RIP Hubert Green, Peter Thompson

[The Recreational Golfer]

Hubert Green, winner of 19 PGA Tour events, 10 others worldwide, and the 1977 U.S. Open and 1985 PGA Championship, died Tuesday at age 71. See his AP News obituary here: https://apnews.com/e62852d0e9d746009f91e8ba3cd3c1bb

Peter Thompson, winner of  84 professional events and five British Opens (1954, 1955, 1956, 1958, and 1965), died Wednesday at age 88.  See the NY Times obituary here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/obituaries/peter-thomson-australian-golfer.html

 

 

 

[sheepdog]

Too bad about Hubert Green, got to watch him several times in Memphis and seemed to be a real nice guy. One of the most unusual swings ever. Old line on him was one of the 70s pros was hitting balls on the practice tee, might have been Weiskopf, and a chainsaw started up in the distance. "There goes Hubert working on his swing again." It had the whole practice tee laughing.

 

RIP Hubert and Peter.

[BamaWade]

Hubie's a local hero here...always enjoyed following his group here at the Bruno's Memorial.  Hated to hear about his passing.  RIP.

[MrGolfguy67]

Sad news. Hubert Green was one of 'the' names on the PGA Tour in the late 70s - 80s when i first became interested in golf; as well known and popular as, for example, Jim Furyk today.

Peter Thompson was a legendary player whose 5 Open Championships is one of the great accomplishments in modern golf history.

[Phil McGleno]

43 minutes ago, MrGolfguy67 said:

Peter Thompson was a legendary player whose 5 Open Championships is one of the great accomplishments in modern golf history.

When I die I hope people make up bullcrap like that about my accomplishments.

Who did he beat in 1954? 1955? 1956?-Truth is the British Open back then was not even really considered a major.

The PGA Championship was regularly scheduled at a time that almost guaranteed the best players in the world wouldn't play in the British Open (nor would they care to anyway).

The prize money won by Peter in 1954? 750 pounds.-According to a currency converter that is under 10 thousand in today dollars.-$9,107.09.

Place	Player	Country	Score	To par	Money (₤)
1	Peter Thomson	Australia	71-68-70-72=281	–7	1,000
2	John Fallon	Scotland	73-67-73-70=283	–5	500
3	Frank Jowle	England	70-71-69-74=284	–4	350
4	Bobby Locke	South Africa	74-69-70-72=285	–3	200
T5	Ken Bousfield	England	71-75-70-70=286	–2	90
	Antonio Cerdá	Argentina	73-71-71-71=286
	Bernard Hunt	England	70-71-74-71=286
	Flory Van Donck	Belgium	71-72-71-72=286
	Harry Weetman	England	71-71-70-74=286
T10	Romualdo Barbieri	Argentina	71-71-73-72=287	–1	40
	Christy O'Connor Snr	Ireland	71-75-70-71=287

Oh I bet Peter was quaking in his boots with Flory Van Donck and Harry Weetman nipping at his heels five strokes back-And winning 90 whole pounds for their efforts-That is almost $1150 in 2018 money!

---

I hope he rests in peace-and nobody can take away his wins. But they were not major championships. He won one event on the PGA Tour and the British Opens had worse fields than a modern-day Web.com Tour event. I give him more credit for winning the Texas International Open than his first four British Opens combined.

The 1965 one at least had a few decent players competing.-Kinda.

---

Greenie-Man-the world lost a character there.

RIP to both men.

[MrGolfguy67]

When i die i hope nobody pisses on my grave like you just did on Peter Thompson's. Because he didn't win millions of dollars means it was a pathetic, meaningless win? How totally screwed up that thinking is. How many players have ever won 5 Open championships? This great accomplishment should be admired and respected by all golfers past, present, and future.

[iacas]

4 minutes ago, MrGolfguy67 said:

When i die i hope nobody pisses on my grave like you just did on Peter Thompson's. Because he didn't win millions of dollars means it was a pathetic, meaningless win?

He didn't do that.

4 minutes ago, MrGolfguy67 said:

How many players have ever won 5 Open championships? This great accomplishment should be admired and respected by all golfers past, present, and future.

