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The GOLF Pro Shop is your source for genuine Jack Nicklaus apparel and accessories from the Nicklaus brand. To debut our five newest editions to the Nicklaus collection, we’re offering up to 26% off on these five styles.

Apparel

The Golden Bear is an undeniable legend, and the Nicklaus Brand is incredibly high-quality. Now, you can become a part of the Nicklaus family by sporting the legendary Golden Bear logo yourself. These pieces are ideal for both on and off the course.

The new pieces include a merino wool v-neck sweater and vest, as well as three performance polos.

Keep scrolling to see these new additions to the Nicklaus Collection, and remember to tap the “buy now” button to find more color options in the Pro Shop.

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The post 5 patriotic hats perfect for Presidents Cup week appeared first on Golf.

The post 5 patriotic hats perfect for Presidents Cup week appeared first on Golf.

Welcome to Gimme That, a GOLF.com column where we’ll highlight one notable item we think you might like. Whether it’s an article of clothing, an intriguing electronic device or anything in between, we want to share these items with you because they’ve generated a bit of chatter by our water cooler (or, these days, on our Slack channel). So sit back, scroll down and keep up with the latest gear golf has to offer.

It’s Presidents Cup week, which means this year’s event at Quail Hollow Club is the perfect excuse to freshen up that red, white and blue wardrobe.

While there are plenty of patriotic shirts, jackets, balls and more in our Pro Shop, there’s also an impressive selection of go-to hats for the golf course. Below we picked five of our favorites — ones from brands like Nicklaus, Cobra Puma and more — that could easily complete any golf getup.

For more on the Presidents Cup, click here, and you can browse more items in our Pro Shop here.

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The post Golden Rules: How Jack Nicklaus’ upright swing helped increase his power appeared first on Golf.

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GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jon Tattersall explains how Jack Nicklaus’ arm placement helped increase his power and offers tips on how to adopt his technique.

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The post Jack Nicklaus wins $2 beers and jabs Jalen Rose, and his legend grows appeared first on Golf.

The post Jack Nicklaus wins $2 beers and jabs Jalen Rose, and his legend grows appeared first on Golf.

Jack Nicklaus hit a shot on Saturday to win hundreds of folks $2 beers. He hazed Jalen Rose with just a dozen words. 

No, the former won’t replace any of the strokes that won him more majors than everyone, nor will the latter bump any of his memorable lines. Saturday’s event was for charity, and these things have only fun at stake. Then again, hitting a shot to win hundreds of folks $2 beers and hazing Jalen Rose with just a dozen words aren’t tasks easily pulled off. And an 82-year-old legend is still getting it done. So let’s dig in. 

To set things up, we should note first that the Golden Bear doesn’t play much these days. Though that doesn’t mean he doesn’t play well. Nicklaus said as much in June at the Memorial, the tournament he hosts.

News

“About two weeks ago, I took Jackie and J3, his son, and Charlie, who is one of his boys, up to Augusta,” he said. “I had prayed a scramble, an odd three or four holes here or there. But inflammation has been my problem, and most of the inflammation I seem for some reason to have gotten out of me. I said, OK, I can play with you guys.

“‘Really, you’re going to play with us?’ I said, yeah. So I played nine holes. He said, we’ll see you after. I said, what do you mean? I’m going to play the back nine. I whizzed it around and shot a slick 88 without a birdie, which I haven’t made birdie yet this year incidentally.

“But I enjoyed it. I said, well, I’m going to see if I can play again tomorrow. I played again the next day. Why am I playing? I don’t know. I’m tired of not playing, I think. I really love to play golf. I don’t enjoy playing golf the way I’ve been playing, that’s for sure. But when you start to feel a little bit better — I even hit a few shots that were pretty good on Sunday out here. I had a tee shot out at 17, I knocked it, what, 30 yards by those bunkers? … 

“You know, I enjoyed it. I had a chance to shoot my age both days, and I choked.

“I don’t know why I’m playing. I’m going to continue to play. You’ve got to do something for crying out loud. I’ve been sitting around feeling sorry for myself because I haven’t been able to do anything. It’s time to get out and do something.”

Two months later, on Saturday, Nicklaus was playing again, as part of a charity event during the PGA Tour Champions’ Ally Challenge at Warwick Hills in Michigan. We’ll start with Rose and the jab. Rose, you may know, made his name as a member of college basketball’s Fab Five, and later as an NBA star. But that is not golf. 

On his tee shot on the par-3 17th hole, he swung and he missed. And he swung and he missed again. Five times in all. 

