Tony Jacklin considering US citizenship

Tony Jacklin, playing what he says could be his last Open this week, has revealed that he is considering taking out United States citizenship.

The 1969 Open champion, who took such delight in captaining Europe to victory over the Americans in 1985 and 1987, said: "I am looking at the possibility of obtaining dual nationality.

"I remain very patriotic and everything I did was for my country as well as for myself, but I love America.

"I should have moved at the height of my powers and got away from the tremendous pressure. When I played in Britain in the early 1970s everyone expected me to win every tournament with one arm tied behind my back."

Jacklin, now 55, has a home in West Virginia and, while he continues to play Seniors Golf on both sides of the Atlantic, he says in an interview in the Daily Mail: "I have done golf. There has got to be more than chasing a little white ball around."

He added that the game in which he made his name - and fortune - has been turning him into a "miserable old sod."