Michigan Golf Hall of Fame Inductees  

Jack Saylor  

Jack Saylor, who passed away last November, enlivened the local, state, and national golf scene with his deft touch at the keyboard, first at a typewriter, then at a computer, and frequently at the piano. His wife, Joyce, said he loved the piano, having played at a church as a teenager until he was caught “jazzing up the hymns.” He always drew a crowd whether it was at the stately Carolina Inn at Pinehurst , NC , at Spring Island , SC , with Arnold Palmer singing alongside, or at the Mission Inn in Carmel where Clint Eastwood walked in.

Saylor started his writing career at the Pontiac Press, then penned for the Detroit Times before finding a home at the Free Press in 1960. A Free Press writer for 43 years, he covered all the sports, including the Detroit Pistons, Jud Heathcote’s MSU Spartans, and Notre Dame football. But golf was No. 1, covering the sport for more than 40 years.

Jack was at home as much with a golf club in his hands as a pen and notebook, and as diligent in finding the right sentence as he was in finding the right yardage. He played from coast to coast and, before covering the British Open at St. Andrews in 1990, relayed his impressions of other great Scottish courses in a seven-part series to Free Press readers.

Saylor, selected Michigan Sports Writer of the Year in 1971, was known for his colorful writing. Among his peers, Saylor was known for his pun-driven lead paragraphs, his quick wit, and clever twists of phrase. Among some of his opening lines readers might remember: “What a golfer really needs by the Firth of Forth is a fifth.” And “A third-round 66 gave credence to Clearwater ’s revival.”