Thornhill Commemorates 60th Anniversary of Byron Nelson's Achievement
David Bell, 2005 Golf Director
In 1945, as many of you know, Thornhill Golf & Country Club was the proud host of the Canadian Open. The course was stretched an extra 500 yards to 6,317 yards and par was dropped by a stroke to 70. Byron Nelson dubbed "Lord Byron" for his exquisite swing, shot a 4-round total of 280 to claim victory. Nelson's win capped a dream season, winning a total of 18 of 30 PGA sanctioned events with an incredible run of 11 straight victories, his 11th at Thornhill. Nelson also had 7 runner up finishes that year. The win at Thornhill earned him $2000.00 from a total purse of $10,000.00. (By contrast, last year's winner of the Canadian Open, Vjay Singh, won $756,000.00 out of a total purse of $4.5 million. All in U.S. currency of course.)
During his string of victories Byron Nelson made 115 consecutive cuts. In 1946 Nelson earned another 5 titles. At the end of that year, at the age of 34, Byron Nelson surprisingly quit his full time career on the PGA tour to spend life on the cattle ranch in Roanoke Texas where he still resides.
2005 marked the 60th anniversary of Lord Byron's amazing achievement. The Golf Committee felt that it would be a fitting tribute to dedicate the 2005 season to Byron Nelson. At the age of 93, Nelson slowly gets around with the use of two canes. In a recent interview he stated: "the doctors say that from my hips up, I'm about 60, and from there down, I'm about 100."