Page 46 - The Golf Guide, Winter 2017

Feature Story

Creighton Farms Invitational Hosted by Jack Nicklaus ~
The Gift of Golf

Nick Ciattei

Many times The Golf Guide has talked
about how the golfing world raises
large sums of money for charity. I’m not
just talking about weekly events held
by the PGA and LPGA tours. Let’s not
forget other fundraisers that take place
at the local level. Whether it be the
captain’s choice sponsored by the local
Rotary Club or a regional pro-am that
contributes to a regional organization,
no other athletic group matches the
golfing community’s generosity. No other sport even sniffs the amount that golf
annually donates to worthy causes across the globe, and perhaps no golfer rivals
Jack Nicklaus’s philanthropy. I had the chance to sit down with the Golden Bear
following his Creighton Farms Invitational held last fall at The Club at Creighton
Farms in Aldie, Virginia.

Jack Nicklaus now concentrates
on his family (lots of children) and
humanitarian work since he stopped
playing competitive golf. But the
fundraising he continues to do started a
long time ago. He recalled the time when
his 11-month old daughter Nancy became
very sick from swallowing a crayon,
and through the care of physicians was
nursed back to good health. It was then
Jack Nicklaus

and there that Jack and his wife Barbara
decided that when and if they could ever help people, it would be children. They
serve as honorary chairman and active chairwoman of the Nicklaus Children’s
Health Care Foundation in North Palm Beach, Florida, which provides valuable
programs and services to more than 4,000 hospitalized children and their families
free of charge through Child Life programs, the Pediatric
Oncology Support Team, and the Safe Kids program. The
Nicklaus’s established “The Jake,” a pro-am golf tournament
played annually at The Bear's Club in Jupiter, Florida, in
honor of their 17-month-old grandson who drowned in
a hot tub in 2005. It has become the foundation’s chief
fundraiser. The Memorial Tournament on the PGA Tour
that Jack hosts has benefited children’s hospitals since day
one when it started back in 1976 and has raised close to $6
million thus far. The Honda Classic starting in 2004 became
a prime donor to the foundation.
Barbara
Nicklaus

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