Jay Sigel, twice a U.S. Amateur champion and one of the most decorated amateurs in golf history, died from pancreatic cancer on Saturday. He was 81.
Sigel won consecutive U.S. Amateurs, in 1982 and ’83, while also winning the U.S. Mid-Amateur in 1983. He won two of the following three U.S. Mid-Amateurs as well, and also had a British Amateur victory on his gilded resume, winning in 1979.
“Best amateur since Bobby Jones hands down,” Kevin Hammer, the USGA’s president-elect, told David Shefter of the USGA.
Moreover, he played for nine U.S. Walker Cup teams, and was a playing captain in two of them. He played in a record 33 Walker Cup matches, in singles and foursomes, and was victorious in 18 of them, while losing only five, tying in the other 10.
Sigel, a native of Philadelphia, played his college golf at Wake Forest on an Arnold Palmer Scholarship. His PGA Tour aspirations ended with a hand injury, though he continued to play amateur golf while pursuing a career in the insurance business.
When he turned 50, Sigel finally decided to play professionally, joining what now is called the PGA Tour Champions, and was its rookie of the year in 1994. He won the GTE West Classic early that season, the first of eight senior victories, among them the Senior Tour Championship in 1996. He earned more than $9 million in his professional career.
Sigel played in 11 Masters, making the cut in four of them and was low amateur in three of them. He was low amateur once in five starts in the U.S. Open and was low amateur in one of two British Opens in which he played.
He remains the only player ever to win the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Mid-Amateur in the same year and was one of three to win two USGA championships in the same year.
“Incredible player. Incredible friend. Incredible mentor,” fellow Pennsylvanian Nathan Smith, the 2025 U.S. Walker Cup captain, told Shefter. “He was special. He was just an icon in amateur golf.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
