By Chris Dortch
For months as Tim Jackson’s 50th birthday approached, an application for the Champions Tour qualifying school sat on the corner of his desk, in plain sight, offering a tempting career path. And for months, Jackson, one of the greatest amateur players in Tennessee history, couldn’t bring himself to so much as read the form, much less fill it out.
Finally, on the day before the filing deadline, Jackson read the first page. His next move, for those who know Jackson best, wasn’t surprising. He crumbled the application into a ball and tossed it into the wastebasket.
“I don’t think it’s for me,” Jackson said. Lest anyone think the startling events of last week, when Jackson shot 66-67 in the first two rounds of the U.S. Senior Open at Crooked Stick in Indiana, setting a 36-hole tournament record and taking a two-shot lead into the weekend, made him change his mind about pro golf, think again.
Jackson eventually finished 11th after rounds of 73-76 on the weekend, and would have cashed a check for more than $50,000 had he been a professional. Neither lure of money, nor fame—the Crooked Stick galleries turned out in force to root him on—is going to be enough to sway Jackson.
That’s good for amateur golf.
“I’m totally dedicated to amateur golf,” Jackson said after shooting a first-round 69 in the Tennessee Amateur at The Honors Course on Tuesday, just two days after the events of Crooked Stick ended.
“I’m committed to the [Tennessee Golf Association]. I’m committed to the USGA. Hopefully there will be some opportunities down the road in both organizations. “I’ve got four or five more good years of amateur golf in Tennessee before senior [amateur] golf. After that, we’ll see what happens.”
If Jackson’s career as a senior follows a similar path to his exploits of the last 20 years on the state and national amateur circuits, he could well end up the most decorated amateur in Tennessee history. Though he didn’t start playing the game competitively until his mid-20s, Jackson has won four state amateurs, five state mid-amateurs, the state match play and the state open. He’s also won a pair of USGA Mid-Amateur championships, played on two Walker Cup teams and played in two Masters.
Though he’s nowhere close to putting away his clubs for good, Jackson has already been immortalized twice, earning a rare spot on The Honors Circle at The Honors and, coming in November, a place in Tennessee’s golf hall of fame.
“Tim Jackson is a true gentleman golfer and has played the amateur game as well as any player in our state’s history,” former TGA executive director Dick Horton said when it was announced that Jackson was headed to the hall of fame. “His record and character has represented Tennessee at the highest level of amateur golf and it’s a privilege to have him as a member of the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame.”
Usually hall of fame nominations come after a player is past his prime. But as Jackson proved at Crooked Stick, and again at The Honors on Tuesday when he scored better than all but two players in a field loaded with young college stars, he can still compete.
He learned a lot about himself competing against the likes of Tom Watson and Greg Norman in the Senior Open. “I think I can play with those guys,” Jackson said. “Hitting balls next to them, playing head to head with them, I found out that, on my good days, my game is very competitive with the best players in the world.”
Jackson might not have said that a few months ago. But a swing change he made before the Lupton Cup, hosted by The Honors in May, helped him hit the ball “as well as I have in my life,” Jackson said.
After shoring up his swing, Jackson, who had struggled with his putting for a while, went to work on that aspect of his game. “I've gone to the belly, I've tried three or four different putters,” Jackson said at the Senior Open last week.
“There is a guy I work with back home at the club. He suggested that I give cross-handed putting a try. I tried that, but he wanted me to really commit to it. He said, ‘If you will just do it and commit to it for a season,’ so ever since then I've been sort of trying to find a routine.
“And for me it's pretty simple—I get behind it, I take one look, and I get firmly committed to the line. Then I do a little breathing, and I step in there and go. I'm not dillydallying and working on my stroke. I'm really not thinking about the mechanics of my stroke at all. I'm only thinking about the pace.”
Jackson made a ton of putts at the Senior Open, but one stands out in his mind. “It was on the second day, at No. 13 [a par 3],” Jackson said. “I’d birdied two holes in a row heading into that hole. So I aimed right at the flag, and my ball stopped 20 feet under the hole. I told Austin [his son and caddy], ‘Can you believe this?’ It was like there was a bowling alley lane right to the hole.
“It was just so straight. All I had to do was get it in the hole. Austin and I just looked at each other and smiled, and I knocked it right in. That hole’s down in a bowl. The roar was unbelievable. It was really crazy.”
Jackson won’t regularly hear roars competing on the Champions Tour. But there are plenty more in store as he becomes a latter-day Bobby Jones. He’s certain to break the record for most TGA victories set by the great Chattanooga career amateur Lew Oehmig, who won eight state amateurs and seven senior amateurs.
Like Oehmig, Jackson could well end up a Walker Cup captain some day. And he’s certainly a threat to win the U.S. Senior Amateur, just like Oehmig, who won three of them, the last at age 69, a record. Though he’s an amateur golfer to the core, Jackson won’t ever forget what he did at Crooked Stick.
“There are two things I’ll remember about that week,” Jackson said. “My name was at the top of the leaderboard into the third day of the tournament, and never came off. And I’ll never forget the fans. Austin and I were their only choice.
They were lining the fairway, constantly supporting us—hollering and clapping. The roars when we hit good shots or made putts were phenomenal. “And that was pretty cool.”
