Who is Rocky Thompson? A True, Little-Known Legend

By: Bob Boldt

I have known Rocky since my early days on the PGA Tour and we reconnected on the senior tour. Rocky was the mayor of Toco, Texas, population 164, 38 homes, three water tanks and a liquor store that doubles as a jail.

He played the tour for 27 straight years, making $146,391 in official money before qualifying for the Champions Tour. Divide that by 27 and his average yearly earnings ended up at $5,441.

Rocky played in 611 tournaments before a victory on the senior tour. He was not a long hitter and was always searching for anything that could put him into the winner's circle. He would experiment with anything that was golf-related. We once played in a tournament before the one-ball rule was in effect. I had three different brands of balls, Rocky had five.

I'll always remember when I was on the putting green at the Senior PGA Championship and Rocky walked up and said, "Boldt, you're never going to believe my new putter." He was holding a shaft that had a handle on it but no putter head. I said, "Where's the putter?"

"You're looking at it. Watch this," Rocky replied. He bent down, put his elbows on his knees and swept the shaft along the ground, the end of the shaft being the putter "head." The first five putts all went into the hole from 10 feet away.

I said, "You're not going to play with this in the tournament?"

"I will if it's legal," he said. Unfortunately, it didn't pass the USGA guidelines for conforming clubs. If it had, we would all be sweeping the ball today.

My first year on the senior tour I used a 45-and-a-half-inch TaylorMade driver with a graphite, stiff shaft. Everyone on the tour at that time was still using steel shafts with mostly steel heads from various manufacturers. After I won the Epson Driving Distance statistical category*, Rocky and many of the other senior professionals wanted to know about my club specifications. This became the start of longer, lighter clubs and the graphite era.

Rocky, however, went a step further and started his own company, producing shafts at a standard length of 46 to 48 inches. His company was called "The Killer Bee." Rocky's career took off since he was now hitting drives 280-plus yards, 40 yards farther than his previous average drive of 240.

As time went by Rocky was smashing 300-yard drives and winning tournaments. At one senior event he used a 53-inch driver. As a result of the extra length, his earnings skyrocketed to a career total of $4,946,922, thanks to three Champions Tour wins.

Rocky was way ahead of his time. And even though I had been using 46-inch-long drivers, he began using 48- and even 53-inch clubs with longer, lighter shafts and clubheads.

* For the Epson stat championship your drive was measured on each nine during the tournament and the longest average at the end of the year was the overall winner.

Next Up: Drivers & Golf Balls

Bob Boldt turned 77 in September 2014. Married for 31 years to Patricia, the father of two – including two sons, Rob and Jason, who are golf professionals and excellent players – played on the PGA and Champions tours for dozens of years, earning multiple victories in his amateur and professional careers.

Boldt, who attended Cal and became the Bears’ men’s golf coach, is a long-time native of Northern California and currently the director of golf at Vintners Golf Club in Yountville, where he is one of state’s most recognized golf instructors. He received the Northern California PGA Section Junior Golf Leader Award in 1999.

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