Jack and Barbara Nicklaus honored as 2009 National Pathfinder Award recipients

Dennis Bassett, Chairman of Youthlinks Indiana and the CEO of Chase Bank Indiana, along with his wife, joing Jack and Barbara for a photo.

By Phil Richards
Courtesy of IndyStar.com

Jack and Barbara Nicklaus were honored June 28th for decades of dedication to youth in need, most recently through the Nicklaus Children's Health Care Foundation. The Nicklauses received the 2009 National Pathfinder Award at the annual Pathfinder Banquet at Conseco Fieldhouse.

To hear Jack tell it, all he did was tend the pin. Barbara has been the player.

"I think they chose my wife and added me to it, and I think that's appropriate," Nicklaus, 69, said during a recent phone interview from South Africa. "Barbara's the leader, she's the innovator, she's the creator in our family and I sort of support her. So I think that's very nice that up there in Indianapolis they're honoring the two of us and we're looking forward to it very much."

Truth is, all the years of supporting junior golf, children's hospitals and scholarship programs have been a family effort, like most things the Nicklauses do. Since the foundation's launch in 2004, it has raised more than $10 million to fund programs and activities that promote children's safety and well-being and the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of children's diseases and disorders in a five-county area of South Florida.

The Nicklauses' commitment became agonizingly personal in 2005, when their 17-month-old grandson, Jake, drowned in a hot tub.

"That certainly solidified it," Jack said. "We were already well into it before that happened. We just felt there were ways to honor Jake with the things that we did. Of course my son, Steve, the father of Jake, is on our board and very involved in what we're doing."

From the time of the tragedy, golf closed ranks around the Nicklauses. A painting of their blond, curly-haired grandson hangs in the front hall of their Palm Beach, Fla., home. It was presented on the eve of the final round of the 2005 Presidents Cup, by the United States team Nicklaus captained.

The Nicklauses established "The Jake," a pro-am golf tournament played annually at The Bear's Club in Jupiter, Fla. It has become the foundation's chief fundraiser.

Players like Robert Allenby, Raymond Floyd, Tom Watson, Ian Baker-Finch, Ernie Els, Jay Haas, Johnny Miller and Gary Player have participated. No one accepts a fee. Everything goes to the foundation, more than $3 million over the past three years.

The Nicklauses' vision grows. Their dream is to bring a not-for-profit children's hospital to their area.

Nicklaus has won 105 tournaments worldwide, including 73 on the PGA Tour. A record 18 of them were major championships, but he hasn't played an official PGA or Champions tour event since the 2005 British Open.

He enjoys his 21 grandchildren. He tends to the Nicklaus Companies, which range from apparel to art and memorabilia to golf equipment to golf course design. He was in South Africa seeing to a handful of golf course projects.

He doesn't get the itch to compete.

"As a matter of fact, I played golf today," he said Wednesday, "and it confirms every time I play why I don't play any more."

So the 2009 U.S. Senior Open Championship, a tournament Nicklaus has twice won, will be contested without him July 30-Aug. 2 at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel. He remembers it fondly.

"It's not the same competition because once you get to be a senior, you wouldn't be playing senior golf if you were good enough to play on the other (tour)," he said. "But as far as the flavor of the event, as far as the set-up of the golf course, as far as what you're trying to do, it's the U.S. Open, absolutely.

"You will enjoy the Senior Open. Indianapolis will enjoy the Senior Open."

View photos from the 2009 National Pathfinder Awards