Jay Sigel, Hall of Fame golfer and retired insurance company owner, has died at 81

Jay Sigel, 81, of Berwyn, one of the winningest amateur golfers of all time, eight-time PGA senior tour champion, philanthropist, mentor, and retired insurance company owner, died Saturday, April 19, of complications from pancreatic cancer at Boca Raton Regional Hospital in Florida.

For more than 40 years, from 1961, when he won the International Jaycee Junior Golf Tournament as an 18-year-old, to 2003, when he captured the Bayer Advantage Celebrity Pro-Am title at 60, Mr. Sigel was one of the winningest amateur and senior golfers in the world. He won consecutive U.S. Amateur titles in 1982 and ’83 and three U.S. Mid-Amateur championships between 1983 and ’87, and remains the only golfer to win the amateur and mid-amateur titles in the same year.

He won the Pennsylvania Amateur Championship 11 times, five straight from 1972 to ’76, and the Pennsylvania Open Championship for pros and amateurs four times. He hit long drives off the tee and made clutch shots for dramatic victories. In 1976, Golf Digest ranked him the fourth-best amateur in the country.

He also won the 1979 British Amateur Championship and, between 1975 and 1999, played for the U.S. team in a record nine Walker Cup tournaments against Britain and Ireland. “It is difficult to argue with the portrayal of Jay Sigel as the greatest amateur golfer since Bobby Jones,” said longtime Inquirer golf writer Joe Juliano.

In 2018, the Silver Club Golfing Society named Mr. Sigel the 15th-best amateur of all time. In 2024, Yardbarker ranked him 21st. Golf magazine listed him among its 100 Heroes of American Golf in 1988.

He qualified for the Masters Tournament 11 straight years, from 1978 through 1988, and finished with the best amateur score three times. Colleagues, fans, and reporters nicknamed him “Mr. Amateur.”

“Jay Sigel was one of the finest amateur golfers this country has ever produced.”

Mr. Sigel appeared destined to turn pro after college until a serious injury to his left hand sidelined him for nearly a year and redirected him to the amateur ranks and a long career as an insurance business owner. Years later, for overcoming that adversity, he earned the PGA’s Bob Jones Award and the Ben Hogan Award from the Golf Writers Association of America.

“It’s been fabulous,” he told The Inquirer in 2009. “I wouldn’t trade anything, particularly the amateur career.”

He finally joined the PGA senior tour, now called the Champions Tour, as a professional in 1993 when he turned 50 and was named its 1994 rookie of the year. By the time he started to wind down in 2013, he had earned more than $9 million.

“He was one of the over-50 tour’s best players, but he also was one of the true gentlemen in the game,” Juliano said. “He talked often about the acquaintances and friendships he made as well as his worldwide travels.”

“There was extra pressure playing against the pros, and I liked that. I always enjoyed it when an amateur beat a professional in golf.”

His achievements were featured in The Inquirer and other publications around the world, and he spoke often to clubs and civic groups about golf, business, and perseverance. His attic and basement at home were crowded with trophies and awards.

He was inducted into a half dozen halls of fame and named the 1994 Philadelphia Sportswriters Professional Athlete of the Year. In 2004, the Pennsylvania Golf Association created the R. Jay Sigel Amateur Match Play Championship in his honor.

“His legacy extends far beyond his playing credentials, which are extraordinary,” Kevin Hammer, USGA president-elect, said in a tribute.

Off the links, Mr. Sigel started out as an agent for John Hancock Life Insurance Co. after college and finally sold his own insurance business in 2004. He retired for good in 2020.

“The spot behind No. 8, where you can also catch No. 10, and even 17 and 18, is hard to beat. For someone going out for the first time, that’s where I would tell them to head.” 

“He was a born salesman,” said his wife, Betty. “He was very people-oriented. He enjoyed being with them and talking with them.”

Mr. Sigel was cofounder and chairman emeritus of the Greater Philadelphia Scholastic Golf Association, known now as the First Tee Greater Philadelphia youth development organization. He tutored young golfers at clinics, and his annual Jay Sigel Invitational at Aronimink Golf Club has raised more than $5 million over three decades for cancer research and the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute.

“It was a privilege to work alongside him,” colleagues at First Tee said in a Facebook tribute.

Robert Jay Sigel was born Nov. 13, 1943, at Bryn Mawr Hospital. He grew up in Narberth with two golf-playing parents and honed his own considerable skills at the Bala and Aronimink Golf Clubs.

“I’m trying not to get too excited or too disappointed, depending on what happens. I’m trying to enjoy the experience, not be overwhelmed by it.”

He also played basketball and baseball at Lower Merion High School, and was the nation’s top junior golfer as a senior. He spent a semester at the University of Houston, then transferred to Wake Forest University in North Carolina after earning the school’s first Arnold Palmer golf scholarship.

He became a two-time all-American college golfer. But he accidentally smashed his left hand through a glass door after his sophomore year and needed more than 70 stitches to close the wound.

“When I woke up after the operation, the doctors told me I would never play golf again,” Mr. Sigel told the Daily News in 1983. But he returned to top form after nearly a year of recovery and graduated from Wake Forest in 1967 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology.

He met Salem College student Betty Wingo at a party, and they married in 1968. They had daughters Jennifer, Amy, and Megan, and lived briefly in Media and then for decades in Berwyn.

Mr. Sigel followed the Philly pro sports teams. He consulted on golf course designs and served on the advisory board of the American Cancer Society. He liked to socialize, swap stories in the clubhouse, and talk for hours with friends and clients on the phone.

In 2001, former Inquirer golf writer Joe Logan asked Mr. Sigel what advice he had for young golfers. “Play hard,” he said. “Don’t be in awe. Have a good time.”

In addition to his wife and daughters, Mr. Sigel is survived by six grandchildren, a sister, and other relatives.

A celebration of his life is to be held later.

Donations in his name may be made to the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, 3535 Market St., Suite 750, Philadelphia, Pa. 19104.