Peter Jacobsen Is Recipient of 2012 Old Tom Morris Award

By Golf Course Superintendents Association of America

MULTIPLE PGA TOUR WINNER and golf course designer Peter Jacobsen has been selected to receive the 2012 Old Tom Morris Award by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA). The award will be presented during the 2012 GCSAA Education Conference at Celebrate GCSAA! presented by Syngenta on February 28 in Las Vegas.

“Peter has done much for the game of golf, and he has been an advocate for golf course superintendents,” said GCSAA President Robert Randquist. “He is a perfect fit for the Old Tom Morris Award, and we look forward to recognizing him at the GCSAA Education Conference.”

GCSAA’s most prestigious honor, the Old Tom Morris Award is presented each year to an individual who “through a continuing lifetime commitment to the game of golf has helped to mold the welfare of the game in a manner and style exemplified by Old Tom Morris.” Morris (1821-1908) was greenkeeper and golf professional at the St. Andrews Links Trust Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland. Morris was a four-time winner of the British Open (1861, ’62, ’64 and ’67) and ranked as one of the top links designers of the 19th century.

Jacobsen won seven times on the PGA TOUR and owns two Champions Tour majors, the 2004 U.S. Senior Open and the 2005 Senior Players Championship. He played for the U.S. Ryder Cup teams in 1985 and 1995. In 2003 he was PGA TOUR Comeback Player of the Year after winning the Greater Hartford Open at the age of 49.

Jacobsen is president and CEO of Peter Jacobsen Sports, a sports marketing firm he created in 1988. He also co-founded a golf course design company with Jim Hardy (Jacobsen Hardy Golf Course Design) that has developed nearly 20 courses and renovated several others worldwide since 1995.

Jacobsen also has provided commentary for various TV golf broadcasts, including recent work as a commentator for NBC and Golf Channel at the 2011 U.S. Open.

Past Winners

Arnold Palmer was the first recipient of the Old Tom Morris Award in 1983. Other winners include Nick Price, Judy Rankin, Greg Norman, Charlie Sifford, Jack Nicklaus, Rees Jones, Pete Dye, Tim Finchem, Nancy Lopez, Ken Venturi, Ben Crenshaw, Tom Fazio, Byron Nelson, Dinah Shore, Tom Watson, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Gene Sarazen, Robert Trent Jones Sr., Patty Berg, Gerald Ford and Bob Hope.

(Photo: Courtesy of GCSAA)

On My Golf Bucket List: Scotland and The Old Course

TODAY I WAS REMINDED OF my golf bucket list when my wife told me that her brother is heading to Ireland this August for a golf trip. A few years ago he went to Scotland. He brought me back a cap from Royal Troon. I still have it. I still long to go.

There are several things I’ve been able to cross off my golf bucket list. I’ve been to many golf tournaments and a handful of majors. In 2008 I finally made it to Augusta National Golf Club for the Masters. I was also fortunate to attend the Ryder Cup at Valhalla in Louisville.

What’s left?

I’ve always wanted to play Pebble Beach, as I mentioned not long ago. I don’t know if or when that will happen at this point. I’m no longer in the West Coast neighborhood and the green fees are five Benjamin Franklins. But here’s a big one: I want to attend The Open Championship. I also want to set foot on the Home of Golf, St. Andrews, the Old Course. It’s on my golf bucket list. I need to get there.

(Photo: The Road Hole at St. Andrews / courtesy of Melvyn Morrow)

I know golf in Scotland is like a pilgrimage. It’s something a golfer should do at least once in a lifetime, if at all possible. I could happily tour all of Scotland’s fabled links if I had enough time and money. But it seems to me that St. Andrews is the destination for those interested in a serious golfing holiday. After all, it’s where this crazy game began.

My dad went to Scotland and St. Andrews in the 1980s. He bought me a cap. As I mentioned, my brother-in-law went a few years ago. He bought me a cap.

I DON’T NEED ANY MORE CAPS.

I need to see the Road Hole with my own eyes. I need to walk across the Swilken Bridge toward the Valley of Sin. I need to hack my way out of one of those insane pot bunkers and play a Miguel Angel Jimenez carom shot. If you have played and watched golf much of your life like l have, then you’re nodding your head. This makes perfect sense to you.

