Doctor Golf and the lasting legacy he left behind . . .
A pioneer and visionary, founding father of the European Tour John Jacobs had a simple message
WHEN you break it down to the bricks and mortar, golf is a pretty straightforward pursuit. Hit ball, find ball, hit it again. And, if you’re anything like this correspondent, you keep hitting it again and again and again until the whole sorry episode reaches some form of pitiful conclusion.
For the celebrated John Jacobs, who passed away yesterday at the age of 91, simplicity was the name of this Royal & Ancient game. “Playing golf is simple,” the canny Yorkshireman once said. “It’s two turns and a swish.”
From the world’s finest to the humble club hacker, Jacobs’s pearls of wisdom were imparted to all walks of golfing life. “It didn’t matter whether you were a professional or a high handicapper, he always had time,” recalled Bernard Gallacher.
While many a mind can end up mangled by the bamboozling technical complexities of swing analysis, Jacobs’s “keep it simple” mantra spanned the spectrum. If anybody required a remedy then Doctor Golf, as Jacobs was known, would always prescribe a tonic. He left lasting impressions but perhaps his most cherished legacy is that he ensured all people of all abilities and all ages enjoyed swinging a golf club. “I explain well because I was a dunce in school,” reflected Jacobs in an interview with Golf Digest back in 2010. “I’ve never been so miserable in my life as I was on the first day of class after the glorious summer break. But it’s why I became a good teacher. I was always so bored and confused in the classroom, so I know exactly what it’s like to not understand.”
Born in 1925, Jacobs would spend a fulfilling lifetime in golf. A visionary, a pioneer, a trailblazer? Call him whatever you like, Jacobs was it. Tournament winner, Ryder Cup player and captain, administrator, writer and coach of global renown, Jacobs left an indelible mark on the history of this great game.
He was the founding father of the European Tour and his drive, influence, innovation and shrewd foresight laid the foundations for the circuit’s expansion. “John has quite properly been defined as the father of European golf,” said Ken Schofield, who succeeded Jacobs as executive director of the fledgling European circuit in 1975. “He turned the vision into reality and the position of respect commanded by Europe in the world of golf owes much to his pioneering spirit.”
Coaching was his passion, though. “I realised that I taught it better than I played it,” he conceded. Jacobs became one of the best teachers and the best would come to him. Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Peter Thomson, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros; Jacobs “had a look” at them all.
In the build-up to the 1969 Open at Lytham, Nicklaus’s preparations were not going well. On the second hole, he blasted his first drive out of bounds on the right and clattered his second attempt some 50 yards left of the fairway. Having worked himself into a fankle with his continued waywardness, it was time to call the Doctor. “You’re supposed to know something about these things, what am I doing?” he hollered to Jacobs. “Thank God for that,” Jacobs replied. “I thought you’d never ask.”
There are plenty of golfers with ungainly swings that resemble frantic swipes in a bar room brawl. In this game, though, there are no prizes for artistic merit and Jacobs was well aware of that. “The only position that matters is the club’s at impact,” he said. In a rich and varied sporting life, John Jacobs made his own considerable impact.