Raymond Jacobs (centre) with Paul Lawrie and Peter Alliss in December 2009 and on the occasion of Raymond receiving a Scottish PGA ‘Lifetime’ Achievement award.

Five-time Open Champion, Peter Thomson has led the tributes on the passing of AGW colleague Raymond Jacobs. Raymond joined the AGW in 1964 and sadly passed last week (December, 2016) aged 85.

PETER THOMSON

It is with sadness we hear of Raymond Jacobs death.    He was always part of the media during my years of playing in British tournaments, and was the epitome of good manners and professionalism.   Both Mary and I liked him very much.

COLIN CALLANDER

All those things and a truly original writer. I will remember him with great fondness. RIP.

JIM BLACK

Raymond was for several years my neighbour in the west end of Glasgow. My fondest memories of those days was me arriving home from a function at 7 am in a dinner suit four or five sheets to the wind and bumping into Raymond in the hallway of the flats on his way to collect his newspapers when he would ask: “Coming or going, Jim?”

I was also responsible for suggesting that Raymond was the only man I knew who placed his copy of The Herald inside The Times – for effect!

Sadly, another example of putting things off until it’s too late. I deeply regret not visiting him of late. But he is very much in my thoughts right now and this fine, very talented man will remain so.

One of the last of a special generation of journalists from the days when you were proud to tell the world what you did for a living.

JOCK MACVICAR (From his Scottish Express tribute)

Raymond Jacobs, the Herald’ s distinguished former golf correspondent, has died at the age of 85 after a lengthy spell of ill health.

Raymond was 37 years with The Herald, and as well as writing about golf, he also covered football at both domestic and European level.

He retired in 1996 just before new technology swept through the newspaper industry.  He once said, “The day they hand me a laptop I retire!”

Although the possessor of a fine swing, he was never the most optimistic of golfers.  Indeed, he is the only person I have ever heard crying out “oh no”, at the top of his back swing.

Only two days ago, The Herald’s current golf writer, Nick Rodger, and I received a Christmas card from him, written in his own, firm, hand. Even at the end he remained as sharp mentally as ever, enquiring if we had arranged an interview yet with Turnberry owner and US President elect, Donald Trump.

He was a fine writer, but very much the old school, and in today’s frantic world, that is not a bad thing.

ART SPANDER

A kind, gentle individual who always made everyone feel better when in his presence.

MARTIN DEMPSTER

I was blessed being surrounded by both golf writing giants and gentlemen when I started out in the industry, and Raymond Jacobs certainly ticked both those boxes.

He was old school and I still chuckle when I remember him going off to his car to write his polished piece in peace and quiet before returning to phone through his copy. Raymond would have hated modern-day journalism!

MIKE AITKEN

Raymond was a man of some style and substance. We once spent a couple of days in Manhattan together after a US Open on Long Island. Alastair Cooke was a friend of his and it was a privilege to share their distinguished company.

As colleagues , I think, more than anything else, he valued my persuasive instinct ( after being first to the bar) for gaining us upgrades he was too shy to ask for himself. On the way to New York from Glasgow – in the days when BA flew a direct service – we drank bloody Mary’s at the front end with Dame Shirley Williams and never mentioned golf once.  My wife, Elaine, also regarded Raymond as a class act.

Whenever I feel my back swing going awry, I still recall Raymond crying ‘Oh No!’ when he took the club away, not waiting for the proof of impact to confirm disaster.

He was, by any standard, a good egg.

COLIN FARQUARSON 

They don’t make golf writers like Raymond any more. I admired his high standard and his integrity.

MELANIE HAUSER (Secretary, GWAA)

A gentle man and a very kind one. My prayers to his family. He will be missed.

PATRICIA DAVIES

Sad news, always enjoyed Raymond’s company.

MARK WILSON

So sad to lose such a good AGW colleague and friend. All the more for having yesterday received Ryamond’s Christmas card with typical humorous message.

DERMOT GILLEECE

Really sad to hear of Raymond’s passing/  He was one of the golf-writers to whom I aspired when I was learning my craft, not least for the manner in which his conveyed his deep love and respect of our sport.

MICHAEL MCDONNELL

I had a letter from Raymond only last week. Vintage Jacobs stuff. References to Turnberry, “El Trump”(his words) Bletchley Park (his writing needed deciphering), the Alderburgh Music Festival and the stiff-shafted driver Arnold Palmer gave Pat Ward Thomas( and which now resides on a wall at Royal West Norfolk Golf Club.

A rare man indeed.

ALAN FRASER

Quite simply, Raymond was a toff whose company was so good, so full of dry wit and observation, that you did not mind his reticence at the bar.

