The Dutch Golf Museum was called by Reina Kokke, widow of JanKees Kokke, who passed away in May 2023. In addition to being a golfer at the Kennemer Golf & Country Club, her husband was the founder of the golf magazine Golfers Magazine and had built up an impressive collection of golf books throughout his career. Mrs. Kokke wanted this collection to remain intact and decided to donate it to the Dutch Golf Museum, for which we are very grateful!!
Below we have included the article from Golfers Magazine regarding the passing of JanKees Kokke.
Kokke, who lived in Bloemendaal, was a journalist at the Haagsche Courant, which at the time, like the Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad, was part of the notorious Sijthoff Concern. He was a feature writer, the man of major reports. But Jan Kees Kokke also reported in an engaged manner on the terrible plane crash of 1977 in Tenerife, in which 583 people lost their lives.
He was one of the first golfing journalists in our country. Kokke provided golf reports in his newspaper and was also heavily involved in the Dutch Open specials that Sijthoff produced in the early eighties, at a time when golf was gradually becoming bigger and bigger.
Jan Kees Kokke combined his journalistic skills with strong business and creative insight. Together with others, he was behind the creation of several golf competitions for managers and executives of large companies, and in 1984 he published the Golf Yearbook with his Media Bloemendaal. It was a beautiful glossy magazine with surprising content – a big difference from the dull golf media of that time.
From 1985 onwards, the Golf Yearbook continued in the form of Golfers Magazine. Initially with four issues per year, later with eight, and as of 2023, ten. From its very first issue, Golfers Magazine was a magazine of international caliber, featuring reports, coverage, and instruction with big names from both home and abroad.
Kokke agreed with the NGF to publish GOLFjournaal from 1988 onwards, the official organ that was sent ten times a year to all golfers affiliated with the Federation until 2015.
In 1993, the then CEO of publisher Wegener, Peter Appeldoorn, knocked on the door of the Kokke household again. After a number of failed attempts, he succeeded in taking over Media Bloemendaal. Jan Kees Kokke remained as editor-in-chief for about another year, but the differences in opinion between him and Appeldoorn were the reason Kokke left.
He went on to write for, among others, the Financieele Dagblad and did so excellently until his retirement. His interests were broader than golf. Jan Kees Kokke wrote a number of books, most recently about the extremely wealthy Borski family: ‘Amsterdammers in Bloemendaal. Powerful in money, land, and iron bars. A story about two of the richest and least known families in the Netherlands’.