EP-119 (BONUS) GOLF LEGEND, JAY SIGEL on MENTORSHIP, DETERMINATION and GIVING BACK

Golf legend, JAY SIGEL joins us on this episode of "Wealth Actually." In United States Amateur Golf, there are three names: Bobby Jones, Tiger Woods and Jay Sigel. Jay is one of the most accomplished amateur golfers in American history. After growing in Pennsylvania, Jay played his college golf at Wake Forest. Afterwards, he embarked on a successful career in insurance and focused on the amateur side of the game-And focus on it he did . . . Jay won: The US Amateur twice (Including his win at the Country Club in Brookline in 1982)The US Mid AmateurThe British Amateurand he played in 9 Walker Cups (captaining two of them). Jay later turned professional at age 50 and played on the Senior tour where he won 10 times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5weEssiMjgM While it’s an amazing story of golf accomplishment, many of the lessons from Jay’s life come from his insurance business, his lessons in mentorship from Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, his charity work and the importance of family. OUTLINE (Transcript is below . . . .) Jay’s early golf and rise to prominence, -Junior Golf-The role of Wake Forest-His arm injury, the decision to forgo professional golf and the economics of the Tour "back then" The start and story of Jay’s successful insurance business in Pennsylvania -The factors that went into his long-term success in business (and golf’s role in business)-The role of family-The decision to compete on the Senior Tour (and the role of Jack Nicklaus)-Winning as a pro Jay’s charitable endeavors and what is happening now? -THE JAY SIGEL INVITATIONALGolf questions -What made Jay a terrific player?-Was anything missing? -What is the difference between the top .01% and the top .0001%?-Mindset of Stroke vs Match Play -The match with Rick Fehr at Brookline and the aftermath-The great players and lessons learned in Jay’s career The State of the Game -What he thinks of the state of the game after a whirlwind of news in the world of golf:-Impact of length and power on the game -How did Brookline hold up with the modern game? How Do We Stay In Touch? WWW.JAYSIGEL.COM THE 2022 JAY SIGEL INVITATIONAL Jay's Golf Resume https://www.jaysigel.com/new-page https://www.amateurgolf.com/golf-tournament-news/27871/Catching-up-with-Jay-Sigel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhLj8EMCok0 TRANSCRIPT Intro: Welcome back to the Wealth, Actually podcast. The show that features artists, entrepreneurs, experts, and commentators that will give you the right knowledge, planning, and guidance so you can preserve your assets and enjoy your wealth. Learn more and subscribe today at WealthActually.com. And now, here's your host, Frazer Rice. Frazer Rice: Welcome back to the Wealth Actually podcast, I'm Frazer Rice. Today we have an extra special edition of the show. We get to speak with Jay Sigel, who's one of the most accomplished amateur golfers in American history. Frazer Rice: After growing up in Pennsylvania, Jay played his college golf at Wake Forest. Soon afterwards, he embarked on a successful career in insurance and focused on the amateur side of the sport. And focus on it, he did. Frazer Rice: He won the US Amateur twice, the U.S. Mid-Amateur, the British Amateur and he played in nine Walker Cups, captaining the side twice. He later turned professional at age 50 and played on the Senior tour where he won 10 times. Frazer Rice: While it's an amazing story of golf accomplishment, many of the lessons from Jay's life come from his insurance business, mentorship, charity, and the importance of family. Welcome aboard, Jay. Jay Sigel: Thank you. Good to be here and good to be able to speak with you. Frazer Rice: Well, this is a real treat for me. I had Rob Labritz on before talking about his foray into the Senior Open and senior golf in general on the PGA Senior tour. But, what few people understand is that the golf career can take many directions. And, I think you're the personification of that. Your career, and I talked a little bit about it in the opening, pretty iconic in terms of the direction that you took it. Maybe take us through a little bit about your early experiences, sort of where you came from and how you picked up the game. Jay Sigel: I grew up in the Narberth area, which is a suburb of Philadelphia and was active in all sports, but particularly in baseball. And, one day I was caddying for my dad, no intention of playing golf and three bags on my right shoulder at age 10 and a half, 10. And he said, "Would you like to try this game?" I said, "Absolutely. Better than caddying for you three guys." Well, we went from there. Frazer Rice: So, when you started out hitting your first balls, what was that like? Was the talent obvious or were you topping it and it was going 50 feet. How did that work? Jay Sigel: Frazer, I was terrible. Honest