Mention the name Jack Nicklaus and the golf record book reads like his personal yellow pages. The Golden Bear’s dominance for such a prolonged period of time was nothing short of total supremacy.
Among his greatest accomplishments is the 49th playing of The Memorial Tournament played this week at the club he founded and designed—Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.
But Jack’s ultimate success came when meeting a young college co-ed named Barbara Bash during their freshmen year at Ohio State. They were engaged Christmas of 1959 and married July 23, 1960, bringing together what has become the most formidable pairing in golf history.
Professional golf can be a most difficult balancing act. Vast amounts of travel with considerable separation time. When Jack and Barbara married, the need to secure financial independence was no small matter given the paltry sums of prize money.
Adding to matters, a young family was set in motion in September of 1961 with the birth of Jack, II. Four more children entered the picture in the years to follow, named Steve, Nan, Gary, and Michael.
The outward spotlight centered on the growing success of Jack’s playing career—winning the 1962 U.S. Open at 22 in a playoff against Arnold Palmer and then adding a green jacket at the Masters in 1963 with a PGA Championship title later that summer. By 1966, he became just the fourth golfer to achieve the career Grand Slam in winning The Open Championship at Muirfield.
At the home front in Florida, Barbara tended to all the internal details that receive far too little attention or even respect. Getting everything organized and in motion with five children is no small task. There is also the sublimation of one’s ego, given widespread attention showered on one’s spouse.
Sometimes matters can be off-putting requiring the deftest response.
During the couple’s honeymoon enroute to Atlantic, City, New Jersey, from New York, Jack secured the opportunity to play Pine Valley, the acclaimed club rated as the finest in the world.
One critical issue, though, happened. The club was strictly men’s only at that time—which Jack did not know. Barbara was forced to remain outside the gates while he played. Ask yourself this—how many young wives would have accepted the indignity?
The role of wife and mother is often undervalued by those following the success of a given sports figure. The strain can be enormous and through the years a multitude of marriage dissolutions have hit turbulent waters and crashed.
Notably, the most publicized split involving Tiger Woods, given his marital infidelities and the most recent divorce announcement from Rory McIlroy during this year’s PGA Championship after seven-plus years of marriage.
Golf is a time-consuming sport. The travel and preparation needed to compete often collides with the day-to-day reality of relationship building and tending to the needs of children as they mature into adulthood. The balancing act is ever-evolving and the elasticity for the couple’s ability to adapt is always tested.
Jack Nicklaus always placed his duties as husband and father first. Routinely making time to attend various events and activities of his children even when in the midst of competitions.
Barbara Nicklaus is often referred to as “The First Lady in Golf” and her capacity to connect is personified via handwritten notes to those individuals who have intersected with her family. Old school—yes. Yet always demonstrating a sincerity centered squarely through total authenticity.
Difficult moments did arise. In 1981 son Steve was charged with drunk driving on, of all roads, the Jack Nicklaus Freeway in Columbus, Ohio.
But the most gut-wrenching came in March 2005 when Steve’s 17-month-old son Jake Walter Nicklaus tragically drowned in a pool accident.
Through it all Barbara has been the steady rock.
While Jack received the prestigious Bob Jones Award in 1975, it took the United States Golf Association (USGA) 40 years to recognize Barbara in 2015. The sheer totality of Barbara’s effort includes charitable involvements providing an empathetic dimension embodying who she is as a person. Interestingly, the couple remain the only married pair as recipients of the Bob Jones Award.
The 84-year-old’s involvement has been instrumental in a myriad of charitable endeavors.
Among the favorite charities is Nationwide Children’s Hospital, which, when it was known as Columbus Children’s Hospital, provided emergency care to nurse their only daughter, Nan, back to health. Nan had been stricken with pneumonia before her first birthday after accidentally inhaling a crayon, which lodged in her windpipe. Today, Nan is married and the mother of five children.
The Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation was founded in 2004 by Jack and Barbara to support numerous pediatric healthcare services not only in South Florida but across the United States. Barbara is chair of the Foundation, which has raised more than $100 million in over 15 years.
In March 2015, the couple’s support of children’s hospitals was highly recognized when globally renowned Miami Children’s Hospital was rebranded to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. In November 2017, the entire Miami Children’s Health System was rebranded to Nicklaus Children’s Health System. This includes 17 outpatient centers from Miami to Vero Beach, and west to Naples.
Her involvement as co-chair for the charity that organizes the former Honda Classic (now sponsored by Cognizant) on the PGA Tour has also benefited the foundation. Funds generated through the event in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, have been instrumental in opening the Nicklaus Outpatient Center in partnership with Miami Children’s Hospital, designed to meet the healthcare needs of children and adolescents from birth through age 21.
Nonetheless, the center of public attention remains on her noted husband—arguably the greatest golfer of all time.
However, as Jack has stated numerous times, it is Barbara, working alongside him, every step of the way that propelled his career and their mutually fulfilling lives. Today, the family brood has now grown to 24 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren.
Much of today’s world is amplified by constant self-promotion. A “look at me” agenda pushing self-promotion through social media.
Barbara Nicklaus continues forward with an inner belief eschewing “me-ism” and concentrating on service to others.
The PGA of America smartly added her name as the 2019 recipient of the organization’s Distinguished Service Award.
This week’s Memorial golf tournament will have Barbara working behind the scenes, as she has done for so many years.
The adage behind every great man there is a great woman has never been truer when applied to her.
Barbara and Jack.
A dynamic pair with no peer.
This time the lady mentioned first.
