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Captain Fantastic: Tony Jacklin celebrates with Seve Ballesteros after the 1987 Ryder Cup

A conversation with three-time European Ryder Cup captain Tony Jacklin

This interview was conducted in 2010 for issue 102 of bunkered and is part of our archives at bunkered.co.uk. Stay tuned for more archive material from previous landmark interviews.


Tony Jacklin is remarkably modest about his outstanding achievements as Ryder Cup captain in four momentous matches between 1983 and 1989. In simple statistics, he lost the first contest at West Palm Beach by a single point, won decisively at the Belfry two years later, made history by skippering the first European side to win Sam Ryder’s famous trophy with a close, but deserved, two-point win at Muirfield Village, Ohio in September of 1987, then tied with Ray Floyd’s powerful squad 14-14, where the Europeans lost the last four singles on the last day.

“I knew all about the unique pressure of playing in a Ryder Cup match from the moment I made my debut in Houston, Texas, in 1967 against a power-house US side captained by Ben Hogan in what was his final Ryder Cup contest. His side spelt strength and experience from top to bottom – Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper, Julius Boros, Gay Brewer – and, to be honest, we were just blown away by their fine golf. You would have to say, though, that this was a perfect farewell to big time golf for Hogan, who had the distinction of being selected for the US Ryder Cup side in 1939 and 1941 but, of course, neither match was ever played.”

Jacklin, now 66 and based in Florida, went on to play in seven successive Ryder Cup matches, a total of 35 games, but as he looked back for bunkered on his time in this particular competition, none of it prepared him for the unique challenges of being captain.

“No matter which way you look at it, playing in the Ryder Cup bears no comparison to being captain. The first match in Florida was probably the most memorable. Jack Nicklaus, who was their captain, had us all over for a BBQ dinner before it all started – a lovely, generous thing to do, which gave us the chance to make friends with our opponents before a shot was struck. It really set the scene for a fine match which went to the last game on the last day when Tom Watson edged out Bernard Gallacher 2 and 1 to clinch the US victory.

“Although this was the only one of the four matches I lost, I was very fortunate that my years as captain coincided with some fabulous individual performances from the players who made up the core of my sides – big-time winners like Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam. It was such a joy to pencil their names in my various team sheets. I’ll never forget the superb play of Faldo and Langer on the opening morning in ’83 when they outplayed Lanny Wadkins and Craig Stadler to win 4 and 2. Although it was foursomes, I think they were something like eight-under-par.”

In the 1985 match at the Belfry, Seve was joined by his World Cup-winning partner Manuel Pinero and they contributed four-and-a-half points out of six against Lee Trevino’s side, which, on paper, looked very formidable indeed, with the likes of Ray Floyd, Curtis Strange, Hal Sutton, Craig Stadler and Hubert Green.

“I was spoiled for choice in this match, too. Two other fine Spanish golfers, Jose Maria Canizares and Jose Rivero, were in the line-up and I’ll never forget the fantastic golf they played in the second day foursomes when they simply outplayed Tom Kite and Calvin Peete 7 and 5, which in foursomes golf is a really astonishing score. Our 16½-11½ win was out best performance since the tied contest at Birkdale in 1969 when Jack Nicklaus conceded my two-footer on the last green for a half and a 16-16 scoreline. That was also a Ryder Cup moment to savour.”

The preparations for what would be Jacklin’s final year of captaincy at the Belfry in 1989 followed, as he told me “the usual lines”. By that he meant that he would be up front at all times with all players. He would explain his reasons for leaving a player out, and he would give his next day line up as usual after dinner.

“On practice days I encouraged players to mix things up and play with different guys. I didn’t have “dream partnerships” in my head. And when a tough decision had to be made I didn’t think about it. When Bernhard Gallacher and Sandy Lyle got hammered 5 and 4 by Tom Watson and Ben Crenshaw on the first morning, they both admitted to ‘not playing particularly well’, so I left them out of the afternoon fourballs and didn’t play them at all on the second day. And when it got down to the 12 singles on day three, they both lost. Neither offered any criticism of my judgement. I brought in our rookie Paul Way and he got me three-and-a-half points out of four.

“The ’89 match was one I really thought we’d win but we lost seven of the 12 singles including, very sadly, the final four games, three of them on the last green. I felt certain that Gordon Brand Jnr, Sam Torrance, Faldo and Woosnam would get us the point we needed to win, but it just didn’t happen, though a 14-14 tie meant we kept the Ryder Cup. I regard it as a great honour to have captained four fine squads. They were all superb players and made my job a real pleasure. It was a great time in my golfing life.”

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Bryce Ritchie is the Editor of bunkered and, in addition to leading on content and strategy, oversees all aspects of the brand. The first full-time journalist employed by bunkered, he joined the company in 2001 and has been editor since 2009. A member of Balfron Golfing Society, he currently plays off nine and once got a lesson from Justin Thomas’ dad.

Editor of bunkered

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