![]() Nicklaus brought in new management, shed nongolf-related businesses and concentrated on course design and what was supposed to be a network of high-end driving ranges. To start this year, Jon Rahm won three tournaments in six starts and earned nearly $10 million.) He won 73 tournaments and earned $5.7 million in prize money, which puts him in 306th place on the all-time money list, just behind David Peoples. (Nicklaus’ paychecks as a player on the PGA Tour were minuscule by contemporary standards. By 1985, Nicklaus learned, according to his autobiography, that he and the company “personally were so deeply in debt and at risk in real estate and other nongolf-related projects as to face imminent financial disaster.” In light of this pressure, Nicklaus’ epic triumph in the 1986 Masters, at the age of 46, looks even more remarkable. Nicklaus’ investments included two troubled housing developments in the San Diego and New York areas and an eyewear company, a radio station, and oil and gas projects. By the mid-1980s, attempts to diversify his personal company, then known as Golden Bear Inc., proved disastrous. As in tournament golf, Nicklaus’ achievements as an architect quickly outstripped Palmer’s, but his travails in business continued. Nicklaus had chosen (against McCormack’s advice) to finance the development of the club himself, and Nicklaus later wrote, “The project did come awfully close to taking me down the tubes.” Muirfield depleted Nicklaus’ resources before it opened in 1974, but it also gave him a new career as an eminent golf-course designer. If I end up doing nothing other than not working for him, that would be worth it.”īy the time Nicklaus left McCormack, he had already started buying the real estate for Muirfield Village Golf Club, near his hometown of Columbus, Ohio, the future home of the Memorial Tournament. ![]() I saw a light at the end of the tunnel-that I might get rid of this and might be able to go live a life. "One, I didn’t want to do it, and two, it was a pleasure. “I’ll give you two phrases to describe the trial,” he said. ![]() I asked him how he felt about his court appearance, which included two days of cross-examination. “I played four times last year, all in May-twice at Augusta, and I shot 88, 87, and twice at Muirfield Village on the weekend before the tournament, and I shot 86, 84, and I said, ‘That’s enough.’ ” But despite the end of his playing career, even for fun, Nicklaus was in buoyant spirits. Now 83, Nicklaus is a bit stooped, and his golfing days are, alas, behind him. That was apparent when I recently visited him at what’s known in Nicklaus’ world as the “family office,” which is about three miles from the “business” office-the one he couldn’t remember-in Palm Beach County, Florida. Nicklaus’ demeanor can be as revealing as his words on the record.
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