With A Heavy Heart, 4-Time SWA Champ Semple Thompson Forges Ahead

By Andrew Blair

Hot Springs, Va. – Carol Semple Thompson owns seven USGA titles and there are few barriers in amateur golf circles that she hasn’t crossed. But there is admittedly something missing – maybe even a moment of discomforting uncertainty – for her at this week’s USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championship at The Homestead’s Cascades Course.

Thompson is playing in her first individual USGA championship since her mother, Phyllis, passed away in January at the age of 87.

Carol Semple Thompson will play her first USGA individual championship this week without the presence of her late mother. (USGA Museum)

Phyllis Semple, a USGA competitor herself and a longtime volunteer, inoculated her daughter on the world of competitive golf at a young age. A Sewickley, Pa., resident Thompson recollects being the child who trailed after her mother while she competed in golf tournaments, making her own impact on the game on the regional and national stages.

“I learned about the game by following her,” says Thompson.

It’s something of an understatement to say that Thompson grasped things pretty well. Thompson cherishes her mother’s hand in stoking her interest in golf while growing up at Allegheny Country Club. In addition to her seven national championships, Thompson also owns records for most Curtis Cup starts (12) and match-play victories (18). Most of those accomplishments came with Phyllis Semple following along, stroke by stroke, round by round.

“She always wanted to know exactly what I shot,” said Thompson. “She was very interested. She was my greatest supporter.”

The poison of negative thoughts had so invaded Thompson’s game and psyche in the years leading up to the 1973 U.S. Women’s Amateur that she relied on hypnosis from mind-soothing tapes to scrub her conscience, which provided a near-immediate panacea. She defeated Anne Quast Sander, 1 up, at Montclair (N.J.) Golf Club for the title.

Following the close match, Thompson was presented the Robert Cox Cup by her father and then USGA vice president, Harton “Bud” Semple,  who a year later was appointed president for the first of two one-year terms. Thompson still counts that moment as one of her greatest in golf. Her mother was absent from the national championship that year, but witnessed her remaining six USGA victories; her father died six months before her 1990 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur triumph at her home course.

Thompson estimates that she and her mother competed in nearly a half-dozen USGA championships together. When Thompson won the first of four consecutive Senior Women’s Amateur titles at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, Ariz., Phyllis served as her caddie. These days, Thompson traces her successes back to positive parental influence, especially from her mother whom she calls “the most competitive person I have ever met in my life.”

Her impact was “immeasurable. Immeasurable,” Thompson emphasizes. “She was the one who got me playing when I was 6, 7 and 8 and then she got me to practice and take lessons. Eventually, I wanted to do that, but she was really the pusher, if you will. My father was also very much there, but my mother was the immediate impetus.

“My mother was the one who worked hardest on her game so she probably made me work hard on my game.”

Memories of her parents rise closer to the surface for Thompson at this week’s USGA Senior Women’s Amateur. Harton and Phyllis often competed in an annual fall event over a two-decade span at the venerable resort. Thompson even graduated from western Virginia’s Hollins University, in Roanoke, where she was a multi-sport standout, playing field hockey in the fall, basketball in the winter and lacrosse, tennis and some recreational golf in the spring.

“You can tell I was studying a lot,” she quips.

The school didn’t have a golf team, but in days gone by, individuals were permitted to apply to compete in the Women’s National Intercollegiate Championship and Thompson reached the championship final one year, falling to Gail Sykes, 10 and 9.  

That’s now a laughable memory: “I became a member of the double-digit club.”

It’s one of the few times that she hasn’t shined brightly on a big stage. Thompson is one of 11 players to win both the U.S. Women’s Amateur and British Ladies Open Amateur and last November, she was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Thompson, who has competed in more than 100 USGA championships, has struggled with her game over the past few years. She admittedly plays a different kind of golf that relies more on positioning than power.

“Has it gone downhill over the past couple of years – is that what you want?,” she laughs, still owner of the wonderful self-deprecating humor.

“It’s not as consistent as it used to be, she says, “but I’m still hitting some good shots, so I am ever hopeful that I can be somewhat competitive.”

And she knows, as ever, Phyllis Semple will be watching.

Andrew Blair is the communications director for the Virginia Golf Association. E-mail him with questions or comments at ablair@vsga.org.