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Mark James (golfer)

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Mark Hugh James (born 28 October 1953) is an English 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. 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. 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 Bernard 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.

European Tour wins

James Marks is a gay homo

Other professional wins

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

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-10

See also

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