Peter Thomson

Write by GoGolf Editorial Team
Peter Thomson
Lifespan
August 23, 1929 – June 20, 2018
Birthplace
Brunswick, Victoria, Australia
Playing record
5 Open Championship titles / World Golf Hall of Fame (1988)
Design firm
Thomson, Wolveridge & Perrett (later Thomson Perrett)
Courses designed
More than 180 courses in over 30 countries

Peter Thomson, born on August 23, 1929 in Brunswick, Victoria, was an Australian professional golfer and golf course architect. He won the Open Championship five times, in 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958 and 1965, and he remains the only player of the twentieth century to take it three years in a row. He was still winning in his fifties, with nine titles on the American senior tour in 1985 alone and the money title that same season. Between 1996 and 2000 he captained the International team at the Presidents Cup three times. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1988 and died in Melbourne on June 20, 2018.

His design work began in the 1960s in partnership with Michael Wolveridge. Ross Perrett joined later, making the practice Thomson, Wolveridge & Perrett, and after Wolveridge left it continued as Thomson Perrett. By the time Thomson retired from design in 2016, the firm had built more than 180 courses in over 30 countries. The best known include The Duke’s at St Andrews in Scotland and, around Melbourne, The National (Moonah course) and The Capital. During the 1970s the design team also included Ronald Fream, who would later make his own name.

Thomson’s ties to Asia ran deep. He helped found the Singapore Open in 1961 and, the following year, became the first overall champion of the Far East Circuit that toured the region. His design work left many courses across Asia as well, among them Singapore Island Country Club and Clearwater Bay in Hong Kong. He is remembered for bringing a links character to tropical land and grasses that are not naturally suited to it.

Indonesia holds more of Thomson’s work than any other country in the region. Handara Golf & Resort in Bali, which opened in 1976, was a collaboration with Wolveridge and Fream, and Jagorawi Golf & Country Club outside Jakarta was built by the same team from the late 1970s. Of the courses listed on GoGolf, 13 in Indonesia and Thailand carry Thomson’s involvement. The following 11 of them can be booked through GoGolf.

Thomson courses you can book on GoGolf

GoGolf also covers Pondok Cabe Golf Club in southern Tangerang (1989) and Lombok Golf Kosaido on Lombok, both attributed to Thomson’s team. Neither of these two courses is currently open for booking through GoGolf. Tee times and rates for a given day can be checked on each course page or in the GoGolf app.

See the other golf course architects here.

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Photo: Mercury newspaper / Libraries Tasmania（1962年）