About Jay
Born in 1943, Jay Sigel enjoyed one of the more illustrious careers in the history of U.S. amateur golf, before turning pro in 1993. At age 50 he became a member of the Senior PGA Tour, now known as the PGA Tour Champions.
Born and raised in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, he grew up playing golf at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, PA. He attended high school at Lower Merion HS in Lower Merion, PA. He then headed to Wake Forest University. He is a Demon Deacon having graduated from Wake Forest University in 1967. It was in Winston-Salem, NC where he won an ACC championship, was inducted into the Hall of Fame, and became a two-time All American. Wake Forest now has a scholarship in Jay's name.
Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s Jay Sigel was one of America’s premier amateur golfers. He compiled victories in the U.S. Amateur, British Amateur and U.S. Mid-Amateur, competed on nine Walker Cup teams, and won numerous other amateur titles. In 1983, he became the only golfer ever to win the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Mid-Amateur in the same year, which made him only the third golfer to win two USGA individual titles in the same year. Jay Sigel turned professional at the age of 50 and won Rookie of the Year honors on the Senior PGA Tour, when he earned 14 top-10 finishes and secured his first victory at the GTE West Classic.
For the next five seasons, Jay Sigel finished in the money in all 28 tournaments that he entered and had six top-10 finishes. During the 2005 campaign his best finish was 5th at the Turtle Bay Championship. He has career earnings of over $9 million. From 1994 until 2015, Jay Sigel was sponsored by global management consulting and technology services company Accenture.
Since 1980, Jay has served as President of the Greater Philadelphia Scholastic Golf Association and The First Tee of Greater Philadelphia where he is now Chairman Emeritus. He also works part-time as a fee-paid consultant on golf course design projects.
While managing his successful golf career, Jay also served as Senior Vice President at CBIZ Benefits and Insurance Services from which he retired in 2020.
Since 1992, Jay Sigel has been the founder and host of The Jay Sigel Invitational which benefits the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jay and his wife Betty live in Berwyn, PA. They have three beautiful daughters: Jennifer, Amy and Megan and five grandchildren.
Jay considers his heroes to be Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer, and Jack Nicklaus.
On February 9, 2017 Jay Sigel was honored by The First Tee of Greater Philadelphia with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
It was on December 16, 2013 that this plaque was dedicated in Jay Sigel’s honor as Founder of The Jay Sigel Invitational. Dr. John H. Glick, along with AFCRI researchers, University of Pennsylvania administrators, and Jay’s family attended this wonderful ceremony.
We invite you, should you find yourself at the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, to see this plaque firsthand. It is located on the 4th Floor in the Oncology Suite, where both melanoma and prostate cancer patients receive treatment and consult with their physicians. The plaque is prominently displayed and is visible to all who travel through this area.
The University of Pennsylvania is one of founder Benjamin Franklin's best inventions and embodies his ideals of innovation and commitment to the public good.
Jay Sigel was awarded a smaller scale bronze statue of “Ben on the Bench” from the University of Pennsylvania in 2007 for his service to Penn. After hosting his 15th year of raising money for prostate cancer research, administrators at Penn presented Jay with this endearing award for his commitment to the public good of furthering advancements in cancer research at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute of the University of Pennsylvania.
Career Highlights
PROFESSIONAL
PGA TOUR CHAMPION WINS
- 10-time Tour Winner (1994 - 2003)
- Aruba Aces Championship
- Diners Club Match Play Championship with Gil Morgan
- 5- Georgia Pacific Grand Champions victories
PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS HIGHLIGHTS
- 1994 Rookie of the Year
- 10-time Tour Winner (1994 - 2003)
- 2002 Comeback Player of the Year (multiple surgeries)
- Lowest 9 hole score - 27 - 1998 Bell Atlantic Classic (-9 under)
- Eagle/Birdie Streak (holes 1-7) (8 total) 1998 Bell Atlantic Classic
- Lowest start by winner (61) (-10) 1998 EMC Kaanapali
- Double Eagle - 1994 Golf Magazine Sr. Tour Championship
- Eagle and Double Eagle in a round (on his Birthday! 11/13/94)
- Largest come from behind victory in a Final Round - 10 Strokes over Jim Colbert - 1994 GTE West Classic
- Greens in Regulation (51 of 54) 1994 Northville Long Island Classic
- Longest Drive (422 yards) 1996 Tradition
- 1995 Tour Leader in Driving Distance (277.4 yards)
- 1997 Most Top 10 Finishes (19) tied with Gil Morgan
- 1997 Lowest 54-hole score (-18 under) Kroger Senior Classic
- 2003 Bayer Advantage - course tying record 65 (-7) -- also became oldest winner on tour at 59
AMATEUR
WINNER
1975, 1981 and 1987 Porter Cup (Runner-up 3 times)
1979 British Amateur
1982 & 1983 United States Amateur Championship
1983, 1985 and 1987 United States Mid-Amateur Championship
1988 Sunnehanna Amateur (3rd record time)
1991 Northeast Amateur (3rd record time)
1993 Crump Cup (9th record time)
1962, ’66, ’68, ’72, ‘73, ‘74, ‘75, ’76, ’78, ’79 and ’81 Pennsylvania Amateur
Pennsylvania Open (4 times) (Pro Tournament)
Philadelphia Open (7 times) (Pro Tournament)
1973, 1987 Philadelphia Amateur
Low Amateur:
1984 US Open
11 Masters Participant
1981, 1982, 1988 Masters Tournament
1980 British Open
Jay served as the Playing Captain of the 1983 and 1985 Walker Cup Teams and was a member of the 1977, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991 and 1993 teams. Jay is the all-time point winner in Walker Cup Match history. His record surpasses Bobby Jones, Bill Campbell, and Francis Ouimet. His nine-time selection the team is also a record.
