I find Adam Clayman’s last post very interesting. It reminds me that we are all who we are today due to what we’ve experienced in our lifetimes. To find out what Jack is, perhaps we should look at the path he took to get where he is…
From his youth, he built a resume that makes him arguably the greatest golfer in the history of the game.
It is my understanding that when Pete Dye built The Golf Club just outside of Columbus, Ohio he had Mr. Nicklaus come out and hit a few shots here or there in an attempt to help Pete put together a hole or two.
Then in 1967 (?), Mr. Dye worked with Jack Nicklaus to build Harbour Town. It is my understanding that Mr. Dye really built the course, but again Jack contributed here or there, hit a shot or two, and advised on how the holes might play.
Then he built, arguably, his best golf course, Muirfield Village. Here is some verbage from Golf.com about MVGC,
“Nicklaus first conceived of Muirfield Village while competing in the 1966 Masters. Wouldn't it be great, he thought, if he could do something like Bobby Jones did with the Augusta National experience, but do it in Columbus, Ohio, where he grew up. Back then, the Bear was associated with architect/land planner Desmond Muirhead, who had a talented associate in his employ named Jay Morrish. Together, they crafted what quickly became one of the PGA Tour's most admired golf courses.
Critics lauded "The House That Jack Built," as much for its flawless conditioning as for its design hallmarks, but every bit as impressive was how Nicklaus seamlessly integrated spectator areas into the closing holes, using hillsides and amphitheater-style mounding to provide fans with unimpeded views of the action…
Immediately after Nicklaus finished Muirfield Village, he formed his own design firm, with Jay Morrish and Bob Cupp as his lead associates. They quickly fashioned a number of top-tier courses designed specifically to host tournaments, such as Glen Abbey (Canadian Open), The Greenbrier course at the Greenbrier (1979 Ryder Cup) and Shoal Creek (1984 and 1990 PGA Championship). These were intended to be fair, but relentlessly challenging layouts that would test the pros
By the 1980s, however, Nicklaus began crafting courses that played hard for the pros — even if no tournament would ever be held there. Course design had trended towards extremely dramatic, but extremely difficult courses and Nicklaus obliged his developer-clients by doing just that. Prevailing opinion went something like this: "Jack builds gorgeous courses that are impossible to play, maintain or afford. They're built for his game: long, with shallow, elevated, fiercely fortified greens that require soaring, faded approaches."
Jack responded to this criticism by saying, “eventually I began to listen to the critics. I started trying to balance my work. This was a significant step up for me as designer."
Also in the article Eric Smith posted I thought there were some pretty interesting snippets. Check this one out. It touches on a site visit from Mr. Nicklaus and highlights his interaction with this crew…
“At each stop, Jack machine-guns advice: Raise this, lower that, soften this, lose that bunker, make a lake, fill one in, bring in a cliff, put a waste area over there, move the turn point. The poor contractor has to figure out how to make it happen….
Then they come to No. 7. This hole is a blank canvas, the first in a series where no real planning has been done. Jack stops his vehicle. All the others halt, too. The golf-shirt entourage gathers. Cope slides his notebook into one of Jack's hands, a pencil into the other. Jack looks at both the tips and the members' tees. There is something funny about the Golden Bear imagining how a duffer would get around a course. As he has gotten older, and his own game has slipped, he's grown better at this. He doesn't just imagine a younger version of himself on the tee. He also imagines his grandson. "I've started to think like that," he says. "It's like trying to think in Spanish."
Today, the issue is how far Joe Golfer will be able to hit the ball in the air. Jack looks out from the tee. "That's not much of a carry," he says.
Senior designer Jim Lipe sits in the back. "It's a helluva carry for me," he says.
"You're a frigging old man," Jack says.
"I've got to hit it up the right side?"
"Here's what you've got, Jim," Jack says. "You've got 260 here. Members are gonna have 225. Ladies are gonna have 185 maybe, something like that, to get into that area. You play up here. You're an old man. That's where I play."
"Well, OK."
"Do you think that's right?" Jack asks. "If you don't like it, say so."
This is a critical moment. Sometimes, a staffer says, he really wants to know. Other times, he's thinking aloud and doesn't want anyone to talk him down. Or at least that's how some of the staff perceive it, especially the younger ones. So they try to listen to his voice and decipher the question behind the question.
Lipe, who has been with Jack for more than two decades, speaks freely. "I like it," he says.
They move on.
In the second vehicle, designer Chris Cochran, who started a few months before Lipe, shakes his head. He's a world-class architect, helping to create some of the best courses on the planet. But even he's in awe watching Jack create golf holes so quickly. "I can't do this," he says. "I've got to sit in an office, plot, sketch, think about it."”
So as I see it, you’ve got the greatest golfer in the history of the game who got his introduction to golf architecture by simply showing up, hitting a few shots, stating a thought or two and then moving on. His first taste of this yielded The Golf Club, a perennial Top 100 club. Then he formally works with Pete Dye at Harbour Town, again he offers his opinion here or there and, voila, Top 100 course. Then Muirfield Village, again Top 100.
Why would he change this method? I wouldn’t.
But he does say in the quotes I included that he listens to his critics and changes as appropriate. Then he works on Sebonack with Tom Doak and RGD. Then comes Dismal River. Since he is rumored never to visit other architects sites/courses, maybe this possibly could have been a learning experience for him and could serve as another step in his design process.
Who knows.