- Mark James (golfer)
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For other people of the same name, see Mark James (disambiguation).
Mark James 
Personal information Full name Mark Hugh James Nickname Jesse Born 28 October 1953
Manchester, EnglandHeight 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) Nationality 
EnglandResidence Ilkley, West Yorkshire Career Turned professional 1976 Current tour(s) Champions Tour
European Seniors TourFormer tour(s) European Tour Professional wins 29 Number of wins by tour European Tour 18 (tied 11th all time) Champions Tour 3 European Seniors Tour 2 Best results in Major Championships Masters Tournament CUT: 1980 U.S. Open CUT: 1990, 1996 The Open Championship T3: 1981 PGA Championship T31: 1999 Mark Hugh James (born 28 October 1953) is an English professional golfer who had a long career on the European Tour and captained Europe in the 1999 Ryder Cup. He now plays senior golf on the U.S.-based Champions Tour.
James was born in Manchester, England and educated at Stamford School. He won the English Amateur championship in 1974 and was a member of the Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team in 1975. 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 the Sun Alliance Match Play Championship. He also holds the record worst ever European Tour event score of 111 at the 1978 Italian Open in Sardinia.
James never won a major championship, but he had four top-five finishes at The Open Championship. He was consistently competitive on the European Tour with twenty top-thirty finishes on the Order of Merit, including seven top-ten finishes, the best of them third place in 1979. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2000, but after treatment he made a comeback in 2001.
James represented Great Britain & Ireland or Europe in the Ryder Cup seven times including 1989 when Europe tied the match and retained the cup they had won in 1987, and 1995 when they won it outright. He was the 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 controversially chose Andrew Coltart as his second captain's pick on the team, thus leaving out Nick Faldo and Bernhard 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 kept Jean 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 captain Ben Crenshaw played all twelve players at least once during the first two days, even though Mark O'Meara only played once.
James published a best selling book about the event called Into 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, called After the Bear Pit, covering James' battle with 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 in the U.S. and was second in the Champions Tour Qualifying Tournament Finals that November. In 2004 he became the first European player to win one of the Champions Tour's senior majors with victory at the Ford Senior Players Championship. 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.
James has also worked as a golf commentator for the BBC.
Contents
Professional wins (29)
European Tour wins (18)
No. Date Tournament Winning Score Margin of
VictoryRunner(s)-up 1 1 Jul 1978 Sun Alliance Match Play Championship 2&1 Neil Coles2 17 Jun 1979 Welsh Golf Classic -6 (72-68-68-70=278) Playoff 
Mike Miller, Glenn Ralph3 26 Aug 1979 Carroll's Irish Open -6 (73-75-69-65=282) 1 stroke 
Markus Agren4 17 Aug 1980 Carroll's Irish Open -4 (71-66-74-73=284) 1 stroke Brian Barnes5 2 May 1982 Italian Open -8 (70-67-71-72=280) 3 strokes 
Bobby Clampett, 
Ian Woosnam6 17 Apr 1983 Tunisian Open -4 (74-69-69-72=284) 2 strokes Gordon J. Brand, Gordon Brand Jnr,
Tom Sieckmann7 19 May 1985 GSI L'Equipe Open -16 (68-67-71-66=272) 3 strokes Carl Mason8 17 Aug 1986 Benson & Hedges International Open -14 (65-70-69-70=274) Playoff 
Hugh Baiocchi, Lee Trevino9 15 May 1988 Peugeot Open de Espana -18 (63-68-63-68=262) 3 strokes Nick Faldo10 5 Mar 1989 Karl Litten Desert Classic -11 (69-68-72-68=277) Playoff 
Peter O'Malley11 27 Mar 1989 AGF Open -11 (69-67-69-72=277) 3 strokes Mark Mouland12 18 Jun 1989 NM English Open -9 (72-70-69-68=279) 1 stroke 
Eamonn Darcy, Craig Parry,
Sam Torrance13 3 Jun 1990 Dunhill British Masters -18 (70-67-66-67=270) 2 strokes 
David Feherty14 19 Aug 1990 NM English Open -4 (76-68-65-75=284) Playoff Sam Torrance15 17 Jan 1993 Turespana Iberia Open de Canarias -7 (71-69-70-71=281) 3 strokes Gordon J. Brand, Paul Broadhurst16 14 Feb 1993 Madeira Island Open -13 (71-69-69-66=275) 6 strokes Wet De Basson17 12 Mar 1995 Moroccan Open -13 (70-70-70-65=275) 1 stroke David Gilford18 27 Apr 1997 Peugeot Open de Espana -11 (67-68-73-69=277) Playoff Greg NormanOther wins (5)
- 1977 Lusaka Open (Africa)
- 1981 São Paulo Open (South America)
- 1980 Euro Masters Invitational (Italy - not a European Tour event)
- 1983 Euro Masters Invitational (Italy - not a European Tour event)
- 1988 South African TPC
Champions Tour wins (3)
Legend Champions Tour major championships (1) Other Champions Tour (2) No. Date Tournament Winning Score Margin of
VictoryRunner(s)-up 1 11 Jul 2004 Ford Senior Players Championship -13 (68-67-67-73=275) 1 stroke 
José Maria Cañizares2 20 Feb 2005 The ACE Group Classic -13 (69-68-66=203) 2 strokes Tom Wargo, Hale Irwin3 11 Feb 2007 Allianz Championship -15 (64-69-68=201) 2 strokes Jay HaasEuropean Seniors Tour wins (2)
- 2005 European Senior Masters
- 2009 Son Gual Mallorca Senior Open
Other senior wins (1)
- 2011 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf - Raphael Division (with Des Smyth)
Results in major championships
Tournament 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 The Masters DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP U.S. Open DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP The Open Championship CUT DNP DNP T5 CUT CUT 4 PGA Championship DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP Tournament 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 The Masters CUT DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP U.S. Open DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP The Open Championship T45 T3 T51 T29 T44 T20 T35 CUT T63 T13 PGA Championship DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP Tournament 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 The Masters DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP U.S. Open CUT DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP CUT DNP DNP DNP DNP The Open Championship T31 T26 CUT T27 T4 T8 T22 T20 T18 T43 CUT PGA Championship CUT DNP T40 CUT CUT DNP CUT DNP DNP T31 DNP DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Yellow background for top-10Champions Tour major championships
Wins (1)
Year Championship Winning Score Margin Runner(s)-up 2004 Ford Senior Players Championship −13 (68−67−67−73=275) 1 stroke José Maria CañizaresResults timeline
Results not in chronological order before 2011.
