Multiple PGA TOUR winner and renowned golf course designer Peter Jacobsen has been selected to receive the 2012 Old Tom Morris Award by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA).
The award will be presented during the 2012 GCSAA Education Conference at Celebrate GCSAA! presented by Syngenta, Feb. 28 in Las Vegas.
“Peter has done much for the game of golf, and he has been an advocate for golf course superintendents,” GCSAA President Robert M. Randquist, CGCS, said. “He has also been quite giving of himself for charitable events. He is a perfect fit for the Old Tom Morris Award, and we look forward to recognizing him at the GCSAA Education Conference.”
GCSAA’s most prestigious honor, the Old Tom Morris Award, is presented each year to an individual who “through a continuing lifetime commitment to the game of golf has helped to mold the welfare of the game in a manner and style exemplified by Old Tom Morris.” Morris (1821-1908) was greenkeeper and golf professional at the St. Andrews Links Trust Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland; a four-time winner of the British Open (1861, ’62, ’64 and ’67); and ranked as one of the top links designers of the 19th century.
Jacobsen has won seven times on the PGA TOUR and two Champions Tour majors, the 2004 U.S. Senior Open and the 2005 Senior Players Championship. He played for the U.S. Ryder Cup teams in 1985 and 1995. Jacobsen has finished in the top 11 of all four majors, including third place finishes at both the 1983 and 1986 PGA Championships. He reached as high as seventh place in the end-of-season money list in 1995, and earned the 2003 PGA TOUR Comeback Player of the Year after winning the Greater Hartford Open that year at the age of 49.
A Portland, Ore., native, Jacobsen played golf for the University of Oregon and was inducted into the school’s sports hall of fame in 1993. He also was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 2003 and served as player director for the PGA TOUR Policy Board in 1983, 1985, 1992 and 1994. Jacobsen received the 2006 Francis Ouimet Award from the Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund for lifelong contributions to golf.
Jacobsen is president and CEO of Peter Jacobsen Sports, a sports marketing firm he created in 1988. It provides sports marketing, player relations, and event productions, including the PGA TOUR Challenge Event, CVS Caremark Charity Classic. He also co-founded a golf course design company with Jim Hardy, Jacobsen Hardy Golf Course Design, that has developed nearly 20 courses and renovated several others worldwide since 1995.
Jacobsen has provided commentary for various TV golf broadcasts, including recent work as a commentator for NBC and Golf Channel at the 2011 U.S. Open. He co-hosted two Golf Channel shows, “Plugged In” and “Peter and Friends,” and made cameo performances in the 1988 movie “Dead Solid Perfect,” and “Tin Cup” in 1996. Jacobsen also provided commentary for several versions of the ultra-popular video game “Golden Tee.” He co-authored two books about his life on tour, “Buried Lies: True tales and tall stories from the PGA TOUR,” and “Embedded balls: Adventures on and off the tour with golf’s premiere storyteller.”
Jacobsen was the lead singer of Jake Trout and The Flounders, a band he formed with Mark Lye and Payne Stewart in the mid-1980s. Jacobsen and his wife Jan reside in Portland, Ore., and Bonita Springs, Fla. They have three children: Amy, Kristen, Mick, and two grandchildren.