A Round with a Legend: Peter Thomson

Of the modern breed of player, fellow countryman Geoff Ogilvy and Andres Romero impress Thomson the most.
“Certainly, Ogilvy is the most likely Australian to succeed,” he says. “Adam Scott has flattered to deceive, but I do like the look of Ogilvy. And what happened to Romero at the Open when Harrington won in 2007 (the Argentinean struck the concrete bank of the Barry Burn with his second shot to the 17th at Carnoustie to make double bogey and finish outside the playoff by a shot) was the unluckiest thing I’ve ever seen on the golf course. I expect him to win an Open some day.”
As we were on the subject of the Open at Carnoustie I ask Thomson his thoughts on what happened to Jean Van de Velde, HK Golfer’s playing editor, at the 72nd hole in 1999 when he made triple bogey to fall into a playoff, which he would end up losing to Paul Lawrie. Wasn’t he even unluckier than Romero?
Thomson pauses to consider the question. “Well, he was certainly unlucky,” he acknowledges. “But in that position, I would have played the hole a lot differently.”
While Thomson’s record at the Open in unmatched, there has always been a slight undercurrent of criticism that his victory at St Andrews in 1955, where he joined James Braid, Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen and Bobby Locke as the only men in the 20th Century to defend the championship, came against a weakened field, with many of the best American players of the time failing to make the trans-Atlantic trip to play. Thomson, clearly used to hearing the snipe, replies: “[Ben] Hogan wasn’t there, that’s true, but Cary Middlecoff, the leading US money-winner was, as was Byron Nelson and Ed Furgol, the US Open champion. Those who stayed away generally did so because they didn’t think they could win.”