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Gateway Virginia

Sunday, January 5, 1997

Across the seas, across the ages: E-mail taps memories of top golfer

Jennings
Culley
In Play

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Paul Sinclair has found a soul mate in Cyberspace.

The Richmond lawyer, who has something of a love affair with golf and golf history, logged onto the Internet two years ago and struck up a correspondence with a Douglas Seaton of North Berwick, Scotland.

It seems Seaton is a self-styled golf historian himself.

Over the months, they have compared notes, exchanged tidbits of golf lore and developed a warm friendship. The friendship has developed to the point that Sinclair and other Richmonders who have an annual team competition here known as the River Cup are planning a golfing expedition to Scotland next year.

Well, in an electronic message recently, Seaton wrote about Scottish pros who migrated to the United States years ago.

He tossed in a line, ''The Thomson family in North Berwick pass on their regards to friends and golfers in Richmond.''

Sinclair turned to us for help.

Ever hear of the Thomsons who were golfers in Richmond?

Indeed.

The Thomsons of Scotland have a connection to our fair city dating back to 1920.

That's when Wilfred Thomson of North Berwick came to America to be professional at the Country Club of Virginia. With him was his 12-year-old son, Jimmy.

Wilfred's name was never established as firmly in American golf lore as Jimmy's.

Wilfred was pro at CCV, Hermitage Country Club (twice), Burning Tree in Washington and Holston Hills in Knoxville, Tenn., before returning to Scotland in 1937.

By then, Jimmy was a stocky, broad-shouldered blond who had become one of the more popular players on what was to become the PGA Tour.

Jimmy was the John Daley of the 1930s. Everywhere he played, fans flocked to see his booming tee shots. He won the North American long-driving contest in 1937, averaging 316 yards with 10 drives. His long drive was said to be 386 yards.

That was in the days before juiced-up balls, oversized metal clubs and graphite shafts.

''I concentrated on driving to the exclusion of everything else when I was a kid,'' Thomson once said. ''I learned to sock with all my might from the minute I first began to swing a club.

''Naturally that worked to the downfall of my short game. I got too much kick out of outdriving everybody to worry about the fine shots around the green.''

Jimmy began tournament golf when he was an assistant pro during his father's second stint at Hermitage in the mid-1920s. He won the State Open when it was played over the Hermitage layout in 1927.

Soon afterward, he became a regular on the budding professional tour. He won the Richmond Open in 1936, the Melbourne, Australia, Open in '34, the Los Angeles Open in '38 and numerous lesser tournaments.

Thomson never won a major or qualified for the Masters. 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.

''He (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 U.S. 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. In L.A., he met and married Viola Dana, a popular movie star of the '30s.

In his lessons, he harkened back to his father.

''My father was a great believer in balance,'' Jimmy said years ago. ''He believed the quieter you stand and the faster you use your hands, the better you'll hit it.''

Despite his size, Thomson used one of the lightest drivers around.

''I always believed you can hit a ball better with lighter clubs . . . you get faster hand action.''

It's a swing premise that lives long after Jimmy Thomson.

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