to goodness. And, what got my competitive juices up is we visited some friends in Cape Cod every summer and he was way better than I was. So, my goal for the following summer age 11, was to return and be able to beat him not only at horseshoes, baseball, but golf. Sure enough, that was a huge, huge help that competition. Frazer Rice: You sort set some goals for yourself. You started to get better in the different phases of the game. Where did that go structure wise? How did junior golf work in terms of getting more traditional competitive situations? Jay Sigel: Well, we had a great golf association in Philadelphia and I played in the junior event. In fact, I can remember one junior event. My mom took me, it was 12 and under, and the pro said, "Well, sorry ma'am but your son is too old for this. This is 12 and under." I was a tall, pretty big kid. And she said, "No, no, he's 12. He's under 12." So, I remember winning. That was my first victory at age 11, and shot 46 for nine holes. So that was a great memory. Frazer Rice: So you get some taste of junior golf, when did your handicaps start getting down to the area, call it scratch or somewhere around there where you started to look at it and you were starting to believe a little bit more in golf as a path? Jay Sigel: I don't recall having a handicap early on. I mean, this was 65 years ago. One thing I do remember, though, at the club I was at, the mature members were so helpful and so concerned that I do right. That's my first introduction to mentoring, and I had no idea what mentoring meant. And it became very important in my life as you'll see. Frazer Rice: As you were getting mentored at the club level, you had people who were looking out for you, giving you advice and so on. When did Wake Forest start to become an option? How did that process work? Jay Sigel: Arnold Palmer was a friend of the family. His father-in-law and my dad were fraternity brothers, so they were pretty close. They would see each other. And, my dad said, "Arnold, who should Jay take lessons from?" My first official lesson at age 16, Arnold said my dad. So we went out to Latrobe and spent the day there. I can remember clearly eight o'clock in the morning, Arnold had already been hitting balls and here I am 16 years old, getting ready to warm up to have a lesson from his dad and I shanked the first three or four, almost took Arnold's head off. So that was an experience. So, we got to know one another fairly well. Frazer Rice: So, Jay, maybe get into the mentoring side a little bit more because a big part of business development and the development of people generally, it's important to have someone who's looking out for you, and also not just looking out for you, but helping to provide both technical and real life guidance as to how to handle oneself. Maybe go into that a little bit. Jay Sigel: Yeah. You say that so well, Frazer. I didn't have any idea what mentoring was in my early years. I do remember, though, playing, I was 15 or 16 playing the club championship at Bala Golf Club in Philadelphia, where I learned to play and was mentored so well early on. We had a rules question come up and it was ruled against me, but in fact I was correct, but what was I going to do about being correct and losing in the rules? So I won the match. We finished. I was playing a celebrity Philadelphia athlete and he said, "I guess you won." Well, I was boiling, boiling, hot over that. Went into the locker room, one of my dear friends said, "Play him again." I said, "Play him again?" This was the most important win of my life at that point. And I couldn't possibly do that. Of course I did play him again and killed him, so fun and an interesting story. Frazer Rice: Yeah. And, and it's important, too, because the culture around the rules of golf and the self-reporting mechanism sometimes is alien to people. We're used to referees in other sports, and even if you watch professional golf nowadays, and you've got rules officials and people call them over and so on, but the self-reporting aspect is a big deal. Maybe talk about that a little bit, where culture of being the steward of your own game and being the reporter of your own ethics. Jay Sigel: Yes, it's interesting. I mean, I've had occurrences, not many I can [inaudible 00:06:55]. I think when I was about 16 or 17, I was playing the Philadelphia open, which was a big deal at Marion. And I came to about the 14th, 15th hole, and I noticed in my golf bag, I had what appeared to be an extra club. Well, I took my towel, put it over top of the bag. The caddy hadn't said anything. I didn't know it. I hadn't checked my clubs, nor had he, so out we go another hole and it's driving me crazy. I think I made a double or triple buggy, so I uncovered the clubs and there was an extra club. So I had to make a decision in that one whole timeframe. Was I going to keep it hidden or was I going to declare it? Well,