{{ubiquityData.prevArticle.description}}
{{ubiquityData.nextArticle.description}}
Hearing Tony Jacklin’s voice brought a smile to the face. Its mid-Atlantic elongated vowels – neither totally British nor totally American – were the same as ever though the voice was slightly less powerful than one had remembered. Was this due to his health, a residue of the chemotherapy he had endured last year to battle his lymphoma, or the quality of the telephone line? He had wanted the conversation to be done by FaceTime so he could read lips but modern technology was not compliant.
There were jokey complaints. About his golf: “It’s not much fun when you’re getting worse,” Jacklin said. And about his medical issues: “I spend more bloody time in doctors’ offices than I want to. It’s a full-time job.” Talking about COVID-19 he said: “We are lucky in this part of Florida. Life is going on as normal other than you can’t travel. We have to wear a mask to the shops but the golf courses are open. I miss getting on an aeroplane and going places.”
Despite this, Jacklin sounded content with life. At 76, he sounded like everybody’s favourite grandfather, probably having a snooze after lunch. “I potter,” he said with a discernible degree of satisfaction. “I keep up with the news. I walk on the beach or the causeway for an hour each day. I do odd jobs around the house. I do the pruning in the garden, keeping the place tidy. I do a bit of marquetry from time to time. Astrid cooks. I barbeque. I watch the golf on TV. I give the grandchildren golf lessons.”
“It is an ideal fit for the club to host this event. If there had been any more spectators they would have had to do all sorts of stuff to manoeuvre people around the golf course.”
Tony Jacklin on The Concession
Such is the life these days of Tony Jacklin, the winner of two major championships within 11 months – and on different sides of the Atlantic – more than 50 years ago. First the 1969 Open at Lytham and then the 1970 US Open at Hazeltine. The same Tony Jacklin who gave Europe the winning imprint as a four-time captain of that continent’s Ryder Cup team, only the first of which Europe lost – and that by a single point. The same Tony Jacklin who famously shook hands with Jack Nicklaus after the American had conceded the short putt to the Englishman that tied the 1969 Ryder Cup. Even now, a half century and thousands of events later, “the concession” is still regarded as one of the great sporting gestures of all time. The photograph of the two men clasping hands at the conclusion of their match at Royal Birkdale has become iconic.
The same Tony Jacklin who co-designed with Nicklaus a course known as The Concession in Bradenton, south of Tampa, in memory of their famous Ryder Cup battle and where the PGA Tour has landed for this week’s tournament – the WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession, one of the four annual World Golf Championship events. Jacklin is still a member. “I take guests there but it’s a 45-minute drive from here,” he says.
When he plays, he plays at Bradenton Country Club, a Donald Ross course that he overhauled a few years ago, where his house is behind the 15th green. “I pride myself on being a bit of a golf historian,” Jacklin said, “and after I redid the course it was readmitted to the Donald Ross Society. I kept it simple. I didn’t change the routing. I put palm trees in to make it look like a Florida course.”
He will watch this week’s event at The Concession not so much with the eye of the architect as the eye of an uncle seeing a favourite nephew after a long absence. The NCAA Championships for collegiate men and women were held there in 2015 and televised and “they were very successful,” Jacklin noted.
“I hope they make it clear it was my idea to invite Jack to be my co-designer at The Concession,” he said. “Paul Azinger is doing the commentary for NBC and he knows the score. If they want me to go out there and chat a bit about it, I’m very happy to do it, but as we speak I’ve got no reason to be going out there. I’ll watch it on TV obviously. I wouldn’t mind (being more involved). I’m doing nothing. If I could make a contribution, I’d be happy.
“They’ve lengthened it. Sean (a son) told me the other day if they wanted to they could extend it to 7,800 yards. There is a par-3 course now on the left-hand side of the ninth. They’ve got cottages in that area. When I say cottages, I mean Ritz-Carlton standard that they’re renting out for bloody thousands. Only 1,000 spectators get to go in each day.
"(The Concession) has turned out very, very well. We were very fortunate when Bruce Cassidy with his fortune came along and took it on. He is a very nice man. He is in raptures about the place. I took him to Augusta to play a few years ago and he didn’t seem to think that Augusta had a look in. He thought The Concession was much better. It is an ideal fit for the club to host this event. If there had been any more spectators they would have had to do all sorts of stuff to manoeuvre people around the golf course. A lot of the holes have got water on one side and woods on the other. It would be monumental if you had 40,000 a day going to it.”
Fifteen years ago, on a visit to Florida, I played The Concession with Jacklin, Sean and a business associate of Jacklin’s. A friendly midweek game of golf with a double Open champion was not quite the exercise in humiliation that it had seemed in prospect. Jacklin offered guidance as to the line from the tee but nothing by way of sympathy or instruction. As he shaped up to putt on one green, his long putter in his hands, his son leaned over and said in a stage whisper: “Jacklin’s all arse and elbows,” adding hastily, “that’s what Nicklaus said about him at the opening of the course.”
Tony Jacklin is a proud husband, father and grandfather, a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, a champion golfer who did Britain and Europe proud, and someone who is now coping with the medical nomenclature of CT scans and CPAPs that accompany old age as do grey hair and failing eyesight. On the west coast of Florida, he is enjoying his place in the sun.
E-Mail John