Jack Nicklaus on The Memorial Turning 50

Fifty years of the Memorial Tournament sounds like a sports anniversary, but the real story is what happens when a golf event is built to serve communities.  Lindsay and Bruce are joined by the greatest to ever pick up a golf club — Jack Nicklaus.  They talk about how Muirfield Village and the Memorial helped put Dublin, Ohio on the map, why the City relationship has lasted for decades, and what “give first” truly looks like.

Jack also shares the most personal reason behind the tournament’s charitable legacy: a frightening moment when his daughter Nan was a baby and Nationwide Children’s Hospital saved her life. That experience shaped a lifelong commitment to children’s health, from the Memorial’s fundraising impact in central Ohio to the growth of Nicklaus Children’s Hospital and clinics across South Florida. 

Then, Bruce and Lindsay lighten it up with rapid fire: Jack's walk-up song, the pressure putt that taught him to believe in himself, favorite milkshake flavor, and a behind the scenes Happy Gilmore cameo with an ad lib that made the final cut.

From golf history to philanthropy and leadership, this conversation delivers with Jack's signature wisdom, wit and vision for a better world. Subscribe for more, share this with a golf fan, and leave us a review with your biggest takeaway.

Transcript

Memorial Turns 50 Welcome Jack

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to Link Ahead. This year, one of the most iconic events in golf, the Memorial Tournament, turns 50. That's five decades of honoring the game, celebrating excellence, and making a real impact here in Dublin and across central Ohio.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

And at the center of all this is someone whose name is synonymous with the sport in this community. A hometown legend, a champion, a designer, and through his family's generosity, someone who's changed lives for generations. We have the GOAT Jack Nicholas. Welcome to Link Ahead. It is an honor to have you, sir. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

So the Nicholas family has been a really big part of our show over the last few years. We talked to your son, Jack Nicholas Jr., a couple of years ago. Last year we had the pleasure of talking to Barbara. And so to have you with us, we just feel really fortunate. Good. Well, let's start with Barbara because the two of you have really built something special here in Central Ohio where you both grew up. So when you step back and look at everything you've created together, what part of that legacy feels really personal to you?

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Yeah, we grew up here. I wanted to bring uh golf back in a uh a significant way to a to a town that uh uh had supported me as I grew up, where I grew up and watching going to Ohio State, watching going Upper Arlington and then going to uh Ohio State and then playing and watched you know Ohio State football as I everybody watched Ohio State football as a kid and what they grew up. Still do. And still do. Yeah. And uh uh, you know, I and then I started playing the tour, and I saw that, you know, outside of about six Ohio State football games, there really wasn't much going on in Columbus pile. Back in that particular time there wasn't anything else. We didn't have any other sports. They had a minor league baseball team and uh didn't have hockey back then. And the idea was to to bring uh uh the game of golf to Columbus in a uh major way and to uh uh showcase it uh to the to all the people in central Ohio. But to do that you needed to get a golf course, you needed to get a uh uh you know a uh a significant golf course. Uh you needed to have uh you know a sponsor, you needed to have uh uh as we have now, 4,000 volunteers. Yeah. Uh you need the support of the community. We moved to Dublin, so we needed the support of uh the city of Dublin. Um many things had to happen to make

Why Children’s Health Comes First

SPEAKER_01 2:39

it work.

SPEAKER_03 2:39

Well, we'll actually talk golf here in a moment, but we know that your charitable efforts are off the charts. You and Barbara have helped raise tens of millions of dollars in Central Ohio through the tournament and more than a hundred million dollars through your foundation to support children's health. How important is that legacy for you?

