He regularly played in the Masters Tournament at Augusta and each year there was a warm-up team competition which Jimmy and his partner Californian Olin Dutra won in 1935. He finished sixth in the Masters in 1937 and eighth the following year. Starting in 1947 Jimmy Thomson began introducing the players to the gallery on the 9th hole while his good friend and Augusta National's first assistant pro Ralph Hutchison (1932-1935) started announcing on the 18th. Jimmy Thomson, Ralph Hutchison and Bobby Jones were Staff Pro's for A G Spalding Brothers.

In 1936, when the PGA Championship was match play, Jimmy reached the finals at Pinehurst before losing to Denny Shute, 3 and 2. " Shute was in the trap nine times that day and got up and down every time," Thomson recalled years later. In 1935 at Oakmont, Thomson finished second to Sam Parks Jr. in the US. Open. Thomson had a two-shot lead after 14 holes in the final round but bogeyed the last four holes."I hit four good tee shots, too," he moaned later. "But I wound up in two traps and three-putted two greens."

The early PGA tournaments were haphazard. Golf resorts like Shawnee in Pennsylvania;s Pocono Mountains and cities like Miami and Los Angeles who wanted to promote their mild weather would host tournaments. By the late 1920s what had been a collection of various tournaments was beginning to develop into what people were referring to as the PGA Tour. The purses were small and the normal prize money was $10,000 to $15,000 total payout. Each week the entry fee of $10 dollars went to paying the salary and travel expenses of the tournament manager, rules officials and scoreboard operators. There was also an advance man who was one week ahead of the tour. Each week one of the professionals would be chosen to serve as the Coordinator/MC for the clinic. He would select twelve or so professionals to assist with the clinic.the average payout in 1949 was $15,000 with a top prize of $2,600. Twenty six professions made money with last place receiving $110.

Off the tour, Jimmy worked as a teaching pro at Broadmoor Country Club in Colorado Springs (1930); Los Angeles C.C (1934), Lakewood Country Club (1935) in Los Angeles where he met and married Viola Dana, a popular silent movie star of the'30s; Shawnee-On-The Delaware C.C (1936) and Chicopee Falls (1941).

Thomson broke the course record at Ingleside Golf Club with a 64, during the San Francisco Open in 1937. He led the qualifying and received a medal and $25 prize money. The top sixteen qualified for the 72-hole matchplay, but Thomson was defeated in the quarterfinals. In 1937, Pine Valley Golf Club, New Jersey, invited a dozen of the leading professionals to team up with a club member in a 72-hole Invitational Tournament. That year, Sam Snead and Jimmy Thomson, the two longest hitters of the day, were joint first on 302, a score that was 22 under-par.

Jimmy won his first major USPGA tournament in January 1938 when he won the Los Angeles Open. 'The siege-gun from Shawnee-On-The-Delaware' as the media described him, set a new tournament record with a 72 hole score 273 which included a final round three-under-par 68. Thomson lead from start to finish and lifted the $2,100 first prize. In 1938, Jimmy Thomson finished 4th in the Western Open played at Westwood Country Club, St Louis, Missori.

During the Great Depression, Jimmy Thomson encouraged the fans to play the game and his reputation as the biggest hitter on tour attracted more public interest and the press called him 'The Big Blaster'. Thomson was one of the Spalding Fourball whose legendary exhibition tours attracted golfers across the country. The admission to the 18-hole four-ball was free and the fans were also treated to a clinic. The other affiliated professionals were Horton Smith, Lawson Little, and Harry Cooper. During WW2 Thomson served in the US Coast Guard and in 1940 was among an elite field of invited pro's, playing in a round-robin tournament at Freshmeadow C.C in New York. Including Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Gene Sarazen, Jimmy Demaret, Horton Smith and Sam Snead. In September 1941 Jimmy Thomson and his partner Bobby Jones played against Craig Wood and Sam Snead for the benefit of the British War Relief at Essex Country Club. Thomson and Jones were defeated 3 &1

Jimmy Thomson never played in the Ryder Cup because the PGA altered the rules in 1931 which stipulated that each player had to be born in Britain and also resident in Britain. The residency issue was to stop the USA selecting British players based in America.

The Ryder Cup was not played for over ten years due to WW2. In 1947 the event was held at Portland Golf Club, Oregon. The course was laid out by George Turnbull from North Berwick in 1914. The super-fast and demanding greens were ideal to test the short game skills of the Ryder Cup teams.
Jimmy returned with Lawson Little to Scotland in 1948 to compete in the Open at Muirfield and on Monday 12th July following the Open, played an exhibition match over the North Berwick West Links. This time he was joined by Brazilian Mario Gonzalez and the newly crowned Open champion Henry Cotton.

The spectators had come to see the South American, an amateur at that time playing in his first Open, described as having a stick-like physique but was noted for the beauty and power of his strike.