And an emcee gave Nicklaus a mic. 

And Nicklaus took Rose’s iron. 

And Nicklaus said this:

“You see this thing here?” Nicklaus asked. “That’s what you hit the ball with.” 

Rose laughed. 

“That’s what you hit the ball with,” Nicklaus repeated. 

From there, he told Rose to “swing it back, swing it through. Let the club do the work.” The two called for cheers. And Rose dribbled the ball forward on his next swing.

Nicklaus, as we’ve noted, also hit and knocked a few bucks off beers in the process. But all of this also brings to mind a Nicklaus story about the effects of booze on putting, told during the 2012 Honda Classic. 

““I always felt drinking did not do well with nerves,” Golf Channel reported him as saying. “The guys today don’t do that. I never did that. Did I have a drink? Sure, here and there, but never while I was playing in tournaments. I always thought that was terrible for your nerves, and terrible for your touch, because I think the most important thing is to be totally there.”

Back to Nicklaus’ shot. Playing to the crowd, the emcee took to the mic. 

“And, if Jack gets on the green, what did we decide? Two dollar beers?”

“For 68 minutes,” Nicklaus said. 

Nicklaus hit. 

His ball hit the green. 

The crowd had their cheaper beers. 

Nicklaus fist-pumped. 

“Can you repeat after me? Two-dollar beers!” the emcee said. 

“Two dollar beers!” Rose said. “Sixty-eight minutes. Sixty-eight minutes.” 

“Sixty-eight minutes,” Nicklaus said. 

Cheers. 

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The post Golden Rules: How Jack Nicklaus used force plates to help his swing appeared first on Golf.

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GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jon Tattersall explains how Jack Nicklaus used force plates to improve his swing and explains how they work.

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The post Use these 3 keys to copy Jack Nicklaus’ world-class putting stroke appeared first on Golf.

The post Use these 3 keys to copy Jack Nicklaus’ world-class putting stroke appeared first on Golf.

For my money, the greatest putters of the modern era are Tiger Woods, Ben Crenshaw, Brad Faxon and Jack Nicklaus. I see a lot of players try to mimic the styles of the first three but rarely Jack’s. Odd, to say the least — you don’t win 18 majors (including two at St. Andrews, host of this year’s Open Championship) without a world-class stroke.

In speaking to many students over the years, some have mentioned not being comfortable with the way Nicklaus set his head so far behind the ball at address. Fair enough — not many golfers are left-eye dominant like Jack. But what about the other aspects of his stroke? Here are three elements I think every golfer — including you — should copy.

1. Forward ball position

Nicklaus played the ball off the instep of his front foot. Motion analysis studies show that a forward ball position promotes an upward angle of attack, or “rise,” of the putterhead through impact. This, combined with the absence of any shaft lean at the point of contact, creates topspin—the secret to a pure, “wobble-free” roll.

2. Ulnar deviation

At setup, Jack hinged his wrists downward, not up. Such ulnar deviation helped Nicklaus “lock” his wrists in place, thereby eliminating unnecessary twisting of his hands or the putterhead. Thanks to launch monitors, we know that your putter produces the most “smash factor” (club speed/ball speed) than any other club in your bag. Keeping the putter stable through impact is the only way you can manage it. In fact, some instructors argue that head/face stability is more important to putting success than path or impact point.

3. Piston stroke

In his many teaching manuals and videos, Nicklaus refers to his left hand as the one that controls the putterface and the right as the one that supplies the stroke power. It’s this relationship that ultimately helps you generate the correct amount of force for any putt you’ll face. Consider the roles of both hands when you practice, prioritizing, as Jack did, speed control. (Between us, aim is overrated, especially outside of five feet.) Three moves, no more three-putts. Copy that!

Top 100 Teacher Jon Tattersall (@TattersallGolf) is cofounder of Fusion ATL in Atlanta, Ga.

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GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jon Tattersall explains Jack Nicklaus’ unorthodox way of putting and offers tips on how to adopt his technique.

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The post This rare honor drew Jack Nicklaus back to St. Andrews for first time in years appeared first on Golf.

The post This rare honor drew Jack Nicklaus back to St. Andrews for first time in years appeared first on Golf.

Jack Nicklaus already has a resume that dwarfs just about anyone else’s in golf, but this week, he’ll add another distinction to the list: honorary citizen of St. Andrews.

The Royal Burgh of St. Andrews Community Council is hosting a ceremony to commemorate the occasion on Tuesday of Open Championship week.

