Ray Thompson was a great golfer right to the very end

   It was qualifying day in the 2014 BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship at White Manor Country Club and Overbrook Golf Club and, as always, no shortage of angles for the guy covering it for the Delaware County Daily Times, which was me.

   Could have easily just written a story about the qualifying medalist, Michael McDermott, who had won the second of his three Philly Am titles a year earlier at Aronimink Golf Club. He’s a Delco guy, a scholastic standout at Haverford High who had emerged out of the junior program at Llanerch Golf Club to become one of the top mid-ams in this part of the country.

   But no, there was something better, much better.

   Finishing in a tie for 11^th at 2-over 143 was 62-years-young Ray Thompson, the perennial Overbrook Golf Club standout who had been a major factor in Golf Association of Philadelphia senior circles for a decade.

   Thompson was Marple Newtown Class of 1969, finishing as the runnerup in the PIAA Championship a few weeks before graduation back when golf was a spring sport on the scholastic scene.

   Also making match play that day was Sam Soeth, Marple Newtown Class of 2014. If I remember correctly Soeth, who is wrapping up a solid college career at Temple this season, was walking in his Marple Newtown graduation that very week.

   To me the fact that two guys who graduated 45 years apart from the same high school had earned spots in match play in the Philly Am told you all you needed to know about the GAP scene. And trust me, those 32 spots in match play at a Philly Am are as hard-earned as any in any metropolitan golf association championship you can find.

   But that wasn’t the end of the story for Thompson. Not by a long shot. Pretty nice playing by the old guy, going 36 holes. But the 1-under 69 he shot was on his home course at Overbrook, a course he could probably shoot 1-under on blindfolded.

   McDermott even gave Thompson a little of the credit for his winning the qualifying medal because he was paired with Thompson. White Manor, McDermott was fine with, shooting a brilliant 5-under 66. He admitted he’s never played Overbrook well and when the pairings came out and he was with Thompson, his strategy was just to pay attention to how Ray was playing the course. That strategy resulted in a career-best 1-over 71 for McDermott.

   But match play was at White Manor and the first two rounds would be 36 more holes. So what does Ray Thompson do? Well, he beats Joseph Fabrizio Jr. of Aronimink, 3 and 2, and then he goes 19 holes to beat Aaron Fricke, the Lancaster Country Club standout who would go on to have a solid college career at Drexel.

   Thompson came back the next morning and claimed a 1-up victory over another youngster, LedgeRock Golf Club’s Alex Blickle. At age 62, Thompson was in the Philly Am semifinals.

   The Cinderella story ended there as Huntingdon Valley Country Club’s Jeff Osberg, on his way to a dominating first title in the event, rolled to a 5 and 4 decision over Thompson. Osberg is friendly with the Overbrook crowd. He knew better than to look past Thompson.

   Ray Thompson died the day after Thanksgiving, having turned 67 last month. He had won the Philly Am in 1972 following his sophomore season at Florida State. Next year would be 50 years since that runnerup finish in the state tournament.

   He was a very good player in 1969 as a high school senior. He was a very good player as a 66-year-old senior player in 2018. He was a very good player his whole life.

   Thompson got it going last summer at Old York Road Country Club in the Brewer Cup, the only GAP senior major championship that had eluded him over the years.

   All he had to do was get past the best senior amateur player on the planet the last decade or so, Chip Lutz of LedgeRock, in the semifinals. Lutz was GAP’s Senior Player of the Year for the ninth straight time in 2018. He’s won The Seniors Amateur Championship – The as in across the pond in the UK -- three times, the Canadian Senior Amateur twice and captured the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship in 2015 at Hidden Creek Golf Club at the Jersey Shore.

   One of the reasons Lutz is such a great player is because he had to be better than Ray Thompson. Lutz is a product of the ridiculously competitive GAP senior scene and Thompson was always right in the middle of it.

   They met in the 2013 U.S. Senior Amateur quarterfinals the fall before Thompson’s run to the Philly Am semis at White Manor, a GAP rivalry playing out at Wade Hampton Country Club in Cashiers, N.C. Thompson wasn’t sneaking up on Lutz, who claimed a 4 and 3 victory.

   But that day in the Brewer Cup semis, Thompson got his old rival down and rolled to a 5 and 4 victory over Lutz. Thompson defeated Steve Walczk of Wilmington Country Club, 2-up, in the final.

   The GAP website rolled out the Thompson record in its senior biggies after that: Two Francis B. Warner Cup wins; a Frank H. Chapman win; two GAP Senior Amateur triumphs; three Senior Silver Cross Awards; and finally that Brewer Cup win that gave him GAP’s career “senior slam.” We just didn’t know at the time that it was the final roll call of Thompson’s major GAP senior accomplishments.

   Thompson was the quintessential Overbrook guy. Every spring Overbrook is a contender in the GAP Team Matches at the highest level. I can’t speak to how many of those matches Thompson has competed in over the years. I suspect it is most of them.

   So many good young players have emerged from Overbrook over the years. Did having to play your best possible golf just to compete against an “old guy” like Thompson in the club championship make you a better player? Again, I suspect the answer is yes.

   Thompson was old school in all the best possible connotations of that expression. The week following Thompson’s run to the Philly Am semifinals, a handwritten note showed up at the Daily Times. Handwritten. The youngsters on the Daily Times sports staff were dumbfounded that anyone still actually did such a thing. The guy put pen to paper and mailed the thing. Can you imagine.

   It read: “Tom, Thanks for the great ink regarding my play at the recent Philly Am. I think you know my golf history better than I do. It was a great run for me and way above my expectations. Maybe I’ll give it a try again in 2015. Thanks again. Ray Thompson.”

   I saved it and I didn’t hesitate to throw it in a box when it was time to clean out my desk at the Daily Times in early 2016. Because, after all, it came from a guy who was a great golfer right to the end.