Wright Thompson on Jack Nicklaus

Too bad they don't do it while he's alive to see it. I never could get why people wait until somebody's dead to honor them.

 

Yes. One of the true class acts in the golf biz. If every player's rep I work with was as proactive and can-do as Scott, my world would be a lot easier to navigate.

Regarding Jack, he is very open and accessible -- with plenty to say -- these days, illustrated by two stories:

1) Two years ago at the Father/Son. We brought Jack and Arnold in for pre-tournament interviews, largely at the behest of Steve Elling (then, of the Sentinel) and Jeff Babineau (Golfweek).

Arnold does his thing for about 10 minutes, then leaves. Jack is in there for 30, then holds court with Ian O'Connor for 25 minutes regarding the finishing touches on his book... THEN talks to Elling for another 20 minutes.

2) I get Jack for a conference call this past January, since he's half of the defending championship team for the Champ Skins Game. What was going to be a 20 minute call morphed into 50, as Jack waxed poetic on subjects ranging from Tiger Woods to Augusta to the state of his (rather non-existent) game.

I went through Scott to set that up. Later on, I thanked Scott and asked if it was OK that Jack went a bit long.

Scott's response "That's Jack."

 

Not a big fan of Thompson's stuff usually, but liked this piece. Mainly because I have been a huge Jack fan since the mid 70s. I enjoyed the glimpse behind the curtain on his relationship 40 years after his father's death with his father and on his grandson.
Lucky enough to have been at the Masters when it was me and a handful of guys in the press room interviewing him. Before I got in this business, got lucky enough to go to a Friday/Saturday at Augusta and followed him around for a day.
If only more athletes, including the other golfers, had the class and grace of Nicklaus ....

 

I was more making fun of the dude from Sacramento on another thread.
Hey, some people don't like Wright's stuff. Some do. But that's pretty much the norm with just about anyone -- especially on the bigger stages.
No skin off my ass.

 

I liked the piece a lot. I'm about 200 pages into O'Connor's book right now and I've yet to find any of the details about Nicklaus that you could find in the first few hundred words of Wright's story. After spending a very enjoyable 30 minutes reading this thing, Nicklaus seems a lot more human to me.

As for the "flaunting access" grips ... Give me a break. Wright gets in the middle of what is the daily routine of Nicklaus — flying here and there, building golf courses, handing out instructions — and he's not supposed to bring the reader any of that?

 

Exactly, Sly. That's why you try to gain that kind of access. To give your feature some kind of narrative, behind-the-scenes, slice-of-life backbone instead of just writing what was told to you in a sitdown interview. I much prefer this way. Much.

 

I didn't think that was overwritten. I loved it.

 

Aside from Tiger, and probably Vijay, I imagine Wright Thompson can get access to just about any golfer he wants. ESPN cred, yes. But that Masters tribute about his father would go a long way with most of them, too.

At any rate, this is a pretty good profile that is distinctly not overwritten. Anybody who doesn't see that...

 

As I've said before, I try to read every work Wright Thompson writes.

I didn't like the Elvis piece, or the ode to Southern football, and said so here on SJ.

But this piece is what our business is about, and to see someone claim it's "more show than blow" or "a road to nowhere" makes me honestly question A) whether you read the piece and, B) whether anything Wright Thompson writes can get a fair hearing here.

I mean, come on. This is the most insightful piece on Jack in recent memory. I subscribe to SI, the mag, and about four other men's mags. I read the net daily, including Sportspages. I'm on this board hours a day. If I missed something better that updates, puts in context and humanizes the greatest golfer not named Tiger Woods, please make me aware of it.

 

Bingo. Well said, JG.

This was a hell of a read and a brilliant distillation into the essence of Jack Nicklaus. Thompson can overwrite, but he nailed this one.

BTW, the guy can still play golf better than he lets on. Trust me on this one.