The post Peter Jacobsen on Bill Murray, Tiger Woods and an old neighbor who’s back in the news appeared first on Golf.

The post Peter Jacobsen on Bill Murray, Tiger Woods and an old neighbor who’s back in the news appeared first on Golf.

I should have called Peter Jacobsen a couple of weeks ago, when I was writing about the intersection of golf and music. The former Ryder Cupper was, after all, one of the founders of the band Jake Trout & The Flounders, alongside the former Tour player Mark Lye and the harmonica player (and World Golf Hall of Fame member) Payne Stewart.

My oversight came back to me some time after reading a Jan. 20 White House press release that noted that President Trump had granted clemency to 73 people, including the legendary sports bettor (and golf-course owner) Billy Walters. The White House statement said that the commutation “is supported by … numerous professional golfers including Butch Harmon, David Feherty, Peter Jacobsen and Phil Mickelson.”

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Mickelson’s name, one of Mickelson’s lawyers told ESPN recently, should not have been on the list. (There’s a whole thing there.) That got me wondering about the others. The other day, I sent an email to Jake, asking about Walters, and this is what he wrote back:

“I definitely supported Billy. He’s been a friend for about 35 years. My brother-in-law worked for him as his director of instruction for Walters Golf in Las Vegas. He was also my next-door neighbor in Naples for a few years. He’s one the most generous people I know.”

On Monday, Peter and I spoke. He noted how active Walters was as a pro-am participant. Walters was one-half of the winning team, with the Swedish pro Freddie Jacobson, in the pro-am portion of the 2008 Pebble Beach tournament. Before long, we had moved on from Walters to one of the things that is the lifeblood of the PGA Tour: the pro-am. PGA Tour pro-ams have been sporadic since this pandemic washed over the world.

Jacobsen was a famously amicable pro-am partner. He played with the actor Jack Lemmon 17 times at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. But when the event is played next month, there will be no amateurs. You will not see Don Colleran on the links this year. (The CEO of FedEx, who won the pro-am last year with Paul Casey.) No Ray Romano. No Bill Murray. For Murray, famously devoted to the Cubs, the wait for next year has begun.

Jacobsen told me how he got Murray into the pro-am business in the first place. He said Murray had played once in the Pebble Beach tournament, didn’t like it and had no plans to come back. Then Jacobsen convinced him to play in a six-team shootout that preceded the Western Open, in Chicago. This was in 1988, at Butler National. Five holes. One team knocked out per hole. Last hole came down to the team of Murray and Jacobsen versus Michael Jordan and D.A. Weibring. Guess who won?

Murray gave his portion of the winnings, the quaint sum of $10,000, to the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Chicago. Jacobsen set up Murray to play with Scott Simpson at Pebble Beach. A golf star was born.

Jake is 66. He had a beautiful backswing. He won the 1996 U.S. Open — in the movie Tin Cup. Nobody’s done more with a seven-career win. In 1995, at the Open at St. Andrews, he was paired with Ernie Els, already a U.S. Open winner, and Tiger Woods, amateur golfer. Mike “Fluff” Cowan was Jacobsen’s caddie then.

“I made the cut,” Peter said. “On Saturday, I’m on the range there. Tiger comes up to me and says, ‘What do you think? What do I need to work on?’ I saw Ernie and told him what Tiger had said. Ernie said, ‘He said the same thing to me.’ In my career, that’s the only time that’s happened.”

Jake was overwhelmed by Tiger’s excellence, in every aspect of the game. The only thing he thought he needed was the ability to play lower shots into the wind. Fluff once told me that Tiger was just a little better than everybody else — in every aspect of the game, including how he thought about a course and a tournament and what to do with the next shot. That added up to a 12-shot win in his first major as a pro, the 1997 Masters. Fluff was his caddie.

When Tiger turned pro in 1996, Jacobsen, who turned pro in 1976, was on the tail end of his career but was also one of the game’s insiders. He was wearing Nike duds. He knew Phil Knight. He played some with Michael Jordan. He ran a tournament that Arnold Palmer played in. Peter and Tiger had the same agent, Hughes Norton at IMG. Peter knew Tiger’s teacher, Butch Harmon. Harmon asked Fluff if he would be interested in caddying for Tiger for some late-season events in 1996, after turning pro, events that Peter was not planning to play.

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“Four weeks turned into close to two years,” Jacobsen said. “Mike didn’t want to make the move unless I was OK with it. Jan (Jacobsen’s wife) got on the phone and said, ‘Mike, you’re fired.’”

In time, we got to the intersection of music and golf. There is likely nobody on Tour who was more devoted to the Grateful Dead than Cowan. Once, in Providence, R.I., Jacobsen joined him at a show.

“The musicians I liked, had songs that actually started and ended,” Jacobsen said. He cited some of his favorite artists: Elton John, the Beatles, Huey Lewis, Led Zeppelin, Boston, Kansas.