They weren't at all what should be considered major championships when he won them. Not even close. I agree - I give more weight to the PGA Tour event he won over the first four British Opens he won.

But it's kinda off topic, too. So I won't get into it much.

[GrandStranded]

1 hour ago, Phil McGleno said:

When I die I hope people make up bullcrap like that about my accomplishments.

Who did he beat in 1954? 1955? 1956?-Truth is the British Open back then was not even really considered a major.

The PGA Championship was regularly scheduled at a time that almost guaranteed the best players in the world wouldn't play in the British Open (nor would they care to anyway).

The prize money won by Peter in 1954? 750 pounds.-According to a currency converter that is under 10 thousand in today dollars.-$9,107.09.

Place	Player	Country	Score	To par	Money (₤)
1	Peter Thomson	Australia	71-68-70-72=281	–7	1,000
2	John Fallon	Scotland	73-67-73-70=283	–5	500
3	Frank Jowle	England	70-71-69-74=284	–4	350
4	Bobby Locke	South Africa	74-69-70-72=285	–3	200
T5	Ken Bousfield	England	71-75-70-70=286	–2	90
	Antonio Cerdá	Argentina	73-71-71-71=286
	Bernard Hunt	England	70-71-74-71=286
	Flory Van Donck	Belgium	71-72-71-72=286
	Harry Weetman	England	71-71-70-74=286
T10	Romualdo Barbieri	Argentina	71-71-73-72=287	–1	40
	Christy O'Connor Snr	Ireland	71-75-70-71=287

Oh I bet Peter was quaking in his boots with Flory Van Donck and Harry Weetman nipping at his heels five strokes back-And winning 90 whole pounds for their efforts-That is almost $1150 in 2018 money!

---

I hope he rests in peace-and nobody can take away his wins. But they were not major championships. He won one event on the PGA Tour and the British Opens had worse fields than a modern-day Web.com Tour event. I give him more credit for winning the Texas International Open than his first four British Opens combined.

The 1965 one at least had a few decent players competing.-Kinda.

---

Greenie-Man-the world lost a character there.

RIP to both men.

Wow. I repeat, WOW. Your "who did they beat" nonsense is insufferable enough in the Tiger-Jack threads you and some others like to run amok in. But to go there here, shows me all I need or want to know about you. 

[Phil McGleno]

3 minutes ago, GrandStranded said:

Wow. I repeat, WOW. Your "who did they beat" nonsense is insufferable enough in the Tiger-Jack threads you and some others like to run amok in. But to go there here, shows me all I need or want to know about you. 

Do you think I care what you think of me?-How is me the topic here? It is not.

He beat a bunch of nobodies. Do we pretend Arnie was a great family man when his daughters did not like him and he cheated on his dear Winnie left and right?-Let a man be judged based on the truth not some aggrandized version of him.

He died. He was a much better golfer than I ever was. He was not in the top 30 golfers who ever lived and it is lying to pretend he was.

Neither was Hubert Green.-But man what a character that guy was.

[iacas]

That's enough.

[ScouseJohnny]

A nice obituary of Thomson, from the press in his home country:

https://www.theherald.com.au/story/5483174/thomson-the-golfer-who-was-truly-world-class/

Why it's a good obituary, I think, is because it documents the man's life in the times in which he moved. He was, after all, a non-US golfer who began in the pre-Arnie days of professional golf (a time very few people can still directly recall). Thomson and Palmer were almost exactly the same age, they were born a month apart in 1929. That certainly seems to have had a significant impact on how he approached his profession. He played in the US for a couple of years in the early 1950s, but the Commonwealth ties between Australia and the UK were, I think, likely closer in the 1950s than they are today, the British and the Australians have a lot of shared history in sport (Thomson had been a keen cricketer in his youth), and he turned to the UK, and subsequently to Europe, as the primary venue for his professional career.

Even in the days before Palmer reignited the public's interest in golf as a spectator sport, and American purses grew bigger, it would have been very unusual, I think, for an American touring pro to base himself in the UK. But it was a decidedly less unusual decision for an Australian.

