Jim Farmer, who was born in St Andrews in 1948, was a legend of the Scottish golf scene and, as Scottish Golf said in its tribute, he served the game with distinction as an amateur international, a PGA professional, a coaching mentor and an administrator.
Farmer was 76 when he died earlier this month in St Andrews, and the reason his death came as such a shock was because he had been seen out and about in his last week. Indeed, he even visited friends in Banchory, Aberdeenshire.
Farmer was an obvious choice for the many different roles he occupied. Firstly, because nothing was ever too much trouble for him, and secondly, because he was as sound a businessman as he was a sporting all-rounder.
Shona Malcolm, now the head of tournament strategy at Great Britain and Ireland’s Professional Golfers’ Association, coincided with Farmer when he was the PGA captain at the same time as she was in charge of the former Ladies’ Golf Union. The two would chat on a regular basis.
“Jim,” she said, “was always the same. He didn’t impose his opinions on you. Instead, he listened and was as interested in women’s golf as I was myself. I always valued his opinion. As a golfer and as a person, he was at the top end of where others would love to be.
“He ‘got’ golf, as they say, and his wife, Denise, was no different.”
Roger McStravick, the author of that excellent book “St Andrews in the Footsteps of Old Tom Morris,” put it like this: “Jim was a lovely man, an absolute gentleman. He was the kind of guy who had time for everyone, and he reminded me of everything I knew about Old Tom Morris. No one had a bad word to say about him.”
Known as “Mr Golf” in the town, Farmer had been a promising footballer in his schooldays and was bound for a top career – with Hearts and then Dundee – until a cruciate knee problem called an early halt to that dream. He switched to golf, a game he had started in childhood. By 1969, he was playing for Scotland before winning the following year’s Lytham Trophy (in an unusual four-way tie), one of the U.K.’s leading amateur titles.
He also played in six Open Championships across his career, with nothing more satisfying for him than the 1977 “Duel in the Sun” version which involved Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus at Turnberry.
There was a Walker Cup in 1971 at St Andrews and, though Farmer was on the selectors’ short list, he missed out on making what was a winning GB&I team by the proverbial whisker – a pity when it was the first side to defeat the Americans since 1938.
Farmer turned professional that year and was soon excelling on Scotland’s Tartan Tour. At one stage, he won seven of the circuit’s pro-ams in a row – and pocketed a little matter of £10,000 (more than $175,000 in today’s money).
He also played in six Open Championships across his career, with nothing more satisfying for him than the 1977 “Duel in the Sun” version which involved Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus at Turnberry. Not only did he make the cut, but he was 19th going into the last round and, as he remembered so well, 15th standing on the seventh tee. He ended up adding a disappointing 78 to earlier scores of 72, 74, 72 to finish 52nd, but was still level with such big names as Christy O’Connor Jnr., Brian Waites and Rodger Davis.
In his early professional years, Farmer was the head pro at Duddingston and Drumpellier golf clubs, with a member at the latter deciding he was just the man to coach the Scottish Boys. From 1975 to 1986, Farmer worked with such players as Paul Lawrie, Andrew Coltart and Stephen Gallacher along the way and, as if he did not have enough on his hands, he was soon running his own retail outlet on Market Street.
Mike Woodcock, now the director of corporate communications at the R&A, can remember the excitement of being taken to the shop when he was just starting to play: “We bought my first proper putter from him.”
From a PGA perspective, Farmer served on the association’s board and was captain in 2009-11. He represented Great Britain and Ireland in four PGA Cups and, as captain in 2005, led the team to its first victory over the Americans in 21 years.
In 2010, the same year as he was made a life member of St Andrews Golf Club, the club he had joined as a teenager, he was honoured alongside Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Pádraig Harrington and Johann Rupert for his services to golf by St Andrews University.
Farmer followed John Panton, who defeated Sam Snead to win the World Senior Championship in 1967, as the R&A’s honorary professional, a role which he would describe as, “One of the wonderful roles in life because it’s one of the easiest roles to fulfil.
“Basically,” he added with a touch of mischief, “it’s eating, drinking and being merry most of the time.”
In a citation by Elliot Brown, then the captain of the University Men’s Golf Club, the speaker mentioned a student who had asked Farmer, “Who is the best putter you have ever played with?”
Farmer replied, “Well, me!”
There would not have been anything pompous about the way he said it. Those who knew him will sense precisely how he delivered that answer.
It would have been humorous and truthful to boot.
E-MAIL LEWINE
Top: Jim Farmer was a legend in Scottish golf.
MARK RUNNACLES, GETTY IMAGES