QUOTE OF THE WEEK

‘In theory it would be perfectly valid to compile a list of the five most influential people behind the rise of European golf but in practice it would be no fun. It would have to read: 1. John Jacobs. 2. John Jacobs. 3. John Jacobs 4. John Jacobs. 5. John Jacobs’

I thought of Peter Dobereiner’s immortal words, written in 1994, after the kindly Jacobs passed away last week at the age of 91. Certainly there’s not a golfer over the age of 40 whose life the great man didn’t touch in some way, including this one. I was just 12 when his instruction book ‘Practical Golf’ was published and for me it remains in a league of its own. The architect of the modern European Tour and a former Ryder Cup captain might have been his headline achievements but his greatest legacy will surely be that he truly was the man who taught the golfing world to swing.