The Golden Bear gives back big time
By Laura Longley
On August 23, wearing his signature yellow shirt, the man who has won more green jackets at the Masters Tournament than any other golfer rolled up by cart to a Creighton Farms Invitational press gathering. He was there not to reminisce about winning rounds but about raising money for children’s health—although, with a little cajoling, he did share a few war stories.
Nicklaus, nicknamed The Golden Bear, has hosted this invitational for nine years, and to date it has raised close to $10 million to support local children’s health organizations and the Nicklaus Children Hospital Foundation.
Few are aware of the work he and his wife, Barbara have accomplished through the 7-year-old foundation, the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital System with 20 outpatient facilities, and the 400-bed Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, which, he said proudly, “has seen kids from every state in the union and 199 different countries.
Jack and Barbara Nicklaus’s commitment to children’s health can be traced back to the time their 11-month old daughter, Nan, kept choking. “A crayon dropped into her lung. She had pneumonia, was in intensive care for six days,” he explained. “Barbara and I were sitting in the waiting room and we said, ‘Well if we’re ever in the position to help others, we want it to be children.’”
It took a while for Jack and Barbara Nicklaus to be in a position to help others. “There were a lot of years,” he says, “when we were traveling from tournament to tournament in a stationwagon with a diaper pail and port-a-crib in the back seat. The car really smelled great,” he grinned.
Nicklaus Companies had been on lucrative growth spurt for a several years until Covid put a halt to golf course design projects around the globe.
“I was just getting started in Saudi Arabia,” Nicklaus said. “I’ve got two ready to go this fall in Turkmenistan, four in Qatar, and others in Manila Bay, Athens, Crete, and Portugal. One is under construction in Aberdeen, Scotland, and I’m going next week to Toronto. We have them in Naples, Palm Beach, Tampa, and Cabo. So we are potentially busy. I want Covid to go away real quick so I can get back to work!”
His most significant project right now may be the renovation of the 1901 Normandie Golf Course in Ferguson, Missouri, where Nicklaus Design will partner with the community development organization Beyond Housing.
“The appeal of this project to me was to be involved in an effort that could serve as a catalyst to the change needed in our country today, beginning with parts of St. Louis County,” he said in April. “Restoring Normandie for a community in need will have a long-lasting, positive impact on the lives of youth in St. Louis.”
Nicklaus continues to have an impact on the lives of other golfers. “Our young guys today on tour…. Every event we’ve had they’ve supported. Look at these guys here today. They get it. They understand that giving back is part of life.”
Is golf’s greatest champion concerned about his legacy?
“I don’t really care about my legacy. You know, golf is a game, and I wouldn’t be doing any of this”—his work for children and communities in need—”if it wasn’t for the game of golf. I often say, ‘This is far more than any 4-foot putt I ever made.’ But I had to make a few 4-foot-putts before I got myself in this position. So that’s part of it. Golf’s been a tremendous part of it.”
On April 14, 1986, when 46-year-old Jack Nicklaus won the 1986 Masters Tournament, Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell wrote:
“This afternoon was special because Nicklaus called on reserves of poise, of strength, of judgment under enormous pressure, which go to the heart of human dignity.”
If you missed the 1986 Masters, take 28 minutes to cheer for the champion of golf who one day would become a champion of children everywhere:
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