With the Walker Cup set for its 50th renewal starting Saturday at Cypress Point, it’s an appropriate time to reflect on Jay Sigel’s impact on the century-old biennial competition – both as a player and as a playing captain.
Sigel, who died in April at age 81, competed on nine teams representing the United States, more than anyone else in history. And in all but one of those, the Yanks emerged victorious.
In addition, no one has played more Walker Cup matches for the U.S. than Sigel (33), won more times (18) or recorded more points (20½).
Equally as celebrated are his triumphs in individual tournaments, which include a pair of U.S. Amateur victories as well as three U.S. Mid-Amateurs and a British Amateur.
“When I think of Jay, I think of what a great golfer he was under pressure,” said Nathaniel Crosby, who played for Sigel in the 1983 Walker Cup and competed against him in elite amateur events before and after those matches. “When he was playing hero golf, he found an extra level of concentration that enabled him to hit 2-irons to the tightest imaginable pins.”
In addition to being on Sigel’s Walker Cup team in 1985, Davis Love III also competed against him as an amateur. And he, too, was awestruck.
“When you drew Jay, it was like going against Tiger Woods,” the 21-time PGA Tour winner said. “I remember one U.S. Amateur when he wore me down even though I was outdriving him by 50 yards.”
Two-time Walker Cup captain Jim Holtgrieve, who also played in the match three times and won the first U.S. Mid-Amateur ever staged, has similar memories. “He was the man in amateur golf for a long time,” he said.
Amid all of Sigel’s playing accolades, what is perhaps not nearly as recognized or properly appreciated is what a bang-up job the Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, native did as captain of a couple of American squads, a job he held down as he also competed. Sigel not only led his golfers to victory in 1983 at Royal Liverpool in England (when he was 39) and at Pine Valley two years later but did so while also playing four matches each time – and compiling a 3-3-2 record against golfers from Great Britain and Ireland who in most cases were considerably younger.
“The way Jay carried himself, the way he played, the career he had created for himself as a lifelong amateur, he was our Bobby Jones, and we really respected him for that.” – Davis Love III
Just as unsung is what he brought to the team room as a captain.
In many ways, his approach to that job started with his belief that there was no greater experience in golf than playing for your country.
“He certainly felt that as a player,” said Love. “And to also serve as captain was the ultimate honor for him, because he really liked the idea of doing both.”
“You could tell he enjoyed it,” added Love, who was only 21 when he joined Sigel’s squad for the 1985 matches. “He liked the organization that came with the job, the strategy of who played with whom and when. And back then, the Walker Cup was a guys’ trip to Pine Valley, which is where the matches were played that year and a time when it was a very small and very modest event.”
Love recalls how much respect Sigel commanded and how easily he interacted with young and older players alike.
“The way Jay carried himself, the way he played, the career he had created for himself as a lifelong amateur, he was our Bobby Jones,” Love said. “He was also someone we could lean on, if need be. Jay was very serious, but he also had a great sense of humor and was very inclusive and approachable.”
Brad Faxon, who competed on the 1983 team the same year that he graduated from Furman University, remembers that approachability.
“Jay was always asking us questions,” he said. “He wanted to know what we thought. And he never talked about himself. He was warm and humble, a hard-working guy who led by example.”
A member of that same squad, Holtgrieve recalls the way that Sigel handled things with him.
“Early on, he asked me about my game and who I wanted to play with, things like that,” said Holtgrieve. “And he said that he wanted me to be honest. I told him that Bobby Lewis and I wanted to play with each other. We were the old guys, but we had a lot of history playing together. Jay said, ‘Absolutely,’ and put us out there for all of the singles and foursomes matches.”
Holtgrieve also recalls that in those days, there were no vice captains to assist the man in charge. “So, Jay asked Bobby and me to help out some of the young guys on the team in the practice rounds and give them a sense of what was coming up,” he said.
Holtgrieve provided further evidence of how Sigel performed his duties as Walker Cup captain by sharing his old friend’s reports from the 1983 and 1985 competitions, documents that Sigel submitted to the USGA once play was complete.
In the first of those, regarding the Royal Liverpool match, which the U.S. won, 13½-10½, Sigel opened by stating that “these biennial matches are the pinnacle of any amateur career,” adding that “being named playing captain is without a doubt the highest honor ever bestowed upon me.”
A few paragraphs later, he demonstrated his belief in the importance of collaboration with his players with a section about what happened in a team meeting before the second day of competition.
“With only one hour in which to turn in our … line-up, and the score 6½ to 5½ in favor of the U.S., we quickly gathered. I realized we could change the originally prescribed formula of everyone playing 3 times by putting out our strongest performers. However, I truly believed that everyone, regardless of performance at the moment, should play 3 times. After much discussion by the entire team, the following comments were heard: we came here to win; we must ‘play’ our best players; I am not too proud to sit out – anyway I am playing lousy and so and so should play instead of me.
“This was a very interesting meeting with the result that 2 of our players played 2 times and 4 of our players played 4 times. I even let the team select who should play first (Willie Wood) and last (Sigel). I turned in the scribbled line-up with no time left in the allotted hour.”
In those same Walker Cup matches, Sigel even displayed a Seve-like ability to get out of trouble, and with the team uniform, no less.
In that same report, Sigel described “the key match” as being the first one played the second morning by the two fellows who ended up playing only two matches in that Walker Cup, Nathaniel Crosby and Bill Hoffer, against, GB&I’s top team of George Macgregor and Philip Walton.
Sigel wrote that his players “were very positive about this new approach to our line-up. Privately, I said to them that they could do it – they could knock off the #1 team. As the match progressed and they got past the ‘nervous’ holes, they played strongly and won 2 up.
“Both Bill and Nate are scrappers and fine gentlemen. They certainly helped the captain’s situation.”
Other examples of Sigel’s management style can be found in his report from the 1985 matches at Pine Valley, where the Americans prevailed by a similarly close score of 13-11. In outlining the process of preparing a tentative lineup for the foursomes, he wrote: “I had played with all of the players, had their records and knew their abilities. I asked Scott Verplank if he knew of any personality conflicts; he did not. I asked him who he wanted to be paired with, and he said me.”
So, that is what the captain did, going out first each day with Verplank, who was fresh off winning the PGA Tour’s Western Open as an amateur. The pair won one match and halved the other.
Sigel also showed his analytical side in laying out a formula he used for practice rounds.
“I vividly recall my first [Walker Cup] match in 1977. I felt extreme pressure to do well. Practice rounds mean different things to different people. For instance, several balls, no holing out, keeping score, picking up, playing fast or slow. Because of this, I am very pleased with a routine I developed which involved a point system as follows: birdies +2, pars +1, bogies 0 and double bogies -2. My design was to not put too much pressure on someone to post a score but to prepare for match play. This was critical on a course such as Pine Valley, and it really had the group interested and quite pleased with its results. Nobody got sloppy in practice, yet they did not have the pressure of posting a score – only points. We all threw in $2 apiece and utilized this for foursomes as well as singles.”
In those same Walker Cup matches, Sigel even displayed a Seve-like ability to get out of trouble, and with the team uniform, no less.
“The clothes did not arrive until the team arrived, and I had to arrange through the [Pine Valley] pro, Charley Raudenbush, for a tailor to get the lengths and waists on 30 pairs of slacks and sew buttons and make minor adjustments on the coats,” he noted.
Whether it had to do with pants or pairings, the man could coach as well as he played.