Jack Nicklaus was born in Columbus, Ohio, the son of Charlie and Helen Nicklaus. He attended the Upper Arlington High School, where he competed in basketball, baseball and track and field. Within three years of taking up golf at the age of ten, he had broken 70 at his father’s club, Scioto, and was playing off a +3 handicap.

Nicklaus participated in the first of forty-four consecutive US Opens in 1957 but it was the US Amateur where he first tasted national success, winning the championship in 1959 and 1961 whilst still attending Ohio State University. He studied pharmacy there with the intention of following his father into that profession but he later switched to insurance.

After marrying Barbara Bash, a nursing student at the same university, Jack cut short his studies in 1961 to turn professional though he didn’t win his first event until the following year (at his 17th attempt) when he beat 

 at Oakmont in a playoff for the US Open – the Golden Bear was already on his way to racking up a record number of Major victories.

Although Jack was fully immersed in the business of winning competitions on the PGA Tour during the 1960s, he was also dipping his big toe into the bathtub of golf course design. For example, 

 had asked Jack to take a look at one of the first courses he had ever designed for an insurance company in New Albany, Ohio and he was impressed with what Jack had to say about the par three 3rd hole, in particular.

Jack didn’t want to get involved in a project just to endorse what somebody else was doing. He had a contribution to make and wanted his voice to be heard. Another offer came his way to work with Press Maxwell on a course in Long Beach, California but, after flying out to meet the architect on site, he found out none of his suggestions would probably be implemented.

Jack called the oil company behind the project to give back his design fee: “I take some pride in the fact that at 28 years old I was able to walk away from the situation that presented plenty of money but no credibility,” he said later. “ It sounds obvious, but you’ve got to be paid to do a job and you’ve got to do something to be paid… I would have diluted my reputation in design before my career even got started.”

Mark McCormack, who oversaw Jack’s business interests, then offered him the chance to design the Harbour Town course at Hilton Head Island for a developer called Charles Fraser. Remembering his tie up with Pete Dye a few years earlier, Jack called Pete in to work on the layout with him, making twenty-three trips back and forward to the site during the design and construction. As Jack later said: “I was just getting my feet wet, but I enjoyed it.”

Pete and Jack worked on a few other courses before Putnam Pierman, the financier for Muirfield Village, introduced Jack to Desmond Muirhead, who might best be described as an iconoclast, having visited the great courses of North America and Great Britain and Ireland then declaring: “those courses have no mystique whatsoever. I owe very little allegiance to St Andrews.”

Muirhead had studied architecture and engineering at Cambridge and horticulture at the University of British Columbia and Oregon University before working as a landscape planner on retirement villages in Canada and the United States. Jack and Desmond worked on several commissions: two public courses in Cincinnati; St Andrews in Japan; Mayacoo Lakes in Florida; a couple courses at La Moraleja in Spain, as well as their best known assignment, the 18-hole layout at Muirfield Village in Ohio.

The land for this course was acquired during the mid-1960s but construction didn’t start until 1972, with the official opening taking place two years later. The first edition of Jack’s Memorial Tournament took place in 1974 and it’s been a permanent fixture on the PGA Tour ever since then. The Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup, US Amateur and US Junior have all been held here too so there’s absolutely no doubt about its major tournament credentials.

After parting ways with Desmond Muirhead, Jack was ready to start out on his own. His first solo design was for Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario, home of the Royal Canadian Golf Association and the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. The Canadian Open was played here the year after the course opened in 1976 and the event has returned to this venue many times since then.

The rest, as they say, is history – golfing history, both on and off the course. Jack’s name will forever be associated with greatness on the golf course – 18 professional major championships testify to that – but it’s his golf course design work that should also be remembered in equal measure to his magnificent competitive achievements on the links.

Nicklaus Design now has more than four hundred courses in play – number 400 debuted in 2016 when Jack’s company installed a new nine-hole circuit for free at the American Lake Veterans Golf Course in the grounds of the VA Hospital in Lakewood, Washington – and they’re located throughout nearly every state in the United States and in almost fifty countries around the world.

Expect that number of worldwide courses to keep climbing as, at any one point in time, there might be fifty or more under construction or in some stage of planning.

