Dave Thomas, R.I.P.

[David_Tepper]

Dave Thomas, British golfer, Ryder Cupper and GCA has passed at 79 years:

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2013/8/28/rip-dave-thomas.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/23873538

[noonan]

RIP!

[Scott Warren]

RIP.

Played two of his courses when I lived in England - Batchworth Park and Traditions. Some bold holes that stick strong in the memory and one of the most unique greens I've ever seen.

[Ally Mcintosh]

That's sad news.

Dave Thomas has been such a large part of the British golfing landscape.

My thoughts are with his family and friends

Rgds,
Ally

[Thomas Dai]

Very sad news. Before turning to architecture he was a very fine player. Renowned as an extremely long hitter from the tee. Runner-up in two Opens, one after a play-off, and several Ryder Cup appearances. There is an edition of Shell's Wonderful World of Golf with him playing at Southerndown in the early 1960's.
R.I.P.

[Brian Phillips]

Always a true gentleman at all the EIGCA AGMs that he attended.

Rest in Peace.

[Jon Wiggett]

Sad loss of an important figure in British golf

Jon

[Jim McCann]

I’m a little surprised that the passing of Dave Thomas this week didn’t elicit more of a response from UK-based members on gca.

I’ve not always been a big fan of Dave Thomas courses - due in the main to his sometimes overuse of accentuated greenside mounding and overly penal bunkering - but there’s no doubt that he’s left a number of very favourable designs on the Scottish landscape, including Spey Valley, Newmachar (Hawkshill) and the more recent Earl of Mar course at Mar Hall.

I’ve heard his work at Terre Blanche in France is first class and can personally vouch that the 18-hole layout at Abama in Tenerife is a stunning resort course. I would have been interested to hear what anybody else had to say about his other English and Continental European projects. 

I suppose Dave’s son Paul has played an ever increasing role in the DTL business in recent years so the design company lives on regardless. Even so, it’s sad to hear that one of the more prominent modern golf course designers has passed away.

I came across this link yesterday, in which a number of his contemporaries speak very kindly of the man:

http://www.golfbusinessnews.com/news/people/dave-thomas-1934-2013/?utm_source=Newsletter+Subscribers&utm_campaign=bff5d04d36-Weekly_Newsletter_2013_8_30&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e81f131363-bff5d04d36-196203841

[Niall C]

Jim

I never met him, saw him interviewed on TV, or read any article by him but by all accounts he was a very nice guy.

With regards to his work, it's my understanding that his son basically took over many years ago. I haven't played a lot of his work, the Spey Valley course being the one course that I can think of off the top of my head, and perhaps the "Seve" course in Cumbernauld, the name of which has momentarily gone out of my head. Both have some really good golf holes but also some clunkers where you get the impression the routing was forced or it was done entirely on paper with no on site supervison to make sure it worked.

I'm also not a big fan of his style of bunkering, flat bunker bottoms and rounded humps in front. He re-did the bunkers at Killermont in that style to the detriment of the course IMO.

Niall

[Jon Wiggett]

Niall,

the course in Cumbernauld is Westerwood if memory serves me.

Funnily enough where I and Dean Stokes learned our golf was a Thomas/Allis redesign (1970) but the club ran out of money as far as I am aware so it is difficult to say how good a job they did. The course, Dewsbury District GC is laid out over challenging ground and the design favours the local knowledge player. It has a couple of cracking holes 1,3,9 and 13 but also some real clunkers. The club has a reputation for producing good players so something must be right with the course.

Jon

[Niall C]

Jon

That's the course. Jonathon Gaunt has recently designed some new hole sbut haven't played it since.

Niall

[Philip Caccamise]

His first (and only) US design was to be The Belfrey International outside Rochester, which about a month before opening went under for some reason. The outlines of the holes are still visible on Google Maps, it straddles the NYS Thruway...

[Scott Warren]

Philip,

That's really interesting.

I gather this is the location? You can make out some greens.

Interesting, too, is this Youtube video from the site.

[Philip Caccamise]

Philip,

That's really interesting.

I gather this is the location? You can make out some greens.

Interesting, too, is this Youtube video from the site.

That would be it. Looked like a very solid layout on a moderate property. As of 2008 it was yours for a cool $750k. http://www.loopnet.com/xNet/Looplink/Profile/Profile.aspx?stid=CB0003&LID=15595336&LL=true