Nicklaus News – February - Nicklaus Companies

Nicklaus News – February

Nicklaus Design Around the Globe

Sunset Country Club Transformed to Quixote Club 

The dramatic redesign of Sunset Country Club in Sumter, SC, makes the club worthy of a new name, Quixote Club, which was inspired by the character Don Quixote, a man who dared to dream the impossible. The collaboration began with several on-site visits and then a new course routing evolved by Jack Nicklaus II and David Savic of Nicklaus Design, and Kris Spence.

“We are very excited to be a part of such a comprehensive renovation project,” said Jack Nicklaus II, Vice Chairman of Nicklaus Companies. “When I saw the property and owner Greg Thompson shared the club’s vision, I couldn’t wait to get started on the design plans. The land we are working with is beautiful, and it is special to be part of a project that will reinvest in the community.”
The course is currently under construction and will open for play this fall.  For more information on the Quixote Club contact Melissa Hudson at 803-775-5541 or visit www.Quixoteclub.com

Renovate or Redesign?

Quixote Club redesign sketch


Nicklaus Design has created more than 425 courses in 45 countries to become the world’s leading golf course architecture firm. Along with designing courses where none previously existed, we focus on renovation and redesign, providing improvements and updates to layouts that have fallen behind the times.
Redesigning or renovating a course is uniquely different than creating a new course and often involves an innovative process that allows the existing course to reach a new identity. The Nicklaus Design team enjoys the challenge of how to reinvigorate a course in need of a little, or a lot, of refreshing.


Ahead Joins Jack Nicklaus to Play Yellow

Ahead Play Yellow C47LGT

Building on the resounding success of the inaugural Play Yellow campaign, AHEAD and Nicklaus have teamed up again to launch the long-awaited 2020 Play Yellow Cap!

The new limited edition Play Yellow performance cap was designed by Chuck Lord, Chief Creative Officer at AHEAD, with some helpful guidance from Jack and Barbara Nicklaus. The hat features the iconic Golden Bear logo, Jack Nicklaus signature, and the Play Yellow logo. The hats are online and will be available at several PGA Tour events and select Nicklaus courses. A portion of every sale will be contributed to Jack and Barbara Nicklaus’s efforts supporting Play Yellow, a $100 million fund-raising campaign in association with the PGA TOUR to help pediatric care nationwide through the work of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

“Barbara and I are grateful to the team at AHEAD for joining us, the PGA TOUR, and many others in the Play Yellow effort to help make a difference in the lives of children through Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals,” Nicklaus said. “Like us, AHEAD cares about giving back to children and families in need. They are not simply the best headwear company in golf, they are an organization of people with big hearts. Hats off to AHEAD!”


Nicklaus Design + GOLF Magazine Challenge: Build Your Dream Par 4

Picture this: You’re handed an empty plot of land upon which to design a par 4. The only boundaries are the limits of your imagination. What comes to mind? A 475-yard bruiser that snakes around water and sand? Or a 275-yard temptress where birdies are bountiful but a careless approach can lead to bogey or worse.

Nicklaus Design and GOLF Magazine want your plan for the perfect par 4. The winning submission—as selected by the Nicklaus Design team along with editors and readers from GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com—will come to life on a Nicklaus Design site. That’s right, your design will inspire a hole on an actual course by some of the world’s most accomplished course designers. (No pressure!) The winning contestant will also get an all-expenses-paid trip to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, for a tour of Nicklaus Design headquarters and a round of golf at a Nicklaus Design course.
The deadline is only a few weeks away, March 15, so be sure to click on this link to enter! LINK TO ENTER:  https://www.golf.com/designcontest/


Nicklaus Brands Around the Globe

  • Kolon Industries, a South Korean corporate powerhouse with interests in four business sectors including fashion and apparel, has extended its successful 40-year partnership with the Nicklaus Companies through 2025. This year, Kolon is revitalizing the Jack Nicklaus brand in Korea through major investments in product design, renovations of the 80+ Jack Nicklaus shops around the country, and a dedicated focus on e-commerce. Among the countless innovations is the new premium lifestyle product launch, the “Honors,” a women’s athleisure apparel line, suitable for on- and off-course wear.
  • The Philippines’ most prominent distributor of brands—Rustan Marketing Corporation (RMK)—and the Nicklaus Companies have extended its successful licensing agreement for Jack Nicklaus Apparel through the year 2024. This marks the 25th year of the relationship between the two companies. The Jack Nicklaus Collection is prominently featured in dedicated Jack Nicklaus Shops in Rustan’s Department Stores and online.
  • Kosugi Inc. and Nicklaus Companies have signed a historic long-term contract extension to manufacture and distribute Jack Nicklaus and Golden Bear Apparel in Japan. The renewal means that the loyal partners will surpass 50 years working together building the Nicklaus brands. Across the various Nicklaus Companies branded businesses and products, the Japanese market has generated consumer sales into the billions of dollars.
The Nicklaus Companies and its largest worldwide licensee, Kosugi Inc.
Kosugi Inc. and Nicklaus Companies

It’s in our Roots

Nicklaus course design software

Not only does the Nicklaus name separate the firm from its competitors; so does its exclusive CAD and animation service. Out in the field, the architects at Nicklaus Design trained by Jack Nicklaus rely on their eyes, imagination, and experience to conjure up a new course or determine the best way to renovate an existing layout. But when they come back to headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens, they have a secret weapon: Proprietary software that lets them experiment with countless variations, as well as produce easy-to-understand maps, plans, and even animated presentations that quickly bring their concepts to life.

Called T2Green, this exclusive Nicklaus product has been developed over the past quarter-century by Director of Design Production Bobby Root. His software, unique in the golf industry, started with a series of standards he helped devise to depict the different features of a course—fairways, tees, property lines, greens—and the proposed contour grading of the course. In the early days, the designers would draw their plans on mylar. Today, CAD (Computer Aided Design) systems turn out detailed plans and drawings that the designers can then alter based on what the land offers, the owner’s requirements, Jack’s design philosophy—all the ingredients that go into making a Nicklaus course work.

A key element is the software’s ability to derive how much soil will be excavated. “We don’t want to have to haul dirt off the site or bring dirt in,” Root explains. “The software helps create a plan to minimize the impact of moving dirt around, as well as doing the calculations to assist in getting the site in balance.”

Root’s software has made the designers’ lives easier. “Through our proprietary software and partnerships with the top technology partners in the world, we are able to do for our design clients what no other architecture firm can deliver,”  explains Root. “As our architects’ plans are digitized, the software draws in cart paths, tees, greens, and so on, and places the centerlines for each hole like an expanding rubber band, dynamically showing the maximum distance to the landing area, which assists to rapidly create the routing, automatically generate a scorecard and a bill of materials for construction!”
Root’s latest improvements help others actually “see” the design. “We create animations, where we can visualize the course in 3D and play the course on a simulator before we even move any dirt!”

Entering his 27th year with Nicklaus Design, Root is as enthusiastic as ever. “When they bought my software, I was happy to work for free golf shirts! But I’m still here, and we’re making things better and better.”

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