John Jacobs OBE, the founding father of The European Tour, has been honoured by the Association of Golf Writers with the Michael Williams Outstanding Services Award.
Jacobs’’s name was among those that featured most regularly in the poll conducted over the winter and although he is already Vice-President of the Association, it was agreed that he thoroughly deserved to be honoured in this way. He will be presented with the Award at the AGW Annual Dinner during the week of the Open Golf Championship at Royal St George’’s, Sandwich.
The 78 year old joins an elite group of Sir Michael Bonallack, Percy Huggins and Joan Rothschild as recipients of the award.
Jacobs is one of the most respected teaching professionals in the game with an unrivalled reputation throughout the world as “Dr Golf”. Butch Harmon, coach to World Number One Tiger Woods, said: “There is not one teacher who does not owe something to John. He wrote the book on coaching.”
In addition to his teaching, Jacobs has enjoyed a wonderful and varied career. As a player he earned Ryder Cup honours in 1955 and became the first Captain of the European Team in 1979 and 1981. He is also a renowned television commentator, course designer and pioneering administrator.
In October 1971 he was appointed Tournament Director-General of the PGA, a move which marked the official birth of The European Tour and he carried on in that role until he was succeeded by Ken Schofield as Executive Director at the beginning of 1975.
He was awarded an OBE in the Queen’’s Birthday Honours in 1997 and in 2000 was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. In January 2001 he was inducted to the World Golf Teachers Hall of Fame while last year he received the ultimate accolade from his fellow peers with the award of a Life Membership to The Professional Golfers' Association
