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Why does Jack Nicklaus have such an affinity for Oklahoma? It starts with his beloved coach
NORMAN, Oklahoma — There was Jack Nicklaus, The Golden Bear, winner of 18 major championships, sitting inside the event center of OU’s Jimmie Austin Golf Club on a sweltering Saturday afternoon.
Nicklaus, dubious as it sounds, was in town for the Compliance Solutions Championship — a Korn Ferry Tour event Nicklaus had been invited to by the corporate sponsor’s CEO.
To Nicklaus’ right was a view of the ninth fairway at Jimmie Austin. Nicklaus, not one for frivolities, was asked about the Norman course.
“It’s got grass and trees on it,” he said. “That’s all I know.”
But when asked to share old stories about his few Oklahoma connections, the 84-year-old legend emptied his memory bank with one regaling tale after another.
Like in 1953 when at age 13 Nicklaus qualified for a United States Golf Association (USGA) junior tournament at Tulsa’s iconic Southern Hills Country Club.
Nicklaus arrived on the first tee 30 seconds before his 7 a.m. tee time.
“Young man,” Joe Dey, then the executive director of the USGA, told Nicklaus, “30 seconds later and you’d be on the second tee one down.”
Nicklaus was never late after that.
“The lesson happened right here in Oklahoma,” Nicklaus said.
Six years later, in the championship match of the 1959 U.S. Amateur in Colorado Springs, Nicklaus defeated Oklahoman Charlie Coe with a putt that Nicklaus called “the most important of his life.”
On the 36th hole of the match, both Nicklaus and Coe hit the fairway with their drives. Coe hit his second shot to the fringe behind the hole while Nicklaus’ approach landed eight feet short of the cup.
Coe hit a lag putt. Nicklaus drained his eight-footer.
“That was my biggest push forward to be able to compete and know that I could compete,” said Nicklaus, who holds the record with 18 majors and 19 runner-up finishes.
Coe was the two-time defending U.S. Amateur champion. He never turned pro, but Coe was one of the best golfers of his generation.
OU’s practice facility at Jimmie Austin Golf Club is named after Coe.
“I got to know Charlie,” Nicklaus said. “We played a lot of golf during that period of time.”
Nicklaus will never forget Coe’s diet.
“For breakfast, Charlie would have about four cigarettes and three cokes,” Nicklaus said.
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He also remembered one of Coe’s range sessions at Augusta National in 1961, when Coe tied Arnold Palmer for second in the Masters, one stroke behind Gary Player.
As Nicklaus remembered it, Coe pulled out his seven iron and threw a few practice balls down. Coe shanked his first shot. And his second. And his third.
“That’s enough,” Coe said.
“Picked up his ball,” Nicklaus said, “went to the first tee and finished second. True story.”
Coe, a member of the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, died in 2001.
Golfer Charlie Coe, left, captain of the U.S. team, receives the Walker Cup after the championship golf matches with Britain’s team wound up in Minneapolis, Aug. 31, 1957. Handing the cup to Coe is Richard S. Tufts, president of the U.S. Golf Association.
In 1963, Nicklaus won a long-drive competition at Dallas Country Club. His winning drive? Three hundred forty-seven yards, seven inches.
Former Sooner football stars Teddy Lehman, Dusty Dvoracek and Curtis Lofton, listening to Nicklaus ahead of a celebrity event, whispered to each other. Not even those giants could imagine a ball being hit that far with equipment from that era.
“Let’s see if I got something here,” said Nicklaus, reaching into a back pocket.
He pulled out a gold money clip — his prize from that long-drive contest.
Photos: Jack Nicklaus through the years
Nicklaus, nearing 50, missed the cut at the 1988 PGA Championship at Oak Tree Golf Club in Edmond.
“It isn’t Oak Tree’s fault that I didn’t play well. It was Jack Nicklaus’ fault that he didn’t prepare himself for it,” Nicklaus said. “The only thing worse than missing the cut is that … I was working for ABC at the time, I had to sit around and do commentary watching all the other guys play.”
All of Nicklaus’ golfing conquests can be traced back to Jack Grout, known as Nicklaus’ first and only golf teacher.
Grout was born on March 24, 1910, in Oklahoma City. Grout caddied at the Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club and later served as club pro at the old Edgemere Country Club.
Gary Nicklaus, right, with his father Jack Nicklaus during practice round on June 13, 2001 at the 101st U.S. Open at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma (Photo by Jack Gruber/USA Today)
In 1930, Grout moved to Fort Worth, where he became the head professional at Glen Garden Country Club. It’s the course on which two guys named Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson grew up.
Grout, Hogan and Nelson all made it on tour, but as Nicklaus kindly put it, Hogan and Nelson “did a little better than Jack did.”
Grout’s legacy was as a teacher of the game.
In 1950, Grout taught a junior class at Scioto Country Club in Nicklaus’ hometown of Upper Arlington, Ohio. A 10-year-old Nicklaus was among the 60 or so kids in attendance.
Grout saw promise in Nicklaus.
“He’d give me private lessons all the time,” Nicklaus said. “Never charged me a dime. He took an interest in a young kid, and I think that’s what teachers are all about.”
Nicklaus guessed that Grout came to 200 of Nicklaus’ tournaments.
“Not one time did he ever step one foot on the practice tee,” Nicklaus said. “He was at the back of the stands, watching. If I had a problem, he’d point.”
Grout pointed to his head if he thought Nicklaus needed to iron out a mental issue. Grout would point to his hip if he saw something wrong with Nicklaus’ swing.
“That’s all he’d ever do,” Nicklaus said. “He wanted me to figure it out … He taught me to be responsible for my own game.”
Grout died on a Saturday morning in May 1989.
“He passed away when I was on the first tee at Muirfield,” Nicklaus said.
Muirfield Village in central Ohio. Not far from where Jack Grout, an Oklahoma man, taught Jack Nicklaus the game of golf.
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
