Dan Jenkins was born in Forth Worth, Texas on December 2nd, 1928 and sadly passed away in his beloved Forth Worth on March 7th, 2019 at age 90.
Dan, who began his career working for Western Union, was a sports writing legend and bestselling author whose career covered Ben Hogan to Tiger Woods.
“The message on my tombstone will be, ‘I knew this would happen,'” Jenkins always said, exemplifying the trenchant humour he brought to the 232 major championships he attended, starting with the 1941 U.S. Open at Colonial as a 12-year-old in his hometown.
Jenkins began his writing career at The Fort Worth Press and rose to stardom at Sports Illustrated with his two loves, college football and golf. He also wrote for Playboy and joined Golf Digest in 1985. Jenkins continued to write books, including a memoir called, “His Ownself.” His bestsellers included “Semi-Tough,” ”Baja Oklahoma” and “Dead Solid Perfect while he also wrote “Unplayable Lies”.
Jenkins first major was the 1951 Masters, won by his beloved Hogan. Starting with the 1969 PGA Championship, he covered 179 consecutive majors. The streak ended when his health kept him from going to Royal Liverpool for 2014 Open Championship.
His last major was the 2018 Masters.
Dan had joined the AGW in 1974 .
There has been so many, many tributes following the passing of Dan including former AGW President and Treasurer, Donald Steel and a long-time colleague and friend to Dan.
As a player, Dan Jenkins was highly accomplished, passing the Ben Hogan test of being allowed to play with the great man. Not many did that.
As a former Treasurer of the AGW, I can pay him no higher tribute than to record that, at the first tournament of the year when we met, he made a beeline with cash in hand to pay his annual AGW subscription. If it meant converting dollars to pounds, the AGW was always on the right side.
As for his attendance at reporting Majors, nobody will come close to his record span. What a man and what happy memories.
Hereunder also is a link to a selection:-
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/dan-jenkins-obituary-807273/
https://www.golfdigest.com/story/his-ownself-dan-jenkins-1929-2019-tribute-dies-at-age-89
https://www.golfchannel.com/news/they-dont-make-them-dan-jenkins-and-they-never-will-again
As well, many of our members took to the AGW Twitter account to pen their own tribute. Please go to:
https://mobile.twitter.com/AGWgolfwriters/status/1103946739311173634
Dan Jenkins and Arnold Palmer
Dan Jenkins with fellow Texan Ben Hogan.
SOCIAL MEDIA
GOLF WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA (GWAA)
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