Bernard “Ben” Thomson
Yale Golf Course professional and team coach

Ben Thomson was born in Scotland, where he served his apprenticeship as a golf club maker and amateur player. He fought and was wounded in World War i while serving with the Black Watch Third Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. After the war he came to this country as a golf professional, working at Southampton, Aiken, and Mt. Kisco before coming to Yale in March 1926 as the first professional at the new course.

From the beginning, the new course and Ben Thomson were great successes. By 1927 there were 435 student members of the golf club. The university golf team was chosen from the twelve players with the lowest scores in the University Championship tournament, which was played in the spring. These twelve student golfers played another eighteen holes, and the eight players with the lowest scores made the team. Only six players could compete in tournaments, so Coach Thomson always allowed the number seven and number eight players to challenge the number five and number six players for competition spots. As Thomson said, “In this way the interest is kept up among the players, which means that the whole squad is constantly practicing to perfect their game and keep their place on the team.”

Competition must have been intense because the 1927 University Championship had 100 entrants, twenty of whom scored under 84, four scored under 80, and three, under 76. Lewis Parker beat Ben Thomson’s course record of 74 by a stroke. That same year Thomson took part in the first exhibition at the course to raise money to support the golf program. He and Bobby Andrew, the New Haven Country Club pro, lost to Tommy Armour, US and Canadian Open Champion and Johnny Farrell, the holder of six titles. Tickets were $1.15 (including tax) and included the match and a special exhibition of shot-making by Tommy Armour after the match.

The golf team continued to win the national intercollegiate championship with regularity. The team won in 1926, 1931, 1932, 1933, and 1936, and Tom Aycock won the individual national championship in 1929. Ben Thomson reported in the Yale Alumni Weekly in 1931 that on average 150 students per day were playing the course and that freshman L. Weatherwax had lowered the course record to 66.

By the 1930s intercollegiate golf was becoming truly national. Michigan won the national championship in 1934 and 1935, and Stanford took it in 1938. In the midst of Yale’s dominance, in 1931, it joined with Brown, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Harvard, Holy Cross, Penn, Princeton, and Williams to form the Eastern Intercollegiate Golf Association (eiga), so even in years when it didn’t qualify for the national championship it could play for the eiga Maxwell Cup. Yale won every eiga championship from 1931 to 1938.

Thomson was the first coach to take the team abroad. In 1937 they toured England and Scotland and played at St. Andrews. The team included Sherwood Munson, Ed Meister, and Fred Borsodi, each of whom later gained distinction. In 1939, Ben Thomson published an instruction book, How To Play Golf. In his words, it was for “people who want to take up golf under some guidance, but cannot afford to pay the cost of instruction from a competent professional …. To make the game pleasant and easy—as, in fact,it is—is the goal of instruction, and to that end this book is dedicated.” Most of the illustrations in the book are photographs of Joe Sullivan, then Thomson’s assistant, demonstrating the important points of instruction. The book went through five printings.

Throughout his tenure, Thomson worked with Superintendent Bill Perkins to improve the course. In 1929 he reported to the Athletics Department that “large new tees have been placed at the first, fourth, fifth, seventh and ninth tees on the outward nine and at the eleventh, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth and eighteenth on the inward nine. The rough and swamp immediately in front of the 18th tee has been all cleared away from this beautiful hole making it easier for the player who should be unfortunate enough to miss a drive, where a good one is necessary.”

Yale won the eiga championship again in 1942 and took what was to be its last national championship in 1943. Sadly, Coach Thomson was not present for either event. In March 1942, the outbreak of war led the Yale Athletic Association to begin a retrenchment program and it fired Thomson along with the tennis and baseball coaches and the veteran director of athletics publicity. Thomson had served the University for seventeen years, the tennis coach had been there for twenty-eight years, and Smoky Joe Wood, famous as the pitching ace of the 1912 World Champion Boston Red Sox, had coached Yale baseball for twenty years. Ben Thomson responded by taking his teaching enthusiasm into service and joined the Air Corps as a machine-gun instructor.

Throughout his tenure, he worked with Superintendent Bill Perkins to improve the course. In 1929 he reported to the Athletic Department that “large new tees have been placed at the first, fourth, fifth, seventh and ninth tees on the outward nine and at the eleventh, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth and eighteenth on the inward nine. The rough and swamp immediately in front of the 18th tee has been all cleared away from this beautiful hole making it easier for the player who should be unfortunate enough to miss a drive, where a good one is necessary.”

Yale won the EIGA championship again in 1942 and took what was to be its last national championship in 1943. Sadly, Coach Thomson was not present for either event. In March, 1942, the outbreak of war led the Yale Athletic Association to begin a retrenchment program, and it fired Thomson along with the tennis and baseball coaches and the veteran director of athletics publicity. Thomson had served the University for seventeen years, the tennis coach had been there for twenty-eight years, and Smoky Joe Wood, famous as the pitching ace of the 1912 World Champion Boston Red Sox, had coached Yale baseball for 20 years. Ben Thomson responded by taking his teaching enthusiasm into service, and joined the Air Corps as a machine-gun instructor.