Andrew Thomson, a GSA member and avid hickory player, had the unique experience of growing up as the son of Peter Thomson, Australia’s five-time Open champion. From early childhood Andrew observed the world of professional golf and took in many behind-the-scenes aspects of the life of a tournament player and that of his family and close friends, including the friendships and rivalries, the battles both on and off the course. Peter Thomson’s career brought him into contact with names such as Hogan, Snead, Nicklaus, Palmer, Player, and many other legendary champions. With an interest in antique clubs, Andrew has also studied the history of professional golf and has some fascinating opinions on how the profession has evolved and the influences that continue to shape it.
Commonwealth GC dinner report by John Trevorrow
The Society’s second dinner for the year was a roaring success, with the large audience enthralled by an evening of anecdotes and tales from Andrew Thomson.
Andrew is a long-term GSA member, an international lawyer, author, and a former MHR who was federal Minister for Sport and Tourism and whose six years in Canberra included the 2000 Sydney Olympics. And, of course, his father is the late Peter Thomson, five-time Open champion and president of the PGA of Australia for 32 years.
Andrew’s GSA dinner talk was hosted at Commonwealth Golf Club on June 30th. He titled it “The Life of a Tournament Player: Family, friends, rivals and foes … and the future”. The audience was spellbound, and comments afterwards described his talk as warm, personal and engaging.
Fittingly, the audience included Graham Marsh and Mike Clayton, two golf professionals who achieved great success in Australia and abroad and then turned to golf course architecture — just as Peter Thomson did.
Andrew told how his famous father always regarded club golf as “the plasma of the game”. A group of members from his beloved Victoria GC chipped in to help 21-year-old Peter travel to England in 1951 as a new professional, where he finished 5th in his first tilt at the Open Championship. In 1954, he went on to win his first, in a magnificent year for Australian golf. Fellow Victoria GC member Doug Bachli won the ’54 British Amateur championship, and Tasmania’s Peter Toogood won the silver medal as leading amateur in The Open. But 1954 also marked a shift in how professional golfers were regarded at some clubs. Victoria GC hosted a party for these champion golfers, and some stuffy members said Bachli and Toogood were welcome in the clubhouse, but not Peter as a professional and therefore a tradesman. “I’m coming in,” declared Thomson, and he did.
Andrew said his father as a young pro watched intently some of the champions of his era, including Bobby Locke, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson. He amalgamated some of their movements in his game, and learned where to place his ball to maximise his next shot.
He also spoke of the friendships and rivalries on the Tour — sometimes at the same time. In 1958, Thomson tied for the Open Championship with Welshman Dave Thomas, at Royal Lytham and St Annes. They had to contest a 36-hole play-off the following day. After the morning’s 18 holes, the two players and Peter’s then girlfriend (later wife) Mary and Thomas’s wife Robbie all had lunch of curried sausages together at their hotel before Peter went out to win the Claret Jug.
Another notable golfing friendship was with Ian Fleming, famous as the author of the James Bond spy novels. Fleming — who was elected Captain of Royal St George’s Golf Club, but sadly died before taking up that office — once told Thomson that his Bond novels were “awful” and made him promise never to read one! Peter faithfully kept his promise.
A final anecdote about the remarkable connections that golf gave to Peter Thomson included his friendship with American singer Willie Nelson, who recommended his tax lawyer to Thomson after he had won a considerable amount of money in a season on the US Senior Tour in the 1980s. Eli Callaway had earlier given Peter some shares in his fledgling golf company in return for using an early model Callaway driver, and the tax agent advised Peter to sell the shares when the price later soared. The windfall bought the Thomsons a house in Hope St, St Andrews.
Andrew Thomson closed his talk by urging every golf club in Australia to try to produce an Open Champion, man or woman.
It was Victoria GC members who had done that in 1951, he said, by helping to send Peter to New Zealand to win the 1951 NZ Open before going on to England and eventual golfing glory.
Andrew’s presentation as engaging and entertaining ensuring a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
The Golf Society thanks the Commonwealth Golf for their wonderful hospitality.
John Trevorrow
