News from our Melbourne office – Thomson Perrett.

Victoria Golf Club (Melbourne, Australia) honoured its most famous member by unveiling a bronze statue of five-times British Open champion Peter Thomson AO, CBE .

Peter at Victoria Golf Club in front of statue

Thomson’s five British Open wins between 1954 and 1965 rank him second to Harry Vardon who won the title six times between 1896 and 1914.  Such was his dominance of the title in the 1950s that in the years that he did not win between 1952 and 1958 he was runner-up.

Peter Thomson - Champion of the British Open 5 times

The unveiling was attended by Thomson, wife Mary, daughter Deirdre, members celebrating the club’s Foundation Day, MPs Andrew Robb and Murray Thomson, Bayside Mayor James Long, and the CEOs of Golf Australia and the PGA, respectively Stephen Pitt and Max Garske.

Melbourne sculptor Louis Lauman took six months to produce the work, drawing his subject in charcoal and using Thomson family scrapbooks to capture the swing and accurately portray the clothes and equipment of the era.

The statue is 1.1 times (110%) life size, sculpted in clay and cast in silicon bronze at the Fundere Fine Art Foundry in West Footscray.

Golfing greatness is measured by major championships won and longevity in the game. Thomson’s first victory of note was his club championship at Royal Park in Melbourne at the age of 16 in 1946.

His last win came in the 1988 Seniors British PGA Championship and he won somewhere in the world at least once every year from 1950 until 1973. In 1985 he dominated the US PGA Senior Tour with an unprecedented nine victories.

His brilliant playing career, with victories spanning five decades, was capped in 1998 when he led the International Team to its only success against the might of United States in the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne.

Along the way he found time to design and build more than 100 golf courses around the world, serve as chairman of the Australian Professional Golfers Association for 32 years, run for Parliament in Victoria and pioneer the professional golf circuit in Asia.

A silky swing at The Home of Golf - St Andrews

WRITTEN ON February 28th, 2010 BY Tim AND STORED IN Golf News, Peter Thomson