Q&A: Peter Jacobsen on the New World Champions Cup, Jake Trout and 'Tin Cup'
Prepare yourself to be surprised when the first World Champions Cup is played next month. It's a Ryder Cup for senior players but with three teams—the U.S., Europe and International.
Jim Furyk, Darren Clarke and Ernie Els will be playing captains for their respective six-man teams. There are a few other wrinkles, too, and you may be surprised to learn who helped create this event—Peter Jacobsen, a former tour player and a popular personality who’s been a long-time analyst for NBC.
The World Champions Cup will be played Dec. 7-10 at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla. The teams aren’t finalized but competing players include Steve Stricker, David Toms, Colin Montgomerie, Justin Leonard, Steven Alker, Bernhard Langer and Stephen Ames.
We had questions, Jacobsen had answers …
Peter Jacobsen helped create a Ryder Cup-style team event
Matt Sullivan/Getty Images
Sports Illustrated: How on earth did you end up as commissioner of the World Champions Cup?
Peter Jacobsen: I’m not the commissioner, I’m the chairman. The fun thing about starting an event, you can give yourself any nameplate you want.
SI: How about czar? You could call yourself that if you wanted.
PJ: That’s kind of like “car” with a “z,” is that right? I don’t have that kind of knowledge. And that’s knowledge with an “n.”
SI: How did you come up with this WCC idea?
PJ: My good friend Charlie Besser and I have been kicking this idea around for five years. Charlie and his company founded and run the Rocket Mortgage Classic tournament in Detroit. They’ve been innovators and I’ve done that to a pretty small degree over the years with my company, Peter Jacobsen Sports. Charlie tasked me with being in charge of getting the players so I asked my three good friends—Ernie Els, Darren Clarke and Jim Furyk—to be captains of their respective teams. They’re Hall of Fame golfers and they’ve got the respect of the other players.
SI: What’s the format for the World Champions Cup?
PJ: We’re going to play singles, best-ball and Scotch foursomes. We’re going to have nine-hole matches—and don’t make any senior jokes about that. There will be nine-hole matches in the morning, nine-hole matches in the afternoon. It’s a three-team format. For example, the U.S. will play the International for a point each hole, the U.S. will play Europe for a point each hole and the International team will play Europe for a point each hole. There’s an opportunity to make points on every hole. If Jim Furyk beats Ernie Els and Darren Clarke on the first hole, instead of just being 1 up, he’ll have two points for the U.S. You’re not going to see any matches closed out, 3 and 2. All 18 holes will be played because points are available on every hole for your team. Any team can come from behind in this format.
SI: The three-way match idea is untraditional. How did you come up with that?
PJ: We all agreed that we’ve already got the Presidents Cup, Solheim Cup and Ryder Cup, which each have just two teams. We thought we could do something a little different.
SI: We just went through another Ryder Cup controversy about guys getting paid to play. What are these guys playing for in the World Champions Cup? A trophy? Prize money?
PJ: There’s going to be a perpetual trophy. Every player on the winning team will get a replica of it. Each player on the winning team will receive $100,000; second place will be $75,000 and third is $50,000.
It was unfortunate to hear about the Ryder Cup controversy. I played on two Ryder Cup teams, I didn’t care about making money. Just putting on the red, white and blue and watching them raise the flag was enough for me. But it was different then. It’s big money now and I'm not going to criticize anybody for wanting prize money. I was not privy to what went on but it might be time for the European PGA and the PGA of America to take a look at the money. I don’t have a recommendation because I’m not seated at the table.
SI: Does the WCC trophy have a specific name?
PJ: No, we don’t. You just said it, the WCC trophy. Why, what are you thinking?
SI: Well, you could call it the Arnold Palmer Cup or name it after someone else. The Jacobsen Cup. Whatever.
PJ: That’s a pretty good idea. You’ve got my wheels turning now.
SI: Who’s televising the WCC?
PJ: We’re going to be on ESPN and ABC Thursday and Friday, Dec. 7 and 8, and ABC on Sunday. It’s also Jimmy V week at ESPN, a huge fund-raising opportunity in the memory of basketball coach Jim Valvano. We have a unique pro-am on Saturday, we’re smart enough to avoid college football. There will be a lot of cross-promotion with ABC and ESPN and Jimmy V Week.
SI: Maybe it should be The Valvano Cup?
PJ: That’s a thought.
SI: What’s the biggest challenge about launching the World Champions Cup next month?
PJ: Well, we just had a Solheim Cup and a Ryder Cup. Nobody’s thinking about the World Champions Cup because it hasn’t happened yet. We’re going to gain some traction once the first one is in the books. And we’re going to play this every year, because let’s face it, we’re senior players, we don’t have that much time left. (Laughing.)
