|
STAN THOMPSON (1911-1995)
A SHORT HISTORY OF STAN THOMPSON
"What does Ginty mean? It means the Son of a Scottish brood
Stan Thompson was born in Kansas in 1911. His parents were William and Emma. His mother was born in Germany and his father in Kansas. In early childhood Stan lived in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Later his family moved to Kansas City, Missouri. Stan's father was a machinist with the railroad in Kansas City. Stan attended Central High School and was captain of the golf team during his junior and senior years 1930 and 1931.
Stan learned to make golf clubs in Kansas City while working for Kenneth Smith. He subsequently moved to California where he began making custom golf clubs in Beverly Hills in 1937.
He later moved his factory to 2707 S. Fairfax in Culver City and the corner of La Cienega and Fairfax. Some of the custom clubs are labeled Beverly Hills and some are labeled Culver City. depending on which location they were manufactured. Many of the original "wood" woods were solid persimmon. In 1973 Stan created and patented the "Ginty", a laminated head trouble club consisting of a 7 wood head with a four wood shaft length. The story goes that while out boating, he thought of using a metal keel attached to the bottom of the club to help cutting through deeper rough like a boat keel cuts through water. Several subsequent patents delt with the ability to add more or less weight to the club head and with bolting the keel face plate to the club. Stan made Gintys in #1 through #15. The #7 wood in the series had the number 7 on it, but the trouble club has no number. He also made "California" Gintys in multi-colored laminations. An additional club called the Steamer was a modification of the Ginty 3 wood. Stan in time created a full set of Ginty irons with the same keel design and with the onset of "metal" woods created a metal Ginty 7 and other metal Gintys as well as graphite Gintys. He eventually developed metal woods for men and women.
STAN THOMPSON INTERNET ARTICLE: http://www.wordshack.com/reading_areas/essay/e_StanThompson.shtml
|
