Busy Nicklaus Plays Better : Upheaval in His Business Life Has Helped Him Put Spark Back in Golf Game

The sun had yet to rise and Jack Nicklaus’ airplane was already airborne, heading across the south toward Texas.

It was one day short of a month since he had enriched the lore of golf by winning the Masters championship and it was going to be a typically hectic one for Nicklaus the superstar, Nicklaus the businessman and Nicklaus the family man.

Every waking hour seems hectic for Nicklaus these days. Even before he went to Augusta, Ga., this year his springtime schedule was loaded to the brim. Then, over the space of a few magical hours on one of the most scenic sporting venues in the world, Nicklaus again became the central figure in golf.

His victory in the Masters, his 20th major title at the age of 46, touched off an outpouring of appreciation from golf fans around the world who were clearly in need of a hero for whom they could cheer.

As Nicklaus’ jet soared toward his appointment in Dallas, he reached for one letter after another--part of a pile brought on the trip by his secretary.

“I’ve received 2,000 pieces of mail since the Masters,” said Nicklaus. “You know, that is a lot of mail and two-thirds or three-fourths of it comes from people I don’t know.

“I spend all my time on airplanes reading it. There is a lot of similarity to it, I guess. People tell me they have never written a fan letter in their life, but they felt they wanted to write this one and wish me well and wish my family well. I’ve really enjoyed reading them. Some of them are seven and eight pages long, but that is nice.”

The tributes paid to Nicklaus publicly and privately since Augusta served to demonstrate what an important victory it was--one which rejuvenated interest in a game that was busy producing quality golf but no star figures.

“I gave myself a shot in the arm (by winning the Masters), that’s for sure,” said Nicklaus. “But by the number of letters I have had and judging by the articles I’ve read along those lines it makes me think that maybe the win did do some good (to the game as a whole).

“The last three or four years nobody dominated the tour. But the tour is going to have to go through periods like that.

“There are a lot of good, young kids out there with a lot of personality who will be the great players in the future. But evidently two or three years of that is more than people wanted. I guess that shot in the arm revitalized a lot of people in a lot of different areas.”

Nicklaus’ assignment in Dallas was a pleasant one. He won his first PGA championship at the Dallas Athletic Club in 1963 and 20 years later he was asked to re-design the course.

The job was finished earlier this year and Nicklaus came to town for the dedication and to play a round over the rebuilt layout.

Almost 2,000 members of the club showed up to walk around with Nicklaus as he explained why certain design features were added or taken away from the course.

“We wanted to make the first hole a relatively easy one,” Nicklaus said as he stood on the first tee. “We wanted it possible to get going with a nice start, maybe with a birdie.”

Then he looked at a group of women standing near the tee and said:

“Ladies, we wanted to make it easier for you to make a par.”

One of the women called out:

“We want to make birdies, too.”

“Well, I don’t blame you,” Nicklaus said, smiling a huge smile that won him another half dozen devoted fans.

The re-design of the course in Dallas is an example of Nicklaus’ business aims and, in an odd sort of twist, it was because of a recent upheaval in his business life that Nicklaus may have been able to put the spark back in his golf game.

Nicklaus’ massive realm of enterprises had been run for years by Chuck Perry, categorized by the golfer as being a tireless worker who knows how to get things done.

“Last fall I got into some of my business things and felt I was involved in too many things I didn’t want to be involved in,” Nicklaus said. “I had to make a decision in September whether to renew Chuck’s contract or not to renew it. I elected not to renew it.

“Then I had no choice. It was do things myself. Not that Chuck didn’t work real hard and try the best he could. It was just that he was heading in a direction I didn’t want to go. I wanted to get back into the areas I knew and the areas I wanted to do.

“We were doing a lot of things I didn’t want to do and spending money in a lot of places I didn’t want to and I just said it was not necessary. I’m not working to run an organization making all the money I was making just to sustain an organization. That didn’t make sense. I wanted to live like a human being and not somebody who is a figurehead in an organization.

“It took me about six months of work--work that I hadn’t done in a long time. But I got things pretty well accomplished before Augusta and now I’m pretty well free this summer to do nothing but play golf.”

Nicklaus’ personal involvement in his business ventures, as it turned out, may have been the best thing that could have happened to him.

“There is more to life than getting up in the morning and looking forward to chasing a white ball around,” Nicklaus said. “I enjoy using my head. It’s kind of fun.

“My wife always said that the busier I got the better I played. The last six or seven years Perry had been doing everything and I’ve been just sort of going out and playing golf. And I was playing the worst golf in my life.

“Now that I’m back working and using my head and doing some of the things I used to do, I’ve been really busy. The last few years I got up and went over to the office for an hour or so and returned two or three phone calls and signed a half dozen autographs. Then I would go to the golf course.

“That has been boring. When you get bored with that, you tend to get bored with your golf game, too. These other things have got my mind working and I’m spending a lot of time on them. As a result I don’t have as much time for golf so when I do play golf I have to apply myself.

“The time I put in on the course is much more quality time. That’s the way my wife puts it and I think she knows me reasonably well.”

Nicklaus gave the membership of the Dallas Athletic Club a quality show as they walked around the course with him. He eagled the par-5 third hole and shot a 4-under 68 even though he had not previously played the re-designed course.

“You know,” he told the crowd, “the people on television make a big thing about me not being able to see my ball when it hits the green (Nicklaus’ eyesight isn’t what it used to be).

“And they said that at Augusta I couldn’t see it at the 16th hole (the par-3 at which he almost made an ace during his fourth round charge). Well of course I couldn’t see it at the 16th hole. There was a bunker in the way. Nobody could see their ball land on that green if they hit it close to the hole.”

Moments later Nicklaus hit a particularly impressive drive, which caused him to observe to the crowd:

“Hey, that was pretty good. When is the next tournament?”

After an afternoon in the Texas sun, Nicklaus escaped to the shade of the clubhouse and talked some about the future. There is the U. S. Open, of course, to which Nicklaus will devote his full resources to next month.

But there are other things that will keep him in the public eye. It seems Nicklaus may be on his way to being the Walter Cronkite of golf.

“I’ve signed a deal with ABC,” Nicklaus said. “I’ll go in and do a preview for them of the major championships. Then I’ll do an overview for them after the second, third and fourth rounds. Basically it will be a commentary--why do I think what happened happened.

“I’ll do some tips to be shown during the program. But I’m also going to do some opinion pieces. I’ll discuss some issues of the day--like the Mac O’Grady thing (involving O’Grady’s ongoing feud with commissioner Deane Beman). That type of stuff.”

And what about down the road? Would Nicklaus, a sometimes critic of Beman, like to assume the commissioner’s role one day?

“I’ve been asked that question quite a bit lately,” he said. “I don’t have any desire now. Who knows about 10 years from now, though. I think Deane has, by and large, done a fairly decent job. We’re not going to agree on everything, but on 95% of the things he has done a very nice job.

“But 10 years from now, if my business is in a position where I want it and I want to do other things and the family is pretty well taken care of and the kids are out on their own, I might look at some of those things.”

Then, as if he suddenly realized what he was saying, he stopped and said:

“Nnnnooooo. I’ve got too many other things to worry about.”

With the shadows beginning to grow longer, Nicklaus was off to the airport.

“I going to try to get home to see Michael (his youngest) in a swimming meet,” Nicklaus said. “He’s in the sixth grade. He’s not really a swimmer. He’s just a good athlete and does everything he can.”