MAGAZINE 2022-23
It was the same 18th green where his father, the great Australian champion Peter Thomson, won the Open Championship in 1956 - one of five he won in a career that earned him a place in golf's pantheon of legends.
Andrew played Hoylake with Captain Jeremy Greenfield and past captain Andy Cross. Making up the four was Andrew's lifelong friend and current captain of Royal Melbourne, Tony Rule.
The pair's July 6 visit was the North West leg of a sentimental trip that took in the scenes of Peter's triumphs at Hoylake, Birkdale and Lytham and ended watching their countryman Cameron Smith win the Open at St Andrews where Peter also lifted the Claret Jug.
They also found time for rounds at Ganton and Alwoodley as they headed North.
Fittingly, Andrew played Hoylake with a set of Dunlop Maxflis ('found 'em on a shelf covered in dust') used by his dad at the height of his powers in the 1950s.
Andrew is a solid ten handicapper with a touch of the old man's style in his swing. But it was in politics not golf that he made his name, serving as Australia's minister for Sport and Tourism in 1997 and '98. He now lives in Japan where he works as a lawyer and also turns his hand to some golf course architecture,
A fluent Japanese speaker, he and Tony Rule are opening up links between top clubs there and in Australia - and he feels there's a real opportunity for RLGC to get involved too.
The night before his round at Hoylake, Andrew and Tony had dinner at the home of Senior Past Captain Anthony Shone and his wife Wendy. Post-round, the pair were entertained to lunch at the club by the Captain, Andy Cross, Anthony Shone, past captain Joe Pinnington and Heritage Committee chair Bruce Taylor.
Andrew said: ''It was a joy to visit Hoylake. I'd like to thank all concerned for how wonderfully we were treated. My dad was always reluctant to talk about his Open wins - he'd play them down if he could. But once you got him talking he spoke with great affection about Hoylake and the other great links courses over here. Particularly certain holes that stuck in his memory.
"I was thrilled to be able to recognise his Hoylake achievement in my own private way. I was thrilled too, that although the Open was in full swing at St Andrews, the Director of Greenkeeping, Sandy Reid, took me out to the 18th and allowed me to sprinkle some of dad's ashes there too.
WE HAD AN AMAZING TRIP. I WISH DAD HAD BEEN WITH ME. HE'D HAVE RELISHED SEEING CAM SMITH WIN THE OPEN.
Peter Thomson's astounding record of five Open Championship wins is bettered only by Harry Vardon and matched only by JH Taylor, James Braid and Tom Watson. His victories came at Birkdale twice, in 1954 and 1965, at St Andrews in 1955, Hoylake in1956 and Lytham in 1958. He died in 2018.
