“A Light Tender Sensitive Touch Is Worth a Ton Of Brawn.”These are the words of Peter Thomson, one of my favourite golfers of all time and in my opinion one of the most under appreciated. By now you must be all getting the sense of a theme. ;)
Does that impact picture look any good?
Here are some more nuggets from Mr. Thomson.
“Anyone who can walk can play golf. It is a walking game. To be a good golfer you must be a good walker; you must condition your legs.”
And
“Think simply about your swing and you will have a simple, uncomplicated swing. Think simply of drawing the club back, gathering your power and then hitting the ball precisely forward towards your target.”
It is the swing born of these thoughts that won 5, THAT”S RIGHT 5 British Opens!
Here are some more nuggets from Mr. Thomson.
“Anyone who can walk can play golf. It is a walking game. To be a good golfer you must be a good walker; you must condition your legs.”
And
“Think simply about your swing and you will have a simple, uncomplicated swing. Think simply of drawing the club back, gathering your power and then hitting the ball precisely forward towards your target.”
It is the swing born of these thoughts that won 5, THAT”S RIGHT 5 British Opens!
In The Open Championship from 1951 –1971 Thomson finished outside the top ten only three times and came second 4 times including a 2nd place finish to none other than Ben Hogan at Carnoustie in 1953.
Thomson came either 1st or 2nd in every Britsh Open held between 1952 and 1958. In fact if it were not Bobby Locke and Ben Hogan, Thomson would have won 7 British Opens in succession.
It goes without saying then that Thomson could play.
Peter Thomson played a limited number of sorties in America during his prime, but as a Senior he popped over for a full go at it in 1985. He won 9 US Senior Tour events that year. Ho Humm. 9
Yes Peter Thomson could play.
The clip below is brief, but great. Hit replay a few times.
The picture above and the quotes came from Dick Aultman and Ken Bowden’s great book The Masters Of Golf – Learning From Their Methods. It is currently available at very low prices new and used through Amazon.com. I’ve put a link below.
For info on Peter Thomson. Check out Wikipedia :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thomson_(Australian_golfer)
and The World Golf Hall of Fame: http://www.wgv.com/hof/member.php?member=1113
Thomson came either 1st or 2nd in every Britsh Open held between 1952 and 1958. In fact if it were not Bobby Locke and Ben Hogan, Thomson would have won 7 British Opens in succession.
It goes without saying then that Thomson could play.
Peter Thomson played a limited number of sorties in America during his prime, but as a Senior he popped over for a full go at it in 1985. He won 9 US Senior Tour events that year. Ho Humm. 9
Yes Peter Thomson could play.
The clip below is brief, but great. Hit replay a few times.
The picture above and the quotes came from Dick Aultman and Ken Bowden’s great book The Masters Of Golf – Learning From Their Methods. It is currently available at very low prices new and used through Amazon.com. I’ve put a link below.
For info on Peter Thomson. Check out Wikipedia :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thomson_(Australian_golfer)
and The World Golf Hall of Fame: http://www.wgv.com/hof/member.php?member=1113
3 comments:
Kind of amazing that Thomson is largely ignored by the golf world, particularly in North America. Unfortunately, it sort of confirms my beliefs that the British Open is not all that important TO *most* North American golf fans. If he had won the US Open or the Masters 5 times, he would probably rank right up there with Snead and Hogan and we would study his swing religiously and whatnot.
Great post on bringing back one of the forgotten legends back to light.
In "50 golf lessons of the century" John Jacob publish Peter Thonson British Open ranking from 1951 to 1967:
6,2,2,1,1,1,2,1,23,9,7,6,5,24,1,8,8.... Incredible!!!
He almost never used a driver and was driving with his 3 wood
Thank you Sevam to remind us so many great palyers.
I had a compendium-type, miscellany-type, golf book given to me one Christmas; one of a load of typical stocking-filler nick-nacks bought by a well-meaning mother. Most of the book was irrelevant, but there was an excerpt where Peter Thomson was being interviewed about his method which he described at length. The author was writing after Thomson had just won his last Open (I think) and it included (paraphrasing here) gems such as 'measuring off' to the golf ball with the left hand, and for the swing just focusing on keeping your weight nice and centrally balanced and 'drawing the club straight back' and just 'reversing what you have done'. So simple! I tried and my first attempt was rewarded, but like all simple instruction, I then got too complicated and lost it. I lost the book too and would love to know what it was called or where the piece by Thomson came from.
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