WHEN Ryder Cup great Tony Jacklin speaks about golf people tend to listen. His place alongside the legends of the sport like Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer is secure, and although his best playing days a way behind him he is at the forefront of the development and expansion of the game around the world.
Unsurprisingly Jacklin’s caused a stir in Cyprus this week with both the golf fraternity and wealthy expats out in force for a chance to meet one of the sport’s greatest names.
Coaxed away from his idyllic Gulf coast home in Bradenton, Florida, Jacklin was in town to present his designs for two new courses at Aristo Developers Secret Valley Golf Resort.
Casually dressed in ‘Jacklin Design Group’ polo shirt and hair perfectly coiffed, Jacklin relaxed with a brandy, away from the party guests, to talk about the Cyprus project, golf and his new career in course design.
Cyprus is drawing some star designers with Nick Faldo and Nicklaus already involved in golf projects on the island.
Judging by the well-heeled Brits in attendance at the presentation evening, Jacklin’s belief that UK golfers will be the driving force behind the game’s development in Cyprus is spot on.
Aristo Developers Project Manager, Loukas Christodoulides agrees and maintains that they were a major factor in the company’s decision to contract Jacklin for the scheme.
“We wanted to involve someone of Tony’s calibre to get input on the design,” said Christodoulides.
“We started looking abroad and since we have so many Britons living here we asked the residents and staff and his name kept coming up”, he explained.
Both Christodoulides and Jacklin are confident that Cyprus will be a major destination for the lucrative golf tourism market in the future.
“My feeling is that there will be a lot of golf, it’s an ideal place, it will be a Mecca for golfers in ten years, maybe less than that,” predicts the former Ryder Cup winning captain.
Asked if Cyprus could become a venue for the European tour, Jacklin admits that there’s some work to be done yet.
“If the quality of the golf course is there, I think there’s definitely a good chance in the future, no question about it but you’ve got to marry up the two opportunities – the golf itself plus there has to be somewhere for people to stay”, he advises.
Jacklin has conceptualised and assisted in the design of several top class courses in the past including San Rocque Club in Southern Spain with Dave Thomas and more recently, the award winning Concession Golf Club and Residences in Florida.
The Concession was a joint project with old rival Nicklaus and so named after the two-foot putt the American legend conceded to Jacklin at Royal Birkdale in 1969, resulting in the only Ryder Cup tie in history.
Although the idea of establishing his own course design company has been on his mind for years, the Jacklin Design Group was born just over a year ago.
The two courses at Secret Valley will be the first to get the full Jacklin treatment and he is determined the facility will reflect his own personal values.
“I want it to be as good as it can possibly be. In my career as a player I wanted to be as good as I could possibly be and that carries over into this business. I want to make a definitive contribution and look back ten years from now and say, you know we did good,” he says.
Despite support from the government, golf development on an island already short of water is a major environmental concern. Jacklin is keen to reassure the critics and affirms that the existing natural landscape, geology and plant life have all been considered in his new course designs.
“I’m not trying reinvent the wheel here, you have to look at what you have and the virtues of every site,” he explains, waving his hand toward the hills glowing orange as the sun sets over the fairway below the clubhouse.
“I want to bring what’s out there into the course.”
The plans include the use of indigenous plant species, a new grass prototype requiring 30% less water than traditional varieties and the latest in sprinkler technology to enable more efficient use of the water available.
“At the end of the day people want to come here and enjoy their walk, a nice all-round experience and that’s what I am trying to do,” he says.
On whether the plants will include his very own salmon pink floribunda rose, the ‘Tony Jacklin’, prompts a laugh.
“They don’t really fit in, we’ll go with bougainvillea here”, he says.
The company is to be a family affair; brother-in-law, Norwegian Kristian Waagen is already on board with hopes that eldest son Bradley, who studied turf management with Waagen at Michigan State University, will join when demand for Jacklin’s expertise increases.
Golf, understandably, is in the Jacklin blood. Second son Warren is a golf pro with his own academy in Germany whilst the youngest, fifteen year old Sean, who scored his first hole-in-one at the age of seven, is showing considerable promise as a follower in his father’s footsteps as a tournament pro.
“They all started playing golf when they could walk but that’s how it was, there were always golf clubs lying around everywhere,” explains Jacklin.
At 63, as a player, Jacklin admits he is “past my sell-by date”, claiming his participation at this year’s British Open at Carnoustie and British Seniors at Muirfield were his ‘swansong”, to playing the game.
Yet the star refuses to turn his back on the business of golf and a career that spans 45 years.
“I think I’ve got a lot to offer this business so this is something I can do into my dotage,” he says.
“I have absolutely no plans to retire whatsoever, I love being at home but if I was there all the time I would be bored out of my skull,” he adds with conviction.
Looking back on his career Jacklin says he has no regrets.
“I’ve had a great career and I’ve been very fortunate in my life, winning major tournaments and captaining the Ryder Cup teams.”
“Ryder Cup wise it was a lot of fun, I did that four times and probably changed the image of the competition, certainly from a European point of view, so I look back on my career as being fun, but you know, its time to move on,” he says.
Jacklin promises that his withdrawal from the game will not be the catalyst for another foray into the music business. Fans may or may not be disappointed to hear there are no plans for a follow-up to his early 1970’s album release, made in response to an earlier, “bloody awful” effort by golf rival Gary Player and instigated by the legendary ‘Godfather’ of sports management, the late Mark McCormack.
He explains the unusual career sidestep, “In those days I played a lot of golf with Andy Williams in LA and it was an opportunity to see what their lives were like behind the scenes, I just did it for fun.”
Nowadays, Jacklin admits he reserves his voice for his annual break at the Barbados estate of close friend Chairman of JJB Sport, Dave Whelan.
“There’s not a night goes by that we don’t end up singing songs but that’s my limit,” Jacklin laughs.
Asked whom Jacklin singles out as a favourite player today the golfer says he won’t be drawn into naming favourites, something he has made a point of throughout his career.
“I knew if I had a hero and got drawn to play against him on the last day of a major championship I would have been beaten before I started,” he explains.
He does admit that he has “high respect” for several big names; Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer amongst them, whilst he describes Tiger Woods as “awesome”.
Referring to Wood’s success both on the course and his considerable work for the community, Jacklin says: “He stands alone, he’s doing special things now and it’s marvellous.”
Golf, Jacklin says, demands enormous discipline and is not taken lightly by the stars that have made their name in the sport.
“They are aware that the world is watching and in some respects waiting for them to trip up, but they’ve got to rise above all that.”
Of his own contribution to the sport he’s says the balance has shifted.
“When you’re younger you are the actor, when you are older you become the director. It’s like a relay race, we try to do the best in the time we have and then we pass it on”.
His near faultless touch around the greens may have waned but given his charisma and undeniable pedigree, golf in Cyprus will thank its lucky stars Jacklin has spread his magical legacy to this island.
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©Melissa Reynolds, September 2007