I expect to accomplish this goal.

The Old Course isn’t always love at first sight. The great Bobby Jones was not impressed the first time he saw St. Andrews. Nor was Sam Snead. Scott Hoch called it “the biggest piece of mess I’ve ever seen.” A few years ago, a former tour and club pro told me, “I felt like Bobby Jones the first time he saw it. Thought it was a cow pasture.”

Yet, the Old Course won over Bobby Jones, and Bobby Jones won over the Scots, returning again and again and winning three Claret Jugs.

As for me, I’ll be glad if I can just go once. When I do, maybe I’ll buy someone a cap.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Brought to you by YourGolfTravel.com, the online destination for golf breaks uk.)

Two Drawings for Monarchs House Stay in St. Andrews

THE MONARCHS HOUSE IN St. Andrews will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2011. They’re so proud (and rightly so) that they will draw two winners for a free weeklong stay at their lovely home at the Home of Golf.

The Monarchs House has seven comfortable bedrooms (beds fitted with Egyptian cotton sheets), all with modern private baths. The House also has a snug (small room) with SkyTV satellite and a historical selection of DVDs, a formal dining room and a drawing room. There’s also a replica of the Claret Jug on the foyer table as you enter the House.

The two one-week stays are each for up to eight guests. Two drawings will decide the winners: 1) for guests who stay at the Monarchs House in 2011 (they will be automatically entered); 2) for those who provide their email address and a comment about why they would like to visit St. Andrews.

Monarchs House drawings and contest information

“It’s a cracking prize with no strings attached,” said managing partner Mike DiCarlo in an email.

But you knew that. Find out more.

−The Armchair Golfer

The $4,600 Golf Book

GOLF LINKS OF SCOTLAND is advertised as the most expensive golf book ever published. Only 150 copies will be printed; 145 of this limited edition will be sold for $4,600 apiece (the price increases to $5,000 after January 1, 2011, so you better hurry).

What on God’s green fairways could make a golf book more expensive than a luxury trip to the home of golf?

I came up with a short list.

The book permanently cures a slice for every golfer who suffers with the affliction. It teaches how to make every three-footer for the rest of your life. It guarantees that you’ll break your next scoring barrier (and the next and next and next). It instructs how to build superhuman confidence on the golf course that carries over to every other part of your life.

No, no, no and no. This is not that kind of book. Not at all. What was I thinking?

Instead, this collector’s book (click image to enlarge), a collaboration of golf photographer Iain Macfarlane Lowe and golf writer George Peper, is an ultra-deluxe, hand-tooled, leather-bound tome that’s billed as “the ultimate hole-by-hole tour of the venerable Old Course at St. Andrews, as well as a tribute to 18 other top Scottish seaside links.” (Think Royal Troon, Royal Dornoch, Carnoustie, Turnberry, Prestwick, Muirfield, Royal Aberdeen, North Berwick and Kingsbarns.)

It’s real fancy. Exquisite photography, the press release said. One hundred seventy pages of text and images and transparent overlays. Did I mention it’s oversized? Golf Links of Scotland is also graced with 23-carat gold leaf inlay on the binding that includes four thistles on the cover corners. And ... and ... ready? ... it comes in a handmade clamshell case.

The book publishes on September 14. Lowe has signed and numbered an exclusive, unpublished photograph that is bound into each book.

By the way, that $4,600 price includes shipping.

−The Armchair Golfer

Old Tom Morris Descendant Decries Modern Game

Editor’s note: Melvyn Morrow wants the game of golf back, and he wrote me a month ago to share a few of his views. “What right do I have to hold these views?” he wrote. “Just the same rights as all others, but also based upon over 250 years of my family playing golf at St. Andrews and the blood of Old Tom in my veins.”

By Melvyn Morrow
Special to ARMCHAIR GOLF

WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE of a war for the heart and soul of the game of golf, yet very few are aware of, or for that matter care about, the game’s core values.

The game of golf is a walking, thinking game that requires the players to have “a good eye, lasting power as a walker, nicety of calculation, and, above all, good temper.” The quote was printed in The Scotsman under the heading of “The Spread of Golf” from 1890.

