Jacobsen returns to Newport Beach

Peter Jacobsen’s career is coming full circle.

When Jacobsen steps onto the Newport Beach Country Club course, it will not be for the first time.

March 17 will be his first round of golf in the Toshiba Classic. But the Champions Tour player made a stop here 30 years ago, playing the old Newport Classic as a 22-year old rookie fresh from the University of Oregon.

Jacobsen is anticipating his return to the course and playing in the Toshiba Classic.

“I’m very excited about my first Toshiba Classic,” Jacobsen said via e-mail. “I’ve heard nothing but fantastic things about the event for years from other players. This is my first opportunity to play the Toshiba Classic because in 2004 I played in Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Classic and last year I was recovering from knee surgery.”

Jacobsen said he is rounding back into form and will be ready for the Toshiba Classic.

“My game is slowly coming back,” he said. “I had a follow-up knee surgery in October of 2005 and that has been holding me back some. But it’s getting better every week.”

Known as one of the most entertaining players on tour, Jacobsen will also participate in the “Shot from the Top” exhibition March 14 with fellow golfers Dave Stockton, Fuzzy Zoeller and Gary McCord. The foursome will be aiming for a hole-in-one from atop the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel. That’s a 118-yard long and 162-feet down shot.

He’s also scheduled to participate in a “Meet the Pros” event Friday afternoon, taking questions from fans on the clubhouse patio at Newport Beach Country Club.

In between his first time at Newport Beach Country Club and the Toshiba Classic, Jacobsen spent 30 years on the PGA Tour, wrote two books, created and starred in three Golf Channel shows, endorsed one of the most popular arcade games of all time and racked up nine tour victories.

Jacobsen’s shinning moment on the golf course and a turning point in his career came early in 1995 when he won two consecutive tournaments, making him the fifth player to do so in 10 years.

Before then, Jacobsen had only won four tournaments in his 18 years on the tour and was winless in the previous five years. Part of his sagging golf game was due to the death of his father in 1992. In fact, Jacobsen was known more for his ability to impersonate other golfers than for his success on the golf course.

Jacobsen finished 47th and missed the cut in the two tournaments before the streak. He started out blazing at the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, where he was Jack Lemmon’s partner. He went 36 holes without a bogey.

When the dust settled, Jacobsen had shot a then-tournament record 271.

Jacobsen continued to post low scores the following week when he won the Buick Invitational. The first-place prize of almost $450,000 was more than he had won in all but two of his years on tour.

Two weeks later at the Doral Ryder Open, Jacobsen would finish second by one stroke after missing a 75-foot put to force a playoff.

Injuries have been a constant strain on Jacobsen’s career. He had surgery on his right knee twice. But the worst was in 2004 when he underwent surgery on his hip for the second time in three years. Last year, it was to repair a torn labrum.

After three months of rehabilitation, six weeks of which was spent on crutches, Jacobsen returned in time for the U.S. Senior Open at the end of July. He had to withdraw from two tournaments prior to the U.S. Senior Open, because he could not walk the 18-hole course.

Because he was forced to withdraw from the two tournaments, the Ford Seniors and the British Seniors Open, Jacobsen contemplated giving his hip more time to recover by withdrawing from the U.S. Senior Open as well.

Instead, he showed up and fired an opening round six-under 65 to jump into the lead. He won by a single stroke with a three-under final round. It is the only major championship of his career.

While not a dominant golfer, Jacobsen has been a pioneer for the field in other areas. Six years before Tiger Woods joined the PGA Tour, let alone put his name on a video game, Jacobsen put his signature on one of the most popular arcade games of all time, Peter Jacobsen’s Golden Tee Golf.

“I’ve been involved with Golden Tee from day one in 1990,” Jacobsen said. “I was contacted by Incredible Technologies about endorsing the game. It’s clearly the No. 1 arcade golf game in the world and I’m proud to be known as ‘the Golden Tee guy.’

“I know many people who have never hit a real golf shot but shoot very low scores on Golden Tee and make money as a Golden Tee pro. It’s a lot of fun.”

The arcade game would go on to hold the No. 1 spot and eventually take on the PC and console game market. When it first arrived in PC form, the headline “1 billion quarters can’t be wrong” was draped across the top.

The gaming venue was one of many Jacobsen has ventured into. Last year, he finished his second book about the behind-the-scenes life of professional golf. In May Jacobsen released his “Embedded Balls,” which was a follow-up to 1993’s “Buried Lies.”

“I had so much fun with both books, recalling many of the stories and people I have encountered in my 30 years of PGA Tour golf,” Jacobsen said. “It’s not an instructional book, just one to make you laugh and smile.”

Jacobsen did the same with all three of his Golf Channel shows, “Plugged In,” “Peter and Friends” and “Celebrity Golf,” all of which ended this year. He did “Plugged In” and “Peter and Friends” for nearly four years.

Jacobsen, however, was disappointed with the way “Celebrity Golf” ended.

“The PGA Tour pulled “Celebrity Golf” off the air in year number one because the tour wanted a rights fee to be paid by The Golf Channel for me to play a nine-hole match against a celebrity for money to charity,” he said. “To me, that’s one of the silliest things I’ve seen in my 30-year Tour career, yet it’s OK for John Daly to use bleeped profanity in his new show “The Daly Planet” on the Golf Channel. I still don’t get it.

“I hope to do more shows for the Golf Channel in the future because I love everything about what the Golf Channel does for golf,” Jacobsen said.

Jacobsen also owns a production company, named after himself, which he started in 1986. It has produced a variety of sporting events.

“I started Peter Jacobsen Productions [PJP] to run a tournament in my hometown called the Fred Meyer Challenge and the company has grown from there,” Jacobsen said. “It’s a fun aspect of the golf business that really touches everyone, the fans, players and the sponsors. PJP has grown into a nationwide company. We produce events in Rhode Island, Baltimore, Florida, California and Oregon.”