STAN STORIESIn 1985 GolfWorks published a Golf Club Identification and Price Guide.
The editor of this first edition was Tom Wishon (www.wishongolf.com). Tom remembers that Stan said he actually got interested in golf because of an
event in his childhood. Stan used to ride his bike past a golf course in Kansas City ; and one day an errant shot bounced off the road and hit is bike. He was mad about this; so he stopped his bike, picked up the ball and rode off with it, as if this was his way of "getting even" with the guy who hit the ball. When his mother heard the story, she told him to return the ball because it was not his; so he rode to the golf course and handed the ball over to the pro with an apology for taking it in anger. The pro liked the honesty of this kid and offered him part-time clean up work around the golf shop and course. (Salesmen who worked for Stan later said he was always honest in their pay, to the penny.) Tom also remembers from the interview that Stan said his first job as an apprentice for Kenneth Smith (Kenneth Smith Golf Company, Kansas City) was to work in the basement shaving the leather that they bought in raw form to make their grips. He would use a knife to hand scrape the back of the leather smooth and then learned to hand cut the skiving edges on the leather for wrapping. Tom recognized how much work this was to begin with leather sheets, because he had used pre-skived leather strips in his own early clubmaking days. According to Mike Just of Louisville Golf, Stan was very much a gentleman, but “could also be very stubborn.
He was a very hands on type of guy who kept a work apron at the plant and could be seen on any given day working on clubs at the plant.” Stan developed health problems in the late 80’s; and it was decided that
Louisville would purchase the components and manufacture the heads,
which were then shipped to the Stan Thompson plant to be assembled.
As Stan’s business declined, Louisville Golf , by contract, retained the right to continue to assemble and sell Gintys. One of Stan's salesmen
for the New York and New Jersey territory, Frank Viola, purchased
several hundred Gintys per month (in component form) and assembled
and sold them at Con-Sole Golf until the economy slowed. Frank was a
long time distributor of Gintys and a firm believer in the performance of
the club. On his website Frank refers to the Ginty: "The Original Ginty
may be the best utility wood ever designed. It features a laminated wood
head, developed specifically to give you both distance and forgiveness in
every swing you take from the fairway, sand or rough."
(Gintys remain available through Louisville Golf at www.louisvillegolf.com and Con-Sole Golf at www.ginty.com)
Mike Just adds “It’s a shame the ST company didn’t survive. They Ginty is a unique club that, in my opinion, cannot be duplicated in metal. The
COG is so low because of the very thick soleplate and very light wood
material on top. You can’t achieve that low a COG in metal. Our best
selling head (Louisville Golf) today is the Niblick, which has the same
performance characteristics as the Ginty.”
PAT MORRIS WRITES FROM ROLLA, MISSOURI: Thursday , 09 Sep 2004 I just surfed on to your Stan Thompson Golf History web site and can't resist giving you a few tid bits about the Stan Thompson that I knew. In the mid 60s Stan and his wife both worked full time in their golf club business and lived in a five unit apartment house that they owned on Talbert Street, just a half block off of Manchester in Playa del Rey. In about 1966 we had sold our duplex on Pershing and hoping to stay in Playa del Rey we were looking for an apartment to rent in the area when we looked at a nice apartment Stan and his wife had for rent. We loved the third level corner apartment and told them that we were interested in renting it. Stan and his wife looked at each other and Mrs. Thompson kindly said "we don't rent to people with children." Our only daughter was about nine years old and a very well behaved child. We thanked them for showing us the apartment and left. An hour or so later the phone rang and it was Stan. "We decided that we want you folks to live in our apartment and the rent won't be $225.00, it will be $185.00!" That was the beginning of a very pleasant three year relationship with Stan and Mrs. Thompson. I never went to his place of business. I recall that it was open to the public because he talked about people coming in to have him measure them for clubs. Mrs. Thompson told me she was amused one day when a man came in and asked to be measured for clubs. She told him that she would get Stan to measure him and he replied "is he still living?" She told him that she hoped he was since they were married. I guess Stan was already a legend before he came up with the club that he is now most famous for. I once asked Stan if he had offers from larger golf club companies to buy him out and he replied that he had offers but "they were just offering me what I already have". Stan told me that one of his largest distributors was in Japan. I recall that the Japanese distributor and his daughter were entertained by Stan when they came over from Japan. When I asked him if his employees were unionized I believe he said that they had not. He said organizers had wined and dined them though. He told me that his father was a strong union man all of his life and the best transportation he ever owned was a bicycle. In 1969 we moved to Honolulu to seek our fortune. We still have fond memories of the years we lived in the Thompson's apartment house.
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