(Photo: The Road Hole at St. Andrews / courtesy of Melvyn Morrow)

Just how much has been sacrificed at the altar of laziness? Golfers talk openly of non-walking courses, using carts instead of walking, and using outside aids to replace brains and eye coordination, both of which in times past have contributed to the challenge and pleasure of playing the game of golf.

Riding when golfers can walk changes the game. No longer will their bodies and minds be tested under the pressure of exertion. There are also yardage books and electronic aids to help poor limited-minded golfers decide which club to use.

Why do golfers put themselves through these hoops every hole, every round, and every time they play their type of golf? Why bother at all, as clearly they are not in control when deciding which club to use? Their toys are doing it while they remain cool and shaded on their cart.

Ladies and gentlemen, that’s not golf.

Golf is a walking and thinking game. But once golfers step foot off the fairway they are no longer involved in the game, and when they let outside aids assist in club choice, just where is the pleasure of self-achievement? Because they did not do it by themselves.

The war is not yet lost. Look around and you will find many golfers walking, some regrettably using distance aids, but still willing to use their limbs. So perhaps in time they may realise they need to use the old grey cells before they too decide to fade for lack of use. The choice is, of course, down to each individual as our governing bodies are already crippled with indecision, perhaps the result of a total lack of use over the last 100 years or so.

In closing, those who are walking and thinking—not using any form of outside aid—are playing a game called golf.

Melvyn Morrow is the great, great grandson of four-time Open champion Old Tom Morris. Read more about him in The Scotsman.

Rory’s New Wave Band

Editor’s note: Brian Keogh is a golf correspondent for The Irish Sun and a regular contributor to The Irish Times, Golf Digest Ireland and other golf publications. The following piece is excerpted from his blog, Irish Golf Desk. 

By Brian Keogh
Special to ARMCHAIR GOLF

RORY MCILROY WILL LEAD a hungry new generation of European young guns to Wisconsin in search of US PGA glory next month. The Holywood star, 21, bounced back brilliantly from his nightmare 80 in The Open to share third place behind stablemate Louis Oosthuizen.

And McIlroy’s manager Chubby Chandler reckons his young superstar is at the vanguard of a new wave of European talent set to sweep all before them in the same way that Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Bernhard Langer and Ian Woosnam dominated golf in the 80s and early 90s.

Chandler said: “After major wins by Graeme McDowell and Louis Oosthuizen, there will be a whole bunch of European Tour players going to Whistling Straits for the US PGA believing they can win.

“The days when Europeans looked uncomfortable leading majors seem to have gone. And it’s not just four or five players any more like it was in the 80s and 90s—there are 25 of them now who are going to the US PGA to win.

“Rory did great to finish third in the Open with an 80 in the second round. It was a really great comeback and I don’t think what happened on Friday will make any difference to him. He knows exactly where he is going in the game and this is just a step along the way.”

McIlroy must believe he is heading for greatness and his rivals can only pray that he doesn’t address the weaknesses in his game. At St. Andrews, as the American writer Dan Jenkins pointed out over a cigarette on Saturday, McIlroy was too young to realise that a 75 was a good score on Friday afternoon.

“He learned something every day at St Andrews,” Chandler said as his ISM stable celebrated its first major win on Monday. “Day one—he led a major by two. Day two he takes 80 after getting knocked out of his rhythm by the weather delay. He won’t do that very often when he’s leading majors.

“He came back unbelievably well on the last two days to finish third so there are more positives than negatives for Rory. He now knows that you don’t go out and win a major first time, like Louis has done. Normally you have to earn it—just look at what Lee [Westwood] is going through.”

Brian Keogh covers golf for The Irish Sun and contributes to a variety of golf publications. Pay him a visit at Irish Golf Desk.

The Unbridled Emotion of Seve Ballesteros

SEVE BALLESTEROS COULDN’T MAKE the trip to St. Andrews for the reunion with 20 some odd other British Open champions. His doctors wouldn’t allow it. His health is too fragile. Nonetheless, there have been many Seve tributes this week, some that could bring a statue to tears. Rightly so.