I like reading about golf's history, and Thomson's life was that of a professional golfer from a bygone age, and something of an unusual story, even for those times.

 

Quote

if you won The Open Championship, the prize money in Thomson’s day “wasn’t enough to buy a new Jaguar”.

 

Edited June 22, 2018 by ScouseJohnny

[sheepdog]

I won the S&W Truck Lines Tournament in 1982, 83 and 88, I hope somebody doesn't come around and say I beat a bunch of stiffs the day after I go to my reward.

 

My $.02

[GrandStranded]

8 hours ago, ScouseJohnny said:

A nice obituary of Thomson, from the press in his home country:

https://www.theherald.com.au/story/5483174/thomson-the-golfer-who-was-truly-world-class/

Why it's a good obituary, I think, is because it documents the man's life in the times in which he moved. He was, after all, a non-US golfer who began in the pre-Arnie days of professional golf (a time very few people can still directly recall). Thomson and Palmer were almost exactly the same age, they were born a month apart in 1929. That certainly seems to have had a significant impact on how he approached his profession. He played in the US for a couple of years in the early 1950s, but the Commonwealth ties between Australia and the UK were, I think, likely closer in the 1950s than they are today, the British and the Australians have a lot of shared history in sport (Thomson had been a keen cricketer in his youth), and he turned to the UK, and subsequently to Europe, as the primary venue for his professional career.

Even in the days before Palmer reignited the public's interest in golf as a spectator sport, and American purses grew bigger, it would have been very unusual, I think, for an American touring pro to base himself in the UK. But it was a decidedly less unusual decision for an Australian.

I like reading about golf's history, and Thomson's life was that of a professional golfer from a bygone age, and something of an unusual story, even for those times.

 

 

Thanks for posting that article. Mr. Thomson, it seems, was not only a superb golfer. He was quite an impressive man. Here's to a life well lived.

On ‎6‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 12:22 PM, sheepdog said:

Too bad about Hubert Green, got to watch him several times in Memphis and seemed to be a real nice guy. One of the most unusual swings ever. Old line on him was one of the 70s pros was hitting balls on the practice tee, might have been Weiskopf, and a chainsaw started up in the distance. "There goes Hubert working on his swing again." It had the whole practice tee laughing.

 

RIP Hubert and Peter.

LOL. Great range story...

[The Recreational Golfer]

Hubert Green's swing is analysed in The Venturi Analysis, by Ken Venturi. 

More about Peter Thompson's life and swing concepts are found in The Methods of Golf's Masters by Dick Aultman and Ken Bowden.

 

[Shorty]

57 minutes ago, GrandStranded said:

Thanks for posting that article. Mr. Thomson, it seems, was not only a superb golfer. He was quite an impressive man. Here's to a life well lived.

 

Think yourself lucky you didn't have to listen to him commentating on Australian golf for the majority of your lifetime. Think about what people who don't like Johnny Miller's commentary THINK he is like (when he isn't) and multiply that by 10. He rarely gave credit to modern players and had a sanctimonius and pompous air about him. He also had a load of BS stories like finding the cheque for an Open win in the pocket of his jacket when it came back from the drycleaner.

 

[GrandStranded]

1 minute ago, Shorty said:

Think yourself lucky you didn't have to listen to him commentating on Australian golf for the majority of your lifetime. Think about what people who don't like Johnny Miller's commentary THINK he is like (when he isn't) and multiply that by 10. He rarely gave credit to modern players and had a sanctimonius and pompous air about him. He also had a load of BS stories like finding the cheque for an Open win in the pocket of his jacket when it came back from the drycleaner.

 

LMAO I can't stop laughing, because as I'm reading your post, I'm actually thinking, "what a grump". Then I notice the quote in your signature....gotta luv ya!

[ScouseJohnny]

4 hours ago, Shorty said:

Think yourself lucky you didn't have to listen to him commentating on Australian golf for the majority of your lifetime.

Next you'll be telling us Richie Benaud got on your tits as well.

[GrandStranded]

2 minutes ago, ScouseJohnny said:

Next you'll be telling us Richie Benaud got on your tits as well.

Sorry, but I have to ask. Who is Richie Benaud?