, knowledgeable, alert and warm and I shall miss him dearly. He was also a man I admired, a man who, like Bobby Jones managed to study at University while playing and winning Championships.
Iain Carter, Present Chairman
“Following his death, the AGW extends its sympathies to his wife, Mary, four children, 11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.”
Bernie McGuire, Present Secretary
It has been very sad awakening to news Peter Thomson has passed away.
I attribute double Open champion Greg Norman as my inspirtation in delving into golf reporting but it was Peter Thomson who everyone looked-up to and admired.
Peter took up golf writing and filing copy to one of the Melbourne newspapers along with contributing to magazines and also dabbling in TV commentary though seeing him sitting in the press rooms at tournaments it was hard not to remember here was a person who had won five Open’s.
Photo of Peter Thomson when I visited him in 2000. (Photo Bernie McGuire)
In fact, Thomson won the national championship in 10 countries, including the New Zealand Open nine times and Australian Open on three occasions.
Peter was always engaging and would always call you by your first name.
One of my own fondest memories of ‘Thommo’ was meeting-up with him and his wife Mary in St. Andrews and to interview him for an Open Championship preview piece. We had been chatting away for a while when Mary entered the room to say something like ‘That’s enough, Peter needs to have a rest’.
Peter responded saying: “No, I’m fine sitting here talking with Bernie”.
Michael McDonnell – Past President and Chairman
The Legends Golf Society, formed by yours truly in 1989, has saluted a host of international personalities over the years, including Peter Thomson CBE.
The Melbourne legend joined the roll of honour in 1995 when he was presented with the society’s Blue Jacket and Legends in Golf award at Grange Golf Club in Dublin (See photo)
Peter Thomson being honoured with the ‘Blue Jacket and Legends in Golf’ award at Grange Golf Club in Dublin. (Photo – Backspin magazine)
He expressed reservations about the society making a fuss and requested a simple tribute.
Peter regaled over 240 society members with an acceptance speech full of humour, warmth and special memories. He was at ease in the company of old friends and special guests, including Christy O’Connor Snr, Joe Carr, Peter Dobereiner and the Australian Ambassador to Ireland, His Excellency Edward J. Stevens.
Thomson was described by Peter Dobereiner in the society’s souvenir programme as “the classiest act in contemporary golf”.
Several other distinguished figures added to the occasion by penning personal salutes to the five-time Open champion, including Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Peter Alliss, Bob Charles, Bruce Crampton, David Graham, John Jacobs, Kel Nagle, Michael Bonallack, Dick Taylor and Severiano Ballesteros.
A champion golfer, a true gentleman and an absolute class act…Peter Thomson will be sadly missed and fondly remembered by his many admirers in the Emerald Isle and across the golfing globe.
Chris Smart – Mid-Glamorgan Press Agency
Many young Australians benefitted from his advice and encouragement and, in later life, he translated his love of golf courses into attractive designs of his own. More than anyone, Peter had a vision of the way in which the game should head; and events have proved him right. Even after a round in the Open championship, he would find a corner of crowded Press Tents to file his copy to the Melbourne Age. He would discuss the issues of the day in a constructive manner and was a compelling composer of Forewords and Introductions. Sadly, he never got around to his autobiography. It would have been a best seller.
Many are now inclined to think the debate about equipment and the ball is something new. It isn’t. Peter was one who spotted the warning signs forty or more years ago, issuing learned pleas that courses shouldn‘t be tricked up too much to curb low scoring. This included keeping an eye on the distance the ball could be hit because it was the distance the ball could be hit that prompted the doctoring of courses. Nor were faster and faster greens the answer. In his eyes, they could be the problem. What a pity the game didn’t listen more attentively.
A traditionalist who lived in the present might be a fitting epitaph together with a citation for modesty and patience that were trademarks of him and his golf. However, unsurprisingly, memories of St Andrews linger longest. The scene of one Open victory and nearly another, his election as an Honorary member of the R&A in 1983 was something he treasured, a compliment that led to buying a house and spending as much time as possible in the “auld grey toon”. For good measure, in 2005, he received an Honorary Degree from the University of St Andrews.
For me, my first Open at St Andrews comprised a day out from school in 1955 to catch a first sight of a hero who never disappointed. To those of my generation, he was an exemplary figure, his multi-faceted contribution to golf quite unmatched.
John Hopkins – Former AGW Chairman
My first memories of Peter Thomson were from flickering images on a black and white television set in my parents’ home. He wore, as I recall, a white cap or visor, and white shoes. He looked neat. If I said he also often looked querulous it was because his fine head of hair and glasses added to the impression that here was an inquisitive, thoughtful, scholarly man.
A few years later another image of Peter Thomson formed in my mind. Covering Opens in the late sixties and early seventies, I would be sitting at my desk when Peter would stroll in to the media centre, possibly still in his golf clothes with a sweater placed jauntily over his shoulders and carrying a portable typewrite. He would settle himself at a desk and bash out 800 words about his play and that of others in that day’s Open championship and get them transmitted to the Melbourne Age, or so I believe. Impressed as I was by the golf of this man, I was even more impressed to see such am eminent golfer manhandling his typewriter so easily a few feet away from me.
His playing record is well known and needs no repeating here. Instead I will remember the man I came to know in the last thirty years of his life when he was the eminence grise of Australian golf, someone who always had interesting views, the means to express them and no inhibitions about making them known.
To some, he might have looked a typical R & A member in a club tie, grey flannel trousers and blazer, friendly but slightly quizzical. In person he was far from conventional. A conversation with him was always stimulating and at some point he would test you. He owned a house at St Andrews for a number of years and enjoyed his status in the town and at the R & A where he played, often using a pencil bag and only a few clubs. He said to me once: “I’ve been thinking about the bunkers at the Old Course. Do you know how many bunkers there are on the Old Course?” He knew because he was highly intelligent and analytical. I didn’t because I am not.
On another occasion he challenged an historical fact about the royal family I had made in that morning’s Times. Once again, he was right and I was wrong.
He had strict views about the distance the ball travelled (too far), about the speed of play (too slow), about the swing (too complicated), about course design (too many to mention). He believed that golf was a game that should as often as possible be played along the ground, at speed, with enjoyable companions, with discussion going on before and after each shot.
On one visit to Australia we stayed with him in Portsea down the peninsula from Melbourne and ventured on to one of the courses he had designed. To play with a former Open champion was a delight, slightly nervewracking. “That was a bit of a funny one” was his comment after a truly awful shot of mine.
That night various members of his family gathered for dinner and the grandchildren raced around in the garden to his delight. When they paused to come back to the table for food or drink, they called him a name. I asked him what it meant. “Head of the family” he explained briskly and simply, much as he explained briskly and simply about Australia’s politics, about the golf swing, about aspects of Australian life.
I think that was his trick. However complicated things were, he made them seem easy. Many others may have or had the same gift but few to the same extent as Peter.
Recent Comments