Peter Jacobsen, 38-year PGA Tour pro, Champions Tour player, and CBS-TV on-air golf commentator, and Jim Nantz, lead commentator for CBS-TV golf coverage, will be honored Monday, August 20th, at the Langley Awards ceremony at Pebble Beach Golf links.
The Langley Award is named after the late Jim Langley, the former head golf professional at the Cypress Point Club. Born in Denver, Colorado, in 1937, Langley moved with his family to Salinas in 1942. After graduating from Salinas High School in 1955, Langley attended Cal-Berkeley on a basketball scholarship, and was a member of Cal’s 1959 NCAA Champion basketball team. Langley joined the United States Marine Corp after graduation, competing Marine Corp Reserve service in the Bay Area. A five-year stint as a PGA Tour player was followed, in 1971, by his appointment as head golf professional at Cypress Point Club, a post which he held for 34 years.
The Langley Award is presented by the Northern California PGA to men and women who are recognized as legends of the game of golf. Former recipients of the award include Langley himself, Arnold Palmer, Ken Venturi, Johnny Miller, Nancy Lopez, and Roger Maltbie. The two-day charitable event comprises a dinner and awards presentation on Monday night, followed by a charity pro-am golf tournament on Tuesday, August 21st at Pebble Beach Golf Links.
The event benefits PGA HOPE (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere), a program which provides free golf lessons to disabled and able-bodied military veterans as a therapeutic tool in support of their mental, social, physical and emotional well-being. Lessons are taught by PGA Professionals who receive special training in adaptive golf teaching methods. Created in 2017, PGA HOPE is a flagship program of the NCPGA Foundation, and part of a national outreach by the PGA of America. The program has served nearly 750 veterans since 2015; it is offered at ten program sites in Northern California
Peter Jacobsen has always been known as an easygoing, fun-loving personality, both on the golf course and in the broadcast booth, but the PGA Hope program strikes a serious chord with him. Jacobsen’s father was a naval aviator who served aboard the USS Intrepid and USS Enterprise in World War II, and was awarded the Navy Cross – a fact which Jacobsen and his siblings did not discover until after their father’s death. Jacobsen is a strong supporter of programs for military personnel.
Pebble Beach Golf Links and its associated tournaments have always been favorites of Jacobsen’s, who first got to know the Monterey Peninsula region and Pebble Beach on family golf vacations as a teenager.
Jim Nantz is known to millions of television sports aficionados for broadcasting NFL football games, NCAA basketball, and PGA Tour golf, most notably the annual Masters tournament from Augusta National Golf Club. Besides his annual stint in the broadcast booth for the AT&T National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach, Nantz’s ties to the Pebble Beach run deep. He and his second wife, Courtney Richards, were married in a ceremony held on the 7th hole at Pebble Beach, and he owns a home in the area – complete with a half-scale replica of the famed par-3 in the backyard.
