Latest news with #JaySigel
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Jay Sigel, amateur golf legend with 11 Masters appearances, dies at 81
Jay Sigel, one of the best amateur golfers of all-time, died Saturday. He was 81 years old. The U.S. Golf Association confirmed his passing Sunday. Sigel put together one of the greatest amateur resumes in golf history before turning professional and compiling eight victories on the PGA Tour Champions. He won consecutive U.S. Amateur titles in 1982 and 1983. Sigel also won three U.S. Mid-Amateurs in 1983, '85 and '87. He remains the only player to win the U.S. Am and U.S. Mid-Am in the same year. Advertisement As if that wasn't enough, he also competed in nine Walker Cup, the most of any player in the event's history. Two of those appearances came as a playing captain. His amateur resume doesn't stop there. He captured the 1979 British Amateur title, has 10 wins in the Pennsylvania Amateur, four Pennsylvania Open victories, and three wins at each prestigious amateur event: Porter Cup, Sunnehanna Amateur and Northeast Amateur. He also competed in 11 consecutive Masters tournaments from 1978-88, making the cut four times and winning low amateur honors in 1980, 1981 and 1988. Sigel played collegiately at Wake Forest, where he was was an All-American. When he turned 50 in 1993, Sigel turned pro, winning PGA Tour Champions Rookie of the Year in 1994. He amassed eight wins on the circuit. Advertisement He was born and raised in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 13, 1943, and grew up playing golf at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. He attended high school at Lower Merion High School in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Wake Forest in 1967 with a degree in sociology. He decided not to turn pro after finishing play at Wake Forest, where he was the first person to earn the Arnold Palmer Scholarship, thanks to an accident where Sigel's left hand went through a pane of glass on a swinging door. He needed 70 stitches on his wrist and spent nine days in the hospital. This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Jay Sigel, amateur golf legend with 11 Masters appearances, dies at 81
New York Times
25-04-2025
- General
- New York Times
Jay Sigel, Amateur Golfer Who Played Like a Pro, Dies at 81
Jay Sigel went to Wake Forest University in 1962 on a golf scholarship named for Arnold Palmer. He won an Atlantic Coast Conference individual title and became a second-team all-American. He would later tell friends and reporters that he went to college to play golf, not to study, and that he thought more about turning professional than about graduating. But his plans were deferred after a serious accident. Sigel — who died at 81 on April 19 in Boca Raton, Fla. — did not turn pro for nearly three decades, until he became eligible for the Senior PGA Tour at age 50. In the intervening years, he became widely viewed as perhaps the greatest amateur golfer of the post-World War II era in the United States. At Wake Forest, Sigel inadvertently put his left hand through a pane of glass in the summer of 1963 while trying to keep a door from closing. The accident severed a tendon, and the wound, near his wrist, required more than 70 stitches. He remained hospitalized for nine days. It took months to regain something resembling the completeness of his skills. His left little finger remained hooked, and he did not regain full feeling in the hand, which often grew cold, his wife, Betty Sigel, said. (She confirmed the death, in a hospital. She said the cause was complications of pancreatic cancer.) But the injury altered the arc of Sigel's career and his life in a way that he came to see as fortunate and providential. Sigel remained at Wake Forest, received a degree in sociology in 1967, married Betty Wingo in 1968, started a family, worked as an insurance agent and then opened his own insurance company in the Philadelphia area, where he grew up. And he recovered sufficiently from his injury to win United States Amateur titles in 1982 and 1983; the British Amateur title in 1979; and U.S. Mid-Amateur titles, for golfers 25 and older in 1983, 1985 and 1987. He participated in a record nine Walker Cup tournaments for amateurs from the United States, Britain and Ireland. And he shot the lowest score among amateurs at the Masters tournament in 1980, 1981 and 1988; the British Open in 1980; and the U.S. Open in 1984. 'I always thought things happen for a reason,' Sigel told the website of the United States Golf Association, in 2024. 'The hand injury was the best thing to happen to me.' Many considered Sigel to be the greatest American amateur since Bobby Jones, who won the U.S. Open four times, the British Open three times and the U.S. Amateur championship five times, all in a luminous period between 1923 and 1930. Steely composure during match play, in which golfers compete head-to-head against an opponent, became a hallmark of Sigel's game. And he was a superb ball striker, with power that emanated from his 6-foot-1½ frame down to his size 13 feet. 'He was a really tough match-play player; he didn't feel like he was going to lose,' Jeff Kiddie, the head professional at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pa., to which Sigel belonged for more than 50 years, said in an interview. 'And I'd say he could hit the ball as far as he wanted to hit it.' Had Sigel turned professional out of college, Lee Trevino told The New York Times in 1994, 'he might have been a great one' on the PGA Tour. But, his wife said in an interview, Sigel had some concern about whether his hand could withstand the weekly grind of the tour. He remained an amateur until he joined the somewhat more relaxed senior tour, now called the PGA Tour Champions, in 1993, when he turned 50. He won eight tournaments and more than $9 million in earnings. And he seemed to have no regrets. 'I wouldn't trade anything, particularly the amateur career,' Sigel told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2009. Betty Sigel said that he 'loved the fact that he was able to get married, have a job and have a family, and still be able to play golf.' Robert Jay Sigel was born on Nov. 13, 1943, in Bryn Mawr, Pa., on Philadelphia's Main Line, and grew up in the borough of Narberth. His father, Robert Jacob Sigel, started an engineering firm. His mother, Elizabeth (Kriebel) Sigel, ran the household. Both his parents played golf. Jay began caddying for his father when he was 10. By 11, he realized that he'd rather use the clubs than carry them. In addition to his wife, he is survived by three daughters, Jennifer Sigel, Amy Sigel Melconian and Megan Sigel Yates; a sister, Carolyn Sigel Nusbickel; and six grandchildren. He and his wife lived in Berwyn, Pa., and also had a home in Boynton Beach, Fla. After being named the nation's top junior golfer while at Lower Merion High School in suburban Philadelphia, Sigel briefly attended the University of Houston before transferring to Wake Forest. When he awakened after the surgery on his hand, he told The Daily News of Philadelphia in 1983, doctors told him that he would never play golf again. At the height of Sigel's amateur career, another group of doctors told him that they could further repair his hand with the latest surgical techniques, Betty Sigel said. He declined. 'We're not messing with it,' he replied. 'It's working.'
