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| Coming off a fantastic finish at the U.S. Senior Open, Tim Jackson continued his mastery Monday during the first round at the U.S. Amateur. (John Mummert/USGA) |
By Dave Shedloski
Tulsa, Okla. – When Tim Jackson returned home to Tennessee after his stirring run in the U.S. Senior Open earlier this month, he heard from a few friends who wondered how he could have turned down the relatively lucrative paycheck that went with finishing tied for 11th.
“Everybody was asking me,” Jackson recalled, “particularly when I got home: ‘You turned your back on that $60,000? … Blah, blah, blah. You going to go out there [and join the Champions Tour]?’ I said, ‘No, I’m not doing that. Not my deal. I like doing this.’”
He likes competing in amateur golf. And he likes showing why he likes it. Still riding the crest from his Senior Open performance Jackson, 50, opened the 109th U.S. Amateur Monday with a 2-under-par 68 at Southern Hills Country Club.
A two-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, Jackson owned not only the low round at Southern Hills, but also the lead midway through the opening day of the 36-hole stroke-play qualifier. He’ll play his second round at 1:45 p.m. CDT Tuesday at Cedar Ridge Country Club in nearby Broken Arrow, Okla.
The low 64 scores advance to match play beginning Wednesday at Southern Hills.
Jackson has twice reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur, losing to an eventual finalist each time. Tiger Woods knocked him off in 1994 on the way to his first Amateur crown at TPC Sawgrass, and Buddy Marucci eliminated Jackson the following year before losing to Woods in the centennial Amateur at Newport Country Club.
Whether he advances beyond that this year is immaterial at this stage of his career. Jackson is simply enjoying the adventure of being a sort of Benjamin Button in amateur golf.
His game seems to be getting younger with age.
“I’m having more fun now that I’ve turned 50 than when I was in my 30s chasing a Walker Cup schedule and playing the whole amateur circuit, if you will,” Jackson said. “I go play the places I want to play and just enjoy the competition, whatever it is.”
Jackson said he enjoys “the purity” of amateur golf, which is why he decided to forego the professional route and join the Champions Tour when he turned 50. As it turned out, he didn’t need to turn pro to prove that he belonged in that milieu.
A real estate developer from Germantown, Tenn., Jackson set a pair of records in the U.S. Senior Open at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., on the way to stealing early headlines from big names like Tom Watson, Greg Norman and eventual winner Fred Funk. He held a share of the first-round lead with Norman and two others with a 6-under 66, the lowest score by an amateur in U.S. Senior Open history. He led outright after two rounds when he added a 5-under 67 for a 133 total, matching the 36-hole record set by Dave Stockton and Simon Hobday in the 1990s.
“It was something I thought about when I was 45, and I thought I was good enough to do it and compete with those guys,” said Jackson about joining the professional ranks as a senior. “But it was funny. Where I was in my life, it wasn’t what I wanted to do once I became eligible. So it was really nice to go out there and play like I did at Crooked Stick. That was enough for me.”
His performance Monday at Southern Hills was merely a straight carryover from Crooked Stick. Changes he made to his game in the spring – he switched to a cross-handed grip with his putter in April and tweaked his swing slightly in May – clicked in Indiana. It’s still clicking, even though he took some time off after the Senior Open.
“You know how it is. You get on a path and get to working on it, and it’s good when it’s all clicking,” Jackson said. “I’ve been going pretty good for a while now and I’m just going out and enjoy playing.”
Jackson’s round at Southern Hills, which has hosted numerous majors, including the 1965 U.S. Amateur and three U.S. Open championships, was solid and steady, with three birdies against a lone bogey. The longest putt he made all day was a 20-footer for birdie at the par-4 first, his 10th hole of the round. His only mistake was a hybrid that he chunked into the pond fronting the green at the par-5 13th hole that resulted in a bogey.
Though one of the oldest players in the field, Jackson is no more experienced than his fellow competitors on the sharp doglegs of Southern Hills. He studied up on the storied course, however, and he knows that the list of champions here is glittering. That list includes Woods, who won the most recent major on the Perry Maxwell-designed gem, the 2007 PGA Championship.
“It’s my kind of golf course; it’s a ball-striker’s course,” Jackson said. “You have to move the ball around and hit golf shots. It’s a good place for me, and I am glad to be here, and I really enjoy the competition. I just hope I keep playing well enough to still be here as the week goes on.”
Don’t bet against that happening. Tim Jackson is not getting any younger, you know. But he continues to show that he’s only getting better.
Dave Shedloski is a freelance writer whose work has previously appeared on www.usamateur.org.