That day Jimmy stole the show, driving the 328 yard first green to the crowd's delight, but more was to follow. At the 14th named ' Perfection', a 376 yard par 4, Jimmy holed his second shot to the blind green and Henry Cotton turned to the crowd and said " Local boy comes good " In 1953, Jimmy Thomson appeared in the movie 'The Caddy' with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Jimmy also featured in the movie 'Shoot Yourself Some Golf' with actor Ronald Reagan (1942) and with a number of pro's in 'Swing With Bing', featuring Bing Crosby (1940).

Jimmy also wrote a book called Hit 'em for Miles, How to Drive a Golf Ball which was among the most popular golf instruction books including How to Play Golf - Sam Snead, Power Golf - Ben Hogan, and Wining Golf - Byron Nelson.

Jimmy Thomson supported the Africa American professionals and regularly played on the United Golf Association Tour. He also played with the Black professionals on the Western States Golf Association and the North America Golf Association circuit.

In 1957 Jimmy Thomson was hired to entertain the US troops on a five week exhibition tour of Air Bases in France, Germany, England and North Africa. In 1960 Thomson was made a life member of the Carolina PGA Section. Although his tournament days were over, Jimmy was still very much involved in the game, being appointed promotional director for Dunlop in the United States. He retired to Florida where he died 28th June 1985, Dade County, Miama.

In an article in Golf Digest in 2011, senior writer Jaime Diaz complied a list of the five best power hitters in golf history and he selected Jimmy Thomson as his number one choice.

Wilfred Thomson (1888-1974)

Jimmy Thomson's father James Wilfred Stevenson Thomson was born in North Berwick in 1888. In November 1904 he started an apprenticeship as a greenkeeper on the West Links, North Berwick under Alex Wright. Wilfred was appointed golf pro at Dunstable Downs (1910-11) then Penn G.C, Wolverhampton (1911-12) before he moved to Hexham in Northumbria in 1912 where he remained until 1919. He entered the 1911 Open Championship at Sandwich and the 1914 Open at Prestwick. Some fine examples of his club making survive from this period, stamped with "W. Thomson Special Hexham". Corporal Wilfred Thomson RE was one of the most promising of the young local golfers. Following the end of the war he won a match against a professional over one of the greens on the French coast according to the Courier on 9th August 1918. Not to be over-shadowed by his brother-in-law Ben Sayers who taught the nobility, Wilfred tutored the Duke of Alba a member of King Alfonso's court in Spain.

In 1921 Wilfred Thomson joined Jack Forrester and James Ferguson as they travelled north to Washington to enter the US Open at Columbia Country Club where Fred McLeod's was the professional. That year Thomson wintered in Florida and returned to Richmond in the spring. In June 1925, this article appeared in the Virginia Richmond Times Dispatch entitled Shattering Records '....Wilfred Thomson, golf professional at the Hermitage Country Club, successfully attained an objective on his home course that had defied the best efforts of the great Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen and other noted stars, when he carded a 71, on the par 73 course. Thomson took fifteen putts on the outward nine, and thirteen coming home for a total of 28 putts in the full round'

Jim Wilson, Park Ridge professional (below) who for five years was President of the Illinios PGA was a schoolmate of Wilfred Thomson when they grew up in North Berwick. When the Professional Golfers Association of America was established in 1916 the charter members formed seven regional sections. This became 23 sections and in March 1925, at a meeting in 'Spaldings' Columbia office, The Middle Atlantic PGA was formed covering Pennsylvania, Delaware through Georgia including West Virginia. The professionals attending the formation meeting elected Wilfred Thomson on to the three-man organising committee. Fred McLeod was elected the first President but was unable to attend as he was playing in the Sarasota Open in Florida. In 1927 Wilfred Thomson was elected one of two Vice-Presidents. In 1926 the MAPGA qualifying for the PGA Championship took place at Congressional when Fred McLeod and Wilfred Thomson's eighteen-year-old son Jimmy Thomson earned the two spots.

In 1934, Jimmy Thomson played 504 strokes in open tournaments which netted him $6,217. Wilfred Thomson returned to the UK in 1936 and took up the post of private professional to Lord Wimborne at Rugby. On the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the Royal Scots regiment, Thomson had also seen active service during the 1914-18 war. After peace had been declared, he travelled back to America for a short period, and then finally in 1937 he returned to North Berwick, living at 25 East Road where he died on 9th May 1962.

Wilfy Thomson and Jimmy Black were the last of the traditional licensed golf professionals on the West Links. They continued into the 1950s giving golf lessons on the strip of land between the third and sixteenth fairways. The lesson was reserved at James Watt's club makers shop at the foot of Station Hill. He also attended to the east and west putting greens laid out by the Town Council. Wilfred Thomson died in May 1962, at the age of 74. In November 1960 Jimmy Thomson, Promotion Director for Dunlop was made a life member of the Caroline PGA Section.