DUBLIN, Ohio — The sight of Jack Nicklaus crying on live television last June during the final round of the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday underscored the momentousness of the news he was trying to share with the help of CBS golf anchor Jim Nantz.
It is common practice for Nicklaus, the Memorial founder and host, to join the broadcast during Sunday’s coverage, and he usually takes a moment to share with the audience the person who has been selected as the tournament honoree for the following year. The Memorial annually honors a legendary player or significant figure who has contributed to the game of golf. The honoree is selected by the tournament’s Captains Club, a creation of Nicklaus and the late Joe Dey, who served as the first commissioner of the PGA Tour after a long reign as executive director of the USGA.
Announcing the honoree is usually a routine affair for Nicklaus, but it wasn’t this time. Jack fought to hold back sobs and lost the battle, choking up as he revealed that his wife Barbara was to be recognized during this week’s 50th edition of the Memorial.
At first blush, Barbara Nicklaus might appear to be an unconventional recipient. Not undeserving, mind you, but unconventional given that the former Barbara Jean Bash is the first honoree to have not played golf to any meaningful extent. (Barbara did take a course in golf after meeting Jack at Ohio State—and earned an A for the quarter.) That being said, the woman long known as “The First Lady of Golf,” has impacted the game in myriad and meaningful ways, be it competition (quietly), culture (demonstrably) and, most important of all, philanthropy (assertively and passionately). In short, she has been an agent for elevating the best aspects of the game while serving as the foundation stone to the career Jack erected as golf’s greatest major champion, a prolific course designer and founder and host of one of the PGA Tour’s most respected events.
As Jack himself once said, “I firmly believe that Barbara has meant at least 15 major championships to me,” which is no small thing when he won a record 18 among 73 PGA Tour titles. But there was more to their marriage—going on 65 years in July—and partnership than that. “Every place that you might see me, see what I’ve tried to do at Muirfield Village and the Memorial Tournament and everything in my career, you should see her, too,” he said.
Today’s ceremony that makes official Barbara’s enshrinement in Memorial Park is sure to be as emotional as the one 25 years ago when Jack was the honoree. Her shock might finally have worn off by that time. “I was speechless when they told me, and it still leaves me speechless,” she said not long ago.
Barbara with Jack at the 2024 Masters.
Ben Jared
Every member of the Nicklaus family, which includes five children, 23 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, will be on hand. In the audience is expected to be dozens of wives of former tour players whom Barbara befriended during Jack’s playing days. “Barbara makes us proud to be a part of the golfing world,” says Jan Haas, wife of veteran player and former U.S. Presidents Cup captain Jay Haas. “There are so many of us who have their own story of some example of her kindness and warmth.”
Former LPGA commissioner Charlie Mechem, a longtime Nicklaus confidante and elder statesman of the Captains Club, recently told a story about once asking Arnold Palmer’s wife, Winnie, if she and Barbara were good friends. Winnie responded: “Are we good friends? Charlie, Barbara Nicklaus is my idol and my hero.”
‘What she’s done in the game of golf—having never played the game—is amazing. … Nobody’s been like Barbara. The friendships that Barbara has made over the years. I mean she knows everybody. She knows their name and birthdate. How many cards do you think she’s written over the years? It’s like Arnold signing his autograph.’
—Andy North
When Barbara’s candidacy was put to a vote, the Captains Club voiced unanimous approval. Except for Barbara. She is a member of the group, too, but they tricked her into leaving the meeting so that she wouldn’t know what they were up to.
“Recognizing Barbara as the 2025 Memorial Tournament Honoree is fitting and well deserved,” Fred Ridley, chairman of Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament, said recently during interviews among Captains Club members. “Barbara Nicklaus exudes class and elegance. She is one of the most thoughtful people I have ever met. She and Jack have had a marriage and partnership for more than 60 years that all who know them admire. Although I have known Barbara for many years, our friendship has deepened during my tenure as a member of the Captains Club. Her personal notes after every Captains Club meeting are a highlight of being at the Memorial Tournament each year.”
Barbara Nicklaus is the 84th individual chosen by the Captains Club, and although Jack contacted Mechem to make a preliminary inquiry regarding Barbara’s inclusion—Mechem’s gut reaction was that it was long overdue—Jack’s only real involvement in the process is setting the whole enterprise in motion in 1975. He announced on Dec. 1 that year the formation of an international group of golf champions, administrators and other influential individuals who have made contributions to the game to advise him on the conduct of the tournament set to debut the following spring. The list of 19 charter members was impressive and included the likes of Masters chairman Clifford Roberts, Gene Sarazen, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, amateur great Charles “Chick” Evans, and Dey.