SPEAKER_01 2:57

No, it's very important, obviously. But we started back uh when uh our daughter Nan was uh 11 months old and she was choking and we didn't know why. Turned out to be a crayon at her windpipe, and uh Columbus Children's Hospital, now nationwide, went down and got that out and dropped it in her lungs with pneumonia. Barbara and I said if it was ever a uh uh we were ever in a position to help others who wanted it to be children. So the memorial tournament has been the uh the beneficiary, or I mean I shouldn't say that, the children's hospital has been the beneficiary of the memorial tournament uh ever since it started. And then uh as as time's gone on, uh and well, and we're we're sort of the co-recipients of Nicholas Children's Healthcare Foundation Memorial Tournament, but but we leave it in the city where it can where we we get it. So so uh we've never taken a dime out of Columbus for the for the for the hospital or our foundation. Then 21 years ago we were in in Florida, and we'd always if we were that's where we raised our family, and uh uh we either had to go to Orlando to get children's care or to Miami. And that's a that's a long way for us. It's you know, it's a couple hours either direction. And so uh the Honda Tournament moved to our turn our area, and uh a fellow named Fred Millsaps came to us and said that uh what what we've always sponsored we've always benefited children's charities. What in this area? And I looked at Barbara and she looked at me and we said it's you know it's time to start that. So we we we we went for it. And uh since that time we've uh started we started the foundation, and then we ended up making a relationship with Miami Children's. Miami children's then decided that they were they were a uh uh a very regional name, so they wanted to use our name if they could. So they we supported that. We had we obviously had to get a uh a donation from a foundation who'd raise some money. So we did that. So it's now Nicholas Children's Hospital, the whole health system, Nicholas Children's Healthcare System in Miami and South Florida. We have 30 some outpatient clinics up and down the east and west coast of Florida now. And uh we've raised uh a little over 250 million dollars for the for in that foundation, and then then the tour came to us and uh asked us to uh help with uh the children's miracle network hospitals and our hospital uh down there and the uh nationwide children's here are both the miracle network hospitals. And they wanted to raise $100 million in in five years, and we said we would go through that program. That's where we started the play yellow campaign. But after about four years, we'd raised about 140. So we said, well, maybe we just keep on going. So we just keep going on that, and then we've been involved with other charities in the various other cities and so forth. So I don't know what Barbara and I've uh been involved in, but it really doesn't make any difference. The number the number is not important, the importance is that there's been a lot of kids who've been helped by a lot of people who cared. And uh uh they they they took the the the uh guidance that Barbara and I, they they trusted us uh with their money uh to help help others. And uh uh we've I think I guess we've delivered uh uh you know on a on a good scale and and uh people have trusted us and and we we appreciate that very much. And you know, it's uh it's been a whole new thing for me. I've I started Barb for the first 40 years of our marriage. Barbara supported me. And you know, I then she so uh since since that time since since I quit playing golf, then it's my turn to support her. So this was her thing, and uh we got it. I've and I've had a blast at it. I've I've just absolutely had more fun, you know, being involved in the charities and being part of supporting my wife and supporting what's going on. So uh it's been a long story, but it's uh it's uh it's it's been a very rewarding one from uh from you know uh a warm feeling about it, and uh I know a lot of people would benefit, so we're very proud.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

What an amazing legacy. And I know when we talked to Barbara last year, she talked about getting some cards in the mail of people sharing their stories about the impacts that it has, and they they don't have to drive as far to get care, and it really has changed a lot of lives. So um it's it's great to hear you reflect on

Choosing Dublin And Funding Muirfield

SPEAKER_00 7:29

that. So um let's uh go back to the early 70s. And I heard you talking at the Legends luncheon about, you know, there were some other options, but what made you look here in Dublin and say this is where we should build?

