feature
Five-time Open champion, three-time President’s Cup captain, winner of over 100 professional events — and for one afternoon last November, HK Golfer’s teammate in a friendly betterball game STORY BY ALEX JENKINS
A Round with a
Legend:Peter
Thomson
26
HK GOLFER・APR/MAY 2009
WWW.HKGA.COM
Captions Captions Captions Captions Captions Captions Peter Thomson, Fanling, Captions UBS Hong KongCaptions Open
A
few days prior to the start of the UBS Hong Kong Open, I made my way to Shek O Country Club with what I thought was a pretty straightforward assignment: grab a quick interview with Thomson over lunch and then go out and follow him for a few holes as he tackled the picturesque course in the company of old friend and club captain Jim Mailer, Shek O general manager Paul Brown and Iain Roberts, Head Professional at The Hong Kong Golf Club. It’ll make a nice little story, we at HK Golfer thought. Have a chat with one of the game’s true greats, check WWW.HKGA.COM
out his play, and maybe get him to sign a couple of past issues of the magazine for posterity. Nice. But on being introduced to Thomson, a triple Hong Kong Open winner who was in town as a guest of the championship sponsors to help mark the event’s 50th anniversary celebrations, Mailer had news. “Iain Roberts can’t make it today, he’s tied up at Fanling,” he explained. “Alex, would you like to join us?” It was like handing over the keys of an Aston Martin DB9 to a 15-year-old kid and asking if he fancied taking it out for a spin. “Yes, very much, thank you,” I replied, trying to keep a Joker-like grin from forming at my lips. I didn’t have my own clubs with me and wasn’t dressed for golf but that was beside the point. I was going to play with the greatest Australian golfer in history — I didn’t need custom-fit sticks and a pair of softspikes to enjoy the occasion. A set of 10-year-old ultra-whippy graphite-shafted rental clubs and street shoes would more than suffice. Thomson, who turns 80 in August, rarely plays these days. Busy with his flourishing course design company, whose portfolio includes the Eden Course at Fanling and the much more recent Clearwater Bay renovation, he claims to tee it up only once a month on average. “It’s my hands,” he explains. “As I’ve gotten older I’ve lost a lost of the feel. It’s hard work now.” Like me, Thomson hadn’t brought his own clubs and was borrowing a set that belonged to Brown’s son. On inspecting the driver – a new, jumbo-headed, titanium-enriched affair – he chuckles to himself and quips: “Not like they were in my time. I can never get over how light they make equipment nowadays.” Not that that seemed to matter in the slightest. Starting off on the par-4 3rd (we decided to skip the first two holes because of concerns over light) Thomson rips a drive down the rightcentre of the fairway, about 220-yards from the tee. Any doubts I might have had over his current abilities were immediately extinguished. While his swing is a touch jerkier than the sweet, uncomplicated action he used to capture titles from the 50s to the 80s with, make no mistake: the man can still play. It’s on the greens, however, where Thomson really excels. Gripping the putter incredibly lightly, his stroke appears every bit as fluid as it was in his heyday. Every putt rolls pure and every putt challenges the hole. But, agonizingly, too many catch the lip and fail to drop. Looking heavenward after a 15-footer for a half horseshoes out, it’s obvious that Thomson’s competitive juices still flow. This might just be a midweek knockaround but his determination to win hasn’t left him. Nevertheless, after four holes we’re three down to the locals who have played very solidly indeed. I have contributed zilch and it’s starting to get a little embarrassing. HK GOLFER・APR/MAY 2009
27
To draw his attention away from my lacklustre game, I get Thomson talking about his favourite subject: links golf. “Golf, like sailing, needs wind,” says the man who, in 1965, bested a field which included Nicklaus, Palmer and Player to lift the Claret Jug for a record fifth time. (Tom Watson would later match the feat). “What I don’t really like about the courses the professionals play today is that they’re all the same. You can play one week in America and the next in China and
28
HK GOLFER・APR/MAY 2009
the conditions are the same. It’s the same type of grass and they play the same way - too soft. There’s no challenge in that. Links courses, if prepared properly, are firm and bare and wind is normally a factor. It’s the purest form of the game there is.” The modern ball – and the distance it travels – also worries him. Brought up on the classic sandbelt tracks of Melbourne, Thomson, who reckons he only drove it 230-240-yards in his prime, believes technology has gone too far – at least for the professionals. “A lot of skill has been taken out of the game because of the ball and the sheer number of dimples it has now,” he says, co-incidentally, after I hit my first decent drive of the round. “It isn’t affected by the wind as much, it flies so far and it’s easy to spin, which makes the short game a bit one dimensional. You don’t often see players running shots up to the flag anymore. Royal Melbourne is the best course we have in Australia, but it’s almost defenceless nowadays. Limit the number of dimples and you solve the problem. But having said that, it’s hard to argue with the results. The best player is still winning.” It might sound like Thomson is stuck in the past, keen for the game to return to the days when courses were less manicured and persimmon-headed drivers were de rigueur. But he’s not. Quietly-spoken yet thoroughly engaging, intelligent and quick-witted, he has lost none of his enthusiasm for the sport. He is simply a defender of golf’s heritage. His thoughts on slow play and the lack of knowledge surrounding the rules are cases in point. “We used to take three hours and 15 minutes when