Tournament 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 The Tradition T19 4 T4 DNP DNP T41 T50 DNP Senior PGA Championship T4 T10 CUT T33 T62 T9 T56 CUT Senior British Open Championship 4 T12 T15 T61 T16 T43 T20 T72 U.S. Senior Open T15 T54 T14 T47 T29 DNP DNP DNP Senior Players Championship 1 T49 T11 DNP DNP T22 T11 DNP DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.Team appearances
- Ryder Cup: 1977 (representing Great Britain and Ireland, thereafter representing Europe), 1979, 1981, 1989 (tied and retained cup), 1991, 1993, 1995 (winners), 1999 (non-playing captain)
- Alfred Dunhill Cup (representing England): 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999
- World Cup (representing England): 1978, 1979, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1997, 1999
- Hennessy Cognac Cup: 1976 (winners), 1978 (winners), 1980 (winners), 1982 (winners & individual winner), 1984 (winners)
- Four Tours World Championship: 1988, 1989, 1990
See also
External links
- Mark James at the European Tour official site
- Mark James at the PGA Tour official site
Senior Players Championship champions 1983 Miller Barber • 1984 Arnold Palmer • 1985 Arnold Palmer • 1986 Chi-Chi Rodríguez • 1987 Gary Player • 1988 Billy Casper • 1989 Orville Moody • 1990 Jack Nicklaus • 1991 Jim Albus • 1992 Dave Stockton • 1993 Jim Colbert • 1994 Dave Stockton • 1995 J. C. Snead† • 1996 Raymond Floyd • 1997 Larry Gilbert • 1998 Gil Morgan • 1999 Hale Irwin • 2000 Raymond Floyd • 2001 Allen Doyle† • 2002 Stewart Ginn • 2003 Craig Stadler • 2004 Mark James • 2005 Peter Jacobsen • 2006 Bobby Wadkins • 2007 Loren Roberts • 2008 D. A. Weibring • 2009 Jay Haas • 2010 Mark O'Meara† • 2011 Fred Couples†
† indicates the event was won in a playoff Sir Henry Cotton Rookies of the Year 1960 Tommy Goodwin • 1961 Alex Caygill • 1962 No award • 1963 Tony Jacklin • 1964 No award • 1965 No award • 1966 Robin Liddle • 1967 No award • 1968 Bernard Gallacher • 1969 Peter Oosterhuis • 1970 Stuart Brown • 1971 David Llewellyn • 1972 Sam Torrance • 1973 Pip Elson • 1974 Carl Mason • 1975 No award • 1976 Mark James • 1977 Nick Faldo • 1978 Sandy Lyle • 1979 Mike Miller • 1980 Paul Hoad • 1981 Jeremy Bennett • 1982 Gordon Brand, Jnr • 1983 Grant Turner • 1984 Philip Parkin • 1985 Paul Thomas • 1986 José María Olazábal • 1987 Peter Baker • 1988 Colin Montgomerie • 1989 Paul Broadhurst • 1990 Russell Claydon • 1991 Per-Ulrik Johansson • 1992 Jim Payne • 1993 Gary Orr • 1994 Jonathan Lomas • 1995 Jarmo Sandelin • 1996 Thomas Bjørn • 1997 Scott Henderson • 1998 Olivier Edmond • 1999 Sergio García • 2000 Ian Poulter • 2001 Paul Casey • 2002 Nick Dougherty • 2003 Peter Lawrie • 2004 Scott Drummond • 2005 Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño • 2006 Marc Warren • 2007 Martin Kaymer • 2008 Pablo Larrazábal • 2009 Chris Wood • 2010 Matteo ManasseroCategories:- English golfers
- European Tour golfers
- Champions Tour golfers
- Winners of senior major golf championships
- Golf writers and broadcasters
- Old Stamfordians
- People from Manchester
- 1953 births
- Living people
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