The Fairmont Southampton and its Turtle Hill Golf Club, widely considered among the top par-3 golf courses in the world, will host the 4th Annual Bacardi World Par 3 Championships, March 22nd to 24th, 2013 in Bermuda.
The Bacardi World Par 3 Championship is the world’s premier par-3 tournament, attracting 180 participants from around the globe, including a number of noted professionals, including Golf Channel analyst Charlie Rymer, former PGA TOUR player Ian Leggatt, European Senior Tour winner Delroy Cambridge, and Canadian Tour players Nick Taylor (2011 champion) and Ian Doig (2012 champion). Local professional golfers include Dwayne Pearman, Daniel Augustus, and Chaka DeSilva.
Fairmont Southampton Director of Golf, Anthony Mocklow said, “We have Tony Jacklin coming down for the event. Many in the golf community know Jacklin who was the most successful British player of his generation, winning two major championships. He was also the most successful European Ryder Cup captain ever.”
In 1969, Jacklin became the first British player to win The Open Championship for 18 years, winning by two strokes at Royal Lytham & St Annes. The following season he won his second major title, the U.S. Open by seven strokes on a windblown Hazeltine National Golf Club course. It was the only U.S. Open victory by a European player in an 84-year span (1926–2009); Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell ended that streak in 2010.
Jacklin won eight events on the European Tour between its first season in 1972 and 1982. He also won tournaments in Europe prior to the European Tour era, and in the United States, South America, South Africa and Australia. His 1968 PGA Tour win at the Jacksonville Open Invitational was the first by a European player on the U.S. Tour since the 1920s, Jacklin was the first British player since the 1940’s and Henry Cotton to devote much of his effort to American Tour events.
However, Jacklin may be best remembered for his involvement in the Ryder Cup. He was a playing member of the "Great Britain and Ireland" team in 1967, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1975 and 1977, and of the first European team in 1979. Except for a tie in 1969, all of those teams were defeated. Jacklin was involved in one of the most memorable moments in Ryder Cup history at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in 1969. After his eagle putt on 17 evened his match with Jack Nicklaus, Nicklaus conceded Jacklin's two-foot putt on 18, halving the match, and ending the Ryder Cup with a tied score. "The Concession" ended with the two golfers walking off the course with arms around each other's shoulders. Jacklin and Nicklaus later co-designed a golf course in Florida called "The Concession" to commemorate the moment.
Jacklin was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2002. He retired from tournament golf in 2004 at the age of sixty, having won a number of events at senior level. Jacklin has developed a golf course design business since his retirement from competition. He has designed numerous courses, including the 9-hole par 3 course of The St. Pierre Park Hotel in Guernsey.
