Dave Thomas

During the 1950s and throughout the 1960s Dave Thomas was widely recognised as one of the top British and European golfers, renowned as one of the longest and straightest drivers in the game. He became a four-time Ryder Cup player (1959, 1963, 1965 and 1967) and twice finished second at The Open Championship. At Royal Lytham in 1958 he went one under the tournament record with a 278 finish to tie with reigning champion Peter Thomson. The Australian then won a 36 hole play-off by four shots to retain his title. Thomas tied for second place with Doug Sanders in 1966, when Jack Nicklaus won the Claret Jug at Muirfield. He made the cut at 11 of his 14 Open Championships and achieved four top 10 finishes.

The son of a mining engineer from Mountain Ash, Thomas was born and raised in Newcastle and learned his golf from his father, who played off a handicap of two. Thomas started playing at the Gosforth club and turned professional in 1949, when he watched some of the game’s great champions, including Fred Daly, Max Faulkner and the legendary Sam Snead, competing in the Ryder Cup at Ganton. He became only the third Welsh golfer to play in the Ryder Cup after Bert Hodson and Dai Rees when he made his debut in 1959 in a team that was captained by Rees. He made 11 appearances for Wales in the equivalent of golf’s World Cup and won the News of the World Match Play tournament in 1963. Among his other notable tournament triumphs were the Belgian Open (1955), the Dutch Open (1958) and the French Open (1959). He also crossed the Atlantic to play in the Masters four times and the US Open once.

When arthritis brought a premature end to his playing career he threw himself headlong into his other passion, course design. He had set-up Dave Thomas Design in 1958 and by the time he died at his Spanish home in 2013 his company, taken over by his son and former professional Paul Thomas, had designed more than 120 courses in Japan, China, Taiwan, Russia, Mauritius, Africa, North and South America, Spain and the Canary Islands. Among the best of them is The Belfry’s famous Brabazon Course, on which the Ryder Cup was played in 1985, 1989, 1993 and 2002. He was elected Captain of the Professional Golfers’ Association during their centenary year in 2001 and in 2006 was recognised for his contribution to golf by being made an honorary life member of the PGA.

David Charles Thomas (Golfer and Golf architect) Born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 16 August, 1934; Died in Spain on 27 August, 2013