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Well, we had we looked at several pieces of property. This was one of them. And uh I don't remember if this was the first or the second or the third. Novigators, it was one that I'd been on as a kid. Uh sort of walked through it in the the farmland up here with my father. We we hunted hundred rabbits. I don't think we ever hunted ever saw one of them. Hunted pheasants, but no, we never saw a pheasant. But anyway, it doesn't make any difference. I suppose we were deer hunting too, but we never saw a deer. But now we got more deer and pheasants and deer, pheasant, ducks, you got everything you think about it. If you look out here, you'll see a fox running across a fairway or something. A lot of wildlife has come about because of it. Right. And I forgot what your question was, but how we picked the spot. Yeah, absolutely. So anyway, we we looked at it and uh uh I finally ended up the first piece of property here. Uh trying to think what the name of the people was. It's not that important at this point, I suppose, but we bought 150 acres. Uh and then I bought another hundred acres from William Chercheski. And uh then we needed we needed a little bit more land to do what we wanted to do, and and and the and the and the sort of the creek bed went across uh uh Ashball Road, and that was the road it used to be up there down right behind the 14th Green. And uh uh we bought 1,100 and some acres from the Williams family in Cincinnati. And so that gave us a pretty pretty decent sized uh piece of ground. Uh then try to get how how am I going to finance this? Where are we gonna get the money? So we uh uh a fellow I knew from high school was a couple years ahead of me, the lady Putt Peerman. And Putt got uh got involved and he decided that he would help me with it, and he said he'd get the financing done. He did it through uh public financing with with the Ohio company, uh and the Wolf family, essentially. And uh we did a nine million public uh offering, which 2.45 was for the golf course. Uh we did the golf course and spent the 2.45. That's for the golf course at a clubhouse. And uh at that at that point in time I decided that uh, you know, I really I was a 20, let's see what was it. I I was still probably still in my twenties, probably 29 year old at that time. Um that I was not interested in being a real estate business or anything else. So uh we had some partners that were involved in the project, and I said I gave them the real estate project and they gave me the golf course land. And so the golf course land was valued at $455,000 in that in that thing. And uh uh we took that uh I took that land and then I I gave the club an option uh to uh buy that land from me at any time. I wanted to one of the things I wanted to make sure of is that the that the pros coming in here were my friends, and that I was not profiting off of them. I didn't I didn't feel that was the right thing to do. I wouldn't I wasn't comfortable with that. So I structured Beerfield so I couldn't make any money. And never have made any money off of Beerfield. I mean, uh it's probably been my biggest sales tool simply because of what it is and what's become, but it never never never never never made a dime here. And so uh the club finally bought the land back from me for $455,000 about 15 years later. They uh the club owns owns this property. Uh that was a pretty good buy for them. And uh uh you know, we've had the had the we've had the uh sort of a I don't I don't know what you have it, sort of a unwritten rule of the board uh that uh we sort of run the property, you know, we always have. And uh and the club and the members have always yielded to that. They've all that's what they wanted. So we've we've had the tournament and we've had other events and the club has grown and the community has grown. Dublin, you know, was probably less than a thousand people when we came here. Dublin's now what what 60, 70,000 people, I suppose. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Over 50, yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Yeah, over 50, yeah. Well, your greater great Dublin's gotta be more than that. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, so I don't I don't really know what the number is. But anyway, but it's become a nice community. We we uh the city of Columbus brought water to Mearfield, and then we we put water and sewage to from here to Dublin. We took it from here. So, you know, Mirfield's been a very integral part in the growth of Dublin, and we're very proud of that. And uh Dublin's become a very nice community, and the and the the the the uh powers to be in Dublin have done a very nice job of growing uh growing it and protecting it and and making sure that it's not become just a sprawl, right? It's become a nice community. So we're very proud to be part of that. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

You've had a 50-year relationship with the city of Dublin. Uh how do you think it's gone so well for so long?

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Well, I think like any relationship is that you uh if you gotta uh I think Barbara and I have a have a uh saying that what we do is what what makes a successful marriage, and we say it's about 95% give and five percent take both ways. And so you know in many ways that's what we try to do with our relationship. I've always felt that I would rather give more than I take. So we've always wanted to make sure that the the the Dublin and and and the people around here knows that Muirfield wants to contribute more to you than than we want back. Uh but in in doing that, Muirfield has uh Dublin has worked very much with us to make sure that this becomes part of their city, part of the event becomes part of them. And uh they've done a very nice job. They're very proud of it, and we're very proud to be part of Dublin.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

Awesome.

Building A Player First Tournament Experience

SPEAKER_03 13:39

I want to kind of talk about the tournament itself just for a minute. Like when you're watching the tournament, your eye is different than everybody else's eye. You've seen things that no one else has seen. What's something you notice when you're watching that most fans watching at home would never notice?

SPEAKER_01 13:54

How would I know that? I have no idea what I would see and they don't see. You know, I mean I look at it from I look at it from how the you know what I try to do here was try to create an event that I would want to go play in myself and as I would I would want to be treated.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

I mean we patterned a lot of the stuff we had from Augusta. And I think I think Augusta is a wonderful event. But I think there's a lot of things here we've done better than Augusta because we've been more personal about it. And uh, you know, I'm not knocking Augusta because I love Augusta. And don't get me wrong, I don't mean that by anything at all because Master's an unbelievable tournament and an unbelievable event. Uh but but we've, you know, I saw that, you know, I'd like to see how how I'd like to have the locker room created. I'd like to see how how the players are treated in the locker room, like to see how the practice range is, what the facility is, how the preparation of the putting green and the relationship and the how the players can get to and from and move through and how the taking care of their families. Uh where we're sitting right now is is player family dining here in the founders' room. And uh, you know, it's you know, all the things that I would like to see happen in a golf tournament if I were playing, I wanted to bring bring here. And that's what we've tried to do. And I don't know whether I ever even come close to answering your question because I can't remember what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

This is a better answer than what my question was.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

But I remember what it was. But but you know, it's it's trying to do the thing the right way.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

And uh uh if you try to do something the right way, I think people embrace it. The players have embraced it. I mean, you ask any of the players, I think I mean I don't know whether I'm sure there's others that have more different opinions, but I would say that a far majority of the players probably prefer this tournament to any other tournament on the tour. Oh, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

After all this time, what still matters the most to you about tournament week?

