SANDY Sinclair OBE was one of the few to have achieved distinction both as a golfer and then as an administrator. As a player he demonstrated the maxim that golf is a game for a lifetime and as an official he presided at important stages of the development of European and
junior golf.
He played for Scotland in 1950 and was non-playing captain in 1966 and 1967. A diminutive and friendly man he may have been, but he was not to be taken lightly on the course or, in later years, in the committee room.
He won the West of Scotland championship in 1950 at a time when many regarded that competition as second in status to the Scottish Amateur title.
Sandy amassed many other titles including Lanarkshire amateur champion in 1952, 1959, and 1961 and Glasgow amateur champion in 1961. Latterly, he was Scottish senior champion in 1979 and 1984.
He had nothing to show, however, for one of his best campaigns, the British Amateur Championship of 1957. He beat the defending champion John Beharrell and Walker Cup
player Arthur Perowne before being eliminated in the last 16.
Among a host of offices he held, one of his proudest was being chairman of the selection committee of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews when Great Britain and Ireland won the Walker Cup at St Andrews in that epic confrontation of 1971 after 33 lean years.
Sandy was president of the Scottish Golf Union from 1976 to 1978 and he went on in 1988 to become captain of the R&A, having been the only member to have won all six of the club's scratch medals.
In between he was president, and first Scot to hold that post, of the fast developing European Golf Association, trying to reconcile the interests of 21 golfing countries at a time when European golf was coming to the fore. Severiano Ballesteros was the catalyst for many continental golfers to show they were more than a match for the British.
Sandy was chairman of the R&A's amateur status committee from 1979 to 1981. Sweden then was regarded as having a loose interpretation of the rules of amateur status, but Sandy viewed the large number of players from that country turning professional supported the effectiveness of the EGA.
With such credentials Sandy, made an OBE in the 1990 New Year's honours list, was the ideal man to become president of the Golf Foundation, the body that promotes junior golf, in 1991 at the age of 70 and still very much young at heart. That year, for example, a 15-year-old Mhairi McKay, a fellow Bothwell Castle member, had just won the principal girls' award. McKay, of course, is now a leading professional light on the women's US tour.
Sandy's record as a player may be beatable by the best, but as an administrator only the most enthusiastic and dedicated will match his majors.
Sandy was born in West Kilbride and as well as being a member of the R&A he was an honorary member of the West Kilbride, Drumpellier, Bothwell Castle, and Royal Troon clubs. Prior to retirement in 1985 he was an insurance broker and was a director of Stenhouse Insurance Brokers.
He is survived by his wife, Betty, and three children.
Sandy Sinclair, golfer and businessman; born July 6, 1920, died July 27, 2002.
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