SI: People may have forgotten their history, Peter, but you’ve run a tournament before, the Fred Meyer Challenge. A lot of tour players loved that event. How long did that last?
PJ: We were trying to find a week to have a tournament in Portland, Ore., and there were no open weeks on the PGA Tour schedule. So we fit it in on a Monday and Tuesday. I knew if I started it with one name, everybody else would play. That name was Arnold Palmer. I went to Arnold and said, I’m trying to raise a lot of money for my hometown of Portland, would you play? He said, “I’ll play one year.” Well, that one year turned into 18 years. Arnold was my partner every year and we raised something like $15 million for Portland. We had Jack Nicklaus, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson. It was one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done in golf.
Greg Norman wanted to have an event so we came up with the Shark Shootout, which turned into the QBE Shootout. I played in that with Arnold every year, too. We founded the CVS Charity Classic that Brad Faxon and Billy Andrade hosted. We also founded the Reno-Tahoe Open, now the Barracuda Championship.
SI: When you won the U.S. Senior Open at Bellerive, weren’t you coming off hip surgery and and you had to play 36 holes on Sunday due to a rain delay? I recall wondering if you’d be able to finish.
PJ: Yeah, I’m an iron man.
SI: You’ve got a lot of iron in your body, that’s for sure.
PJ: That’s true. I had a torn labrum in my left hip then and Dr. Mark Philippon repaired it. Greg Norman had it done, too. I thought I could play the Senior British Open after the surgery. I played in the pro-am there but realized I couldn’t go so I withdrew. The U.S. Senior Open was the next week in St. Louis. I kept telling my wife, Jan, “There’s no way I can play.” Fluff (Mike Cowan) was caddying for me and said, “You’ve got to play.” So I gave it a shot. Things went along pretty well the first day and I shot 65. I thought, Wow, where did that come from?
We were rained out Saturday, so I thought we’d play 18 Sunday and 18 Monday. Nope. We had to play 36 on Sunday. Walter Driver was president of the USGA and I said to him on the first tee, “Walter, I’ve just had hip surgery and I’m not sure I can play all 36 today.” He looked at me like I said I just saw a UFO fall out of the sky into a bunker over there. I really wasn’t sure I could finish but I made a putt on the last green to beat Hale Irwin. So, yeah, Iron Man.
SI: You’ve had your hand in everything—a player, tournament founder, television commentator and even music. You put out two CDs of rock music with golf lyrics as Jake Trout and The Flouders. Any time I see Mark Lye, one of The Flounders, I quote some of your lyrics and he tells me the song. How did the group get started?
PJ: Back in the day, Payne Stewart, Mark Lye and I all played music. We didn’t hunt or fish. I still don’t hunt or fish but I have a guitar in every room of the house. Whenever we played golf with Huey Lewis or Glenn Frey or Stephen Stills or Alice Cooper, we always talked music. I starting jotting down lyrics one day to Alice Cooper’s song, “Eighteen,” his teenage lament. Well, my lyrics made that song into, “I’m on 18” and it became a choker’s lament.
Mark and I started writing golf lyrics to songs of people we played golf with. Once we put these songs together, we went to Glenn and Alice and Neil Young and R.E.O. Speedwagon and said, “Could we record these?” They said go ahead. So Mark and Payne and I got some great musicians to help us. When we were in the recording studio with these Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Famers, guys who were our heroes, Mark and I would pinch ourselves and say, “How the heck did we get here? We were playing the Los Angeles Open last week and here we are recording in a studio with Graham Nash or Darius Rucker or Huey.” It was a very cool thing. You can still hear those songs on iTunes. It’s really a fun remembrance for me. Winning a golf tournament is something you expected yourself to do but not playing guitar on Stephen Stills’s song, “Love the One You’re With,” after it became, “Love the One You Whiff.”
SI: No offense to Bruce Hornsby, but your “Attackers of the Flags” rocks a little more than his original, “Defenders of the Flags.”
PJ: Bruce is a very close friend of mine I've seen him in concert probably a dozen times. Every time I’m there and they play “Defenders of the Flag,” he sings “Attackers of the Flag” with our lyrics and he always turns and points at me.
SI: You won the U.S. Open in the movie Tin Cup but what were you thinking when you saw Roy McAvoy moving up the leaderboard? Were you sweating it out?
PJ: Not at all. That was the easiest tournament I ever won. I had to hit only one shot in the movie and I only had to beat two 15-handicappers, Kevin Costner and Don Johnson. Honestly, I’d be more concerned about beating you than those guys.