With the honor, the 82-year-old joins Bobby Jones and Benjamin Franklin as the only other Americans to be granted honorary citizenship in the Auld Grey Toon.

Nicklaus, a three-time Open Championship winner, won two of his Claret Jugs at the Old Course, in 1970 and ’78. He also notched a runner-up finish in 1964.

This week marks the first time Nicklaus has been back to St. Andrews since he competed at the Old Course in his farewell major championship in 2005.

“I declined to come back the last couple of times to St. Andrews, because it made my farewell in 2005, and I didn’t want to come back and dilute that for what it was,” Nicklaus said in a Monday press conference. “But when I got the invitation this time to be an honorary citizen of St. Andrews and to follow Bobby Jones and Benjamin Franklin, I’ve got to come back. So to be back is fantastic.”

The honorary citizenship is the fourth distinction the Golden Bear has been granted at the Home of Golf. Nicklaus was previously made an honorary member of St. Andrews Golf Club following his victory in 1978, and he was also granted an honorary doctorate by the University of St. Andrews six years later. He became an honorary member of the Royal and Ancient in 1990.

“There’s a lot of reasons to be back, 150th anniversary and a lot of other reasons in the tournament, the whole thing,” Nicklaus said. “But this is why I’m back because of that. I wouldn’t be back for any other reason.”

During the Tuesday ceremony, the University of St. Andrews will also grant honorary degrees to Lee Trevino, Sandy Lyle, Jose Maria Olazabal, Bob Charles and Catriona Matthew.

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The post Copy one of Jack Nicklaus’ best moves to add yards and nix slices appeared first on Golf.

The post Copy one of Jack Nicklaus’ best moves to add yards and nix slices appeared first on Golf.

Jack Nicklaus owns six green jackets. But I’m more impressed with his four U.S. Open trophies, indicating wins in the toughest conditions against the toughest fields on a variety of tough courses (for Jack: Oakmont in 1962, Baltusrol in ’67 and ’80 and at Pebble Beach in ’72). They’re proof that his swing could excel anywhere and across multiple decades.

Much of what helped Nicklaus claim these national titles (in addition to his 14 other majors and 73 PGA Tour victories) can be found in his 1974 instruction manual, Golf My Way. It became the inspiration for millions of golfers, many of whom would go on to Hall of Fame careers (Greg Norman included), and, for this northern England native, the basis for much of the fundamentals I teach my students to this day.

If you read Golf My Way (it’s available on Amazon), you’ll learn the story of Jack’s longtime teacher, Jack Grout, grabbing hold of Nicklaus’ short, crew-cut hair on the range at Scioto CC in Columbus, Ohio, as he hit practice balls. It encouraged young Jack not only to keep his head in place but also to “roll his ankles” on both his backswing and downswing. The drill worked. According to Jack, “When your hair was as short as mine back then, it hurt when I moved my head with Grout grabbing hold. I learned pretty quick.”

Features

As simple as this advice sounds, it’s rooted in great functional movement. And today’s coaches have the data to prove it. At my teaching facility in Atlanta, we use GASP dual force plates, which measure the contribution to ground force by each foot during the swing and how these contributions shoot back up to the body for it to generate power. Force plate data shows that by rolling your ankles, as Nicklaus started doing some 60 years ago, you produce frontal plane torque, a force created and used by some of the longest drivers in the game today. To best understand frontal plane torque, think of a Ferris wheel: It spins vertically — basically, a side-to-side motion. The problem for most rec golfers, or those short on power, is that they swing too much like a merry-go-round, spinning rather than shifting.

Fact: Force precedes motion. When Jack rolled his ankles on his backswing, his center of mass (COM) automatically shifted to his trail leg and did so around a steady head (thanks to Mr. Grout grabbing on to his hair). Rolling his ankles toward the target on the forward swing got Jack’s COM over his front leg. The resulting frontal plane torque is what made Nicklaus one of the most powerful drivers of his generation. And while many swing pundits peg Jack as a fader of the ball, his ability to produce frontal plane torque ensured he rarely sliced.

The lesson: Do what Jack did. Roll those ankles! (Even a slight roll will do.) Think of your backswing and downswing more as a Ferris wheel instead of a merry-go-round. That means more shifting, less unnecessary turning. You’ll add power. And for slicers, you can thank me (and Jack) later.

This article is the latest installment of the Golden Rules series, produced by Jack Nicklaus in association with Generational Group. Read more about the partnership here.

