Born in Scunthorpe, England, Jacklin grew up in a working class family, the son of a truck driver. His father passed along his love of the game to his son and instilled in Tony the belief he could be a great champion. "He always said, 'You've got two arms, two legs and a head on your shoulders just like them,'" Jacklin recounted, "whenever we were talking or watching Arnold [Palmer] or whoever the great players were made me realize that that was true."

Jacklin sported a well-rounded overall game and was deadly from 100 yards and in. His aggressive style of attack won him a legion of fans. "Jacklin is a gambler who needs only the slimmest chink of daylight between the trees to have him reaching for his one-iron," wrote Peter Dobereiner in The Guardian.

Despite his success winning the Lincolnshire Championship as an amateur, his parents thought turning pro was too risky a proposition. When Bill Shankland offered him an assistant pro position at Potters Bar, the 17-year-old thought the six pound salary was a fortune and jumped at the opportunity to begin his golf career. The life of an assistant pro, however, was not always appealing to Jacklin.

"There were times when life was heartbreaking - long hours spent practicing with Shankland seldom satisfied with what I was doing," remembers Jacklin. He worked diligently on his game and traveled to assistants' events by bus.

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