| Mark James | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 James in 2011 | |||
| Personal information | |||
| Full name | Mark Hugh James | ||
| Nickname | Jesse | ||
| Born | (1953-10-28)28 October 1953 (age 72) Manchester, England | ||
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||
| Weight | 178 lb (81 kg; 12.7 st) | ||
| Sporting nationality |  England | ||
| Residence | Burley in Wharfedale,West Yorkshire, England | ||
| Career | |||
| Turned professional | 1976 | ||
| Current tour | European Senior Tour | ||
| Former tours | European Tour Champions Tour | ||
| Professional wins | 32 | ||
| Highestranking | 25 (5 May 1991)[1] | ||
| Number of wins by tour | |||
| European Tour | 18 | ||
| Sunshine Tour | 1 | ||
| PGA Tour Champions | 3 | ||
| European Senior Tour | 2 | ||
| Other | 8 | ||
| Best results in major championships | |||
| Masters Tournament | CUT: 1980 | ||
| PGA Championship | T31: 1999 | ||
| U.S. Open | CUT: 1990, 1996 | ||
| The Open Championship | T3:1981 | ||
| Achievements and awards | |||
| |||
Mark Hugh James (born 28 October 1953) is an Englishprofessional golfer who had a long career on theEuropean Tour and captained Europe in the1999 Ryder Cup. He has also played senior golf on theEuropean Senior Tour and the U.S.-basedChampions Tour.
James was born inManchester, England and educated atStamford School. He won theEnglish Amateur championship atWoodhall Spa in 1974[2] and was a member of the Great Britain & Ireland1975 Walker Cup team.
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 theSun Alliance Match Play Championship. He also holds the record for the highest European Tour event 18-hole-round of 111 strokes at the 1978Italian Open in Sardinia, when refusing to with-draw despite an injury. Four years later he won the same tournament.
James never won amajor championship, but he had four top-five finishes atThe Open Championship. He was consistently competitive on the European Tour winning 12 times with 20 top-30 finishes on the Order of Merit, including seven top-10 finishes, the best of them third place in 1979. He was diagnosed withtesticular cancer in 2000, but after treatment began playing golf again in 2001.[3]
James represented Great Britain & Ireland or Europe in theRyder Cup seven times. Future Ryder Cup-winning captainTony Jacklin considered the "disruptive" behaviour of James and fellow playerKen Brown at the 1979 event "a total disgrace"; they were each fined and later banned from international matches.[4] James was a member of the team in 1989 when Europe tied the match and retained the cup they had won in 1987, and 1995 when they won it outright. He was also 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 choseAndrew Coltart as his second captain's pick on the team, thus leaving outNick Faldo andBernhard 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 keptJean 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 captainBen Crenshaw played all twelve players at least once during the first two days, even thoughMark O'Meara only played once.
James published a best selling book about the event calledInto the Bear Pit in 2000. In addition to criticising the behaviour of the Americans at Brookline, it also detailed James' clashes with some of his fellow Europeans including Faldo, the fading superstar whose merits as a potential captain's pick for the Ryder Cup had been much debated in the UK. James revealed in his book that just before the Ryder Cup began he had thrown a letter of encouragement from Faldo into the bin rather than share it with team. The controversy that this revelation aroused led to James resigning as one of Europe's Ryder Cup vice-captains for 2001.
A follow-up book, calledAfter the Bear Pit, covering James' cancer and his experiences as a European Tour player, as well as further thoughts on the Ryder Cup, appeared in 2002.
James qualified to play senior golf when he turned fifty in late 2003. He chose to play mainly in the U.S. and was second in theChampions Tour Qualifying Tournament Finals that November. In 2004 he became the first European player to win one of the Champions Tour'ssenior majors with victory at theFord Senior Players Championship.[5] In 2005, he won on the Champions Tour for a second time at the ACE Group Classic and finished in the top 20 on the money list for a second consecutive season. His last full season on the Champions Tour was 2010 and he has played mainly on theEuropean Senior Tour since then.
James has also worked as a golf commentator for theBBC.
