Stanley Thompson Bridgewater CC / Whirlpool Golf Club St. Catharines Golf &Country Club   Considered by many as Canada's premier golf architect   Stanley Thompson was one of five brothers who came to be known as "The Amazing Thompsons" - Nicol, Bill, Matt, Stanley, Frank - and all became leading Canadian golfers in the 1920s.

Thompson had dabbled in golf course architecture before WW-I and in the post-war years, he formed Stanley Thompson & Co., a golf architectural firm. Thompson subsequently designed, remodeled or constructed some 145 courses in Canada, the United States, the Caribbean and South America, including such renowned Canadian golf courses as Highlands Links (Nova Scotia), Banff and Jasper (Alberta), St. George’s (Toronto), and Capilano (Vancouver). Shy and introverted, Thompson avoided talk of his achievements in the press. He was a lover of steaks, rye whiskey, and cigars, and for all these and other reasons he came to be known as "The Toronto Terror".

In 1948, Donald Ross, Robert Trent Jones and Thompson founded the prestigious American Society of Golf Course Architects, and at one time, now-legendary course architects Jones, Howard Watson, Geoff Cornish, C.E. "Robbie" Robinson and Bob Moote worked for Thompson. Deservedly included among the prominent figures of North American golf course architecture, Stanley Thompson left a legacy of boldly shaped layouts that continues to influence golf course design today. Stanley Thompson was elected to the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 1980.

Design Style Course designer, Stanley Thompson had a flair for the dramatic. His resort courses at Banff Springs and Jasper in the Canadian Rockies remain two of the greatest mountain courses ever built. The vistas are overwhelming, in large measure because the holes are sculpted on a very broad scale and there is plenty of room to play and to enjoy the natural setting of the dense conifer forests that frame each hole.

All Thompson's courses present inspiring views of the native terrain and none moreso than Highland Links in the Cape Breton Highlands, NS. The course routing requires long walks between holes, during which time the golfer is treated to breathtaking views of Cabot Strait and the Atlantic Ocean. Thompson had a flair for features on a grand scale and he was not averse to sculpting the earth along vast dimensions in search of generous playing areas and diverse angles of approach. Forced carries on par-3s, often across water or to greens perched on stark plateaus, remain today as his most enduring legacy to the design craft.