Stanley Thompson Symposium - May 30th

[Ian Andrew]

On Saturday, May 30, 2009, the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame is hosting a A Stanley Thompson Symposium. This is essentially the same group that was asked to present at Highland Links last fall. I posted this just in case anyone nearby wanted to come and join in.

The day is planned as follows:
 
10:00 Ian Andrew (Ian Andrew Golf Design) - The Evolution of Stanley Thompson's Architecture. (so you can come late  )
11:30 Jeff Mingay (Mingay Golf) - Routing the Big Five
12:00 Panel 1: Discussing Thompson's design principle; Ian Andrew, David Moote (rfm&a/Moote), Dick Kirkpatrick
12:45 Lunch Break
1:15 Robert Thompson (National Columnist and Author): Stanley Thompson, Fact and Fiction (a talk about some of the greatest Thompson stories)
1:45 2nd Panel: Discussing Stanley Thompson, Fact and Fiction; Robert Thompson, Bill Newton (STS Executive Director), Jim Barclay (Stanley Thompson Biographer)
2:45 3rd Panel - Restoration: John Gall (superintendent), Jamie Cutting (Dundas Valley G&CC Superintendent), Graham Hudson (General Manager, Cape Breton Highlands Links)
3:45 Lorne Rubenstein (Author of more than 10 golf books and Globe and Mail Columnist) (Lorne's an excellent speaker)
4:15 Final Discussion: All of the panelists in an open discussion

There is a $25.00 fee, which includes lunch.

Location:

Canadian Golf Hall of Fame
1333 Dorval Drive, Oakville (on the grounds of Glen Abbey).

For further information, or to register, please contact Kristen Luce at

kluce@rcga.org

Or call 1-800-263-0009 ext 213

[Jeff_Mingay]

Ian,

I didn't realize there's a fee to attend... so, I presume that means all of the presenters get a fee as well 

Honestly, the event at Cape Breton Highlands Links, last fall, was excellent. A tonne of interesting, and thought-provoking info. I hope to see some Golf Club Atlas'ers there, on May 30.

Cheers,

[Ian Andrew]

bump - just want to make sure people know about this - just in case

[Niall C]

Ian/Jeff,

Good luck with the Symposium. Anything that brings golf course design in general, and good architedcture in particular to the publics attention deserves to be a success.

Unfortunately I can't fly over from Scotland for the event as I have the small matter of playing Kyle Henderson over St Andrews New on that day but best of luck with the event.

Niall

[Melvyn Morrow]

I totally agree with Niall that we should do more to publicise that there is more to golf than just playing. Architecture/Design needs to be explained to the golfing public because the majority have no concept of what is behind it.

As usual, Ian is doing a great job promoting the current and future of Golf.  We on GCA.com know that design is a great part of the game, regrettably not fully understood by the general public at large.
.
In addition, Niall that is very good of you to take young Kyle around the New Course at St Andrews when he makes his short trip to Scotland.

Melvyn

[Yannick Pilon]

Ian,

Do you think there would be anyway to publish a transcript of what is going to be presented that day?  Nothing fancy, just an overall transcript with some or all of the pictures that could be included in it.  Could be one large word file, or a powerpoint file....

Just wondering since there is a very good chance that I will be coming up to the GCA outing in June, but I wouldn't be able to make it down to Toronto at the end of May. I can miss my dad's birthday, he will understand and totally approve since he is a golf nut himself, but I can't miss my wife's birthday, she would not understand and totally disapprove of my actions on that front.

YP

[Philippe Binette]

The wife birthday over the Stanley Thompson symposium???

Yannick, you have to put your priorities to the right place

[Ian Andrew]

I'm bumping this up because it's coming up at the end of the month...

[Jeff_Mingay]

Yannick/Ian,

I had no idea you two were such "loverboys" 

[Dick Kirkpatrick]

Jeff:

Lover boys?

Hen pecked comes to mind.

[Ian Andrew]

x

[Robert Thompson]

Frankly I could care less about all this discussion of spouses. What I care about is getting people out to this presentation. It is essentially a slightly altered version of the presentation we gave at Highlands Links last September. We had 80 people out for that despite being in Ingonish, at the north end of Cape Breton. I would hope we'd get at least that many in an area with more than 4-million people (though perhaps one without as good a golf course as Highlands...)

It is worth coming just for Ian's slide show and presentation on Thompson's design evolution, or to see Mingay talk about routing, or to hear Rubenstein, a Canadian golf hall of fame member who doesn't do a ton of public speaking, talk about Uplands. We've also added a practical element to this one, having a number of GMs and supers give us their take on restoring Thompson courses.

I'm just there for added comic relief.

We typically have between 10 and 20 people out for our semi-annual GCA gatherings -- and it looks like we have a couple dozen interested parties who have confirmed with the RCGA about this. There will be lots of open discussion on this and in light of the recent interest in Thompson (re: St. George's as host of Canadian Open in 2010), I'd hope there will be lots of interest in this as well. Of course, Oakville is only 75 minutes from the Buffalo border for our American friends.

[Robert Thompson]

Speaking with the organizer at the RCGA, it looks like we have abotu 25 people signed up for this presentation currently, which isn't too shabby. But we get almost that many out to a drinks night for Toronto GCA members. Maybe what we are missing is beer...

[Ian Andrew]

As we begin to fill the number of available spots - I'll throw in one more tease....

This event will have a number of the GCA regulars who attend our annual Christmas drunkfest gathering.
And we plan to head out for dinner as a group after the event.
No - there will not be a quiz...

Ian

[Robert Thompson]

Just a reminder to everyone that this is going on -- we've got nearly 50 people coming, apparently, but then again, we had nearly 80 in Cape Breton, and it doesn't exactly have the population base of the GTA! Ian is now offering to grace our presence at dinner -- what more can you ask for?