Of course, Jack can’t do everything by himself so he’s actually the head of a talented team that includes designers who work both in the field and in the design studio. It’s a large group of people who are trained in landscape architecture, agronomy and state-of-the-art technology, working out of eight offices in six nations across three continents.

 and Jay Morrish back in the early days and they were followed by others such as Gene Bates, 

, Rick Jacobsen and Greg Letsche. His sons Jack Jr. and Steve are also involved in the business, as is his son-in-law Bill O’Leary. Gary, Jack's fourth of five children, was also involved in the business and has a handful of designs to his name, including Dalhousie and Machynys Peninsula.

Senior designers include Dirk Bouts, who oversees the European office; Chris Cochrane, who now works from the Florida office; Chad Goetz, who’s also now based in Florida; and Sean Quinn, who heads up the operation in South Africa.


The company employs around twenty Design Associates worldwide, tasked with ensuring Jack's vision is carried out on every golf development. They also take the lead role on every course branded as a "Nicklaus Design" layout. Jack is proud of the many designers who have worked with his company since the mid-1970s, with literally dozens of them going on to attain membership of the prestigious American Society of Golf Course Architects.

Jack’s collaborations have been limited down the years but three readily spring to mind: World Golf Village (King & Bear) in St Augustine, Florida with 

 in 2000; The Concession in Bradenton, Florida with Tony Jacklin in 2005; Sebonack in Southampton, New York with 

concludes his profile of the Golden Bear with this: “Jack is widely recognised as a ‘signature’ designer. The Nicklaus name is well known throughout the world and that association is highly sought after by developers or owners, seeking to heighten their project’s reputation. Furthermore, over the years – and perhaps more regularly than any other modern golf architect – Nicklaus has modified his design style and marketing focus to mimic popular trends (links-style golf, for example) within the industry. Ultimately, his abilities, coupled with those he employs to oversee his projects, have produced several Top 100 golf courses in the world.”

 by Jack Nicklaus and Chris Millard, Pete Dye had this to say about working with Jack:

“We worked on four or five course together, but the best-known fruit of that partnership is certainly Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Since I was in my mid-forties when we took on that project and Jack was only 28, and since I was the design ‘veteran’ of our twosome, most people assume I brought Jack in on that project.

The fact is that Jack was the one who was originally approached for the job. He probably could have done it on his own, but he brought me in. He has always been gracious enough to give me the lion’s share of the credit for Harbour Town, but the course would never have been so well accepted if it hadn’t been for his involvement.

Our partnership lasted only a few years. Jack was thinking bigger than I was. He’d been that way in everything he’d ever done. I never really wanted to expand and Jack did. He threw himself into the design scene worldwide. I didn’t. Those were lifestyle decisions made in mutual respect and understanding. I admire Jack. I have enormous regards for what he has accomplished and still is accomplishing in and for the good of golf design.”

In the same book, Jack concludes the final chapter with this:

“I never could have guessed, back in 1965, that a walk in the woods with Pete Dye would put me where I am today. Since then it’s been a lot of work, hundreds of thousands of miles travelled, but always thoroughly enjoyable. Even now, when I struggle with my golf game, design keeps me close to the sport I love. I’ve been able to make money at it, and to meet fascinating people all over the world.

My work has been singled out for honors and my courses have been ranked (they’ve also been criticized but that’s fair). It keeps me young, and it keeps me close to my family. But the best part of being a course designer is knowing that the courses I design today will be around long after I’m gone. I hope they serve as living, growing testimonials to my love of the game.”

 by Jack Nicklaus and Chris Millard (2002)

World Golf Hall of Fame – Class of 1974: “I never could have guessed, back in 1965, that a walk in the woods with Pete Dye would put me where I am today. Since then it’s been a lot of work, hundreds of thousands of miles traveled, but always thoroughly enjoyable."

Jack Nicklaus

Jack Nicklaus will forever be associated with greatness on the golf course, but it’s his design work that should also be remembered in equal measure to his magnificent competitive achievements on the links.

Dave Thomas was the son of William Thomas, a mining engineer from Aberdare who also played full back for Wales at rugby. Bill was relocated to run mining operations in the northeast of England and that’s where Dave was born – though there was never any doubt about which country he would represent at sport, given the chance.

His father died in 1949, the same year that Dave watched Fred Daly, Max Faulkner and the legendary Sam Snead competing in The Ryder Cup at Ganton, and these golfing greats left a lasting impression on a young man leaving school to set out on a golfing career as an assistant professional at Gosforth Park.

