Tribute to respected Canty golfer

Press, 7 October 1987, Page 24

Tribute to respected Canty golfer

“Gentleman Jim” will be missed at Waitikiri and in golfing circles further afield. James Wyatt Jackson died suddenly last week, aged 69. The genial Jimmy Jackson was not just an extremely proficient player, he was a sportsman in the truest sense of the word, an unassuming quietly spoken person with equable temperament and impeccable manners. His amicable attitude was best summed up by the president of the Waitikiri Golf Club, Trevor Cleverley, who said: “I

never heard Jim say a bad word against anyone and I never heard anyone say a bad word against him.” Mr Jackson's golfing exploits at Waitikiri were legendary. For more than 40 years he represented the club in the premier inter-club championship for the Woodward Cup and he tallied 205 matches with 118 wins and 20 halves. His last game, was in 1980. Between 1946 and 1974 he won the Waitikiri senior championship 11 times, two of his best victories being against Merv McNally, 11 and 10, and Geoff Johnson, 10 and 9. The course also provided him with his four holes-in-one, coincidentally all at the same hole, the short twelfth, “Simmy.” His last one was in May of this year. At Canterbury level, he represented the province for many years and it was only his own decision to restrict himself to club fixtures and tournaments in Canterbury which brought to an end his association with Canterbury teams in 1953.

Very few Canterbury or open tournament titles eluded Mr Jackson who, in partnership with the former New Zealand amateur, Tim Woon, won four successive provincial foursomes titles. It was only Mr Jackson’s dislike of travel that prevented him from gaining more widespread recognition. Mr Jackson's interest in golf stemmed from caddying at Shirley and he joined Waitikiri from Avondale in 1938, the year the club extended its holes from 13 to 18. He won the inaugural South Island tournament that year. Unerring accuracy of the tees, immaculate judgment of the pitch and chip shot and putting which bordered on the uncanny were trademarks of the Jackson game, characteristics which remained with him to his final round. Last year Mr Jackson was made a life member of Waitikiri. Later this month the club will elebrate its jubilee; the occasion, however, will be tinged with sadness because of the absence of “Gentleman Jim.”