PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. -- How much does a PGA Professional define a major champion?
If you asked Jack Nicklaus, there could be no measuring stick capable of calibrating the impact that he received from his lifetime teacher, the late PGA Professional Jack Grout.
Nicklaus said he could recall the day Grout stepped into his life 47 years ago as if it was yesterday. Nicklaus was a 10-year-old when he began junior golf in Columbus, Ohio, the same time that Grout arrived at Scioto Country Club.
From that day forward, the two Jacks were united. Grout would become the teacher who would mold young Nicklaus into a champion.
Perhaps the most famed teacher-pupil combination in golf, Nicklaus and Grout will be among 15 duos of PGA Champions and PGA Teaching Professionals to be honored Aug. 6-12, when Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., hosts the 89th PGA Championship and the History of the PGA Championship Exhibit presented by RBS.
Nicklaus was given a sneak preview of the plaque that will honor Grout on Monday, while he joined in the announcement of The Royal Bank of Scotland becoming the first Official Patron of The PGA of America.
Grout, who died in 1989 at age 79 at his home in Loxahatchee, Fla., will be honored in the History of the PGA Championship Exhibit at the entrance to the PGA Golf Shop at Southern Hills Country Club.
The plaque contains a photo of Grout giving a lesson to Nicklaus. That plaque will be alongside those of Nicklaus featuring his record-tying five PGA Championships (1963, ’71, ’73, ’75, and ’80).
For Nicklaus, his tour of the Scioto locker room during the 1950 PGA Championship was a journey into a world that he would later dominate.
“I remember Jack Grout taking me around to the locker room, getting autographs of Skip Alexander and Lloyd Mangrum, Sam Snead, and a variety of the players there,” said Nicklaus. “What that did for me as a youngster to sort of get me started in the game of golf was something that was pretty special. Jack Grout was my teacher and like a second father to me for all the years that I played golf while he was alive.”
Nicklaus was on the first tee to open the third round at his own tournament, The Memorial, in Dublin, Ohio, when news came on May 13, 1989, that Grout had passed away following a long illness.
“Up until that, for all those years, 39 years, when I wanted support, I went home and Jack Grout would call me,” said Nicklaus. “He would say, ‘Jackie Buck, what you doing today?’ I would say, ‘J. Grout, what would you like me to do today?
“He said, ‘Do you want to come out and hit some balls? I said, ‘Sure, if you want me to come out and hit balls, I’ll come out and hit balls.’ I would go out and hit balls whether I wanted to or not, because I wanted to spend time with Jack Grout.
“I’m sure there are other players that had a similar bond with a PGA Professional. It started me in the game, kept me in the game, and one of the reasons I’m still in the game today.”
The PGA Championship History Exhibit presented by RBS will be connected to the entrance of the PGA Golf Shop, a 40 x 60-foot air-conditioned area that includes a video presentation that will run continuously and lead visitors to 19 PGA Champion “shadow boxes,” which contain memorabilia of past Champions and plaques for their corresponding PGA Teaching Professional.
PGA Champions & PGA Professionals in the PGA Championship History Exhibit
Presented by RBS
Year Champion/PGA Professional
2006 Tiger Woods/Hank Haney
2005 Phil Mickelson/Rick Smith
2003 Shaun Micheel/Sam Carmichael
2002 Rich Beem/Cameron Doan
2001 David Toms/Rob Akins
1997 Davis Love III/Jack Lumpkin
1994 Nick Price/David Leadbetter
1993 Paul Azinger/John Redman
1992 Nick Price/David Leadbetter
1988 Jeff Sluman/Craig Harmon
1987 Larry Nelson/John Gerring & Bert Seagraves
1984 Lee Trevino/Bill Eschenbrenner
1982 Raymond Floyd/Jack Grout
1981 Larry Nelson/John Gerring & Bert Seagraves
1980 Jack Nicklaus/Jack Grout
1975 Jack Nicklaus/Jack Grout
1973 Jack Nicklaus/Jack Grout
1971 Jack Nicklaus/Jack Grout
1963 Jack Nicklaus/Jack Grout
