SYDNEY (Reuters) – The ashes of five-times British Open champion Peter Thomson were scattered on the 18th green of the Old Course at St Andrews hours before Australian Cameron Smith’s stunning triumph at the 150th edition of the major.
Thomson’s son Andrew revealed on social media that he had performed the ceremony on Sunday morning to fulfill a promise he made to his parents when the Australian golfing great died at the age of 88 in 2018.
Far from diminishing the timing of the ceremony, Thomson junior suggested it was a “significant” coincidence that Smith went on to wipe out a four-shot deficit over the final round and clinch his first major title at the home of golf.
“I was sitting there stunned,” Thomson told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“I couldn’t believe what had happened. Smith played perfect golf, all credit to him. But what a coincidence that the ashes of a former, five-time champion, also an Australian, had been sprinkled there that morning?
“Smith’s win was a very rare event, to see someone as competent and confident as Rory McIlroy overtaken. McIlroy didn’t collapse, he was just surpassed.”
Thomson senior won the Claret Jug five times between 1954 and 1965, his second triumph coming at the 84th championship at St Andrews in 1955.
While the most of Thomson’s ashes remain in Melbourne, his son has also scattered small quantities on the greens at the venues of his other Open triumphs – Royal Birkdale, Royal Liverpool and Royal Lytham & St Annes.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Christian Schmollinger)