Top 100 Teacher Jon Tattersall (@jontattersall11) is cofounder of Fusion ATL in Atlanta, Ga.

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The post This AI-powered Jack Nicklaus ‘twin’ will allow fans to interact with the golf legend appeared first on Golf.

The post This AI-powered Jack Nicklaus ‘twin’ will allow fans to interact with the golf legend appeared first on Golf.

Jack Nicklaus will soon take your questions.  

Digital Jack, that is — an AI-powered interactive version of Nicklaus which, when it launches later this year, will be available to give fans, through their web browsers, a chance to quiz the Golden Bear about his career and seek out his advice about their own games.

The idea for Digital Jack dates to the spring of 2020 when Robert Sample, a senior vice president of marketing at Nicklaus Companies, which is an affiliate of GOLF.com, saw digital avatars featured on a 60 Minutes episode. 

“We should create an AI Jack,” suggested Sample, who has worked with Nicklaus for more than 20 years. “We should have an avatar of Jack that lives beyond his lifetime and tells his story and continues his legacy.”

Enter L.A.-based Soul Machines, which became Nicklaus Companies’ partner on the project and worked extensively with Nicklaus to develop the digital version. Established in 2016, Soul Machines is in the business of creating digital characters with its Human OS Platform and Digital Brain technology.

“Jack will be the first athlete or celebrity to have an interactive, intuitive digital twin of himself,” said Greg Cross, co-founder and CEO of Soul Machines. “This unique offering will make a big impact on the industry.”

Added Nicklaus Brands president Andy O’Brien, “Imagine Jack Nicklaus being able to speak to future generations, interact with fans and do things like teach the game of golf in a dozen languages.” 

Question was, how would it work?

For starters, Nicklaus needed to decide which version of himself he wanted to present. Ultimately, he settled on the Nicklaus of 1978, when he won the British Open at St. Andrews. Nicklaus, Sample said, felt that 1978 represents “a peak period in his career.”

The next task was for Nicklaus to travel to Los Angeles last year so his facial gestures and movements could be fully scanned. Nicklaus sat in a studio for hours over the course of two days and smiled, frowned, grimaced, laughed, said hi, said bye, looked sad, angry, happy, amused.

Cross said it took six months to create Digital Jack. Computer Generated Imagery artists, Cross said, “brought Jack to life in a whole range of different applications in which fans can engage with him…and through our work with Microsoft to replicate his voice, Jack can speak Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, French, etc.”

At the outset, fans will be able to ask Nicklaus about his first major victory, the 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont, when he out-dueled the local favorite, Arnold Palmer, in an 18-hole playoff for Nicklaus’ first of 18 major championship wins.

“We asked people of different ages, different genders, and it got down to No. 1, people wanted an insight into his majors and his life,” O’Brien said. 

Updating the Digital Jack content will be an ongoing process, but soon enough Nicklaus will also weigh in on the last of his major titles.

“Everyone wants to talk with Jack about the 1986 Masters,” Sample said. “We have volumes of first-person material from Jack over the years.”

The 1978 Digital Jack will not be the only avatar for fans to check out; discussions already are underway for what might come next.

“In the future we might create 22-year-old Jack,” Cross said. “Jack with a crew cut. Jack’s first win against Arnold Palmer. Right now, you’ve got Jack’s digital twin from the waist up. By the end of the year, it will be full-bodied Jack. Jack walking. Jack gesturing. Jack swinging a golf club. Digital Jack will be accessible in AR on your phone, tablet or eventually in the metaverse.”

However Digital Jack renders, he also will be available to dispense game-improvement advice. Those who play Nicklaus-designed courses will eventually be able use their smartphones to ask him for tips on how to approach a specific hole. He will also talk about the courses he has designed.

“You’ll be able to walk around a PGA Tour event or your golf course, pull out your phone and hold it up like you’re FaceTiming Jack, and it will show Jack walking on the tee, and you’ll be talking to him, asking him questions,” Cross said.

The next athlete to have a digital twin, Cross said, will be the NBA player Carmelo Anthony, which will be launched in late June; other avatars are also in the works, from twins of K-pop bands in South Korea to top Hollywood actors and actresses. 

Cross explained how he landed on the name for his company.

“We spend more and more of our lives interacting with machines,” he said. “We had this fundamental view that our machines and our technology and our devices can be more useful to us if there’s more of a human connection. The idea here is we’re putting a bit more soul into the digital world.”

A bit more Jack, too.

For more on Digital Jack, check out the video embedded above.

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