SPEAKER_01 15:50

You try to do what you can do and not try to get out of your own comfort zone. So if we could do what we can do here and do it well, and then that's the way I played golf. I tried to, if I prepared for a golf tournament, I tried to do what I could do, prepared for what I could do, and if I tried to get tried to get out of that, that's where I got in trouble. So you try not to get out of that, out of that zoo that you feel like uh covers uh the right thing to do.

SPEAKER_03 16:16

Speaking of the right thing to do, like how has golf changed in your mind when you when you see the players today and you know uh people pay homage to you, like and you paid homage to the people that came before you. Like what what do you see in the players today that to that's gonna keep this game going forward?

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Well, I think the players today uh I always use the phrase they get it.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

And what they get is that that you know, different than when we started, charity was a very small part of the tour.

SPEAKER_02 16:45

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Sorry. But charity is a huge part of the tour today. And golf golf uh gives more to charity each year than all the other major sports combined.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Really.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

And that's a lot. And there's about uh about four billion dollars, if I'm not mistaken, giving every year. But that's not all that's not all through tournament golf. Tournament golf provides maybe a third of that. But the rest of it happens from the I don't know, the 70,000 I don't know how many tournaments are tournaments, little tournaments there are around the world, that people get involved for local charities and l and involvement. And golf is a very uh great game for community and people to get together and raise money for good causes. And so the tour the tourist did a really good job with that. Uh and and and and as I said, we started out here. We maybe gave five or ten thousand dollars the first first year or two. I don't know, maybe maybe it's more than that. I don't really don't know. Uh but you know, and and we're not the largest on tour by any means, but I mean I think the I think Valero might be a largest. They they they they give like th twenty twenty million dollars every year to charity. I mean, and and that's a lot of money to be. They gotta work hard to get that done. And so, but it's but it it's a big part of what we do, and it's a big part of what the whole tour does now. And I think that's what it's it's it's sort of the uh glue that brings people together for for good causes.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

And I'm sure you realize that that's part of your impact, you're in Barbara's impact on on the sport and your legacy. So um I'm curious with the game heading in uh different directions over recent years, how important is it that the Memorial Tournament is a signature event on the PGA tour?

SPEAKER_01 18:34

It's one of the top events, and it's gonna be remain one of the top events. And I assume I can't imagine the tour changing that the tour relies on us being a pretty integral part of what they do.

SPEAKER_03 18:44

So we value your time, and we're gonna go ahead and go to this section that we call rapid fire.

Rapid Fire Sinatra Putts Milkshakes

SPEAKER_03 18:49

So feel free to say I'm not answering or whatever you want to do.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

So I'm not answering that. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

Some of these are goofy, even some of them are not. So you're a buckeye, so I'm hoping you embrace this one. Um if golf had walk-up songs, what would your walk-up song be?

SPEAKER_01 19:04

My radio is always on uh XM70, if that's what you mean. Okay. That's serious Sinatra.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

Yeah. I mean, I like old music.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

I don't know, Bruce. You did your research. I can't I can't understand the music today. I I I don't I I like I I don't know how anybody can dance to it to start with. Yeah. You know, it's just throw your hands up in the air and jump up and down. I mean uh that's all right. I mean, you know, times change. Absolutely. It's okay. But I mean, you know, I I I happen to like slow music that you understand. I mean, I like I like country and I like uh I like some of the rock. I like I mean I like things too, but but but most of the stuff is I like simple stuff. All right, there we go.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Sinatra. You heard it here first.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

Um what is one shot that you still think about, not because it was perfect, but because it taught you something?

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Probably the first putt that I made, or the last putt I made in the in the U.S. amateur in 1959. I had an eight-foot putt to win a 36-hole match against Charlie Coe in the finals. And I and and I we were all even going to the last hole, and Coe chipped it about an inch from the hole, and I had about an eight-footer to make it. I made that putt. And that putt was a putt that I uh uh it allowed me to believe in myself and believe that I could do it when I had to do it and do it, and I did it. And so from then on I believed that I could do that when I needed to make it. And I think it was probably the most important shot I ever hit.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

Wow. Speaking of playing, you once called winning here in 77 your greatest thrill in golf. Does that still hold true?

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Yeah, it was the most difficult tournament to win. I mean, I was doing as I was a host and trying to take care of the players and trying to make sure that the people that came enjoyed it, trying to make sure the golf course was clean. We're picking up picking up cigarette butts and papers and cups and everything. All my caddies like had ever had to empty his pockets about every every every every two holes to get rid of all the stuff I picked up. And I was playing golf at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Hard to focus.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

I didn't even think about that.

