Wilfred Thomson was professional at The Country Club of Virginia, Hermitage Country Club in Richmond, Burning Tree in Maryland, Holston Hills at Knoxville in Tennessee and then back to the Hermitage Country Club. The original Hermitage course which hosted the PGA Championship in 1949, is now a public course in Richmond.

This article appeared in the Virginia Richmond Times Dispatch newspaper in June 1925, entitled Shattering Records '....Wilfred Thomson, golf professional at the Hermitage Country Club, successfully attained an objective on his home course that had defied the best efforts of the great Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen and other noted stars, when he carded a 71, on the par 73 course. Thomson took fifteen putts on the outward nine, and thirteen coming home for a total of 28 putts in the full round....'

In the same issue it was interesting to note that his son, Jimmy Thomson had qualified for the national open golf championship at Worcester, Mass. He is said to be the youngest contestant ever to qualify for the national open at his first attempt, being only 16 years of age.

The Long Beach correspondent of the New York Times says of young Thomson,'...... One of the future greats to be unearthed during the playing of the qualifying rounds of the championship at the Lido Country Club is James Thomson. Young Thomson turned in 78 and 79 for a total of 157, which stamps him as a worthy successor to the Hagens and Smiths of today......'

At the 1926 U.S. Open played at the Scioto Country Club in Columbus Ohio, Jimmy finished in 16th place. He started with 77, then had a disastrous round of 83, followed with two fine rounds of 73 and 74. The calibre of the seventeen year old's golf may be better understood and appreciated when it is noted that during the entire tournament only fourteen rounds were scored better than 73. Willie Hunter the former Amateur Champion was the leading British player in 8th place on 300, his third round being a brilliant 69.
Tommy Armour the former Scottish Amateur Champion tied for 9th place on 301 and Jack Forrester from North Berwick tied for 13th place on 302. Bobby Jones won the event on 293, to became the first golfer to hold both the British and US Open Championships in the same year.

In 1936, Wilfred returned to the UK and took up the post of private professional to Lord Wimborne at Rugby. On the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the Royal Scots regiment, Thomson had also seen active service during the 1914-18 war. After peace had been declared, he travelled back to America for a short period, and then finally returned to North Berwick, living at 25 East Road. During the 1950's he was a familiar figure on the West Links, teaching youngsters the game. Wilfred Thomson died in May 1962, at the age of 74.

Thomson was among an elite field of invited pro's, playing in a round-robin tournament in 1940 at Fresh Meadow C.C in New York. Including Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Gene Sarazen, Jimmy Demaret, Horton Smith and Sam Snead.

Jimmy Thomson grew up to be a stocky, broad-shouldered blond and one of the more popular players on what was to become the US. Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Tour. Jimmy was the John Daly of the 1930s. Everywhere he played, fans flocked to see his booming tee shots. Thomson won numerous driving contests ­ 380 yards at the 18th at Colorado Springs on eight occasions and during the 1929 Open at Muirfield, he drove the 375 yard 11th hole. At the 1935 National Open at Oakmount he reached the 595 yards 12th hole in two shots, and on 10th August 1937, he won the North American long-driving contest at Fonthill on the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls.

To quote his own reported words " Everybody hit 20 drives, they averaged the ten best, my average was 316 yards and my best 386 " An American journalist said of him, he was to golf what Babe Ruth was to baseball. "I concentrated on driving to the exclusion of everything else when I was a kid, Thomson once said. I learned to hit the ball with all my might from the minute I first began to swing a club. Naturally that worked to the detriment of my short game. I got too much kick out of outdriving everybody to worry about the finer shots around the green."

In 1934, the Australian PGA persuaded a number of outstanding golfers to play in the £3,000 Centenary Open at Melbourne. They included Joe Kirkwood, Leo Diegel, Mac Smith, Gene Sarazen and Denny Shute. Jimmy Thomson won the event with a total of 283, and Sarazen commented "I have seen Jimmy paste the ball greater distances than he did Down Under, but on no occasion back home have I seen him produce an over-all game of equal brilliance." Thomson went on to win the Richmond Open in 1936, the Los Angeles Open in 1938 and regularly played in the Masters Tournament at Augusta finishing sixth in 1937 and eighth the following year. Jimmy never won a major and frustration of near-misses lingered with him for years.

In 1936, when the PGA Championship was match play, he reached the finals at Pinehurst before losing to Denny Shute, 3 and 2. " Shute was in the trap nine times that day and got up and down every time," Thomson recalled years later. In 1935 at Oakmont, Thomson finished second to Sam Parks Jr. in the US. Open. Thomson had a two-shot lead after 14 holes in the final round but bogeyed the last four holes."I hit four good tee shots, too," he moaned later. "But I wound up in two traps and three-putted two greens."

Off the tour, Jimmy worked as a teaching pro at Broadmoor Country Club in Colorado Springs and at Lakewood Country Club in Los Angeles where he met and married Viola Dana, a popular movie star of the'30s. He often reminisced about his father who was a great believer in balance, he believed the quieter you stand and the faster you use your hands, the better you'll hit it. When I was 13 or 14 years old I began with a 9 iron and stood very quiet with my feet together, I was able to work up enough hand speed to get normal distance with the club. When I was 16 or 17 I got so I could hit a drive 225 yards with my feet together.

For many years Jimmy Thomson was a member of the Spalding golf advisory staff at their headquarters in Chicople and was well known throughout Western Massachusetts giving public clinics. He also took part in exhibition matches sponsored by Spalding & Co. across the United States with Harry Cooper and Lawson Little. During WW2 Thomson served in the US Coast Guard and in 1940 was among an elite field of invited pro's, playing in a round-robin tournament at Freshmeadow C.C in New York. Including Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Gene Sarazen, Jimmy Demaret, Horton Smith and Sam Snead. Jimmy returned with Lawson Little to Scotland in 1948 to compete in the Open at Muirfield and on Monday 12th July following the Open, played an exhibition match over the North Berwick West Links. This time he was joined by Brazilian Mario Gonzalez and the newly crowned Open champion Henry Cotton.

The spectators had come to see the South American, an amateur at that time playing in his first Open, described as having a stick-like physique but was noted for the beauty and power of his strike. That day Jimmy stole the show, driving the 328 yard first green to the crowd's delight, but more was to follow. At the 14th named ' Perfection', a 376 yard par 4, Jimmy holed his second shot to the blind green and Henry Cotton turned to the crowd and said " Local boy comes good " The set of clubs Cotton used that day, and also to win his third Open title, are now the most prized possession in the boardroom of the PGA at the Belfry near Birmingham.

In 1953, Jimmy Thomson acted alongside Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin in the film 'Caddy' and in 1960 was made a life member of the Carolina PGA Section. Although his tournament days were over, Thomson was still very much involved in the game, being appointed promotional director for Dunlop in the U.S.

Jimmy was last interviewed in 1974 when he was in a nursing home after suffering several strokes which left him an invalid. My thanks are due to Chauncey Durden, former Sports Editor of the Richmond Times Dispatch and Jennings Culley for their assistance in this research. There was also a book written about Jimmy, called Hit 'Em for Miles, How to Drive a Golf Ball, AN 635, 1961 Probst, this is now out of print.