I used to think everything written about Stanley Thompson was true – or at least hoped it was. As I have continued to track down information on Thompson – the more I have begun to question the validity of some of the best stories. You see – Stanley Thompson could spin a tale with the best of them – and didn’t worry about the facts getting in the way of a good story. In fact there are some minor contradictions found in the three post WWII interviews he gave – Liberty, Macleans and The Saturday Evening Post. The fascinating part is how similar some of the interviews are.
My favourite Thompson story has always been the “Legend” of Cleopatra.
From the Saturday Evening Post:
“Jasper’s No. 9 fairway is named Cleopatra because of it’s shape. Thompson took great pride in this anatomical breath-taker until he was playing in a foresome with Sir Harry Thorton, head of the CNR empire. When Harry was about to tee off, saw the form of the fairway, and its topographical embellishments, he quietly blew a gasket.
“Mr. Thompson,” he said “we have been friends for many years. I never thought you would have the audacity to do this to the Canadian National.”
Thompson accordingly made some alterations, but the abridged version still aptly bears the name of Cleopatra.I have included the following photos for historical reference. This is all I have found – so far – and it does not appear to shed any light on the subject.
This is a piece of the renovation plan – which provides little evidence of the reclining woman
Here is a photo from the opening year – which is the only one without a clear view from the collection (incidentally I gave these to Jasper after acquiring them).
Here is a close-up of the green from the CNR collection.
I’m left to wonder about whether the hole did have a sensuous “in recline.” Let’s look at the possible basics of a pose first and see if it lends some light on the possibility. The initial version that I heard was the bunkers were the hair, the green the face and the mounds in front were her breasts.
Here is basic plan of that and the fascinating fact that a face appears in the negative space of the left bunker (exactly like Muckle Mouth Meg at Highlands Links).
Here is the current hole from the tee
The current hole from the back
Today found myself looking at art (Picasso rather than Garfunkle) and a picture stirred some ideas. I always assumed the bunkers were hair but after looking a pose of a reclining women by Piccaso I wondered about the bunkers being “arms.” Was the reclined woman described in the description of Cleopatra was essentially flat on her back? It seemed to work well and I found an excellent example that I choose not to post that made me think that the aiming point for a running approach mimiced the area between the breasts - and was more accurate than the “breasts” themselves.
The image below shows my assumption about the arms
What happened was I started to look at other poses of reclined women until I found one that got me wondering if I wasn’t thinking this through properly. It was when I found Courbet’s wonderful ‘Nude Woman Reclining’
I realized the bunkering could be a single arm in a very classic (hate that word) pose . Stanley was very well read according to his step-daughter (Joyce being his favourite) and I wondered if that interest extended over to art. So why not a more flamboyant pose?
So I got my youngest son to pose and made note that the body does offset the breasts when the single arm is behind the head.
Could this be the reclined position of Cleopatra?
What are your thoughts on this?
Do you think there was a sensual woman created or just a great story?