playing in threeballs,” he remembers. “[Bobby] Locke was accused of being a slow player but he would take three hours and 20 minutes. Now a player doesn’t even have to know the rules because they’re encouraged to call in rules officials at every turn. We never got into tangles; the players used to watch each other. Rule 6.7, which governs undue delay, should be paramount. If a player says ‘I want a ruling because I don’t know what to do’ then 15 minutes passes before it’s sorted out and he plays his shot. If that isn’t slow play I don’t know what is.” Thomson takes an enormous interest in the state of the game in his home country, which is not surprising given that he was president of the Australian PGA for 32 years (from 1962 to 1994). And the prognosis isn’t positive. “I have mixed feelings about the development of professional golf in Asia,” says the Victorian, who was instrumental in the foundation of the Asian professional circuit in the 1960s. “I’m delighted that the tournaments have increased in stature, but the Australian Tour has suffered WWW.HKGA.COM
as a direct result. We used to have at least 15 events played during October, November and December, but now we really only have three big weeks. Still, the competition for players and sponsors is huge, which, generally speaking, is healthy for the game. Australia will take care of its problems in its own way.” Listening to professional golfers talking about other professional golfers is always insightful, and Thomson doesn’t disappoint. After complimenting Brown on yet another long, straight drive (although we’re playing them off the stick, both Brown and Mailer are making a mockery of their seven handicaps and WWW.HKGA.COM
have extended their lead in the match to 5-up), he starts talking on the importance of rhythm. “[Sam] Snead was the best. I used to love watching him play,” he says. “He was incredibly fit, too. People talk about how fit Tiger Woods is, but Snead was just as fit and incredibly flexible as well.” Of the modern breed of player, fellow countryman Geoff Ogilvy and Andres Romero impress Thomson the most. “Certainly, Ogilv y is t he most likely Australian to succeed,” he says. “Adam Scott has flattered to deceive, but I do like the look of Ogilvy. And what happened to Romero at
Hong Kong Connection (clockwise from above): Thomson unleashes a drive down the 3rd at Shek O; a three-time HK Open winner; giving young amateur Steven Lam a few words of encouragement before the second round
HK GOLFER・APR/MAY 2009
29
the masters
30
HK GOLFER・APR/MAY 2009
On Game’s the
Greatest Stage
Photography by Rob Brown / Martin Miller
One Fine Day: With HK Golfer Publisher Charles McLaughlin (above); checking out his borrowed driver on the Shek O terrace
the Open when Harrington won in 2007 (the Argentinean struck the concrete bank of the Barry Burn with his second shot to the 17th at Carnoustie to make double bogey and finish outside the playoff by a shot) was the unluckiest thing I’ve ever seen on the golf course. I expect him to win an Open some day.” As we were on the subject of the Open at Carnoustie I ask Thomson his thoughts on what happened to Jean Van de Velde, HK Golfer’s playing editor, at the 72nd hole in 1999 when he made triple bogey to fall into a playoff, which he would end up losing to Paul Lawrie. Wasn’t he even unluckier than Romero? Thomson pauses to consider the question. “ Wel l , h e wa s c e r t a i n l y u n lu c k y,” h e acknowledges. “But in that position, I would have played the hole a lot differently.” While Thomson’s record at the Open in unmatched, there has always been a slight undercurrent of criticism that his victory at St Andrews in 1955, where he joined James Braid, Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen and Bobby Locke as the only men in the 20th Century to defend the championship, came against a weakened field, with many of the best American players of the time failing to make the trans-Atlantic trip to play. Thomson, clearly used to hearing the snipe, replies: “[Ben] Hogan wasn’t there, that’s true, but Cary Middlecoff, the leading US money-winner was, as was Byron Nelson and Ed Furgol, the US Open champion. Those who stayed away generally did so because they didn’t think they could win.” Perhaps inspired by the memories of his success, Thomson finds another gear and we
start winning holes. After being five down with only five to play, a Thomson birdie at the 14th after a delightful pitch, a solid par at the 15th and an unlikely birdie of my own at the 16th means we’ve clawed our way back into the match. Dormie two. What happens next is vintage Thomson. At the 17th, a shortish par-3, he fires a beautifully flighted 5-iron that draws perfectly against a fade wind and lands just 10-feet from the hole. A solid par from Mailer means he needs to hole it to keep the match alive and he does, the ball dropping into the centre of the cup for the best birdie of the day. Dormie one. It’s all set for a grandstand finish, and with the opposition in trouble and both of us safely on the green in regulation, a tied match is looking the most likely prospect. But then Mailer, from a terrible lie in a greenside bunker, plays a remarkable shot to seven feet and when neither Thomson nor I are successful with our birdie efforts, he sinks the putt for a half and a 1-up victory. As we make our way back up the hill towards the clubhouse for some much-needed refreshment, I thank Thomson for the game and apologize for my ragged play. “Nonsense,” he replies. “We nearly got them at the end there, but that’s beside the point. When you reach my age and can still take enjoyment out of the game that makes it a great day.”
A Hong Kong golfer receiving an invitation to the Masters? Maybe not this year, but the chance of one of our own teeing it up at Augusta in the not too distant future isn’t as unlikely as it might sound
WWW.HKGA.COM
WWW.HKGA.COM
HK GOLFER・APR/MAY 2009
31