[Ryan Admussen]

I don't think there's any arguing that he is Canada's best, but how does he compare worldwide?

[Rob Rigg]

I suffer from Canadian bias, home course bias from high schoo (my dad joined The Summit GC when I was 17), and lack of play at most of the great courses in the world, and even STs "best" courses, but having read quite a about the guy and some of his tracks, I would assume that he would be well respected on the elite list of ODGs?

Ian Andrew, Jeff Mingay, Mr Doak and others will hopefully weigh in on this question.

What he did at Banff, Jasper, Highland Links, St. George's, Capilano, Summit, Cataraqui, Westmount, etc, etc, is a pretty impressive body of work. At many of his sights there were pretty intense routing, elevation, tree and drainage challenges and it appears that he was able to overcome them and produce courses that have absolutely stood the test of time (at least those that have been well maintained).

He was my first round pick in the GCA Draft - so that has to say a lot!

[Tom MacWood]

IMO up near the top. He had an artistic flair that was extraordinary; he was also blessed with some pretty remarkable sites.

[Ronald Montesano]

When you have the Canadian National railway system as your financial backer and site obtainer, that helps a wee bit.  Imagine if Trent had somehow convinced Amtrak to purvey sites for him; he'd have more than that handful of courses he designed, ha ha!!

[TEPaul]

I don't think I've ever played or even seen any Thompson course but this subject has been discussed on here a lot over the years and from numerous discussion and photographs of his courses and architecture I would think Thompson would be up near the top world-wide.

Personally I think Thompson created something of a breakthrough "aesthetic" with his architectural features given the natural topography and over-all look of the sites he worked on, particularly the mountainous ones. I think it would be fair to say, in that vein, Thompson was a real architectural "artist."

[Greg McMullin]

When speaking of Stanley Thompson and his creations one often hears the comment that he was “blessed with some remarkable sites”. While this is no doubt true it’s also true that he was able to find a way to create courses that fit the site and did so such that many of these courses stand the test of time. This is evidenced by the fact that  some 65+ years later the courses he created still rank among the best in the world.

In my mind,  among the many skills that Thompson had was his ability to visualize how the course would lay out within the site. 

This point was once illustrated to me during a conversation I had with Jeff Mingay while attending a social function at Cape Breton Highlands Links. As many of you know Jeff has spend considerable time and effort studying design and routing. During our conversation Jeff commented something to the affect – could you imagine being dropped of by boat in Ingonish with the goal of creating a golf couse – where would you start – where would you finish – how would all 18 holes come together? For those that have visited Highlands Links and the Ingonish community you’d have to agree that would be an appropriate question and one which would present a serious challenge for your average golf architect. I'm sure the same could be said for many of his other sites including Jasper, Capilano, Banff, St. George's.



PS: and he could play

[Jed Peters]

I've played Banff and Jasper--and pretty much they're some of the two best courses I've ever played....unreal golf courses.

He stacks up HUGELY.

Jed

[Dick Kirkpatrick]

Stanley Thompson has to be regarded as one of the best architects of all time.
The top ranked courses mentioned in the previous posts confirm that.
It was not by coincedence that Donald Ross et al were accomanied by Stanley at the forming of the ASGCA but as a matter of recognition and respect for his abilities.

What is not obvious from those posts, but touched on by Greg McMullin is the genius of his routings.
Cape Breton Highlands is a good example of a spectacular routing on a difficult site, but the best one is Capilano, which is sited on the side of a mountain.
He routed that golf course with such genius that you hardly know you are playing on and climbing up the side of a mountain.

In reply #3, Rob Montasano states that RTJones would have done well with those sites. I for one am happy that Stanley got there before Trent did.

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