American Military News
25-04-2025
- Sport
- American Military News
Pic: Sports legend dies at 81 amid cancer battle
Legendary amateur golf Jay Sigel died on Saturday at the age of 81 following a battle with pancreatic cancer. According to the United States Golf Association (USGA), Sigel was considered to be the best American amateur golfer since World War II. The legendary golfer won two U.S. Amateur titles and three U.S. Mid-Amateur championships. Additionally, Sigel competed on nine USA Walker Cup Teams and was captain of the U.S. team twice. According to the USGA, Sigel also won the Northeast Amateur, the Porter Cup, and the Sunnehanna Amateur three times each and won the Pennsylvania Open four different times. 'He was a dear friend and somebody that we will remember forever, and take a lot of inspiration from,' USGA President-Elect and Chairman of the Championship Committee Kevin Hammer said. 'Best amateur since Bobby Jones hands down.' READ MORE: Pics: Pope Francis dies at 88 'Not only was his career as an amateur – and as a professional [on the PGA Tour Champions] — incredibly successful and legendary, but he [also] participated alongside all of the members [at Delray Dunes Golf & Country Club in Boynton Beach, Fla.] in team matches, supported the club, helped the juniors and just was inspirational at every level,' Hammer added. 'His legacy extends far beyond his playing credentials, which are extraordinary.' According to the USGA, Sigel initially hoped to join professional golf after graduating from college; however, the legendary golfer injured his arm in an accident on his college campus during his sophomore year. The USGA explained that Sigel's left hand was injured after it went through a pane of glass on a door and that he had 70 stitches put into his wrist and was hospitalized for nine days, leading him to reconsider his plans to become a professional golfer and instead launch an insurance business while competing as an amateur golfer. 'I always thought things happen for a reason,' Sigel said in a statement obtained by the USGA. 'The hand injury was the best thing to happen to me.' According to The New York Post, Sigel eventually joined professional golf at the age of 50 and won eight PGA Champions events. The USGA shared a picture on Sunday of Sigel alongside one of his golf championship trophies in a post on X, formerly Twitter. All of us at the USGA are deeply saddened by the passing of Jay Sigel, a true legend of amateur golf and a cherished member of the USGA family. — USGA (@USGA) April 20, 2025
Daily Mail
21-04-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Golf legend dead aged 81: Tributes pour in for Masters icon after cancer battle
US golfing legend Jay Sigel has passed away at the age of 81 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Sigel, who was born in Pennsylvania in November 1943, shot to fame after an outstanding amateur career that saw him win the British Amateurs in 1979 before triumphing in the US Amateurs in 1982 and 1983. It has now been confirmed that he died over the weekend, and the United States Golf Association (USGA) paid tribute to Sigel on social media. Their X post read: 'All of us at the USGA are deeply saddened by the passing of Jay Sigel, a true legend of amateur golf and a cherished member of the USGA family.' Sigel competed in nine Walker Cups - a biennial amateur golf match between golfers from the US and Great Britain & Ireland. He claimed more victories (18) than any other player to compete in the competition's history. He did not turn professional until he was 50 but still went on to win eight tournaments Sigel eventually turned professional at the age of 50, and still managed to have a successful career despite the late switch. He won eight tournaments and earned nearly $9m in prize money. His final victory came at the 2003 Bayer Advantage Celebrity Pro-Am. Sigel competed at the Masters on no fewer than 11 occasions, and made the cut four times. He also played at the US Open five times, and The Open Championship twice. Sigel leaves behind three daughters and his wife, Betty.
NBC Sports
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC Sports
Remembering Sigel: 'An icon in amateur golf'
Golf Today reflects on the life of career amateur Jay Sigel after his death at 81, exploring the legacy he leaves behind in amateur golf, his reputation as a "consummate gentleman," and much more.