“Joe Dey came out to Muirfield when Muirfield was just mud, and we walked around the golf course and began discussing some of the issues of what we should do,” Nicklaus recalled. “And we got to talking about a tournament that would honor the players of the past and the people in golf who have contributed to the game. And, obviously, that’s the direction we went in making the Memorial Tournament different.
“But as we talked further, I told him, ‘That’s hard for me to have that over my head, as far as making certain decisions,’ and that it would be better if we got together a group of, at the time, I called them ‘golfing statesmen,’ to make those decisions and take it totally out of my hands. And that’s exactly what we decided to do.”
Thus was born the Captains Club, which is patterned, in part, after a tradition first begun by the R&A. The group not only advises on the constitution and conduct of the Memorial but also serves as an invaluable sounding board for Nicklaus and chooses the honorees. Its agenda when it meets each Wednesday during tournament week also includes discussions on important issues in the game. An example might be the ongoing debate over the USGA’s impending rollback of the golf ball.
Through the years, some of the game’s greats have pitched in, notably Sarazen, Byron Nelson and Arnold Palmer. Current members who enjoyed noteworthy playing careers include Gary Player, Hale Irwin, Tom Watson, Juli Inkster, Tony Jacklin, Andy North, Judy Rankin, Jim Furyk and Paul Azinger. Seven-time women’s major winner Karrie Webb was added to the roster in 2024.
The current Captains Club is composed of 26 people, plus an advisory board of four members—Jay Monahan, PGA Tour commissioner; Mike Whan, CEO of the USGA; Derek Sprague, CEO of the PGA of America; and Sellers Shy, golf producer for CBS Sports. Craig Kessler, recently announced as the next LPGA commissioner, will be added when he begins his role. They join the likes of Ridley and former tour commissioner Tim Finchem.
“We feel a great responsibility in helping Jack. It’s serious business, and we treat it as such,” Watson said. “It’s a pleasure to be sitting in that room and have conversations with people who have been around the game of golf and love the game and who champion all of the things that set it apart from other sports. I’m proud that my input is of value to furthering what Jack has been doing with the Memorial Tournament, which is not only hosting a tournament, but also bringing a wonderful spotlight on the game and its past.”
It’s been 50 years since Nicklaus convened the first iteration of the Captains Club. As important as its role has been through the decades, the group’s importance will only grow in the years ahead to ensure that Nicklaus’ vision for the tournament remains intact. “I’d like to think the event can stand on its own two feet without me, and that’s due to the structure of the event that is set in place and the people who have been involved.”
As an adjunct, Captains Club members look forward to lending their collective voice more assertively to relevant topics in the game, anchored in the spirit of Nicklaus’ legacy of bringing people together for the good of the sport.
“To be able to contribute to the game long after being a champion golfer makes me proud,” said Player, one of Nicklaus’ oldest and closest friends. “I am so blessed to be called upon to help my friend and to feel like I am helping to promote the game, which is what we all want to do as we get older and can no longer play like we used to.”
Barbara Nicklaus celebrates with Jack after his victory at the 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont.
AP Photo
She was also by his side after his victory at the 1970 Open Championship at St. Andrews.
R&A Championships
Jack and Barbara in 1987.
Brian Morgan/Getty Images
The Nicklaus family poses at home in North Palm Beach, Fla., in 1978. In the foreground, son, Michael, 4; next row, wife, Barbara, son Gary, 9, and daughter Nancy, 12; back row, standing, from left, sons Steven, 14 and Jack Jr., 16, and Nicklaus himself. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
KATHY WILLEN
The PGA of America created the First Lady of Golf Award in 1998. The Captains Club self-admittedly is a bit late to the party in its recognition of Barbara Nicklaus, but the PGA zeroed in on her straight away.
“The award was something that we had talked about at the board level for more than a year,” said Ken Lindsay, PGA of America president in 1997-98 and a member of the Captains Club. “We were looking for ways to bring more women into the PGA, and we were thinking about how we honor women who have contributed to the game. I don’t remember who said it, but the comment was something like, ‘If you start off with somebody like Barbara Nicklaus, then the whole thing falls into place.’ And then we all looked around at one another, and it was automatic. Who better to represent what this award is about?”