Dave achieved his first tournament victory at the PGA Assistants’ Championship in 1955. He also won the Belgian Open that year and would win both the Dutch and French Opens before the 1950s had ended. Dave triumphed three times in the Esso Golden Tournament during the 1960s and he also came away victorious from Turnberry in 1963 after winning the prestigious News of the World Match Play Championship.

He twice came very close to winning the Open Championship, losing after a play-off to Peter Thomson at Lytham & St Annes in 1958 then finishing in joint second position to Jack Nicklaus eight years later at Muirfield. He also had a couple of very creditable top 10 finishes while participating in another thirteen Opens.

Dave proudly represented Wales in eleven editions of the Canada Cup/World Cup from 1957 to 1970 and he was a member of four Ryder Cup teams between 1959 and 1967, winning three and halving five matches out of eighteen. When arthritis ended his playing career prematurely, it was time to forge a new golfing career, as he recalled years later:

“I have very fond memories of my playing career but by 1969 my back had gone and it was time to do something else, and what do you do? Someone suggested some design and architecture. Peter Alliss was involved and we became designers. Who would have thought all these years on I would be close to designing 150 courses?”

During a design career that stretched from the early 1970s into the new millennium, Dave Thomas delivered dozens of courses for a wide variety of clients. Early on, he collaborated with Peter Alliss to produce an abundance of parkland pearls across the English countryside, with the golf complex at The Belfry considered as their crowning glory. Thomas and Alliss also cooperated with 

 to create the Dufferin course at Clandeboye Golf Club in Northern Ireland.

Thomas and Alliss had the vision, along with Colin Snape, the head of a professional golf body that was financially struggling at the time, to transform an old hotel and surrounding farmland outside Birmingham into a new 54-hole headquarters for the PGA in unfashionable North Warwickshire.

Four editions of the Ryder Cup matches followed on the Brabazon course between 1985 and 2002 and The Belfry’s status as a veritable golfing mecca for British golf was well and truly established. In many ways, this project demonstrated what Dave Thomas was best at – taking a relatively uninteresting tract and turning it into an exciting golf layout.

Not that he was always given uninspiring pieces of property to work with. In Scotland, he fashioned the Lansdowne course at Blairgowrie in Perthshire, two 18-hole layouts at Newmachar in Aberdeenshire, a couple of estate courses in The Borders and a big, expansive track at Spey Valley in the Carirngorms National Park.

Further afield, Dave designed more than twenty European courses. Much of his output was centred in Spain, and the Murcia region in particular – where he set out the West course at the 54-hole Real La Manga Club in Cartagena – though he also worked on substantial assignments in Cádiz, Catalunya and the Canary Islands.

His most highly regarded project in Europe is undoubtedly the 36-hole complex at the Terre Blanche resort in the south of France, located some forty kilometres inland from Cannes on the Côte d'Azur. The 18-hole Le Riou layout is highly ranked nationally but the Châteaux course is regarded as one of the finest on the continent.

Elsewhere in Europe, the Thomas architectural traits can also be found in Norway (at Atlungstad), Germany (with the St Leon course at St Leon-Rot), Russia (at Pestovo and Pine Creek) and Turkey (Robinson Nobilis).

Way before it became fashionable in recent times to work in China, Dave Thomas completed a course in that country at Guangzhou Luhu Golf and Country Club in 1996. He also worked in the Middle East, creating the 18-hole layout at Muscat Hills Golf & Country Club in Oman in 2007.

This Arabian commission, like many of those undertaken by the company in Dave’s later years, was actually carried out by his son Paul, who continues to operate the design business, working on a variety of golfing projects around the world, most recently in Russia and Brazil.

In 2013, when he passed away in Marbella, Dave left behind his partner Carol and sons Michael and Paul. His wife Robbie, and another son, Philip, predeceased him.

On reaching the age of seventy in 2004, Dave was made a life member of the PGA, having been made Captain of that organization during its centenary year in 2001, when he said:

“Looking back over my career, I realise I’ve been extremely fortunate. As well as meeting 

, I met golf writer Bernard Darwin, and some of the great legends of the game, such as Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen and Walter Hagen. I also met Bobby Jones when he was President of the Augusta Golf Club and I was playing in the Masters.”

