Tony Jacklin: From Steelworks to U.S. Open Champion and Ryder Cup Hero

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In 1970, Tony Jacklin CBE became the first European golfer in 45 years to win the US Open, a year after clinching The Open at the Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club.

Four decades would pass before another European lifted the US Open trophy. During this period, Tony, now 82, achieved a remarkable brace over the dominant Americans, starting in 1985 when he captained Europe to its first Ryder Cup victory in 28 years. His team replicated this victory in Ohio two years later, winning their first Ryder Cup on American soil.

The father of six lives with his second wife Astrid, 25 miles from Bradenton Golf Club in Florida, which he designed with Jack Nicklaus. Driven: Tony Jacklin, left, with Justin Rose, right, in 2023 What did your parents teach you about money as a child? They taught me that there wasn’t much of it. My father’s highest wage when I was growing up was £10 a week.

He worked on the steelworks in Scunthorpe as a locomotive driver. My mother had a part-time job in the market, but I never got any pocket money. What was your first job? I had a ten shillings-a-week paper round from the age of ten, and then I got a job in the market on the weekend when I was a little older.

But I bought everything I wanted myself, from my earnings. When did you decide you wanted to be a golfer? I left school at 15 and, like nine out of ten young people around Scunthorpe, I went to the steelworks, where I was an apprentice fitter on £3 11s. 2d a week. Of this, £2 went to my mother, leaving me with a pittance, even after earning another pound on the paper round and in the market.

All this changed when I won the Lincolnshire Open at 16, in a gale, by four shots. It fixed in my mind what I wanted to do for a living. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share How did the career come about? When I was 16 I started writing to Golf Illustrated magazine for jobs and got a response from Potters Bar Golf Club , which needed an assistant.

It was a five-hour drive in my dad’s old pre-war Austin 7, so I lodged in a room with meals included for £3, 15 shilling a week, but was on £6-a-week plus half of what I earned teaching people to play, so that was a step up. I improved every year, winning and winning until I played four rounds at Royal Lytham & St Annes in the 1963 Open. That kick-started my career.

I may have finished 30th, but I beat Arnold Palmer, who had won the previous two Opens. I made enough money, £15, to spur me on. Which win are you most proud of? The 1970 US Open was the best golf I ever played, and the fact I’d won The Open less than 12 months before was something special.

I believe I’m the only non-US player to have done that. It also proved my most successful year. Aside from the $30,000 pot, I received a $30,000-a-year promotional deal with Pan American Airways. While I earned $30,000 from winning the 1970 US Open, winners get $5 million now.

I can’t understand it – that amount of money at such a young age. That said, I’ve never wanted anything that anyone else has got. Up to now, I have the most important thing – my health. Read More Peter Rosengard: I've had brekkie at Claridge's over 10,000 times...

Yet, I still found time to sell the world's first $100m life policy! How did you celebrate your Open Championship wins? I loved cars, so I bought a new Rolls-Royce for £10,000 in 1970. My first wife and I decided we needed a nicer house, and looked around Wentworth and Sunningdale as they were near the airport and I was travelling a lot.

We ended up buying a magnificent £200,000 house in the Cotswolds after the win. I spent £100,000 on it, installing an indoor swimming pool, a driving range, and a putting green with a bunker. I also had three cottages on the estate. It was fantastic, and we were going to live there for ever.

Why did you leave the UK? Labour got into power. The Chancellor at the time, Denis Healey, wanted to charge me 83 per cent tax on my worldwide income for the privilege of living in the UK, so I had to go. I had invested my life’s savings in that house, and had the rug pulled out from under me.

A player like Bob Charles, a New Zealander who lived in London, wasn’t subject to this level of tax, whereas I was punished because I was English. I sold the house at a massive loss in 1975. I moved to Jersey, which, as I discovered, comprised 70,000 alcoholics clinging to a rock! There was nothing to do but go to cocktail parties.

It was less than convenient, as most of my playing was in America and I couldn’t fly direct. What has been your best money decision? My managers, IMG, got me to invest in Lloyd’s of London, and I lost everything in the subsequent financial scandal that began to unravel in the late 1980s.

I was 49, flat broke and roaming around a big house in Scotland I couldn’t afford to pay the mortgage on, so I decided to move to America and play the senior tour after 12 years of not playing competitive golf. We moved in 1993, and it’s proved the best thing I’ve ever done. Are you a spender or a saver? I’m a spender.

I’ve never tried to accumulate it for its own sake, or to be able to say I’ve got a million dollars in my bank account. In fact, I’ve never had $1 million in my bank account. Money’s there to be used and enjoyed. Tony can be booked for after-dinner speaking engagements .

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Tony Jacklin U.S. Open Ryder Cup Golf History Personal Journey

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