George C. Thomas, Jr.
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 Hole 1, Riviera (U.S. Open) on YouTube
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George C. Thomas Jr. on YouTube
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George Clifford Thomas, Jr. (October 3, 1873, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - February 28, 1932, Beverly Hills, California) was an American golf course architect, botanist, and author. He designed the original course at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and more than twenty courses in California, including Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades.
He grew up in Philadelphia, attended Episcopal Academy, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1894. His father was a partner in the investment bank Drexel & Company, where the son worked until 1907. As a teenager, he began designing a golf course on his family's suburban estate, Bloomfield Farm. He sold the course in 1908 to a group of golfers who converted it into Whitemarsh Valley Country Club. He designed a 9-hole course in Marion, Massachusetts, and a course in Spring Lake Heights, New Jersey.
In the 1910s, he was able to observe some of the pioneers of golf course design working near Philadelphia. He was a founding member of Sunnybrook Golf Club, and witnessed Donald Ross's 1914-15 construction of its original course in Flourtown, Pennsylvania. He was friends with Hugh Wilson, who designed Merion Golf Club's original East Course in 1912, and its original West Course in 1914; with George Crump, who designed Pine Valley Golf Club's original course in 1915; and with A. W. Tillinghast, who later designed the Philadelphia Cricket Club's original course in Flourtown. Crump, Tillinghast, Wilson, William Flynn (who constructed Wilson's courses at Merion), and Thomas were masters of the "Philadelphia School" of golf course design, which encouraged high-risk/high-reward play.
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