Jay Sigel, who won one of his five USGA championships at Cherry Hills — where he was subsequently named an honorary member — passes away at age 81
By Gary Baines – 4/20/2025
Jay Sigel, who in 1983 at Cherry Hills Country Club managed the rare feat of winning two USGA championships in a calendar year, passed away on Saturday at the age of 81 after battling pancreatic cancer.
Sigel won the third of his five career USGA championships by capturing the ’83 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Cherry Hills in just the third time that the 25-and-older championship was ever held. He subsequently was named an honorary member at Cherry Hills.
When Sigel defeated Texan Randy Sonnier 1 up in the title match at Cherry Hills, he joined only Chick Evans (U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur in 1916) and Bobby Jones (U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur in 1930 en route to the single-season Grand Slam) as people who had won more than one USGA individual championship in the same year. (It should be noted that in the years since, Ryan Moore (2004) and Colt Knost (2007) have joined that elite club after winning the U.S. Amateur Public Links and the U.S. Amateur in the same season.)
In 1983, Sigel had captured the U.S. Amateur title in early September in Glenview, Ill. Then just 32 days later, on Oct. 6 at Cherry Hills, the resident of Berwyn, Pa., added the national championship in the U.S. Mid-Am.
“This was something I really wanted to win,” Sigel said in 1983 at Cherry Hills. “I really felt the heat coming up the last hole.
“Bobby Jones was some kind of person. To even be considered with the guy is a pretty powerful thought.”
In a conversation with the USGA published in 2015, Sigel reflected on his USGA double in 1983.
“To have won my second Amateur, that blew my mind,” he said. “I was very, very tired. I came to Cherry Hills and got to stay with some very close friends. I certainly was still tired. Thinking about winning two USGA events, I didn’t read about it and I didn’t know who had done it before or anything like that. So that helped.
“I liked Cherry Hills. I liked the climate. I liked the people. It just so happened that I slipped one by. It was tough. It was a tough year. I did everything I was asked to and more as a defending (U.S. Amateur) champion from 1982 to ’83. Then 1983 comes along and I defended, which was fabulous and then I did more things. I was really beat and I can’t believe what happened.”
An area in the clubhouse at Cherry Hills Country Club features some key clubs champions used in winning at the course, including Sigel’s Ping putter (center).
Indeed, the win at Cherry Hills almost didn’t happen.
Sigel’s first three matches were fairly routine, putting him in the quarterfinals for the third time in three U.S. Mid-Ams. In that round, he faced Bob Lewis, Jr., of Warren, Ohio, who was a U.S. teammate of Sigel in the Walker Cup and the World Amateur. Their match extended to 24 holes, which tied the then-record for the Mid-Am. Sigel finally ended things by draining a 25-foot birdie putt on the sixth extra hole.
“I thought I was due on that last putt,” Sigel said at the time. “I have hit part of the hole so many times during this tournament that the people I’m staying with were calling me, ‘Edgy’. It was just a great match to play in.”
Sigel had had to get up and down from behind the 18th green — no easy task at Cherry Hills — just to force extra holes.
Sigel went on to edge former pro Sonnier — a Continental Airlines pilot who was on strike — in the final. The first 10 holes of that match were halved, but Sigel broke the ice by winning the 577-yard, par-5 11th as he hit a 2-iron from 277 yards to within 5 feet of the cup, and that eagle putt was eventually conceded. After Sonnier won 13 and Sigel 14, the latter came to 18 1 up. After chipping over the green on the hole, Sigel claimed the title by making a 3-foot bogey putt on the 18th hole after Sonnier missed the mark for his par from 10 feet.
“I was obviously rattled on the last hole,” Sigel said. “I really choked.”
But with that, the 39-year-old insurance executive became the first player since Jones in 1930 to win two USGA individual championships in the same year.
Sigel, the U.S. Walker Cup captain in 1983 and ’85, would go on to also win the U.S. Mid-Am in 1985 and ’87 after prevailing at the U.S. Amateur in 1982 and ’83. It should also be noted that Sigel also almost won the 1961 U.S. Junior Amateur, where he lost in the final 2 up.
Only three male players have won more USGA championships than Sigel did — Jones (9), Tiger Woods (9) and Jack Nicklaus (8). Hale Irwin, Jerome Travers and Nathan Smith have also won five.
“I was delighted when the (U.S. Mid-Amateur) event started in 1981,” Sigel told the USGA. “It made a lot of sense. There have been a lot of really nice winners and guys that this really meant a lot to. In my case, it meant a huge amount because it kept me in the game. It was another major tournament for me and to continue competing for the Walker Cup. I say that the USGA kept me in the game, and that enabled me to do some other things as I got older.”
After being a lifelong amateur to that point, Sigel turned pro in 1993 when he turned 50 and won eight times from 1994 to 2003 on what is now called PGA Tour Champions.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com