Jay Sigel isn’t slowing down, despite an ailing left knee that will eventually require replacement surgery.
For the 31st consecutive year, Sigel, who turned 80 last November, oversaw his eponymous charity golf event at his home club, Philadelphia’s Aronimink G.C., which has raised more than $5.25 million for prostate and breast cancer research and patient care at the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center. Last summer, he spoke at Cherry Hills, Wannamoisett and North Shore – all clubs where he won significant amateur events – and attended the Walker Cup at St. Andrews, where he relished time with ex-teammates and rivals.
His résumé is remarkable. Consecutive U.S. Amateur titles (1982-83). Three U.S. Mid-Amateur crowns (1983, ’85 and ’87). (Sigel remains the only player to win the Am and Mid-Am in the same year.) Nine Walker Cup berths, including two as playing captain.
Add the 1979 British Amateur, four Pennsylvania Open titles, 10 Pennsylvania Amateurs, and three titles apiece at the prestigious Porter Cup, Sunnehanna Amateur and Northeast Amateur, and the former Wake Forest All-American is clearly one of the greatest amateurs ever – perhaps the best of the modern era. (Tiger Woods won 6 straight USGA titles but turned pro after two years at Stanford.)
Upon turning 50 in 1993, Sigel turned pro and competed on the PGA Tour Champions, where he collected eight wins and was the circuit’s 1994 Rookie of the Year. All this was achieved while establishing a thriving insurance business and raising a family with his wife of now 56 years, Betty.
But none of it happens without two things: earning the first Arnold Palmer Scholarship at Wake Forest, and a freak accident there in 1963. While exiting his campus residence, Sigel’s left hand went through a pane of glass on a swinging door. His wrist required 70 stitches; Sigel spent nine days in the hospital and later decided not to turn pro, as he had planned.
“I always thought things happen for a reason,” said Sigel. “The hand injury was the best thing to happen to me.”
Plans to compete in PGA Tour Q-School morphed into more actual school. In 1967, Sigel graduated from Wake Forest, where he now endows his own golf scholarship.
From 1974 to 1993, Sigel had few peers in amateur golf, but he says it took time to embrace match play. There were heartbreakers early on – the 1961 U.S. Junior Amateur final (lost to Charles S. McDowell) and, later, the 1977 U.S. Amateur semifinal to John Fought at Aronimink – but eventually Sigel became a true match-play wizard. His Walker Cup singles record is 12-3-1. His U.S. Amateur mark: 50-20. His U.S. Mid-Amateur mark: 30-10.
Sigel’s run to the 1983 U.S. Amateur title at North Shore Country Club in Glenview, Ill., included a rally from 3 down with 4 to play against George McDonald with birdies on 15, 16, 17 and 19. In the 1985 U.S. Mid-Amateur at The Vintage Club in Indian Wells, Calif., he was 4 down with 5 to play against Seth Knight. Knight parred every hole coming in and lost in 19 holes.
“It’s being positive when you hit a bad shot and turning that into an opportunity,” said Sigel of his renowned mental fortitude. “If you can do that, it upsets the applecart for the other guy.”
It’s an approach that made him into an unparalleled winner.
