If it seems like the year 1969 was a really, really long time ago, well, it was. In the world of golf, George Archer was the Masters champ, Orville Moody was the one-hit wonder who won the U.S. Open, Raymond Floyd captured the PGA, the first of his four major titles, and Frank Beard was the leading money winner. The Ping Golf Company introduced the first cavity-backed irons and Frank Thomas, the current technical director of the USGA, designed the first graphite-shafted clubs for little-known Shakespeare Golf. Oh, and John Berry was a sophomore in high school playing in the No. 4 slot on the golf team.
The impact golfer of 1969 was Tony Jacklin, the British Open champion that summer. Jacklin”s victory in the Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St. Annes influenced a series of events, most notably the birth of the European Tour and the reemergence of the Ryder Cup to the places of prominence they still hold today in the sporting world.
Born into a working-class English household on July 7, 1944, Tony Jacklin took up the game of golf as a 9-year-old, going to the local municipal golf course and playing alongside his father, a truck driver. The young Jacklin was a quick study and at age 13 he won his first of three consecutive Lincolnshire Boys golf championships. As a 16-year-old in 1961, Tony ran away with the Lincolnshire Open, beating a field of professional golfers by a nine-stroke margin. Not all that fond of school, the Lincolnshire Open win was the impetus that Jacklin needed to decide upon the course of his career. He turned professional immediately after his win, took a job as an assistant golf pro at the local private golf club, and entered every tournament he could get into in the surrounding area.
There was no formalized European Tour in those days. Instead, there was a haphazard schedule of professional tournaments in Great Britain, Ireland and Western Europe. Jacklin received the golf writer”s Sir Henry Cotton Award for being the 1963 rookie of the year. In 1964, he branched out even farther and played the South African Tour during the winter months. In 1964 he won the Coombe Hill Tourney in Surrey, England, and in 1965 he was the 12th-leading money winner in Europe. Jacklin picked up his first win in South Africa at the Kimberley Tournament in 1966 and then decided to try and bring his game to America.
In 1967, Jacklin began playing full-time on the American PGA Tour. He had his first breakthrough in February of 1968 when he won the Jacksonville Open. He also started working with fellow pro Tom Weiskopf, a superb ball striker, and began playing a more Americanized style of play on the U.S. tour.
A consistent high finisher during 1968 with additional top-10 finishes at Tucson, the Florida Citrus (now Bay Hill), Pensacola, and the Bing Crosby, Jacklin returned to the British Open at Carnoustie in high spirits. He was near the top of the leaderboard for three rounds but faltered with a final-round 80 to finish tied for 18th. In 1969, he started slow, but just prior to the British Open he posted top-five finishes at the Western and the Kemper. He had a good feeling about playing the 1969 Open at Royal Lytham, the site of his first major championship experience in 1963 as well as his victory at the 1967 Pringle Tournament.
Jackson shot 68-70-70-72 for an even-par aggregate of 280 and a two-stroke victory over 1963 British Open champ Bob Charles. For the 25-year-old Jacklin, it was a monumental moment. For fans of European golf, it was a historical event. He was the first British champion since 1951 and his triumph influenced a brigade of young golfers to seriously take up the game, including Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Ian Woosnam, Bernhard Langer and Seve Ballesteros, all future major champions.
In 1970, Jacklin put an exclamation point on his career, winning the United States Open at Hazeltine, site of next month”s PGA Championship. Jacklin”s National Open win by a resounding seven-shot margin over Dave Hill was a first by an English player since 1925 and the only one through 2009. In 1972 he lost the British Open to Lee Trevino, victimized by Lee”s four chip-ins, including a most improbable one for par on the 17th hole during Sunday”s final round.
Jacklin spent the next decade as the headliner on the newly formed European PGA Tour, winning eight times through 1982. As a player, he was 0-6-1 in seven Ryder Cup appearances. However, he made his mark as a four-time Cup captain for the European team. He captained the Euros to victory in 1985, their first win against the Americans in 28 years. When the Euros won in 1987 at Muirfield Village, the site of Jack Nicklaus” Memorial Tournament, it was the first Ryder Cup win for the Europeans on American soil. Jacklin”s captaincy of the Cup teams in the 1980s resulted in the Euros keeping the cup three out of four times and returned the matches to the prominence they enjoy to this day.
Tony Jacklin returned to competitive golf in the 1990s, winning twice on the PGA Senior Tour. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2002. His golfing resume included two major titles, four wins on the PGA Tour, eight wins on the fledgling European Tour, two senior titles and 14 other worldwide victories. Yet his impact on the golfing world goes far beyond his career highlights. His win at the British Open 40 years ago jumpstarted the birth and growth of the European Tour, and his adept handling of his four teams as Ryder Cup captain enhanced the enormous growth of the biennial team matches.
On a local feel-good note, 77-year-old Ed Jacobsen of Lakeport, a well-known former teacher and coach at Clear Lake High, broke the age barrier by shooting a 76 at Buckingham on Wednesday. All-Coastal Mountain Conference golfer Blaine Ruggio of Middletown High School won the Ukiah Junior Tournament on Wednesday over a strong regional field.
with a 3-over-par score of 73. He beat Kasey Cazet of Santa Rosa by one stroke. Ruggio will be a junior at Middletown in the fall.
