Sully:
There are and have been some professionals, not all obviously, who seem to look down on even competitive amateurs but I don't think that would include all amateurs. Hyndman would probably be one they wouldn't look down on or Campbell or Harvie Ward etc and I doubt any professionals ever looked down on Sigel when he was an amateur which was up until he turned 50. It wouldn't take any professional more than about one hole playing with Jay to see he had just as much game as they did and he was so damn powerful and that always gets their attention.
At some tournament around here that Jay won (again
) that was right after the Masters they asked him to get up and speak about some of his experiences in the Masters. He had just come back from playing in it and he'd been paired in the first two rounds with Seve and Norman in their primes who were considered to be some of the longest out there and he said he was interested to see how he stacked up against them in distance. Jay wasn't the most effusive guy in the world for sure and that was about all he said at first on that subject. So some guy said: "Well, Jay, how did you stack up against them in distance in those first two rounds?" and he just said: "I was hitting my second shots last every time."
Plus Jay played in something like eleven straight Masters earning it every time and that tends to get their attention. And I guess the proof was in the pudding with Sigel because frankly there have been very few career amateurs who went out on the Senior Tour and actually did well but Jay certainly did.
I was one of the guys who was sort of shocked that Sigel would even consider turning senior pro since we felt he was the most significant career amateur in the second half of the 20th century and should remain that but then later after he explained his decision I realized he didn't get where he was by turning down a challenge.
The thing I really admired about Jay was that as dominant as he was on the national and world amateur scene he was so supportive of all the local and state section events and all the invitationals around here too. He played in most all of them year after year.
PS:
Here's a funny one. I was paired in the first round of your Lynnewood Hall with Jay one time and Jack Connelly treated the first tee announcement like it was some major deal. He would announce all our names and then go through our significant career accomplishments. I forget who the other guy or two guys were but he announced us first and our career accomplishments took Jack about 10 seconds each to announce and then he got to Sigel and it seemed to go on and on for so long the people around the first tee and the rest of us just started laughing after awhile.