Nicklaus has designs of a lasting legacy

By Jerry Potter
Courtesy of USA TODAY

Jack Nicklaus peered out the window of his company jet as it approached an airport on Long Island early Monday evening and saw something that intrigued him.

"Look at that sand," he says, showing more than a passing interest in the beach below. "I like sand because you can do anything with it."

At 65 and a month from drawing his first Social Security check, Nicklaus' life is like the sand. He could do anything with it ‹ or nothing. He chooses to extend his legacy to the game he loves by designing golf courses.

This week en route to the PGA Championship, he opened a golf course in Delaware on Monday, made a site visit to another on Long Island on Tuesday, then flew on to New Jersey to attend a dinner in his honor at Baltusrol Golf Club, site of two of his U.S. Open wins.

He won't be playing in the PGA Championship, a major he won five times, but that's not his focus anymore.

"I haven't made my living playing golf in 30 years," Nicklaus says. "But I have made a living designing golf courses."

Since working with designer Pete Dye on his first project in 1968, Nicklaus has built the largest golf course design company in the world. It has 286 courses open for play worldwide, 241 from Nicklaus' personal designs.

"I enjoy making a golf course because that's something that's going to last long after my life is over," he says. "The golf courses are the fruit of my work."

His game's no longer the same

Nicklaus bid farewell to tournament golf last month in the British Open, but he had been planning his exit for years. The last of his 73 victories on the PGA Tour came in the 1986 Masters; the last of his Champions Tour wins came in 1996.

"I haven't been competitive in a long time," he says. "I used to hit my tee shots 40 yards by everybody. Now they're 40 yards short of everybody. I wanted to leave while I had a semblance of a golf game."

When he walked away from the British Open last month after missing the 36-hole cut at St. Andrews in Scotland, he actually felt relieved.

"That was one time when I missed the cut and I wasn't unhappy," he says. "The people at St. Andrews had honored me. It was best that I get out of the way so the focus could go back on the tournament."

Although Nicklaus continues to play what he always called "ceremonial golf," there will be no more tournaments, such as The Masters, where he could spend three months in preparation.

His last appearance there, in April, came without much preparation, a month after the drowning death of his 17-month-old grandson Jake, son of Nicklaus' son Steve.

Nicklaus gets emotional when he talks about the death. He and Steve turned to golf as therapy for their grief. After days of playing, it was Steve who suggested his dad return to The Masters. He made that his last appearance in the tournament.

His golf swing is shorter these days and so are the shots it produces. Yet he's still the player a generation wants to see. That was evident on this trip, where his stops Monday and Tuesday were a contrast of people and property.

In Delaware, where he opened the Bayside Resort Club near Fenwick Island, there was a circus atmosphere ‹ including a fellow who walked around on stilts and a Scottish bagpiper who played while Nicklaus walked from the practice tee to the first hole.

A decade ago the property was farmland, but it was acquired by the Carl M. Freeman Companies to build a residential resort community where people from the Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia areas could buy lots and build homes for vacations and retirement.

To this rural area a visit from Nicklaus was a happening. An estimated 1,500 people came for the day. He entertained them with a clinic, then played the course, commenting about it as he went from hole to hole, walking in sweltering heat.

Twenty-five years ago when he gave a clinic, he entertained with a shot-making display that drew raves from the audience. Now he entertains by making fun of himself.

"I'm just an old antique," he says to the gallery.

He noted he might start playing golf with his wife, Barbara, and his daughter Nancy, but added, "Neither one of them play golf."

Last Sunday he went to a course in South Florida with Nancy and one of her sons.

"Nan hit the ball farther than I did," Nicklaus says. "I said, 'When was the last time you played golf?' She said, 'Oh, about five years ago.' "

Nicklaus: Leader in design

At Southampton on Long Island, Nicklaus arrived in time to mix and mingle and have a barbecue with about 50 people who were interested in Sebonack, an upscale private club with a limited number of members, all affluent. The only housing will be 15 cottages for the members and their guests.

The course is under construction, and Nicklaus followed the barbecue with a tour of the construction Tuesday. It's being built on property that lays between the National Golf Links and Shinnecock Hills, two of the oldest, most prestigious clubs in America.

Michael Pascucci, one of Nicklaus' neighbors during the winter in North Palm Beach, Fla., bought the property from a local union, which used it as a summer camp for its members. Although Pascucci had known Nicklaus for 20 years and did numerous charity projects with him, it wasn't until recently that he approached him about building a course.

It's a unique project for Nicklaus, too, because he's doing in it collaboration with Tom Doak, a 44-year-old designer who traces his interest in golf to Nicklaus' bid for the Grand Slam in 1972. That year Nicklaus won The Masters and the U.S. Open, then lost in the British Open.

Nicklaus says he's far more willing to take on projects with other designers now because he wants to learn from others.

"We haven't argued about much," Doak says. "We found we have a fair amount of common ground."

Doak is a new breed of college-educated architects who studied design in school. He says Nicklaus made golf course design a viable career, another contribution he has made to the game.

"Twenty years ago people weren't aware of it as a profession," Doak says. "Now the first question in the marketing is, 'Who designed this course?' "

There is no bigger name in selling a project than Nicklaus.

"If you're relying on selling memberships or property," Doak says, "Jack's name is golden."

Jack's expertise costs millions

Nicklaus Design has approximately 60 employees, but at heart it is a family business that includes all four of Nicklaus' sons and his son-in-law. Customers can purchase Nicklaus' service alone, a Signature Design, for $2.5 million, or the expertise of others for $500,000.

"If you buy the signature," says Tim Kenny, the executive vice president of the group, "you get Jack. That's his time, his expertise, his help in marketing the project."

That was a big factor for Josh Freeman, whose company is developing Bayside.

"That was quite a commitment for us in Southern Delaware," says Freeman, whose company has sold 427 homes and has a goal of a creating a 1,640-home community. "We are the caretakers of his legacy. How we treat the homeowners and their guests will reflect on Jack."

Nicklaus for now is all about his family and his legacy. All five of his children live within five minutes of his home in North Palm Beach. He has 18 grandchildren. Where he once spent Sundays playing golf tournaments, he now spends them at home hosting family dinners.

"I always spend a lot of time with my family," Nicklaus says. "The difference is I used to be gone for a week playing golf. Now I'm gone for a few days on course work."

His schedule is practically booked through February, and he might get busier. His Web site gets about 170,000 hits a day, some inquiries about design work.

In September he's traveling to Russia, where he's building a course near Moscow. He has other projects developing in Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and Asia.

"The design business is a blessing," Nicklaus says, "because it has allowed me to stay in a game I love. I'm going to be more selective about the projects I take in the future. I want fewer jobs, but I want to be more involved."