We were a hard working, pretty hard drinking band of brothers, the Scottish golf writers of that era – Jock (MacVicar), of course, Nick (Alister Nicol), Norman (Mair), Dixon (Blackstock, aka ‘the biggest name in golf’), Jackie (Robertson), Simpkins, as Raymond christened Gordon Simpson, lovely Iain MacNiven and Raymond, most sadly gone from us.

My favourite memory of Raymond concerned Sandy Lyle’s victory in the 1985 Open Championship. We were gathered in front of the television in the TV area of the press tent.

Pretty rapidly and without much warning it became apparent that Lyle had a genuine opportunity of becoming the first Scot to win the Open in modern times. Nick was beside himself, gleefully anticipating the increased workload which would be demanded of him by a sports desk normally only interested in football.

Raymond, lovely writer though he was, took a somewhat different view of an immediate future which would include feverish interest from the front of the book.

Rising to his feet and with hands behind his back, he sounded not unlike doom-monger Fraser from Dad’s Army when declaring, ‘We are entering unchartered territory.’

 GORDON ‘SIMPKINS’ SIMPSON

Raymond Jacobs was responsible for crafting many a fine article, but he was also the individual who saddled me with a nickname which survives to this day!

I was 21 years old and setting out on a new career as golf writer for the Press & Journal in Aberdeen, and Raymond took a dim view of my long hair and penchant for ear-shattering rock music. After listening to a play on Radio 4, Raymond announced to the assembled golf writers one evening and he had discovered a character who was rebellious, insubordinate, scruffy and somewhat impudent.

The characters name was ‘Simpkins’. The rest is history….

I grew to love Raymond’s dry wit and ability to write his tournament reports (usually from the sanctuary of his car) from the bottom upwards. He was one of a kind.

ELSBETH BURNSIDE

When I first entered golf journalism over 30 years ago, I joined the Scottish circuit and was  so lucky to be surrounded by a great group of (practically all male) colleagues. Each and everyone made me feel so welcome, offered wonderful advice and became firm friends.

Raymond – fondly remembered for his love of the afternoon tea and scones – was one of the group, and he was the ultimate professional.

An often recalled memory was in the days of copy takers. Raymond’s observation that a golfer was “excellent with his long irons” appeared in print as “excellent with his long arms”. He wasn’t too pleased, but the rest of us found it highly amusing.

Happy days!

DONALD STEEL

Raymond set his own pace to life. I have never known anyone who was always the same no matter what.

As a writer, he was disciplined but very good. As a companion, whether watching or dining, he talked interestingly on a wide range of topics with just the right mix of humour.

In recent years, our contact was largely by phone or at Christmas. He wasn’t big on e-mail. Two years ago, his Christmas card proclaimed typically “I’m still clinging to the wreckage”. This year’s, received only last Wednesday, said “still here”. His spirit was strong to the end  but, sadly, he had to let go.

Anyway, I’ll raise a glass, Chateau Prestwick sounds about right”

STEVE SCOTT 

I came in at the last couple of years of Raymond’s long tenure at the Herald, and after a few occasions when he narrowed his eyes at the whippersnapper accepted me as one of the Scottish golf press crew which then could stretch into double figures on occasion and of which he was elder statesman. He was unique among us in that he didn’t use any form of technology at all; not even a portable typewriter. Instead he pencilled everything in long hand into a tiny notebook, then whispered the words down the phone line to copy (in later years he compromised with a mobile phone which I think came in package with his BMW, and he would retire to the car to dictate his carefully crafted prose in complete privacy).

My favourite memory of Raymond was however in semi-retirement in 1999 at the Open at Carnoustie. Trying to piece together a story on that fraught opening day, I’d number crunched to find that the scoring average was the same as on the first day at the same venue in 1968, but in those pre-internet days I needed more reference, some eye-witness testimony. I casually asked Raymond, doing colour pieces for the Herald, if he recalled it all. “Just a moment”, he replied, delving into the mysterious holdall he carried everywhere and after a moment’s shuffle, producing his notebook from 31 years before, with the hand-written story (impossibly neat, and no score-outs) intact.

That was Raymond to me; always correct, meticulous, and professional.

CHRIS SMART

Raymond was one of the first golf journalists I met when entering the Open Press Tent more than three decades ago. I always found him to be a perfect gentleman and always prepared to help someone less knowledgable than him on the professional game. He knew that I was more used to covering Amateur  Championships of top ladies events but words of wisdom always came from Raymond.

I quite liked the fact that he like me was something of a dinosaur preferring to telephone copy than sending it electronically although now I have no option.

In recent year’s I have always got news of Raymond from his great friend Jock McVicar. I will certainly remember Raymond with great fondness- he was one of the Old School and will be remembered with sincere fondness.

 See Also – https://britainisnocountryforoldmen.blogspot.com/2016/12/britain-is-country-and-scotland-nation_5.html