Golf legend Tony Jacklin has finally opened up about his romance with a 16-year-old waitress just weeks after his wife died.
The two-time major winner, widely regarded as the greatest British golfer of his generation, explored his life in forensic detail in his new autobiography Tony Jacklin: My Ryder Cup Journey, co-authored by Tony Jimenez.
In it, he addressed his romance with a teenage waitress, which came after his first wife Vivien's death sent him into a spiral of grief and depression.
Aged just 44, the mother of the couple's three children died at the wheel of her car from a sudden brain haemorrhage in April 1988.
In his new book, Jacklin, now 77, described hitting rock bottom after Vivien's death and, six weeks later, he met a 16-year-old waitress, Donna Methven, at a golf tournament.
The pair began a startling two-month romance – he was 44 at the time – which saw Jacklin take Methven to his home in Spain.
The golfer ended the affair with Methven after meeting his now-wife Astrid, but the scandal ended up as front-page tabloid news and dominated headlines.
Discussing the affair, Jacklin said: 'Well I mean that was….I don't know. It was just a circumstance thing.
'Vivien passed in the April and this would be in June, when I met this girl. I mean, I didn't know how old she was, I didn't know anything about that.
'But it was time to move on and then thank god I met Astrid. When I got back to Spain, Astrid's sister was a neighbour of mine and she was over to visit. As soon as I laid eyes on her, that was it.'
Tony Jacklin has gone down in history as Europe's most successful Ryder Cup captain
After Vivien died, Jacklin's affair with 16-year-old Donna Methven became front-page news. Methven is pictured here some years later working as a glamour model
Now living in Florida, Jacklin has reflected on his extraordinary life, both on and off the course
Jacklin, now 77, details the awkwardness of that first meeting because 'that girl (Methven) actually was there with me at the time.'
'As soon as I met Astrid I went and told her (Methven) "you're going to have to go back". I put her on a plane in Gibraltar and she walked into The Sun's office and spilled the beans.
'We cleared off, Astrid and I, because the press were camping outside. We went to this resort in the hills around Malaga where the king of Spain used to go. It was a secluded place, nobody knew where we were other than two friends. And I kept calling, asking: "Is it all clear yet?" And they were saying: "Stay there!"
Jacklin and Astrid married that December in Gibraltar at the same church as John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
They have been by each other's side ever since.
The story about his scandalous affair is one of several the golf legend talks about in his book.
On the links, Jacklin is the man who revolutionised the Ryder Cup, the 42nd edition of which begins this week at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
By 1988 Jacklin had completed three stints as captain. In 1985, he led his European side to their first win in 28 years – going back to when it was just a British and Irish team – and two years later to their first win on American soil in Ryder Cup history.
Even back in 1983 during Jacklin's first captaincy, Europe ran America close and eventually lost. But what was gained was a seminal shift in Europe's attitude towards the Ryder Cup, a fundamental ripping up of the tired old playbook that ushered in an era of professionalism and success that has made the Ryder Cup golf's crown jewel.
More than 270,000 people attended the 2018 edition at Le Golf National. The organisers estimate more than £200million in economic activity occurred in France as a result of hosting the tournament. Nothing else in the sport comes close.
Not that many people would care without Jacklin's intervention. It is no exaggeration to say he almost single-handedly gave golf the premiere product it has today, when the seven-time Ryder Cup player took his first bow as captain.
Jacklin slightly bristles as he recalls how the Ryder Cup was treated during his playing years between 1967 and 1979. He played in six tournaments for Britain and Ireland, and was part of the inaugural European team.
'Back in the 60s when I started playing it was, from a British and Irish standpoint, more a question of turning up and putting on a good show, rather than thinking about winning the thing,' he said.
Jacklin and his wife Vivien kiss the Claret Jug after he won the Open Championship at Royal Lytham in July 1969 - but in 1988 she would die suddenly at the wheel of her car
Jacklin married again later that year, to Astrid Waagen, after meeting her only months after his first wife's death. The couple remain together to this day and are pictured here in Spain
However, his was a star on the rise, and two years after his first Ryder Cup in 1967 he became the first British player to win the Open Championship in 18 years, aged just 25.
'Having played in America as I did in the 60s and early 70s, I was about winning, not just turning up and getting my backside kicked every time,' he says.
'It wasn't confidence we had, it was bravado. We didn't have that inner, quiet confidence that you don't talk about. If you've got it, you don't flaunt it. You just get on with it.'
Such was the dire state of the competition that American golfer Tom