European Tour playoff record (5–4)
| No. | Year | Tournament | Opponent(s) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1979 | Welsh Golf Classic |  Mike Miller, Eddie Polland | Won with par on third extra hole Polland eliminated by birdie on second hole |
| 2 | 1984 | St. Mellion Timeshare TPC |  Jaime Gonzalez | Lost to par on second extra hole |
| 3 | 1985 | Trophée Lancôme |  Nick Price | Lost to par on third extra hole |
| 4 | 1986 | Benson & Hedges International Open |  Hugh Baiocchi, Lee Trevino | Won with birdie on first extra hole |
| 5 | 1989 | Karl Litten Desert Classic |  Peter O'Malley | Won with birdie on first extra hole |
| 6 | 1989 | German Open | Craig Parry | Lost to par on second extra hole |
| 7 | 1990 | NM English Open | Sam Torrance | Won with birdie on first extra hole |
| 8 | 1992 | BMW International Open | Paul Azinger,Glen Day, Anders Forsbrand, Bernhard Langer | Azinger won with birdie on first extra hole |
| 9 | 1997 | Peugeot Open de España | Greg Norman | Won with par on third extra hole |
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 Feb1988 | Danglo Tournament Players Championship | −14 (66-70-69-69=274) | 2 strokes | Hugh Baiocchi |
Southern Africa Tour playoff record (0–1)
| No. | Year | Tournament | Opponents | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1991 | Lexington PGA Championship | Hugh Royer III,Roger Wessels | Wessels won par with on second extra hole Royer eliminated by par on first hole |
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 Mar 1977 | Lusaka Open | −13 (70-74-68-67=279) | 1 stroke | Gary Cullen |
| Legend |
|---|
| Champions Tour major championships (1) |
| Other Champions Tour (2) |
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory | Runner(s)-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 Jul2004 | Ford Senior Players Championship | −13 (68-67-67-73=275) | 1 stroke |  José María Cañizares |
| 2 | 20 Feb2005 | ACE Group Classic | −13 (69-68-66=203) | 2 strokes | Hale Irwin,Tom Wargo |
| 3 | 11 Feb2007 | Allianz Championship | −15 (64-69-68=201) | 2 strokes | Jay Haas |
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 Sep2005 | Bovis Lend Lease European Senior Masters | −9 (70-71-66=207) | Playoff | Sam Torrance |
| 2 | 10 May2009 | Son Gual Mallorca Senior Open | −10 (70-70-66=206) | Playoff |  Eamonn Darcy |
European Senior Tour playoff record (2–0)
| No. | Year | Tournament | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2005 | Bovis Lend Lease European Senior Masters | Sam Torrance | Won with birdie on first extra hole |
| 2 | 2009 | Son Gual Mallorca Senior Open | Eamonn Darcy | Won with birdie on third extra hole |
| Tournament | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masters Tournament | |||||||
| U.S. Open | |||||||
| The Open Championship | CUT | CUT | T5 | CUT | CUT | 4 | |
| PGA Championship |
| Tournament | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masters Tournament | CUT | |||||||||
| U.S. Open | ||||||||||
| The Open Championship | T45 | T3 | T51 | T29 | T44 | T20 | T35 | CUT | T62 | T13 |
| PGA Championship |
| Tournament | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masters Tournament | |||||||||||
| U.S. Open | CUT | CUT | |||||||||
| The Open Championship | T31 | T26 | CUT | T27 | T4 | T8 | T22 | T20 | T19 | T43 | CUT |
| PGA Championship | CUT | T40 | CUT | CUT | CUT | T31 |
CUT = missed the half-way cut (3rd round cut in 1974, 1977 and 1978 Open Championships)
"T" indicates a tie for a place
| Tournament | Wins | 2nd | 3rd | Top-5 | Top-10 | Top-25 | Events | Cuts made |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masters Tournament | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| U.S. Open | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| The Open Championship | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 26 | 20 |
| PGA Championship | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
| Totals | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 35 | 22 |
| Tournament | 1999 |
|---|---|
| Match Play | |
| Championship | T25 |
| Invitational |
"T" = Tied
| Year | Championship | Winning score | Margin | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Ford Senior Players Championship | −13 (68-67-67-73=275) | 1 stroke | José María Cañizares |
Results not in chronological order before 2021.
| Tournament | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Tradition | T19 | 4 | T4 | T41 | T50 | NT | ||||||||||||
| Senior PGA Championship | T4 | T10 | CUT | T33 | T62 | T9 | T56 | CUT | T56 | CUT | NT | |||||||
| Senior Players Championship | 1 | T49 | T11 | T22 | T11 | |||||||||||||
| U.S. Senior Open | T15 | T54 | T14 | T47 | T29 | NT | ||||||||||||
| Senior British Open Championship | 4 | T12 | T15 | T61 | T16 | T43 | T20 | T72 | T53 | 47 | CUT | CUT | CUT | CUT | NT | CUT |
CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
NT = No tournament due toCOVID-19 pandemic
Amateur
Professional
Mark James in theRyder Cup | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
