Tony Jacklin and Bernhard Langer, two immense figures in the development of European golf over the past 35 years, have been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame after a ceremony in Florida which saw six new members of this exclusive club take their places among the greats of the game.
As well as Jacklin and Langer, other inductees were Tommy Bolt, Ben Crenshaw, Marlene Hagge – a founder of the LPGA Tour – and Crenshaw’’s long-time coach, the late Harvey Penick.
Jacklin, who transformed European golf with his victories in the 1969 Open Championship and 1970 US Open Championship, was inducted to the Hall of Fame along with two-time Masters Tournament winner, Langer, who was responsible for putting German golf on the map.
Langer was the third European star from his era to be inducted, following Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo, bringing the total membership to 96. A winner on The European Tour in 16 consecutive seasons, he shared the Volvo Masters Andcalucia title with Colin Montgomerie last week at age 45 and went unbeaten at The De Vere Belfry, his tenth Ryder Cup, as Europe defeated the United States.
Langer won the Masters Tournament in 1985 and added a second green jacket in 1993 -- even more remarkable considering he has spent his career battling putting problems.
It was only fitting that Jacklin be inducted at the World Golf Village, about 15 miles away from his first PGA Tour victory, the 1968 Jacksonville Open.
Not many Europeans played the PGA Tour in those days, and Jacklin says winning gave him confidence to capture the 1969Open Championship the following year at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, and the 1970 US Open Championship at Hazeltine, where he led wire-to-wire.
Jacklin is equally renown for helping to revive The Ryder Cup. He was Captain of the 1985 team won the Cup for the first time in 28 years. Two years later, with Jacklin at the helm, Europe won for the first time on US soil, at Muirfield Village.
As a player, Jacklin was involved in The Ryder Cup's single best example of sportsmanship when Jack Nicklaus conceded a two foot par putt on the final hole of the final match to ensure a tie at Royal Birkdale in 1969.
Jacklin says the length of the putt has grown to as much as 4 feet over the years, but whether he could have made it was not the issue! "It was the gesture itself," he said.
The citation for Jacklin was read by Ken Schofield, Executive Director of The European Tour, during the ceremony at St Augustine in Florida, just a matter of hours after Langer had played his first match in the 2002 UBS Warburg Cup at Sea Island in Georgia.
Schofield said: “Tony Jacklin turned professional in 1962, leaving the steel town of Scunthorpe, in north eastern England and came to north east London, where he was trained by an Australian man of steel called Bill Shankland. Tony was immediately successful. In 1963 he was named Rookie of the Year and in 1964 became the British Assistants Champion.
Very quickly he became a consistent money winner. In 1967 he made his big breakthrough. When Tony won, he normally won in style and in winning the 1967 Dunlop Masters he did so with the best ever televised hole in one on British television.
He made the first of his Ryder Cup appearances that year and in 1968 announced to American galleries when, not too far from here in Florida he won the first of his two Jacksonville Opens are Deerwood.
1969 and 1970 changed Tony Jacklin’’s life and arguably that of British and European golf. In 1969 he became the first Briton for 18 years to win the Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes. Eleven months later, by winning the United States Open at Hazeltine by seven shots, he was first European winner of that US Open for 50 years.
Those successes sparked today’’s modern European Tour. Fellow Hall of Famer, John Jacobs, build today’’s Tour on those spectacular successes by Tony.
Tony continued to play on The European Tour for another ten years or so with distinction before there arrived, what we would say, was a second vocation. That, of course, was his captaincy of The European Ryder Cup Team from 1983 to 1989. When galvanising the modern European stars and inspiring them, Tony’’s Team regained the trophy for the first time in 28 years in 1985, retained it at Muirfield Village when his team became the first to win in the United States and retained the trophy again when the Matches against Raymond Floyd’’s Team at The Belfry were tied.
Ladies and gentlemen, Tony Jacklin’’s contrbution to European golf is deserving of this induction today in the World Golf Hall of Fame.The announcement of the incomparable Bernhard Langer in joining Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo also into this Hall of Fame means that Europe’’s modern triumvirate are in the Hall of Fame. All three of them, together with everyone who has played on The European Tour for the past 30 years, is due Tony Jacklin.”
Schofield also paid tribute to Langer, who shows no sign of diminishing powers in his mid forties. He said: “Bernhard Langer, of course, was unbeaten in The Ryder Cup and finished the season with a victory, albeit a share of the Volvo Masters with Colin Montgomerie. His finish at Valderrama showed again that he can play down the stretch, coming home in 32. He is the ultimate professional. He has led and encouraged German golf and put it on the map in his home country. What Seve did for Spain Bernhard has done in Germany.
With his brother, Erwin, he commenced the German Masters in 1987 and that has become one of the biggest and most successful events on our Tour. He has always been able to support his home Tour despite playing two schedules in Europe and America, where he has a residence. He is the man everyone would want to their side.”
