Looking for Thompson memorabilia
Stanley Thompson (1893-1953) was Canada’s most prolific and storied golf course architect despite dying young, at 60.
Many of his courses are still ranked highly in various magazine polls of the top courses in the country.
He laid out courses across Canada as well as in the United States, Brazil, Colombia and Jamaica. In fact, one of his courses in Brazil, Itanhanga, was seriously considered for the Olympic venue. Another, Sao Paulo hosts a Web.Com Tour event each year.
In Southern Ontario, Thompson was extremely busy in the GTA. His work includes St. Georges, Islington, Summit, The Ladies Golf Club of Toronto, where he went so far as pretending to be married to Ada Mackenzie so that the bank would allow her to borrow the money to build North America’s first women’s only club; and Thornhill where Byron Nelson won the last of his 11 straight PGA Tour events in 1945.
Thompson worked with his older brother, Nicol, the longtime head pro at Hamilton G&CC, to design Brantford and Chedoke. And he also did St. Catharines, Whirlpool, Burlington, Dundas Valley and the now defunct Waterdown Golf Club among many, many others.
Since he did so much work in this area it should be no surprise that the Stanley Thompson Society is headquartered in Dundas.
The driving force behind the Society was the late Bill Newton of Ancaster, Thompson’s greatnephew. Begun in 1998, the Society, among other things, strives to preserve Thompson’s memory and his architectural genius.
One of the ways it is doing that is through the Stanley Thompson Archives, which are housed in the McLaughlin Library at the University of Guelph.
They are open to the public, although you have to register at the library to see the collection.
On a recent visit, I was able to view the original blueprints for Dundas Valley and look at a unique set of drawings that Nicol was proposing to completely redo what is now the Martin course at Chedoke using some of the same routing but turning the holes in the opposite direction. Obviously, it was never acted upon.
The Society occasionally has blueprints, deeds, pictures, land agreements and even books donated to them for the archives, but there are still huge holes in the collection.
There is nothing in their archives, for example from Burlington G&CC. They would also love to find anything from the Waterdown Golf Club.
It’s been four years since the archives have received anything from the public.
If you have something that you think the Stanley Thompson Society might want, or if you just want to find out more about what they do, you can go to their website at stanleythompsonsociety.com or call their office in Dundas at 905-627-1212.
You can also find out more about the Stanley Thompson Archives at www.lib.uoguelph.ca .
The Stanley Thompson Society hosts an annual golf tournament. This year it will be played Monday, July 30, at Thornhill. There is information on how to sign up on their website.
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Now that courses are opening we can report another one that won’t be. A spokesperson for the ownership group confirmed to The Spectator that Hunters Pointe is definitely closed for good, and the irrigation lines were, in fact, removed this past week.
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Golf courses that have significant results or holes-in-one or have an interesting story to tell can contact me at the email address below.