On a par with Arnie, Carol Semple Thompson 

is America's 'Queen of Golf'
 
FROM THE PITTSBURGH MAGAZINE

By DFBRA SMIT
The  world of golf may have been slow to embrace women, but Sewickley  amateur Carol Semple Thompson always has found her way into the club.
On a summer day in 1965, young Carol  Semple found herself up against a fierce yet familiar opponent. The day  was clear and blue, the kind that gives a golf course fairway the lush  look of velvet. Just 16 years old, Semple was leading in the final round  of the Women’s West Penn Championship at Sewickley Heights Golf Club —  and she was several strokes ahead of her mother, Phyllis Semple, an  accomplished amateur in her own right. 
When the final putt dropped, she  had beaten her mother handily.
Rest assured that Phyllis Semple played her best game that day. “My  mother wasn’t throwing her game, but she was rooting for me to sink all  of my putts,” says the woman recognized for the past generation as  Semple Thompson. It was a graceful acknowledgment of the competitive  nature of their relationship. 
“I was not to be denied. That day was the  beginning. It gave me the impetus to keep improving.” 

 Thus launched the career of one of the greatest American women golfers in the annals of the game. 
Never mind that the Sewickley native remained an amateur throughout her life, or that she never achieved the name recognition or prize money of such pros as Annika Sörenstam and Nancy Lopez. 
Her ruthless competitive drive and 43-year string of amateur, national and international wins place her among the greats.
For starters, Semple Thompson and Arnold Palmer are the only two golfers from western Pennsylvania in the World Golf Hall of Fame. She also is one of five players in history to win three different U.S. Golf Association titles — an achievement she shares with Jack Nicklaus, JoAnne Gunderson Carner, Tiger Woods and Palmer. And she has played in more USGA championships than any person — woman or man — in history

TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE, COMPLETE WITH PICTURES, CLICK ON THIS LINK 

 http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/June-2015/On-Par-with-Arnie-She-is-Americas-Queen-of-Golf/#.VjPYk_d4NDM.twitter


Editor's note: Carol Semple Thompson is certainly my favourite American!  Among many other things, she is chairman of the committee who run the Harder Hall Invitational in January, the first event of Florida's Orange Blossom Tour for female amateurs.
Carol captained the winning United States team in the 2008 Curtis Cup match over the Old Course and, as one of the Press Centre team, she was a pleasure to work with.
Carol told me later: "St Andrews is such a perfect setting for an international match that I think every Curtis Cup match should be played there when it is GB and I's turn to host it." 
 

Thus launched the career of one of the greatest American women golfers in the annals of the game. Never mind that the Sewickley native remained an amateur throughout her life, or that she never achieved the name recognition or prize money of such pros as Annika Sörenstam and Nancy Lopez. Her ruthless competitive drive and 43-year string of amateur, national and international wins place her among the greats.

For starters, Semple Thompson and Arnold Palmer are the only two golfers from western Pennsylvania in the World Golf Hall of Fame. She also is one of five players in history to win three different U.S. Golf Association titles — an achievement she shares with Jack Nicklaus, JoAnne Gunderson Carner, Tiger Woods and Palmer. And she has played in more USGA championships than any person — woman or man — in history.

“I wanted to be really good, but I w

- See more at: http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/June-2015/On-Par-with-Arnie-She-is-Americas-Queen-of-Golf/#.VjPYk_d4NDM.twitter