“I said, ‘Mike, what’s with these songs — they never stop.’” (There’s a whole thing there, too.) “Or we’d be in a car, Mike driving, and he had the world’s most extensive collection of bootlegged Dead cassettes. And the songs don’t end, they just blend. And Mike’s like, ‘Yeah.’”

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@golf.com.

The post Peter Jacobsen on Bill Murray, Tiger Woods and an old neighbor who’s back in the news appeared first on Golf.

The post The Social 7: Choi’s return, Tiger-Phil commotion, AK reappears and more appeared first on Golf.

The post The Social 7: Choi’s return, Tiger-Phil commotion, AK reappears and more appeared first on Golf.

1. Prior to The Match taking over social media, Greg Norman gave us the feel-good story of the week. Fortunately, GOLF was on-hand to watch Norman surprise Steve Melnikoff, a 98-year-old World War II veteran, with his first-ever new set of clubs. It was a tear-shed moment for all parties involved, myself included. This Great White Shark has a soft side…

Surprising friend and hero Steve Melnikoff with his first set of brand new clubs. Thank you @GOLF_com and @cobragolf for teaming up with me to make this possible. https://t.co/0tTPrtRrKp

— Greg Norman (@SharkGregNorman) November 22, 2018

2. The vast majority of promotion leading up to The Match was a snooze. It didn’t do much of anything to get me excited for a match that was happening 10-15 years too late. But, when Anthony Kim talks, I stop what I’m doing to listen. Golf’s version of Bigfoot came out of hiding to give his two cents on Tiger vs. Phil. Quite honestly, I don’t even remember what he said because I was too excited just to see AK.

If there’s another Match, it needs to involve Kim in some capacity. Bring the dogs with you, AK.

https://instagram.com/p/BqYXqmWF_5_/

3. Mickelson won The Match before it even started. During his practice session, and to the dismay of groundskeepers everywhere, Phil showed off an impressive veteran move. Lefty was admittedly tired before the action got underway at Shadow Creek. One way to preserve energy? Use your wedge as a mountain climbing tool. I’m anxious to get out there and try this myself.

Sauciest move I’ve ever seen pic.twitter.com/m4Ix3DOLwC

— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) November 23, 2018

4. To me, the most appealing aspect of The Match was the idea of hearing Tiger and Phil mic’d up. The one problem? No one told Peter Jacobsen. Every. Single. Time. it felt like Tiger or Phil were about to say something interesting, Jacobsen would speak over them. Instead of hearing on-course banter, we were left with Ernie Johnson checking in with Shane Bacon to tell us what the challenge was since viewers missed it due to Jacobsen saying something that absolutely no one wanted to hear.

PHIL: You know, Tiger, I’ve always wanted to tell you this, and I regret not saying it sooner but-

(Crosstalk)

JACOBSON: BLAH BLAH BLAH WHAT AN AMAZING MATCH THIS IS WHAT GREAT GUYS THERE ARE.

Tiger: Wow. Thanks Phil. Let’s never speak of this again.

— Kevin Van Valkenburg (@KVanValkenburg) November 23, 2018

5. Speaking of Tiger and Phil’s banter, there was very, very little of it. After Phil missed a putt for $200k on the first hole, Tiger said “good speed” with a smirk on his face. I thought for sure we were in for an epic war of words. Boy, was I wrong…

Not only did Tiger and Phil lose the ability to make a putt longer than six feet, but they also lost the ability to speak. On the rare occasion they did, it was complimentary and with Phil repeatedly saying how much fun the event was. Well, yeah, just about anything is fun for that kind of payday, Phil. For the next pillow fight, try throwing some bars of soap in the pillowcases…

Can we get Temper-Pedic to sponsor #TheMatch?? Bit of a pillow fight going right now haha I won’t these boys to play some golffff #letsgooo

— Rickie Fowler (@RickieFowler) November 23, 2018

6. Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Smylie Kaufman and Mike Greller watched The Match together at Spieth’s place for some pre-wedding bro time. With that comes a lot of ribbing. While the Tour’s young guns poked fun at the mirage of short putts and lack of trash talk, Charles Barkley couldn’t help but attack the size of Spieth’s TV on the broadcast. I hate to TV shame you, Jordan, but Chuck has a point. Hopefully, the boys pool their money together for a nice wedding gift…

https://twitter.com/rocky_bleier/status/1066383056464998400?s=21

7. Just as Phil was starting to warm up the Social Media King of the Week throne, Hosung Choi made his triumphant return. Choi was already the people’s champ, and now he’s the Casio Open champion on the Japan Golf Tour. I can’t get enough of the internet sensation. Choi gives me hope that I too can one day win a professional golf tournament. Give the people what they want and get Choi in The Match 2.0.

https://instagram.com/p/Bqm8UYAFZQv/

The post The Social 7: Choi’s return, Tiger-Phil commotion, AK reappears and more appeared first on Golf.