It is just one of many awards Barbara has received. Among them are two of the highest honors in golf—the USGA’s Bob Jones Award in 2015 and the 2019 PGA of America Distinguished Service Award. Barbara also was presented the Ambassador of Golf Award from the PGA Tour in 1990, which preceded Jack’s selection for the honor by 23 years. The timing of the latter corresponded with one of her most lasting initiatives on the tour. In 1987, she was instrumental in organizing the PGA Tour Wives Golf Classic at The Players. The PGA Tour Wives Association was incorporated the following year, and the organization has raised nearly $6 million for communities that the tour visits.
That is but a fraction of the charitable funds Barbara has helped raise for various causes, though primarily she and Jack have focused on children’s healthcare.
When Jack founded the Memorial Tournament in 1976, the Nicklauses designated Columbus Children’s Hospital (now Nationwide Children’s) as its primary charity after the hospital saved their daughter Nan from a serious health scare. In 2004, they started the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation, which has raised close to $220 million, with funds that have benefited both Memorial Tournament charities and those at another tour event, the Cognizant Classic at the Palm Beaches, where Barbara serves as co-chair of the board of directors for the tournament’s charitable arm. Yet another meaningful initiative largely of her making is the Play Yellow fundraising program in association with the PGA Tour that has raised more than $130 million since 2019 for the 170 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals throughout North America.
“I was always very proud to be the wife of Jack Nicklaus, because of who he has been as a champion and a father,” Barbara said. “I wanted to make him proud of me.”
‘I firmly believe that Barbara has meant at least 15 major championships to me. Every place that you might see me, see what I’ve tried to do at Muirfield Village and the Memorial Tournament and everything in my career, you should see her, too.’
—Jack Nicklaus
During Jack’s playing career, Barbara was considered the sage of the tour wives, always willing to offer help or advice or just a sympathetic ear.
“There’s nobody more deserving of this honor,” said North, a two-time U.S. Open champion. “What she’s done in the game of golf—having never played the game—is amazing. You can’t say that about many in other sports. Perhaps there are some coaches that have had that kind of influence on people’s lives, but nobody’s been like Barbara. The friendships that Barbara has made over the years. … I mean she knows everybody. She knows their name and birthdate. How many cards do you think she’s written over the years? It’s like Arnold signing his autograph.
“Every young wife that came on tour, she took them under her wing and tried to make them understand what the life out there was like.”
“Jack is Barbara’s husband,” said Inkster, who was the 2024 tournament honoree. “That’s the way I look at it. What she’s done for tour wives, what she did for the younger wives coming out, I don’t know how she does it. How does she remember everybody’s name, their kids, their grandkids. She’s just a special lady who makes everybody feel like she’s their best friend.”
That welcoming disposition has been integral to helping Jack make the Memorial Tournament one of the top events on the tour. Stories abound of her unceasing efforts to support Jack in the enterprise that he has said is more important to him than anything else he has done in golf.
“Jack was trying to make the Memorial the best tournament in golf. He always wants things to be perfect. I wanted things to be perfect for him,” Barbara said. “The Memorial Tournament was Jack’s dream, and I just wanted to do everything I could to support him. But Jack made it into something we would do together. And, really, that is what has made it so special is that we have done it together.”
“Barbara’s fingerprints are on every aspect of the Memorial Tournament,” Mechem said. “If Jack is the heart of the Memorial Tournament, Barbara is the soul.”
In short, the career of Jack Nicklaus is, in fact, a story of an inspiring partnership with Barbara, whom Jack calls, “the most selfless person I know.”
“Of all the many trophies Jack Nicklaus has won, the only trophy he ever really cared about was Barbara,” said Nantz, who joins Webb as a newcomer to the Captains Club. “Jack had his career because Barbara was running the Nicklaus family and everything else. It allowed him the freedom and peace of mind, so he could go out and establish the greatest and most legendary golf career of all time. He did it because Barbara always had his back and had their family covered. She gave him undying support.”
Barbara recently declined an award from another charitable organization in Florida. While humbled by the accolade, she felt strongly that she couldn’t accept. The First Lady of Golf is content to have the Memorial Tournament honor be her last.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
