Peter Mitchell: Peter Thomson was great in so many different ways

PETER Thomson was a great golfer but he was also a proud Melburnian who never forgot his roots, writes Peter Mitchell.

COVERING my first golf tournament in Melbourne, the 1980 Victorian Open at Metropolitan, opened up a whole new world for me.

I had lived next to the famous sandbelt all my life, yet my sporting horizon was limited to football in winter and cricket in summer.

But the people involved in golf couldn’t have been more helpful to a young sports reporter and the players, including the man who won the title for a fourth time, Guy Wolstenholme, were incredibly approachable.

GOLFER PETER THOMSON DIES AT 88

In the heady 1980s, sports competed vigorously for media attention and golf was no different. It was about to enter a golden era, riding largely on the back of a young Queenslander named Greg Norman.

I fell in love with the game and read as many books as I could about its rich history in our country. But I couldn’t find a book about the biggest name of all, the man from Melbourne who won the British Open five times, Peter Thomson.

Golfing champion Peter Thomson was a fiercely proud Melburnian. Picture: Getty Images

I found out that many people had approached him about a biography, but that he had declined every request, citing the view that he might want to write it himself.

In 1985 I interviewed Peter at his Toorak home after he’d returned from an astonishingly successful debut season on the US Senior Tour, on which he had won nine tournaments.

After our meeting it took me some months to find the courage to write to Peter and ask him about writing his story. The answer was thanks, but no thanks.

I’d already started my research but there was no point continuing if I didn’t have his blessing.

More months passed. I sent another letter. I received another polite refusal.

Letters clearly weren’t working, so I rang his home. His wife, Mary, was aware I’d been interviewing many of their family friends. She wasn’t entirely impressed, but suggested I call back in September when she and Peter would have returned from a trip to Europe.

I met Peter in September, armed with much of what I’d written and he gave it to me straight: “This is your project,” he said. “I can’t stop you from doing what you’re doing, but it won’t be an authorised biography.”

Australian golfer and five-time British Open champion Peter Thomson. Picture: Getty Images

He said he would honestly answer any question but gave me one non-negotiable. I was not to bother his elderly mother, who was in declining health.

Over the next 18 months I pestered Peter over the phone and in person at golf tournaments. When he was asked what was going on, he said it was my project, not his. But he patiently answered every question I had although, wrapping it up on his terms by saying: “That’ll probably do for now.”

The longer my project went on, the more co-operative Peter became. Mary even brought out her private scrapbook and said I could copy anything from it. My wife and I were invited to Peter’s birthday party at the South Yarra Tennis Club.

When it came time to launch my book, I wanted to have the function at Royal Melbourne on the Wednesday before the start of the 1991 Australian Open the next day. Peter said he would be happy to be there. The icing on the cake was to have Ian Baker-Finch launch the book, fresh from his win in the British Open that year at Royal Birkdale, the scene of Peter’s first triumph in the Open. Peter’s influence on Finchy’s golfing career was profound and I was very pleased to see Mary there too. Peter Thomson, The Complete Golfer didn’t exactly make the bestsellers list, but that was never my priority. To me, “my project” was about filling that gap on the bookshelf.

Peter Thomson was the boy from West Brunswick who became a world champion, but he was so much more than that. Picture: Getty Images

I KEPT in touch with Peter and Mary and was invited to prepare a DVD for Peter’s 80th birthday party. Mary sent me a note saying Peter loved it.

I discovered that Peter was a very humble man who often couldn’t believe there was so much fuss about a bloke hitting a little white ball along a strip of grass. He knew it was a privileged existence and he wanted his talent to take him as far as it could. His professional career revolved around the Open Championship — that was, as he told me, his “life’s ambition”.

Peter often wondered how it was that he managed to avoid any manual work. He never found golf physically taxing. Reading, music, writing and painting were his pursuits; he told me he “was thrilled by the symphonies of Gustav Mahler”. Golf course architecture and design, shaping greens and bunkers on computers and out on location, around the world was a natural fit once his professional playing days were over.

Above all, I found Peter Thomson to be a fiercely proud Melburnian. Of course, he travelled the world many times, but he always came back. This was his home. He was the boy from West Brunswick who became a world champion, but he was so much more than that.

Peter Mitchell is the 7 News presenter.

A celebration of Peter Thomson’s life will be held at the MCG Menbers’ Dining Room at 2pm today.