To say that Jack
Nicklaus needs no introduction to golfers or even sports fans would be the
greatest understatement of the year. “The Golden Bear” has won 18 major golf
championships while amassing 115 professional wins in his celebrated career.
His place in golf history as the greatest player ever, seems pretty secure for
now and decades to come.
Nicklaus was an eight
time PGA Tour leading money winner. He was a five time PGA Tour player of the
year. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974. Nicklaus has
received the Bob Jones Award, the Payne Stewart Award and the PGA Tour Lifetime
Achievement Award for humanitarian contributions in and out of golf.
My path crossed
Jack’s for the first time in the winter of 2011 when several of us spoke to him
about being a spokesperson for Golf 2.0, an industry wide player development
initiative spearheaded by the PGA of America.
Jack embraced the idea and it was pretty evident that he welcomed the
challenge of doing something for the betterment of the game.
Nicklaus and his
wife, Barbara, have 21 grandchildren. Only one of those grandkids plays golf.
At age 72, Jack is very aware of the hurdles and distractions that families
often times face when it comes to finding time to play the sport that he
dominated for decades. Nicklaus understands that the perceived time commitment
associated with golf has got to change in order to attract new players to the
game.
Last summer, he
instituted a couple of totally unconventional ideas at two of his premier golf
facilities. There are no finer golf destinations in this country than Muirfield
Village in Dublin, OH and The Bear’s Club in West Palm Beach, FL. These are
traditional private clubs and Nicklaus devised a 12-hole routing plan at each
course that allowed golfers to play “six, six and twelve” versus the
traditional two nines and 18 holes. His goal was to shorten the time it takes
to play.
“Twelve holes is
about all I am interested in playing myself,” smiles Jack when he talks about
the concept. “Many women enjoy the six-hole concept. It’s faster and less
strenuous.”
Nicklaus refers to
himself as one of the staunchest traditionalists in golf history, so when he
introduced an 8-inch cup for a day at Murfield Village and the Bear’s Club last
summer it was monumental. The official diameter of a golf hole is 4.25 inches
and Jack gave his golfers a hole twice the size as the regulation cup. Players loved the novel idea, although one
golfer quipped, “You can still miss ‘em on the edge.”
Over the last few
months, Jack has continued to explore unconventional ways to attract and keep players in the game. A couple of weeks ago, we met at the Bear’s
Club and he was presented an idea promoting forward tees for family and
beginning golf. Upon seeing the concept, he ordered the forward markers for
both Muirfield Village and the Bear’s Club.
Nicklaus didn’t stop
there. He has instructed his design teams to institute the concept on all new
courses that Nicklaus design builds. I wouldn’t be surprised if he sends a memo
to all Nicklaus designed courses in the U.S. and encourages them to install
these forward tees.
Last week, several of
us met in Jack’s office at West Palm Beach to discuss the idea of bringing the
12-hole concept to the PGA Grand Slam of Golf. The idea was born out of a
discussion that Ian Baker-Finch, former British Open champion and CBS
commentator, had with me at the Grand Slam Pro-Am a couple of years ago. Finch
and I presented our case study to Jack, the all-time major champion, and he
offered ideas and opinions on how players, television and viewers would
perceive the concept.
The PGA Grand Slam of
Golf features the four major championship winners in a 36-hole format each fall
at Port Royal in Bermuda. We are still working out the details, but the fact that
we even discussed a monumental format change like this was in large part
because of Jack Nicklaus.
It is Jack’s hope
that facilities and operators around the United States will follow his lead and
embrace some of these new concepts. While I certainly can’t play like Nicklaus,
I can at least think like him! Here are some of the new programs that we will
be introducing in 2012 at The Legends Golf Club.
-
Offer
6-hole and 12-hole rates on our championship 27-holes.
-
Forward
tees with Level 1 9-hole yardage of 1,530 and Level 2 9-hole yardage of 2,070.
-
Offer a
6-hole SNAG golf course for entry level players (adults and kids) with fees
under $5.
-
Create an
hourly family rate for hitting balls, playing our par three course or SNAG
course.
-
Add a new
Men’s Club event utilizing the proposed Grand Slam of Golf format.
It has been my
privilege to serve as the PGA’s spokesman for Get Golf Ready. This program
allows the consumer to sign up for five 1.5 hour lessons from a PGA
professional for a cost of only $99. Each instructional session includes
an “on course” experience where the players actually get to play on the course.
Get Golf Ready classes can be tailored to all types of players- beginning
women, kids, senior men, accomplished players, couples, etc.
The most compelling
statistic regarding Get Golf Ready is that 84% of those who take all five of
the instructional sessions- stay in the game as golfers. Nicklaus liked that
and he has also endorsed the program at his facilities.
Jack Nicklaus has
given golfers of all ages many memories for a lifetime. Who can forget that
image of him holing a putt on the 17th green at the 1986 Masters and
CBS’ Verne Lundquist exclaiming, “Yes Sir!”
For me, my best
memories of Jack will be sitting around a table and talking about ways to grow
the game of golf. Thanks, Jack!
