HUALALAI -- Thumb through any sports media guide, and you won't find many athletes, if any, listing under special interests -- opera and classical music. A victory for Jacobs
would be classicThat's why John Jacobs, the first-round leader in the MasterCard Championship, is my kind of guy.
"It sure beats the Rolling Stones," Jacobs said.
Sorry, Hale. I know you have that Kapalua Connection and all. And, too bad, Gil, if you don't repeat as champion. Besides, you guys have won enough money to start your own bank. Call it Irwin-Morgan instead of Chase-Manhattan.
And wouldn't it be ironic if Jacobs, who had laser eye surgery, winds up dethroning Gil Morgan, who holds a doctor's degree in optometry?
Ray, save it for next week's Senior Skins Game at Mauna Lani, although I know you haven't won a regular tour event since 1996. You're still laughing all the way to the bank as you try to skin the others for the sixth year in a row.
Besides, Mr. Floyd (mister, since we haven't been properly introduced), you've won enough money in the Senior Skins Game to buy your own bungalow with butler at the Mauna Lani Bay Resort.
That's another reason to root for Jacobs.
He finally made it to the Senior Tour's tournament of champions, having won for the first time in 87 starts at the Nationwide Championship last June to get here.
AFTER years of playing on the Asian Tour, Jacobs is finally able to show his stuff, notably booming drives off the tee. He has been the Senior Tour's driving leader the past two years, including a measured 388-yard poke last year.
For a long time, though, it was simply have golf clubs, will travel. And, boy, did he. How many guys have won the Republic of China Open once, let alone twice, as Jacobs has done? Throw in the Singapore Open while you're at it.
"The Asian Tour is a good learning experience," said the Los Angeles native, who attended Southern California. "It's a good starting point for young players. No courtesy cars. You learn to rough it. If you can survive there, you can survive anywhere."
Jacobs, whose older brother Tommy is a Senior Tour veteran, thinks that 60 percent of the best players honed their game on the Asian Tour. He cited, among others that he played with one time or another, Payne Stewart, Tom Lehman and Jeff Sluman, who won last week's Sony Open in Hawaii.
SO Jacobs made it to the Senior Tour the old-fashioned way. He earned it, overcoming a bad back that prevented him from playing golf for five years.
While he has won only once so far, he has finished second three times. David Graham snatched victory from Jacobs in the 1997 Southwestern Bell Dominion by eagling the final hole on Sunday to win by one stroke.
During one of his earlier sojourns, Jacobs won a pro-am at Mauna Kea Beach, up the highway from here. So while he had never played Hualalai until this week, he's no stranger to the Kona Coast.
"It's sure beautiful here. I almost considered living here, until I checked out the prices," said Jacobs, who played in the MasterCard pro-am with someone who bought three lots of property for $15 million.
So, he's just content to relax on the balcony of his Four Seasons condo with his London-born wife, Valerie, a good cigar and a nice glass of wine, and enjoy the lovely Kona evenings.
"If that's not relaxing, I don't know what is," Jacobs said.
A little classical music in the background would make it perfect.