Stanley Thompson: Splendor in the Rye

By Jeff Mingay

Only a geographical limit in the list of Golfweek magazine's "America’s Best" (golf courses) prevents inclusion of Stanley Thompson’s work among the game’s classical designs.

This Canadian legend, who died in 1953, worked largely north of the border, where he had a decisive influence on a number of prominent U.S. designers. His finest layouts - Capilano Golf Club in Vancouver, Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course and Banff Springs Golf Club in Alberta, Toronto's elegant St. George's Golf & Country Club, and the grandiose Cape Breton Highlands Links in Nova Scotia - easily rank among the world's greatest golf courses.

Yet, outside of Canada, very little is known about Thompson and his golf architecture.

A charter member of the American Society of Golf Course Architects in 1947, Thompson was an artistic genius with a remarkable talent for routing spectacular golf courses over difficult terrain. For that, he was highly respected by his contemporaries during golf design's Golden Age, between the two world wars.

Alister Mackenzie, architect of Cypress Point and Augusta National, once described Thompson's Jasper Park course as "the best I've ever seen".

Thompson and Mackenzie shared a penchant for strategic design, steadfast in their belief that the game should be played with the mind as much as with the body. They were also adamant that nature always be the architect's model in golf course construction.

"Stan was an artist," said golf architect Geoffrey Cornish, who worked for Thompson during the late-1930s. "He would sometimes spend hours personally shaping a single bunker by hand."

Thompson's bunkers are indeed the most visual demonstration of his artistic flair. By definition, a Thompson bunker is irregular in shape, featuring dramatic capes and bays, with sand flashed high on its interior face in order to ensure visibility and drama. However, his art was not limited to a single rule. A variety of bunker styles can be found on various Thompson courses.

Even more impressive than their attractive appearance was Thompson's judicious placement of his bunkers. He frequently located them at varying distances in the direct line from tee-to-green, forcing all golfers, regardless skill level, to consider their presence.

He always provided an option to play away from the sand, on a longer route to the green. By playing over, or near Thompson's bunkers, risk-takers are often rewarded with reduced yardage on the subsequent stroke, and/or a much better angle from which to approach the green.

"The most successful course is one that will test the skill of the most advanced player, without discouraging the 'duffer', while adding to the enjoyment of both," Thompson wrote in his 1923 manifesto, General Thoughts on Golf Course Design. "One should always keep in mind that more than 85 per cent of the golfers play 90 and over. These are the men that support the clubs and therefore the course should not be built for the men who play in the 70 class."

Thompson was an excellent golfer, winner of the qualifying medal at the Canadian Amateur championships of 1919, '23 and '25. Born in Toronto, Ont. in 1894, he was one of five brothers christened "The Amazing Thompson" who dominated the Canadian golf scene during the 1920s.

Shortly after his return from service in Europe during the First World War, Thompson entered into a partnership with his eldest brother Nicol, the professional at Hamilton (Ontario) Golf & Country Club, and Toronto Golf Club's well-known pro George Cumming. The firm of Thompson, Cumming & Thompson opened a downtown Toronto office in 1920 and immediately attracted numerous golf course design commissions. In fact, after one year in business, the firm was so busy that the pros were forced to give up golf architecture in favor of adequately servicing the memberships of their respective clubs.

Stanley Thompson, on the other hand, was just getting started. He re-organized the business as Stanley Thompson & Co., Ltd., hired a soil chemist, plant pathologists, landscape architects, an arborist, and a land planner, and forged onward. By 1924, he claimed (inaccurately, as it turned out) to be the most active golf architect in North America, having designed or remodeled 44 courses in Canada, and another twelve in the U.S.

According to his biographer, James Barclay, author of The Toronto Terror: The Life and Works of Stanley Thompson, Golf Course Architect (Sleeping Bear Press, 2000), Thompson’s career yielded some 145 course projects, a large majority in Canada, with some 20 in the U.S. and a handful in South America and the West Indies.

In 1951, a St. Paul., Minn. newsman covering Thompson’s construction of North Oaks Country Club described the Canadian as a "fabulous little gentleman with a red face and a spike-pointed cane seat". He was indeed a short, rotund man, always dressed conservatively in a suit and waistcoat.

It has been purported that Thompson made three fortune and lost them all, earning the nickname "The Toronto Terror" in the process as a result of his often outrageous behavior and extravagant tastes.

Throughout his most prosperous years during the 1920s, Thompson enjoyed a dozen cigars daily, 15-ounce steaks and no small volume of Canadian rye whiskey. Alcohol never turned him into a villain, but it did fuel his unparalleled skills as a salesman.

"Stan could sell anything to anybody," said Cornish. "He was undoubtedly the greatest salesman ever in our business."

Throughout his career, Thompson took great pride in tutoring a number of aspiring young architects. Among the notables he mentored were Cornish, Clinton E. "Robbie" Robinson, and Howard Watson, whom all went on to establish successful design practices.

Salesmanship was perhaps Thompson's most enduring lesson, as exemplified by his best-known pupil: Robert Trent Jones. Jones is acknowledged by many pundits as the most influential golf architect in history. Between 1930 and his death last year, Trent Jones laid-out some 400 courses in twenty-three countries, and remodeled numerous others in preparation for significant championships.

According to Cornish, Jones owed much of his success to Thompson.

"All of us were very grateful to Stan," Cornish said.

In 1930, Thompson first made acquaintance with a brash 24-year-old Jones, fresh out of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., where he had fashioned a unique course of studies to prepare himself for a career as a golf architect. Jones had been hired to layout a new course for Midvale Golf Club near his hometown of Rochester, N.Y. Curiously, the veteran Thompson was brought in by the club to supervise his work.

As fate would have it, Thompson and Jones discovered that they shared many ideas. In 1932, they formed Thompson-Jones and Co., with offices in Toronto, Rochester, and later New York City. Though loose at times, their partnership lasted until the mid-1940s, with Thompson's efforts concentrated primarily in Canada and Jones focused on work in the United States.

Both men possessed strong personalities. They were known to argue intensely over design issues. But they also shared a strong mutual respect that contributed to a healthy friendship and continued after their business partnership had officially dissolved.

The last years of Thompson's life were spent in Guelph, Ont., some 40 miles southwest of Toronto. He and his brother Frank, the 1921 and '24 Canadian Amateur champion, had purchased The Cutten Club there, supposedly on a hunch that its founder, Arthur Cutten, had hidden millions of dollars of negotiable securities in the walls of the clubhouse. Thompson is said to have knocked down those walls and torn up the floorboards in search of the treasure.

In recent years, interest in Thompson and his golf architecture has escalated in Canada. A Stanley Thompson Society was founded in 1998. Its mission is to educate golfers about Thompson's design philosophies in an effort to preserve his original works. An admirable cause indeed, for Stanley Thompson was a pioneer and a genius in the field of golf architecture. His work ranks among North America’s best.

This article appears in Golfweek magazine’s 2001 annual “America’s Best” issue – March 19, 2001