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There are great golfers and great golf course designers. And there’s Jack Nicklaus, who has excelled in both environments. His 18 major championships and 73 PGA Tour victories are testament to his game, but Nicklaus Design Co. has created nearly 300 courses on every continent but South America and Antarctica. Sixty-two of those courses have hosted professional golf events, including a Ryder Cup and the PGA Championship, and 41 have earned top 100 honors in golf publications. The enjoyment and satisfaction he takes in designing courses is a considerable factor in Nicklaus’ decision to retire from competitive golf this month. “I’ve always been obviously involved in my golf course work and designing work,” he said at the Memorial tournament in May. “I’ve really enjoyed that more since I’ve really stopped playing because I have a lot of fun. I spend more time at it, and I think we’ve got some great places we’re doing golf courses, and we’re doing some really nice facilities.” There are two types of Nicklaus Design courses. A Nicklaus Signature Course is a facility with a high level of involvement from the head man, while a course skippered by someone else in the company, such as his sons, have the Nicklaus Design moniker attached to them. “Even the projects where his personal involvement is less are affected by him because of the standard he’s set,” said Bryan Curley of Schmidt-Curley Designs. “You know Jack isn’t going to tolerate anything less than top quality and whether it’s him making the call or the people working with him making the call, you’re not going to end up with a bad product.” While some golfers simply lend their name to a project, Nicklaus knows his courses from the top of the flagstick to the bottom of the irrigation system. “I won’t name any names, but some famous golfers with their names on a golf property show up during the opening and don’t even know where the first tee is,” said Paul Levy, senior vice president of club operations for Sunrise Company, which owns Toscana Country Club, a Nicklaus Signature Course in Palm Desert that opened last year. “But Nicklaus has an unbelievable attention to detail. From our very first meeting when he got off the plane and started talking it was like he had the plans memorized.” Cal Olsen, an Orange County-based designer who includes Coyote Hills Golf Course on his resume, agrees that a Jack Nicklaus Signature Course definitely exhibits the Golden Bear’s paw prints. “A lot of big names have nothing to do with the project, but Nicklaus is an exception,” Olsen said. “He’s a lot more experienced and has more freedom than most designers because of his name and the budgets he receives and that helps him stay far more involved in a project than a lot of other celebrities.” Nicklaus’ rap in his early days was designing courses that challenged good golfers but ate up high handicappers. That has gradually changed over the years. “I think he’s a good designer today but he wasn’t when he started,” Olsen said. “Like many players turned designer he was looking at it from a player’s mind, but golf architecture isn’t just a function of playing golf. It’s also about engineering, land planning and landscape architecture. Over time, he’s been able to see the bigger picture and his courses have more character and qualities designed for players of all skill levels, rather than just professionals.” Gary Player, who, like Nicklaus, has had a successful design career, agreed that Nicklaus’ designs have mellowed over the years. “I believe in playability. I believe that the pros struggle with a long bunker shot, and it’s almost impossible for amateurs, so I place my bunkers close to the greens,” Player said. “Jack has predominantly done the opposite in his designs. I have not been a fan of Jack’s early design work, but his more recent work has certainly been recognized, and correctly so, amongst the best of modern course design.” Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta, a private course that opened in 1982, is a good example of an older Nicklaus layout. Severe bunkers, water hazards, towering trees and terraced greens make it a challenge — even from the 6,600-yard tees that most golfers use. “That sums this one up,” said Jeremy Clevenger, the course’s head professional. “It’s more than 20 years old and it can really kick your butt.” Many of Nicklaus’ pre-1990 courses are tougher because they were cheaper to build and maintain, Clevenger said. “You wouldn’t see pot bunkers this severe today because it costs so much to maintain,” he said. Nicklaus’ willingness to change his style and create courses that are enjoyable for all players makes him “one of the top 10 best out there, without a doubt,” Clevenger said. “He’s still designing courses from the eyes of a player, but I think he’s really learned to design courses for all skill levels, which I think is a sign of a great designer.” The increasing popularity of linking golf courses with real estate developments has made it trickier for designers, but Nicklaus has “pushed the envelope and raised the standard for what golf course communities can be,” Curley said. “There are some very good golf course designers who are purists who won’t design a course that’s part of a community,” Curley said. “If you offered Ben Crenshaw a course in Palm Springs surrounded by 300 homes, he’d probably pass. But Jack has never been afraid of getting involved with a golf community, and the courses he’s designed have really changed the way people approach those courses.” While it’s hard to characterize a distinctive “Nicklaus style” because of the number of courses he’s been involved with, Curley said there’s a sense of consistency to his courses that stem from his knowledge. “A lot of pros prior to Nicklaus and since him have gotten involved with designs that didn’t turn out very good, but I think you’d be hard pressed to point a stick at any Nicklaus design and say it missed the boat,” Curley said. “He’s always been associated with good quality and I think that’s because he has a good understanding and knowledge of the process and realized early the benefit of associating himself with good people.” Hale Irwin, another legendary golfer involved in the design business, says the Nicklaus name helps cut through some of the red tape and restrictions faced by many of his peers. “Not to downplay Jack in any way, but the projects in which he’s been involved usually have been high-budget, high-profile kinds of things,” Irwin said. “To me, the real design people are people who go in without a lot of money and still manage to create a great product. One thing you know when you see a Jack Nicklaus course is that it’s not going to be lacking in money.” N |
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