SPEAKER_03 21:09

You're like the manager of the operation and playing.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Oh, I mean, I was a cleanup guy, too. Yeah, did all that stuff and then met with the staff about how the golf course you played and how it was going to go and well, you know, how the green the tour didn't have as it wasn't as dominant in those days as it relates to what uh they picked.

SPEAKER_03 21:26

I have to ask you, because you rattled that moment off so easily. Do you remember the victories or the losses more?

SPEAKER_01 21:34

I never heard of any losses.

SPEAKER_03 21:36

That's the best answer I've heard too.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

I mean, basically, you know, you learn you you learn a lot from from when we don't win.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

You you understand, you get to figure out why you didn't win, why you did this, why the mistakes you made, and then you may you need to put those in into perspective and how to use them to help your benefit. But you also got to learn that when you win. I had a lot of losses. You're gonna have a play and go if you're gonna play golf, you're gonna have a lot more losses than you are winning. And so you gotta you play along and you try to learn from each time you play and the mistake that you made and uh you just you try to build on it.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Switching gears just a little bit. I'm sorry, you probably get asked this all the time. But we can't not ask about the famous milkshakes. So what's your favorite flavor?

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Uh well actually I don't the buckeye is always the club's favorite. I I'm a vanilla malt guy myself, I'm an old style guy.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

All right.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

But uh the uh you know the buckeye's a great milkshake. I as I say that's probably our b the the biggest uh request is in the in the in the locker room is is that one. I don't know how many milkshakes we go through, but that's a good step. That would be a good one. We're gonna have to get that stuff. I I think they told me uh something like 11,000 milkshakes for a week of a tournament.

SPEAKER_03 23:04

Cows here on standby. Yes, right.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_03 23:08

Uh one last question.

Happy Gilmore Cameo And Closing

SPEAKER_03 23:10

We all watched Happy Go More 2 last year. Uh tell us about that call. What who called you and what made you want to be a part of that?

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Scott Tully, who's been with me for a hundred years. Uh I think Scott got a call, and uh then uh Adam called me and asked me if I would be called with him.

SPEAKER_03 23:30

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

And uh he couldn't have been nicer, and I said I would do it. So a lot of guys did it.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

It was like the players' dinner.

SPEAKER_02 23:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

And we were all sitting at a table with Adam and myself and I'd see Trevino and uh uh Freddie Couples, and and you know, we had we had a good conversation. And Travis Kelsey was way. Yeah, yeah, he's the way and I used to Travis came up to me. I wanted to ask him for like to have a an iced tea and lemonade. And he says, You mean an Arnold Palmer? That's right. And I and I said, No, Jack Nicholas. And I said, but I get that a lot. That was that was an ad lib on my part. That was not scripted? No, no, that was not scripted. Wow. That was I don't know why I came up with it, and they liked it, so they used it. Comedics. But it was supposed to be an Arnold Palmer, that was supposed to be it as a joke, but I just I I had to finish it my way. Adam couldn't have been nicer. He was he was he was a terrific host, and I think all the guys enjoyed it and had fun being part of it.

SPEAKER_03 24:35

That is so that's such a great story. Because I'm sure when the first one came out, you were like, What is this?

SPEAKER_01 24:40

And then it's when I went back and watched the old first first uh Happy Gilmore, yeah, kind of would find out how stupid it was, you know. Yeah, and uh which it was.

SPEAKER_03 24:50

But this was too, but that's what it was meant to be.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

Absolutely, absolutely stupid humor. And and so uh but I think that I think they did I think they really did a good job as a sequel.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

I think they did a nice job. I think they pulled it off, and I think more people probably enjoyed the second one more than the first one.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

Well, and the cameos made it. That's it. Well, you had a lot of golfers that gave their time to be part of that.

SPEAKER_03 25:13

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

I mean, I mean all you saw, all those guys. I love Scotty Shefford, and he he didn't want to leave jail because he was getting better food there.

SPEAKER_03 25:20

That was a funny line. Yeah, it was a good line.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

A lot of good lines, a lot of good lines in it.

SPEAKER_03 25:24

Well, that was awesome. All right, Jack. Thank you so much for joining us today, and we appreciate your time, and thank you so much for being a part of Dublin and part of this community. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

Memorial tournament loves being part of the city of Dublin, and we enjoy the support we get from the city, and we thank you for uh all the support you're giving us.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Love to have you. What a true honor, and we can't wait to see you back here in Dublin for the Memorial Tournament 50th anniversary, June 1st through the 7th.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

Right. Look forward to it.