Par 5 - 5 Questions with Robert Thompson
Robert Thompson writes a golf column for the National Post, Canada’s daily national newspaper, and is a contributing editor to Travel and Leisure Golf. He has also written for Golf Magazine, PGATour.com, Ontario Golf, ScoreGolf and is a course rater for Golf Digest. Robert has his own very popular golf blog called Going For The Green which comments on golf issues from course architecture to the PGA Tour, as well as providing regular course reviews.
I recently had the pleasure to interview Robert
GL: You are quickly become one of Canada’s more prominent golf writers having written for numerous well respected publication. However, you didn’t start out a sports journalist. How did you get into golf?
RT: It is very nice that anyone thinks I’m one of Canada’s prominent golf writers. But you are right — I didn’t intend to end up in my current position. During my year in journalism school, a classmate encouraged me to play more golf and skip my ethics classes. Though the logic might be suspect, in the long run I’ve gotten more out of the golf than the ethics classes anyway! Following my time at j-school, I went to work at the Kingston Whig-Standard where I spent time as a copy editor. The job required me to work evenings, but allowed me plenty of time to practice my golf game during the day. I didn’t have much money, so thankfully the courses were largely inexpensive. In late 1997 I came to Toronto and found golf to be the opposite of Kingston — very expensive. But since I was hooked on golf, I started scheming ways in which I might cut my costs. I pitched some golf stories to unusual places — Marketing Magazine, for example — and that led to a few
paying writing assignments with some magazines. I also was lucky enough to join the staff of PGATour.com at the same time, largely writing about travel destinations. But this was just a secondary gig — my real job was reporting on technology companies for a magazine and I took that skill to the National Post in 2000. Somewhere in 2002, my two writing interests began to merge. I started a golf and business column called Going for the Green in which I played golf with prominent CEOs at nice clubs across Canada and wrote a weekly feature about the experience. It was remarkable. I played with Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk in Barbados, Ron Joyce at Fox Harb’r and Raymond Royer of Domtar at Mount Bruno. It really helped my education as far as Canadian golf courses goes. It gave me a chance to see almost everything that was great
throughout this amazing country. That same year I started writing a weekly golf column within the sports section of the Post, something I continue to do to this day.
GL: With your business writing history, you have a book coming out about Ron Joyce, the co-founder of Tim Hortons. Tell us about the book and Ron. We all know how successful his business is but is he also an avid golfer?
RT: The book, which is currently finding a title, will be out on HarperCollins in September. I met Ron in 2002 at Fox Harb’r, his golf resort in Nova Scotia. For whatever reason, I always play well when I tee it up alongside Ron. I shot 76 the first time and 72 the last time we played. As for Ron, he took up the game late in life — but he did lead to the sale
of Tim Hortons to Wendy’s. Some of the negotiations for the deal were done with Dave Thomas and Gord Teter, the CEO of Wendy’s at the time, on golf courses like Adios in Florida and Muirfield in Ohio. He loves the game, though his swing is a sight to behold.
GL: You have an extensive knowledge of golf architecture, where did this passion come from?
RT: I don’t really know. In 2002 I was given the opportunity to write a feature on Doug Carrick for the Canadian Open program, since the tournament was being held at Angus Glen that year, a course designed by Doug. I guess I had been intrigued at how these great courses were built and the mindset that went into creating them. Doug was a great help in explaining some of the details and he also introduced me to his second-in-command, a fellow named Ian Andrew. Ian and I really clicked and became great friends, and we’ve traveled to places like Cataraqui and Brantford in Canada, and Pine Valley and Merion in the US. After we play, we often have long discussions about the nuances of what we just played — trying to ascertain exactly what makes the 11th at Merion, or the 18th at Cataraqui great holes, for example. I’ve also spent countless hours reading about golf architecture — books written by architects like Tom Doak, George Thomas, and Pete Dye — and reading websites like Golfclubatlas.com, which is a bunch of Internet geeks talking about the features of great golf. My education isn’t complete though — and I keep studying new and old courses trying to understand what makes a golf course great while a similar course might just my marginal.
GL: You have played some of the top courses in the world. What are the top 5 you have played and what are your top 5 CDN courses?
RT: Tough question. In the world, my top 10 would be:
1) Royal Portrush (Ireland)
2) Muirfield (Scotland)
3) Pine Valley (New Jersey)
4) Kingsbarns (Scotland)
5) Old Course (Scotland)
6) Merion (Philly)
7) Royal Dornoch (Scotland)
8) Turnberry (Scotland)
9) Royal County Down (Ireland)
10) Pacific Dunes (Oregon)
In Canada:
1) St. George’s (Ontario)
2) Highlands Links (Nova Scotia)
3) Hamilton Golf (Ontario)
4) Eagles Nest (Ontario)
5) Blackhawk Golf (Alberta)
GL: You have been running your own golf blog for 2 years now. When you started, how did you envision it would grow and where do you see things going in 2006?
RT: It was always intended as a bit of a flier. I guess I didn’t know what I was getting into. I found it addictive. As a newspaper reporter and columnist, you rarely have much contact with your readership. And though the readership of Going for the Green is only a few hundred people a day, those readers often leave me notes and comments and we interact. They tell me when they think I’m wrong and point out facts they agree with. It has been a fascinating experience and the blog keeps growing and growing!