Dave was also honoured in 2013, just a few months before he passed away, with Honorary Life Membership of the European Tour. George O’Grady presented Dave with a silver membership card at a special luncheon at Shepherd’s Restaurant in London, attended by Board Member and life-long friend John O’Leary and representatives of the Association of Golf Writers.

Peter Alliss, his close friend and early design partner, said: “The death of David Thomas saw the closing of a major chapter of my life, both on and off the golf course. We met in the mid-1950s and remained friends until his passing. We played hundreds of rounds together in exhibition matches and tournaments throughout the length and breadth of the world.


We travelled together. Dare I say, we knew each other’s innermost secrets. We designed over fifty golf courses together, though perhaps our partnership was rather forgotten over the latter years.

He was good company and over indulged, certainly on good food and good wine. How he lived to be 79 is a miracle of the human spirit. My thoughts are with Carol and boys at this sad time. He leaves behind a big footprint which I’ve always been delighted to walk alongside. Rest easy old friend.”

, who beat Dave by a shot in The 1966 Open, said: “Unfortunately, Dave Thomas’ Ryder Cup era unfolded in the decade before my first appearance in 1969, but his legacy within the Ryder Cup and the game itself had been secured and followed him for many years.

Dave was also a major factor in championship golf. I remember in 1966 at Muirfield, as I was trying to win my first Open Championship, Dave was someone I was very much concerned about going into the final day. He was without question Europe’s longest and straightest driver of the golf ball.

In fact, I called him 'Big Dave.' Yet he was a gentle giant, whose warm and engaging personality made him enormously popular with the fans. So when Dave tied for the low final round with a 69, he gave fans reason to cheer and me reasons to be concerned again.

I had heard about his 69 as I walked to the 15th tee, and knew I had to par in just to force a playoff. Had I not been fortunate to reach the par five 17th in two and two-putt for birdie, Dave Thomas could have very well been the Open champion and a very deserving one.

Dave Thomas and I shared a unique kinship in that we were blessed to have parallel careers as golfers and then course designers. In many ways, Dave was an inspiration for me and many other players who followed in his footsteps.

I think Dave would agree that the hundred or so golf courses he designed and left for generations to enjoy – to allow everyone to enjoy a game that has given so much to both of us – is a legacy that will likely be remembered far more than the golf we played.”

"I think Dave would agree that the hundred or so golf courses he designed and left for generations to enjoy – to allow everyone to enjoy a game that has given so much to both of us – is a legacy that will likely be remembered far more than the golf we played.” Jack Nicklaus

Dave Thomas

During a design career that stretched from the early 1970s into the new millennium, Dave Thomas delivered dozens of courses for a wide variety of clients. The Belfry is considered his crowning glory.

South East Spain

Spain

Located near Torre Pacheco in Murcia, the course at Mar Menor Village Golf exhibits something of a split personality as Dave Thomas set out the front nine and Nicklaus Design completed the back nine. Water comes into play at three consecutive holes on each nine: 3 to 5 on the outward half and 13 to 15 on the inward half.

The course is now operated by UGOLF, a leading European golf course management company which looks after more than fifty Spanish and French golf facilities, including three in Murcia: Mar Menor, Hacienda del Alamo and Saurines.

Chris Ahern, PGA professional at Mar Menor, was kind enough to provide us with the following comments:

The toughest hole at Mar Menor Golf is the 3rd, a par four rated stroke index 1. From the tee, two fairway bunkers to the left must be avoided. There’s a big lake to the right and short of the green that comes into play for the second shot so the only bale out spot is short and left of the green. There’s also a greenside bunker short of the green which challenges players that attack the flag with their approach.

There are two contenders for “signature hole” on the scorecard, the first of which is the par five 4th, measuring 455m for men and 420m for ladies. This is probably the easiest par five on the course but it looks very pretty as you play up towards the entrance to the hotel. The major trouble at this hole is a hidden lake that lies short and left of the green.

The other hole that vies for recognition as the most memorable on the course is the par four 13th, measuring 323m for men and 285m for ladies. It’s a right doglegged hole with a large lake running down the right side of the fairway. The drive must avoid bunkers on the right, left and centre of the fairway and the green is well guarded with water to the right of the putting surface.

Mar Menor

Real Campoamor

Continental Europe

The course at the Mar Menor Golf Resort is rather unusual in that Dave Thomas laid out the front nine and Nickalus Design fashioned the backside. It is therefore genuinely a tale of two halves.