A terminally-ill boy Nicklaus met through his wife Barbara in the 1960s turned out to be the inspiration behind several iconic images and the yellow ribbons seen at the Memorial in the modern day
Jack Nicklaus revealed his and wife Barbara’s Play Yellow initiative – in association with the PGA Tour and Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals – has raised more than $130 million dollars for local children’s hospitals through the game of golf within its first four years
Play Yellow helps to raise money for the worthy cause through golf and includes the sale of yellow ribbons that all players will be wearing at Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament on the PGA Tour this week
Players and caddies have been seen wearing the ribbons at previous events – including the Cognizant Classic and last year’s Memorial Tournament.
Ahead of the 2024 running at Muirfield Village Golf Club, Nicklaus explained the inspiration behind the whole program – a young boy he knew in the 1960s called Craig Smith.
Nicklaus said: “Play Yellow was started by a young man who is a son of Barbara’s minister when she grew up. And he contracted Ewing Sarcoma [a rare form of bone cancer] when he was like nine or 10 years old, and his mother asked Barbara if I would call him. So I called him and talked to him and developed a relationship. And I talked to him quite frequently.
One day I called him after a tournament I had won and Craig said to me, he says, ‘Jack, do you know why you won today?’ And I says, ‘Why is that, Craig?’ He says, ‘I wore my lucky yellow shirt.’ So that’s where it started. I won that tournament, we didn’t really say much about it. He passed away at the age of 13, 1971.”
Known as the Golden Bear, Nicklaus shone in a bright yellow shirt during The 1986 Masters – famously remembered for the American punching the air on 17 as a long-distance putt rolled in and Verne Lundquist’s shout of ‘Yes sir!
Just after the putt dropped, Nicklaus can be seen taking a quick look to the sky – possibly a glance of relief and potentially a nod to his young friend who passed away.
“I wore yellow quite often then on Sunday for him, and I was rummaging through my suitcase [before The Masters] in 1986 and I found this yellow shirt. And I said, ‘What do you think, Barbara?’ And she says, ‘Craig would love it. Go for it.’ So I wore a yellow shirt on Sunday in ’86, and then I won and ended up having to tell the story.”
Decades into the future and the Nicklauses were approached by the Children’s Miracle Network with an idea – raise $100 million over the next five years for sick and injured kids across America.
Jack suggested they all go to the PGA Tour with the plan and see what commissioner Jay Monahan and his team could make happen. That was in 2019. Cut to midway through 2024 and the total stands at well past $130 million with over a year to go of the initial target.
Nicklaus said: “We started on this program and we passed, after about three and a half years, we passed about 130 million. And so I don’t know what level we’re at now, we’re 130 million plus, I think we’re probably in the, by now, by the fourth year of our campaign, are we not? Am I correct? We are in the fourth year of the campaign.
“So we’ve done very well. We’ll not stop here. We’ll continue to raise money. And this one little boy’s, it’s a legacy, I feel
that shirt lives on.”
