THE man regarded as Australia's greatest golfer, Peter Thomson, celebrated his 80th birthday on Sunday, August 23 by taking a break from golf course designing, charity work and writing to attend a party in his honour at the Sandhurst Club in Skye.
It was one of several events in Melbourne to mark the birthday of the five-time British Open winner (including three in a row 1954-56) who was also Australian Open champion three times and New Zealand Open champion nine times.
Thomson won more than 100 tournaments worldwide over 40 years, including the World Cup for Australia twice.
On the PGA seniors tour in the United States in 1985, Thomson won a remarkable nine of 27 events, still a record, and finished his playing career by winning the British PGA seniors title in 1988.
The octogenarian received birthday accolades from such golfing luminaries as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Peter Alliss.
In 1970, he founded a golf course design company with John Harris and Michael Wolveridge, later known as Thomson, Wolveridge & Perrett and then Thomson Perrett.
His companies have designed more than 100 courses in 30 countries, including on the Mornington Peninsula at Moonah Links in Fingal and the National Golf Club's ocean course at Cape Schanck.
Thomson has been writing golf stories for newspapers and magazines for 55 years, including the now defunct Argus and Herald in Melbourne, and The Times in London and US magazine Golf Digest. He still writes for The Age.
He is a life member of Sorrento Golf Club, whose history contains a photo of Thomson and the caption 'B Grade mixed foursomes champion'.
Thomson Perrett is working on two 36-hole courses in China, two in Egypt including one at Giza where on the first tee golfers aim at the Great Pyramid 4000 metres away, and one about to open on Dent Island in Queensland and an Australian rules football ground in Tianjing, Melbourne's sister city in China.
Thomson still plays regularly and recently put in five cards to get a handicap so he could play foursomes comps with his wife Mary.
He was given a mark of five but says he needs 10.
In his excellent biography The Complete Golfer, Channel 7 newsreader and Balnarring resident Peter Mitchell placed Thomson alongside Donald Bradman and Walter Lindrum in the pantheon of Australian sport.
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