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NICKLAUS golf at its VERY BEST 2011 EDITION
A SITE VISIT WITH JACK NICKLAUS GOLDEN MEMORIES: 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF JACK’S HISTORIC 1986 MASTERS WIN NICKLAUS DESIGN: 350 COURSES AND COUNTING
FROM THE GOLDEN BEAR
WE ALL FULLY UNDERSTAND
that we are in the midst of difficult
times, and no industry has felt more the brunt of these challenging days than golf. More courses have closed in the United States
in each of the last four years than have opened. Yet our collective
golf lives go on, and your continued hard work in maintaining a special golf and club experience deserves our appreciation. It also deserves our help.
At Nicklaus Design, we consider each of our courses a member
of our extended family. And as families tend to do, we constant-
ly try to identify ways to support and help family members. In this case, the task is how we can support the marketing and membership efforts of all our clubs. Part of that assistance is accessing and
leveraging the valued relationships we have cultivated throughout the industry
For many years, we have considered LINKS Magazine a friend to Nicklaus Design. President and
Publisher Jack Purcell Jr. is the son of long-time personal friend Jack Purcell Sr., who is a Found-
ing Member at my Florida home club, The Bear’s Club. LINKS covers not only the game of golf,
but also the business of course design and the fraternity of clubs, resorts and golf communities through-
out North America. Like us, they recognize the challenges facing clubs in need of new members and courses in need of more players.
That’s why LINKS is introducing Nicklaus Premier Clubs a celebration of some of our courses
and clubs in North America and the Caribbean. It is our collective hope that this publication will introduce and promote your club to LINKS readers in key markets. Through quality writing and memorable photography, the goal of Nicklaus Premier Clubs is to tell your story—our story—in the
most compelling way.
JACK NICKLAUS
NICKLAUSPREMIERC LU B S
MUIRFIELD VILLAGE GOLF CLUB Jack Nicklaus has poured a lifetime of knowledge into this showcase course in his hometown
M
UIRFIELD VILLAGE GOLF CLUB has seen innumerable
alterations during its 30-plus years, but its core identity has never been compromised. To understand why, we must consider the two causal forces to which it is subordinate: Jack Nicklaus and nature. Careful scrutiny of the acreage tells us which of the two has stamped a more notable imprint upon it窶年icklaus.
NICKLAUSPREMIERC LU B S
All golf courses naturally undergo cycles of death and rebirth, but Muirfield Village—located near Nicklaus’ hometown of Columbus, Ohio, and named after Muirfield, the classic Scottish links where Nicklaus first played overseas, in the 1959 Walker Cup, and where he won his first British Open in 1966—is that rare creation constantly reborn, moving into the realm of reflective art and becoming both the ultimate expression of its author and an extension of him. As such, it is never satisfactorily completed, placing it in unique company with Pinehurst Resort’s No. 2 course, which Donald Ross lovingly nurtured until his death in 1948. Home to the PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament and the first of what would come to be known as “stadium courses,” Muirfield Village had much to live up to when it opened on Memorial Day in 1974. The Nicklaus name and reputation were unmistakably on the line, although as a designer the Golden Bear was merely a cub. That’s why he enlisted Pete Dye’s help in choosing the site—it turned out to be hunting grounds Jack had long ago traipsed with his father and just the second of 16 prospective properties he was to assess—and was willing to accept in4 |
2011 EDITION
Above: A large bunker guards the fairway of the 470-yard 1st hole. Left: Nicklaus surveys the site, which was acquired in 1966. Opposite: The 184-yard 12th was modeled after its counterpart hole at Augusta National Golf Club.
put from Dye and the late Desmond Muirhead in its routing. Nicklaus promised that the end product would be “a showplace … a way for me to relate what I think great golf and great tournaments should be.” That showplace has produced many hair-raising moments. Roger Maltbie won the Memorial’s first edition in 1976 thanks to a fortuitous bounce off a gallery-rope stake that helped him save par in a playoff against Hale Irwin. An improbable holed bunker shot on the 72nd hole lifted Paul Azinger to victory over a stunned Payne Stewart in 1993. (Stewart saluted Azinger by shoving bananas in his friend’s loafers before departing.) Then there were the two Nicklaus triumphs, in 1977 and 1984, which were as difficult and satisfying to Jack as any of his 71 other PGA Tour wins. A plaque on the back porch of a house adjacent to the 17th fairway commemorates the miraculous bogey the Golden Bear converted in ’84 after he had driven onto that porch, out of bounds. That bogey preserved hopes of victory, which Nicklaus secured in a playoff over Andy Bean. Nicklaus never made it a secret that the course and any tournament conducted on it should emulate Augusta Na-
‘As we’ve changed the golf course, we’ve tried to preserve the philosophy of the original design. The primary objective
’
is to make players hit golf shots.
