Jock MacVicar, legendary golf writer has died

Tributes have flooded in from across the golfing world following the passing of legendary Scottish golf writer Jock MacVicar.

Martin Dempster, Chairman, Association of Golf Writers (above) remember him with statements: “He’s gone,” said one of my closest friends, Nick Rodger, as I answered the phone on Saturday night before waiting for a short pause to be followed by “I’m only kidding”. Sadly, he wasn’t. Jock MacVicar was indeed gone, passing away peacefully in Glasgow Royal Infirmary at the age of 83 after being admitted a couple of days earlier following a fall at his home in the city. Like so many people, I first came across the great man at the Scottish Boys Championship after starting with the Glasgow-based David Begg Sports Agency in 1989. I’d sort of been in his company two years earlier when, during my fledgling days in journalism with the Berwickshire News & East Lothian Advertiser, I spent some time in the press tent during The Open at Muirfield, but didn’t have the courage back then to speak to many people".

Jock MacVicar, tributes

"It is with sadness that one of the best golf writers during my six decades in professional golf has passed on to greener fairways, Jock MacVicar. We in the world of golf will miss him and the wonderful manner with which he conducted his journalism, Tom Watson.

"Jock is rightly lauded and respected for his work as a golf writer where he was justly known as the doyen. However, he was also a skilled and astute football writer and I always respected his knowledge and his views in that field. He was a man you could trust, too. It is instructive and fitting that all tributes have acknowledged his innate decency. He was a fine journalist and a good man", Sir Alex Ferguson said.

"So sorry to hear of the passing of an old friend and deeply respected colleague. Given that I’m 80, our venerable status often arose in the chats Jock and I had in recent years. We’d eye each other up and remark cheerily: “You’re looking good. Any thoughts of retirement?” We last met at Royal Portrush for the 2019 Open, when, sadly, Jock was beginning to show the years. I thought highly of him as a colleague whom I first got to know more than 40 years ago, during the Men’s Amateur Golf Home Internationals at Royal Dornoch. As we say in Gaelic: Ar dheis De go raibh a anam (may his soul rest on the right hand of God)", Dermott Gilleece said.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3sYj8kk