Jay was a member of the 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988 and 1992 World Amateur Team. Individually, he placed second in the World in Switzerland (1982), and Venezuela (1986). He holds the record for low round. His seven-time selection is also a record.
In 1984, Jay received the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation’s Athlete of the Year Award.
Golf Digest Magazine continuously ranked Jay as one of the Top 10 Amateur Golfers from 1975 to 1991 (exception 1990)
1991- 4th
1990 - unranked
1989 -
1988 - 2nd
1987 - 2nd
1986 - 10th
1985 - 3rd
1984 - 3rd
1983 - 1st
1982 - 1st
1981 - 5th
1980 - 2nd
1979 - 5th
1978 - 5th
1977 - 9th
1976 - 4th
1975 - 8th
The Sunnehanna Amateur, the oldest amateur medal stroke play tournament in the United States, dedicated the 11th hole to Jay in June 1979. The inscription on the brass plate on the tee reads: “Twelve times in the first twenty-six years of the Sunnehanna Amateur this quiet, thirty-two year old gentlemen, who is every respect truly personifies the meaning the word class, has earned his way into this tournament. Twice he was crowned our champion of champions and, in the Spring of 1979, he won the British Amateur Championship. Sunnehanna Country Club admiringly, and with pride, dedicated its eleventh hole to a great friend and to one of the world’s finest amateurs.”
1988 was the Centennial of Golf in the United States. To celebrate this event, GOLF Magazine named Jay to its list of 100 Heroes of American Golf. This event was celebrated at a formal dinner in New York on June 20, 1988.
The Collegiate Golf Coaches of America nominated Jay to their Hall of Fame. He is the first Amateur Golfer so nominated and he was inducted in July 1988.
Sigel's chat with Palmer paid off for Wake Forest
June 14, 2006
By Lauren Deason
PGATOUR.com Staff
It was 1961 at the Bing Crosby National. As Champions Tour player Jay Sigel recalls it, snow fell that week on the entertainer's annual pro-am at Pebble Beach. If Crosby's tournament that year fittingly resembled a white Christmas, then it was Wake Forest University who got quite a gift.
Enrolled at Houston at the time, Sigel was considering transferring to Wake. One of Crosby's famous soirees gave him a unique opportunity to hear about the college from a legendary Wake alumnus.
"During the week, I got up the courage to ask Arnold [Palmer] for some time to tell me about Wake Forest," Sigel said. "I remember he excused himself from a conversation with Crosby and Bob Hope, and we sat down in front of the fireplace at The Lodge at Pebble Beach. "In 30 minutes, I made the decision to make a visit and subsequently transferred there."
As it turned out, Palmer was smart to forsake the legendary entertainers for a conversation with the young golfer. While at Wake Forest, Sigel accumulated a number of accolades, including All-America honors in 1963 and '64. He won the Atlantic Coast Conference individual crown in 1963 and led his team to the ACC team title that same year.
In 1984, Sigel was inducted into the Wake Forest University Hall of Fame and was named to the ACC 50th Anniversary Men's Golf Team in 2002, celebrating the most talented golfers from the league's member schools. He may have had talent on the course, but it took Sigel two shots to land on Wake's renowned golf squad.
"I was the top junior player in the country but was not a good student in high school," Sigel said of his original recruitment period. "I applied to Stanford, Wake Forest, Miami and Houston. Dave Williams, the Houston golf coach, recruited me, and I ended up going there after I wasn't admitted to Stanford and Wake Forest."
A little prodding from a family friend helped him eventually end up in Winston Salem, N.C. Sigel's father and Arnold Palmer's father-in-law, Schub Walzer, were fraternity brothers at Penn State. "Mr. Walzer stayed on my dad about me eventually still going to Wake Forest," Sigel remembered.
Sigel, considered to be one of the best amateur golfers of all time, won several amateur titles and still holds the record for most points won in Walker Cup history. He turned professional when he turned 50 and joined the Champions Tour, winning Rookie of the Year honors in his inaugural season in 1994. Since then, he has captured eight Tour titles, with his biggest victory coming at the 1996 Energizer Senior Tour Championship.
In 2000, the Philadelphia Sportswriters Association named him the Most Courageous Athlete for his contributions to golf and charitable organizations. It took a bit of that courage to speak to Palmer, but the transfer to Wake that followed helped start his successful career.
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