tional and his favorite event, the Masters. Although the idea of building his own club and hosting a tournament in his hometown had been germinating for a year or two, it didn’t take root until the 1966 Masters, when Nicklaus issued marching orders to one of his Columbus friends, Ivor Young, to find property in central Ohio suitable for such purposes. Comparisons between Muirfield Village and Augusta National Golf Club abound. Augusta co-founder Bobby Jones and Nicklaus started their respective clubs mindful of golf’s highest ideals. Each man had a co-designing role (Jones with Alister MacKenzie) in golf courses that reflect similar philosophies. Augusta and Muirfield are predominantly second-shot examinations, though Muirfield, with its heavily bunkered, elevated greens is much more of a modern aerial test. The par-3 12th, playing over water to a narrow green, was inspired by Augusta National’s famed 12th hole, Golden Bell. Finally, in the Memorial Tournament’s early years, consultation from Clifford Roberts, the crusty longtime Augusta chairman, was solicited. 6 |
2011 EDITION
What professionals encountered when they arrived in the freshly incorporated town of Dublin was an immaculate layout evincing bedrock Nicklaus design features—generous fairways, challenging and well-protected greens, and holes routed predominantly downhill. Also unveiled to tournament golf was a ground-breaking concept Nicklaus referred to as “amphitheatering:” mounding on the periphery of playing areas that offered unobstructed spectator views. “With the exception of Augusta, we’d never seen anything like Muirfield,” says Lee Trevino, a recent Memorial honoree (each year, the tournament honors an individual for his lifelong contributions to golf). “That son of a gun is one tough golf course, but it’s also in such great condition. Typical Jack, everything is done first-class.”
L.C. LAMBRECHT (2)
Above: The 527-yard 5th hole is reachable in two with two well-carved shots. Right: The Memorial Tournament boasts an enviable roster of winners that includes the host, who was victorious in 1977 and 1984.
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BY THE NUMBERS: Nicklaus Premier Clubs will be sent to 15,000 of LINKS Magazine’s most affluent subscribers.
Each club can provide 250 TO 500 NAMES of their best prospects; each prospect will receive a copy of Nicklaus Premier Clubs. Nicklaus Premier Clubs will be printed on HIGH-QUALITY
HEAVY, HIGH-GLOSS COVER.
PAPER with a
LINKS MAGAZINE’S STAFF will produce a feature article of four or eight
pages about your club. The words, photos and layout of the articles will match the quality of the features in the regular magazine, the leading golf-lifestyle publication in the U.S.
Each club will receive 500 COPIES of Nicklaus Premier Clubs with a personalized cover, featuring a photo of your club, to distribute to prospects. Each club will receive 1,250 Nicklaus Premier Clubs.
REPRINTS of the article that appeared in
Each club will receive 12 MONTHS’ NicklausPremierClubs.com.
EXPOSURE on an exclusive Web site:
MAIL DATE: February 1, 2011 8-PAGE FEATURE ARTICLE: $20,000 4-PAGE FEATURE ARTICLE: $12,000
SEBONACK GOLF CLUB, Southampton, New York
THE BEAR’S CLUB, Jupiter, Florida
JOIN NICKLAUS PREMIER CLUBS For decades Jack Nicklaus has been the gold standard for golf, first as a player then as a golf course designer. His courses around the world have been recognized for their beauty, playability and challenge.
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NICKLAUS golf at its VERY BEST 2011 EDITION
Nicklaus Design and and LINKS have teamed up to offer Nicklaus-designed properties and facilities a unique platform for showcasing their strengths to the select, upscale audience of LINKS readers. These are the golfer who truly appreciate what being part of the Jack Nicklaus family is about, and they are eager to learn more about your club.
DON’T MISS THIS GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY
L.C. LAMBRECHT
A SITE VISIT WITH JACK NICKLAUS GOLDEN MEMORIES: 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF JACK’S HISTORIC 1986 MASTERS WIN NICKLAUS DESIGN: 350 COURSES AND COUNTING
Whether it has hosted a major championship or is a private sanctuary for its members, every Nicklaus-designed course belongs to an elite fraternity. The Nicklaus name stands for the very best in golf, and we celebrate that status with Nicklaus Premier Clubs, a special publication produced by LINKS Magazine, the leading golf-lifestyle golf magazine in the United States.
PRONGHORN GOLF CLUB, Bend, Oregon