Jack Nicklaus’ favorite thing about golf? His answer will warm your heart

This week’s PGA Tour event, the Memorial Tournament, is held at “Jack’s Place,” Muirfield Village Golf Club, in Dublin, Ohio.

Jack Nicklaus, who designed the course and serves as tournament host, is onsite this week, and spent ample time with the media fielding questions about everything from the current state of the game to his memories of losing a U.S. Junior match at at age 14 at Los Angeles Country Club.

At the end of the session, though, Nicklaus was asked a different kind of question.

What would you say is your favorite part of the game of golf?

Nicklaus’ answer was equal parts touching and relatable.

“Well, the game of golf isn’t, isn’t a part, there are many parts of the game,” he began. “From playing the game — people often ask me, what’s my favorite shot that I play, and I said, ‘It’s the one I’m playing right now.’ If that’s not your favorite shot when you’re playing it, then you better work on it until it becomes your favorite shot.

“I love what the game of golf does for people. These young men here growing up in the game of golf, they’re going to come out and represent their area. They have grown up around adults, they have learned how to handle adults. They have learned how to grow up and they have learned the courtesies of the game. There’s a lot of things within the game of golf that are so good. First Tee has been fantastic. First Tee has taught the lessons of life to so many kids. I think it’s unbelievable what they have done.

“We see the golf courses that are being done, the communities that are having tournaments, no different than the Memorial Tournament or Valhalla, when I went to Valhalla the first time, Dwight Gahm, the gentleman who did the golf course, he said, Jack, some day I want to have the PGA Championship here. That’s my goal. Well, he’s had what, five of ’em? He’s done pretty well.”

When a reporter asked a follow-up about the challenge of the game, Nicklaus reflected further about what golf has meant to his life.

“There’s a challenge to everything you do in life,” he said. “And if you don’t like, if you don’t like challenges, go someplace else, because golf’s got a bunch of ’em.”

“I love the game of golf,” he continued. “It’s given me the opportunity — I wouldn’t be sitting here if I had missed about 10 five-foot putts. I wouldn’t be sitting here. Nothing, none of this would have ever happened. So I was blessed to be able to do that. I was blessed to be able to take what I did and what I learned and put it to better use.”

The Memorial begins Thursday. It is the seventh of eight Signature Events on the 2024 Tour schedule.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.