Decorated amateur, PGA TOUR Champions professional Jay Sigel dies at 81

In Jay Sigel’s professional debut, the career amateur – who had turned 50 toward the end of 1993 – played in the PGA TOUR Champions’ 1994 Royal Caribbean Classic. Sigel, playing on a sponsor exemption, tied for 43rd. By the high standards he established during his lifelong amateur career, Sigel’s finish was a disappointment.

Fully committed to PGA TOUR Champions, he played the following week – again as a sponsor exemption – at the GTE Suncoast Classic and tied for 24th. A third consecutive sponsor exemption resulted in Sigel’s first top-10 finish, a tie for sixth at The IntelliNet in Naples, Florida, a tournament Sigel led after 18 holes.

That all set the table for Sigel, who was about to make history. His Naples performance earned him an automatic invite to the GTE West Classic the following week in Ojai, California, and Sigel entered the final round 10 strokes off the lead. Winning the tournament wasn’t exactly at the forefront of his mind.

Yet all Sigel did on the final day was fire an 8-under 62 to post a 12-under score for the clubhouse lead. Jim Colbert eventually matched Sigel’s total, but Sigel won the overtime session on the fourth hole of a playoff to record his inaugural PGA TOUR Champions title.

The 10-stroke deficit Sigel overcame is still the largest final-round comeback in PGA TOUR Champions history, with only Paul Lawrie on the PGA TOUR – at The Open Championship 1999 – matching Sigel’s longshot heroics.

“I was looking to shoot 65 and hopefully finish in the top 10,” admitted the big-hitting Sigel, who said he initially didn’t plan on playing the tournament as Lee Trevino suggested the short layout, measuring a little more than 6,100 yards, didn’t suit Sigel’s long-off-the-tee game.

Even prior to the playoff, though, Colbert knew Sigel, while new to the professional game, was well-acquainted with pressure-packed, high-level golf and possessed the game to have success.

“He’s a thoroughbred. Everybody out here knows he can play,” Colbert said of Sigel following the loss.

The “thoroughbred” description proved prescient, as Sigel went on to capture Rookie of the Year honors that year. Thirty-one years after that memorable season, Sigel died from complications of pancreatic cancer on April 19, 2025. He was 81.

Born Nov. 13, 1943, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, Sigel played golf at a high level as a youngster to earn a college scholarship to Wake Forest University, where he received the first Arnold Palmer Scholarship. It didn’t take him long to leave a mark on the college game. He was the medalist as a sophomore at the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, with the Demon Deacons winning the team title. He also made his PGA TOUR debut, playing in but missing the cut in the Greater Greensboro Open, now known as the Wyndham Championship.

In 1964, Sigel earned second-team All-American honors despite a year earlier suffering a severe injury in his dorm room. He was leaning against a glass door when someone inadvertently slammed the door. Sigel’s left hand went through the glass, severely cutting him. Doctors used 72 stitches to close the wound, and he spent nine days in the hospital recovering. It was after that injury that Sigel decided to not pursue a PGA TOUR career.

“I always thought things happen for a reason. The hand injury was the best thing to happen to me,” Sigel told USGA.com in 2024 as the accident completely changed his thinking and career path. Sigel withdrew from the PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament, remained at Wake Forest and eventually graduated with a degree in sociology.

For the next 25 years, Sigel was one of the most-decorated amateur golfers in the country. He won The Amateur Championship in 1980 and the U.S. Amateur twice (1982 and 1983). He became the first – and still only – player in history to win the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Mid-Amateur in the same year (1983). He also played on nine U.S. Walker Cup teams, serving as captain twice. The USGA honored him with its highest honor, the Bob Jones Award, in 1984. In his home state, he won the Pennsylvania Amateur 11 times and was a three-time winner of both the Pennsylvania Open and the Sunnehanna Amateur.

As Sigel’s 50th birthday approached, he involved his wife and three daughters in the “should-he/shouldn’t-he” decision-making process around turning pro. Sigel had enjoyed tremendous business success operating his own insurance brokerage, and maintaining his company was a distinct possibility. Turning pro was no slam dunk.

“My two oldest girls were excited, and my youngest, Megan, was concerned about all the travel,” Sigel said of his PGA TOUR Champions prospects. “My wife didn’t know if we needed all the aggravation, but she said she’d stand by me.”

His early victory validated the family decision for Sigel to go the pro route.

“It wasn’t so much things that I expected, it was the things I didn’t expect,” Sigel told the Delaware County Daily Times not long after his Ojai win. Chief among them was the welcome he received from fellow players. “I didn’t expect to be so well-received by the guys. They were far more outgoing and seemingly happy to have me there."

Sigel later laughed thinking about that quote as he became a force on Tour, going on to win seven more titles during his full-time Tour career that spanned from 1994 to 2007. He eventually numbered 427 official starts and was a runner-up nine times.

Sigel enjoyed two multi-win seasons, in 1997 and 1998. In 1997, he won the Bruno’s Memorial Classic and the Kroger Senior Classic and lost the Northville Long Island Classic in a playoff. The following season, his two titles came in a playoff at the Bell Atlantic Classic in his native Pennsylvania and at the Kaanapali Classic in Hawaii, thanks to an opening 61, which marked his career-low PGA TOUR Champions round.

Sigel’s final official appearance PGA TOUR Champions start came in 2013. He also played in 21 PGA TOUR events, all as an amateur. He was the low amateur at the 1981 (tied for 35th) and 1988 Masters (tied for 39th).

"Jay Sigel was one of the finest amateur golfers this country has ever produced, and he left an indelible mark on our Tour once he turned pro following his 50th birthday,” said PGA TOUR Champions President Miller Brady. “Jay could have remained an amateur, and his place in golf history would have been secure. During his PGA TOUR Champions years, he not only enhanced his reputation as one of the Tour’s best players, but as a true gentleman, as well. We mourn his passing, and as a Tour we send our condolences.”

Sigel is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and the couple’s three daughters: Jennifer, Amy and Megan and six grandchildren.

Funeral services are pending.