Remembering John Jacobs, Rory no to Tokyo and that 59

1) Remembering John Jacobs

John Jacobs sadly passed away last week at the age of 91. He played – so well that he won twice and represented GB&I in the Ryder Cup – he captained the team twice, including the first time Europe joined ranks in 1979, and he created the European Tour. Up until 1971 tour pros belonged to the British PGA, Jacobs then spearheaded a split that set up an organisation which acted just for the tour pros. And so the European Tour was born.

But all of these will pale into relative insignificance as he will be remembered for his coaching above everything else. He could have played in the Masters but he had too full a lesson book to travel to Georgia. Anyone who has played the game for any length of time will probably have a book by Jacobs. His philosophies were based on ball flight, clubface alignment and swing path and he was said to be the only coach Jose Maria Olazabal ever really trusted.

And Jacobs had the common touch. He recognised that golf was expensive so pushed for the expansion of driving ranges. John Jacobs

There will, hopefully, be hundreds of brilliant anecdotes about Jacobs in the coming days but here’s a beauty from an interview with Golf Digest in 2010 and should give you something to work on this week…

“After Hogan and beginning with Nicklaus, good players gravitated toward a more upright swing, thinking this was progress. But it led to more players than ever taking the club back too straight, with the corresponding compensation of excessively driving the legs. This dropped the club underneath the correct downswing plane, causing a massive push-fade off the tee (or sometimes big hooks) and poor contact from the fairway. I called it rocking and blocking, and after the 1971 U.S. Walker Cup team couldn’t handle the tight lies at St. Andrews, The American Disease.

“The most helpful fixes for rocking and blocking are standing taller to the ball and making sure the clubhead is neutral to slightly open at address. Both take the steepness out of the backswing and encourage the correct rotary motion. So does hitting shots with the ball above the feet, as well as hitting drivers off the ground, where good contact is impossible if the path is too inside.”

2) Sayonara Tokyo 2020 for Rory

No surprises here – Rory McIlroy can’t see himself playing in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

The Zika virus was originally to blame but it recently emerged that he wasn’t comfortable representing either Ireland or Great Britain. McIlroy ‘resented’ the Games for putting him in a tricky position and, as such, he doesn’t have any plans to be in Japan.

“More likely than not, I won’t be going to the Games in 2020,” McIlroy said. “Just because of my personal feelings towards – not the Olympic Games, the Olympic Games are great and I think golf included in the Olympics is fantastic. But for me, it’s just something I don’t want to get into, and that’s a personal choice and hopefully people respect that decision.

“It’s not to say where I’m from is a bad place. Northern Ireland is one of the best places on Earth, and I try to get back there as much as I can. But again, it’s a personal decision and it’s a decision I haven’t taken lightly and a decision I’ve fought myself over for so many years.”

3) What’s that, no women allowed?

Here we go again. You probably won’t be familiar with the Kasumigaseki Country Club but this is where the golf will likely be played in the 2020 Games.

And here’s the little talking point. The private club does not have any women members.

Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike said: “I feel very uncomfortable about women not being able to become a regular member in this era.”

Women are not allowed to become full members and are not allowed to play there on Sundays.

4) Justin Thomas’ 59 – In Numbers

Justin Thomas 59

7 – No of players to break 60. Thomas follows Al Geiberger, Chip Beck, David Duval, Paul Goydos, Stuart Appleby and Jim Furyk into the record books

23 – The youngest player to do so. Duval was 27 when he managed it in 1999.

11 – Shots under par. He even managed a bogey – Furyk also had a bogey in his 58. For Thomas there were eight birdies and the round began and ended with an eagle.

5 – No of straight birdies, from the 16^th to the 2^nd.

206 – Yards left in for Thomas’ approach from sand at his final hole. He found the green and made the putt.