Recently, Sigel was in good enough spirits to attend a Walker Cup Captains' Dinner at the Bear’s Club in Jupiter, Fla., where Hammer, whose only match against Sigel came in the second round of the North & South Amateur as a high school senior in the late 1980s, said he regaled the group with treasured stories from his career.  

His last public appearance was a lunch Hammer arranged for Sigel, former PGA Tour/Champions Tour player Bob Murphy (Hammer’s godfather), recently retired Oakmont/Seminole pro Bob Ford and Darrell Kestner, the longtime head pro at Deepdale on Long Island (N.Y.). A few days later, he suffered a stroke and had to be admitted to the hospital, where he remained until his passing.

“Incredible player. Incredible friend. Incredible mentor,” said fellow Pennsylvanian Nathan Smith, who in 2012 surpassed Sigel’s U.S. Mid-Amateur win mark with his fourth triumph and will captain the 2025 USA Walker Cup Team. “He was special. I was hoping he was going to make it to Cypress [Point this September] because he played [the Walker Cup] there in 1981...He was just an icon in amateur golf.”

Born in 1943, Robert Jay Sigel grew up along Philadelphia’s tony Main Line, attending Lower Merion High School before moving on briefly to the University of Houston (one semester) before transferring to Wake Forest, where he played on the Arnold Palmer Scholarship.  

Just prior to entering college, Sigel advanced to the championship match of the 1961 U.S. Junior Amateur at the Cornell University Golf Course in Ithaca, N.Y. He lost to 16-year-old Charles S. McDowell, of Virginia Beach, Va., 2 down, but it wouldn’t be the last time Sigel made noise in a USGA championship.

Following college, Sigel had aspirations of turning professional, but he injured his arm in a freak accident at his on-campus residence during his sophomore year, and Sigel decided his business future was the insurance industry, which still gave him the opportunity to compete in high-level amateur competitions. While exiting the residence, Sigel’s left hand went through a pane of glass on a swinging door. His wrist required 70 stitches; Sigel spent nine days in the hospital and later decided not to turn pro, as he had planned.

“I always thought things happen for a reason,” said Sigel. “The hand injury was the best thing to happen to me.”

So, after earning his sociology degree in 1967, Sigel enjoyed a successful business career while establishing himself as one of America’s best amateurs. Even though it took until 1982 to finally win a USGA championship, Sigel did claim the 1979 Amateur Championship conducted by The R&A at Hillside Golf Club in England, defeating 1978 U.S. Amateur runner-up Scott Hoch in the 36-hole final. 

There were several close calls in the U.S. Amateur leading up to his 1982 victory at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., in what was his 16th appearance. Sigel lost to eventual champion John Fought in the semifinals of the 1977 championship and he was a quarterfinalist in 1980 at The Country Club of North Carolina. 

Then in 1982 he became the oldest champion since William C. Campbell in 1964. Campbell, the then-USGA president, served as the referee for the morning 18 of the championship match between Sigel and David Tolley, an 8-and-7 victory for the Pennsylvanian.

Several years later, the club sent Sigel its original welcome sign, which had hung on its entrance on Clyde Street for many years. Upon receiving the gift, with hooks and all, Sigel proudly displayed it in his basement.

The next year brought more history for Sigel. Not only did he successfully defend his U.S. Amateur title with an 8-and-7 victory over Chris Perry at North Shore Country Club, in Glenview, Ill., to become the eighth player to win consecutive U.S. Amateurs, but Sigel joined icons Bob Jones and Chick Evans as the only players to win multiple USGA championships in the same year. Sigel achieved the feat a few weeks later with his 1-up win over Randy Sonnier in the U.S. Mid-Amateur final match at Cherry Hills Country Club in suburban Denver. It would be the first of three U.S. Mid-Amateur titles for Sigel, who also won in 1985 and 1987, but the historic double proved to be a special moment.

Since then, just two other male amateurs have won multiple USGA titles in the same year: Ryan Moore (2004) and Colt Knost (2007), both of whom claimed the U.S. Amateur Public Links and U.S. Amateur.

“To have won my second Amateur, that blew my mind,” said Sigel many years later. “I came to Cherry Hills and got to stay with some very close friends. I certainly was still tired [from winning the Amateur]. Thinking about winning two USGA events [in the same year], I didn’t read about it and didn’t know who had done it before or anything like that.” 

During his run to the 1985 Mid-Amateur title at The Vintage Club in Indian Wells, Calif., Sigel rallied from 5 down with six to play in the Round of 32 to defeat Seth Knight, an insurance broker from Atlanta, in extra holes. Knight did not make worse than a par coming in, yet Sigel advanced and eventually beat fellow Philadelphian O. Gordon Brewer in the final.

“It was unbelievable,” Sigel said of his win over Knight. “I had to apologize because you never want to get into that situation.”

Sigel’s record-three U.S. Mid-Amateur titles were later trumped by another Pennsylvanian three decades later when Smith claimed his fourth in 2012. Stewart Hagestad matched Sigel’s three triumphs in 2023. But no American has matched his record in Walker Cup or World Amateur Team Championship competition, where he made a record-seven appearances.    

“That’s a highlight for an amateur,” said Sigel of representing his country 16 times from 1977-93.

While he didn’t turn professional until 50, Sigel competed in numerous major championships and was the low amateur in the 1984 U.S. Open at Winged Foot. He also earned low-amateur honors three times in the Masters (1980, 1981 and 1988) and The Open Championship in 1980. 

His success continued on the Senior Tour in 1994, as he was named the circuit’s Rookie of the Year, thanks to 14 top-10 finishes, including a victory in the GTE West Classic. 

In 2004, the Pennsylvania State Golf Association created the R. Jay Sigel Match Play, a three-day competition that was first held at Sigel’s home club, Aronimink near Philadelphia. Smith happened to capture six of those titles, receiving the trophy from Sigel on each instance. It’s also where he grew closer to the golfing icon.

“He became a great friend and a mentor,” said Smith, a veteran of three Walker Cups who spent a lot of time with Sigel at the 2023 Match at St. Andrews. “I grew up learning amateur golf through him and how he conducted himself. It was amazing for me to just see that.”

Perhaps it is also fitting that Sigel received the Bob Jones Award, the USGA’s highest honor, in 1984, especially since he was as close to a modern-day Jones as anyone since the Georgian retired from competitive golf following his Grand Slam achievement in 1930. In 1993, Sigel was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, and he was named the Philadelphia Sportswriters Professional Athlete of the Year for 1994.

Outside the ropes, Sigel was a past president of The First Tee of Philadelphia and the Greater Philadelphia Scholastic Golf Association, and his annual Sigel Charity Invitational at Aronomink Golf Club raised $5.3 million for the University of Pennsylvania Abrahmson Cancer Center over the past 33 years.  

 In 2004, he sold CBIZ, the insurance agency he ran for several decades.

Sigel is survived by his wife of 57 years, Betty, three daughters, Jennifer, Amy and Megan, and six grandchildren.

David Shefter is a senior staff writer for the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.