Anyone who saw Seve play in his prime would no doubt remember his charisma, fieriness, imagination and unbridled emotion. Whether or not he was among someone’s favorites, there was no denying that Seve was a singular player who left his mark on the sport.

The above short clip is Exhibit A. Seve holed out on the final green of the 1984 British Open at the Old Course. He was the year’s champion golfer, his second of three Open crowns, and his reaction was pure joy. It’s a good way to remember him.

−The Armchair Golfer

Exclusive Q&A: The Weather Talks Open Championship

IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, the Weather spoke to ARMCHAIR GOLF about Open Championship week, including some hints on what to expect the next four days at the Old Course.

Q: Thanks for doing this.

WEATHER: Sure.

Q: Everybody was talking about you today.

WEATHER: I’m used to it (chuckling). It’s raining sideways. I’ve heard that one since Old Tom was knocking wine-bottle corks through the streets of St. Andrews. The American press is particularly amusing. All that rot about this is what summer is like in Scotland.

Q. Does the talk bother you?

WEATHER: Not at all. I actually look forward to it. Mid July is always highlighted on my calendar, a very special week for me.

Q: Can you tell us which players are most flustered by you?

WEATHER: No, I’d rather not. It’s not sporting. Sorry.

Q: But you know who they are.

WEATHER: Oh, sure. I can always tell. Watch closely and you’ll see. The body language, the crazy shots, the slammed clubs. I really get into some players’ heads.

Q: This field is made up of 156 of the world’s top players. Wouldn’t you agree that most have played championship golf in all kinds of conditions?

WEATHER: Many of the players talk a great game. They talk about Open experience, their preparation, how they love links golf in a stiff breeze, playing the ball on the ground, the bounces, good and bad. It’s total rubbish. The truth is, I scare the FootJoys off them. They’re little boys who want their mums.

Q: I don’t know how to ask this.

WEATHER: Just go ahead.

Q: Do you have a strategy?

WEATHER: Not exactly. I show up and things develop from there. Some wind. Some rain. Nothing too complicated. I usually restrain myself somewhat. Most years, it could be a lot worse. At Carnoustie a few years back things got completely out of kilter. I admit it.

Q: Some like you, though. There are those who really thrive on you during Open week.

WEATHER: I do have my share of friends in the R&A. They are always glad to see me and tend to fret if I’m too calm. Most of the others who are fond of me don’t have to play.

Q: The forecast is calling for rain on Thursday, rain and wind on Friday, showers on Saturday, and showers on Sunday.

WEATHER: Weather forecasters. Now there’s a bunch.

Q: Are they wrong?

WEATHER: You’ll have to watch.

Q: Thanks for taking the time.

WEATHER: My pleasure. Enjoy the Open.

−The Armchair Golfer

(This is an ARMCHAIR GOLF spoof.)

From Tom Kidd to Tiger Woods: The Open at St. Andrews

The following is an excerpt from THE OPEN: Golf’s Oldest Major, a pictorial history of the championship that includes overview texts. To enter a free drawing for a copy of the hardcover book, email your name and address to armchairgolfer@gmail.com.

By Donald Steel
Special to ARMCHAIR GOLF

© 2009 R&A Championships Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

MOST GOLFERS’ IDEA OF HEAVEN is an Open at St. Andrews. For the players, there is certainly nothing to compare with victory over the Old Course—Jack Nicklaus maintains that “if you want to be remembered, you have to win at St. Andrews.”

There have been suggestions that every Open Championship should be held there so it is no surprise that it has housed more than any other venue. It is no surprise either that, of the three original courses used for The Open, it is the sole survivor. Recently, it has played host ever fifth year.

No course is more public than the Old in the sense that so much is visible of the start and finish from adjacent streets and buildings. The 18th green gives the feeling of being part of the town and, at the climax of an Open, is overlooked by thousands who have paid and a good few hundred who haven’t. Necks are strained from many a window. In the playing sense, it is the course of double fairways, double greens, pot bunkers, and the Road Hole—the most infamous in the world, a combination that golf course architects regard as the blueprint of their art for all students to follow and revere. Not that everyone has stood in awe.

