Mark James (golfer)
| Mark James | |
|---|---|
| — Golfer — | |
 |
|
| Personal information | |
| Full name | Mark Hugh James |
| Nickname | Jesse |
| Born |
28 October 1953 Manchester, England |
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) |
| Weight | 178 lb (81 kg; 12.7 st) |
| Nationality |
 England
|
| Residence | Burley in Wharfedale, West Yorkshire, England |
| Career | |
| Turned professional | 1976 |
| Current tour(s) | European Senior Tour |
| Former tour(s) |
European Tour Champions Tour |
| Professional wins | 31 |
| Number of wins by tour | |
| European Tour | 18 |
| PGA Tour Champions | 3 |
| European Senior Tour | 2 |
| Other | 2 |
| Best results in major championships |
|
| Masters Tournament | CUT: 1980 |
| U.S. Open | CUT: 1990, 1996 |
| The Open Championship | T3: 1981 |
| PGA Championship | T31: 1999 |
| Achievements and awards | |
| Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year |
1976 |
Mark Hugh James (born 28 October 1953) is an English professional golfer who had a long career on the European Tour and captained Europe in the 1999 Ryder Cup. He has also played senior golf on the European Senior Tour and the U.S.-based Champions Tour.
James was born in Manchester, England and educated at Stamford School. He won the English Amateur championship in 1974 and was a member of the Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team in 1975. His first professional win was the 1977 Lusaka Open and the following year he picked up the first of his eighteen wins on the European Tour at the Sun Alliance Match Play Championship. He also holds the record for the highest European Tour event round of 111 strokes at the 1978 Italian Open in Sardinia.
James never won a major championship, but he had four top-five finishes at The Open Championship. He was consistently competitive on the European Tour with twenty top-thirty finishes on the Order of Merit, including seven top-ten finishes, the best of them third place in 1979. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2000, but after treatment began playing golf again in 2001.
James represented Great Britain & Ireland or Europe in the Ryder Cup seven times including 1989 when Europe tied the match and retained the cup they had won in 1987, and 1995 when they won it outright. He was the European captain in the controversial "Battle of Brookline" in 1999, when the behaviour of the American galleries and team created a great deal of resentment in Europe, and also James' own actions during the matches drew fire from both sides of the Atlantic.
Prior to the event, James controversially chose Andrew Coltart as his second captain's pick on the team, thus leaving out Nick Faldo and Bernhard Langer (veterans who were the two most successful players for the European team in Ryder Cup history). In one of the most discussed moves in the Ryder Cup, James then kept Jean van de Velde, Jarmo Sandelin and Coltart on the bench during all sixteen matches during the first two days of play, relegating them to singles matches on Sunday only. His refusal to play those three first-time players helped lead to Europe's defeat, as none of the three won their one match. On the other hand, United States captain Ben Crenshaw played all twelve players at least once during the first two days, even though Mark O'Meara only played once.
...
Wikipedia