Harry Vardon claimed that the Old is “a good course, but its bunkers are badly placed,” which may explain why none of his six Open victories took place there. George Duncan, on the other hand, remarked, “What I like about the Old Course, is that you play a very good shot and find yourself in a very bad place.” Tiger Woods’s reaction in 2000 was to avoid the bunkers altogether in all four rounds, a forerunner to victory by eight strokes that equaled St. Andrews’ biggest winning margin by J.H. Taylor exactly a hundred years earlier.

Taylor and Woods share with Jack Nicklaus, James Braid and Bob Martin the honour of winning two Opens over the Old Course but two other memories stand out. St. Andrews marked the first and last appearances of Arnold Palmer and the victory in 1964 of Tony Lema, with Palmer’s caddie on loan—one of the most remarkable of all.

Open Championships played at St. Andrews:
1873 / 1876 / 1879 / 1882 / 1885 / 1888 / 1891 / 1895 / 1900 / 1905 / 1910 / 1921 / 1927 / 1933 / 1939 / 1946 / 1955 / 1957 / 1960 / 1964 / 1970 / 1978 / 1984 / 1990 / 1995 / 2000 / 2005 / 2010

Free Drawing for ‘THE OPEN: Golf’s Oldest Major’

THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP IS returning to St. Andrews this year, which also happens to be the 150th anniversary of golf’s oldest major. I have a special treat for you: a free drawing for a 304-page photographic history of the ancient golf championship.

Titled THE OPEN: Golf’s Oldest Major and published by Rizzoli, the book features black and white and color photographs from Getty Images. The rather sparse text is by Donald Steel, with a foreword by Arnold Palmer and afterword by Peter Dawson, Chief Executive of The R&A. This hardcover measures 12.3 x 9.4 x 1.4 inches and weighs 4.8 pounds. It’s hefty and gorgeous, a prized coffee table or sports den book for any armchair golf historian. (I love my review copy. I am not giving it up. The publisher is making another copy available for the drawing.)

Here are a couple of excerpts from the publisher’s news release:

THE OPEN: Golf’s Oldest Major revisits the history of the fourteen legendary links courses along the spectacular British coastline on which The Open has been played, with a chapter dedicated to each course highlighting the famous moments of victory, defeat, partnership, competition, and tradition that have come to define them.

The book brings together the classic images of the sport’s icons—from early stars such as Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones, and masters like Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus, to the exceptional talents of today, Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington.

OK, I must add three names not mentioned in the above publisher copy: Harry Vardon, Peter Thomson and Tom Watson. Because those three remarkable champions won the Claret Jug 16 times. (Vardon, 6; Thomson, 5; and Watson, 5.)

WANT TO GET IN ON THIS?

How to enter this free drawing: Just email your name and mailing address to armchairgolfer@gmail.com. I’ll blind draw the winner in a couple of weeks during the championship. Good luck!

−The Armchair Golfer

Monty, King of Qualifiers

WHETHER ABOUT THE U.S. OPEN or The Open Championship, there have been several qualifying stories in the last day or so. Some are inspirational. Some are heartbreakers. Normal fare for Open qualifying.

One stands out for me, though. If I had a Yonex visor like Colin Montgomerie, I’d tip it to ol’ Monty. He played like a madman to get into the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews. As Colin said, at his age (46) it may be his last chance to tee it up on the Old Course for an Open.

Montgomerie had a 36-hole qualifier at Sunningdale on Monday. After an opening round of 69, the European Ryder Cup captain needed a low number in the afternoon round to secure one of 10 spots available to a field of 96 European Tour players who had not received automatic berths. The old boy put up an 8-under 62, tying the course record. “My best round of golf in a long time,” Monty said after birdieing five of the last seven holes.

It must feel good to get the magic back, even if just for one round. Not that I would know. It will be Monty’s 21st consecutive appearance in The Open Championship.

U.S. Open Qualifying

Some of the notables who did or didn’t make it into the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

In
Tom Lehman
Davis Love III
Ben Curtis
Brian Davis
Stuart Appleby
David Frost
Erik Compton
Ty Tryon

Out
Justin Rose
Rickie Fowler
Tom Kite
J.B. Holmes
Rocco Mediate
The Haas family
Lee Janzen
Corey Pavin

−The Armchair Golfer

(Image: Steve Bailey/Flickr)