Best Seat in the House: 18 Golden Lessons from a Father to His Son

(Hardback)

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USA Today Bestseller

Now available in trade paper!Jack Nicklaus II shares stories, insights, and lessons hes learned from his father, the Golden Bear, that will delight golf fans of all ages, encourage fathers, and inspire readers to focus on whats most important in life: family.

Best Seat in the House, written withNew York Timesbestselling author Don Yaeger,gives us eighteen valuable lessons that Jack Nicklaus II learned from his father, PGA champion Jack Nicklaus. Although the Golden Bear, as he is known by fans, is widely regarded as the best golfer of all time, with a record number of PGA major championships, his life and values show that true legacy lives on through your children, grandchildren, and others we are blessed to call family and friends.

For the first time, the public is given the opportunity to see what made Jack Nicklaus an off-course success, including

• how he and his wife, Barbara, fashioned fifty-plus years of marriage, understanding that they both had to give of themselves at least 95 percent of the time
• the importance of having boundaries and limits that everyone in the family agrees on
• how Nicklaus taught his son Jack, who worked as his caddie for several years, to value his competitors and treat them as he would hope to be treated
• the need to be connected to what well leave behind: our legacies

One June day, Jack Nicklaus II had just completed his second round in a Palm Beach County Junior Golf Association tournament and was sitting at the scorers table, signing his scorecard, when somebody told him his dad was on the telephone. He was a little frustrated because he didnt want to be bothered on such an important day, but his dad wanted to know how he had played, so Jack II spent the next twenty minutes detailing every hole and every shot.

Afterward, his father said, Jackie, would you like to know how your dad did today Of course he wanted to know, and he felt a little guilty for not asking. Well, I just won the US Open. It was Fathers Day 1980, and on that day Jack II learned a valuable lesson that he carried with him into adulthood: family is more important than anything in the world.

Author Bio

Jack Nicklaus II currently serves as president of Nicklaus Design and vice-chairman of Nicklaus Company, and is the first of five children born to Jack and Barbara Nicklaus. A three-sport letterman in high school, Jack II went on to the University of North Carolina, where he played on the golf team. He had a brief career in professional golf, playing several years as a member of tours in Australia, Asia, Canada, and in the European Tour. He also played in several PGA tour events as a nonmember. Jack's career was cut short by rickettsioses, a tick-born sickness, but that directed him toward golf-course design, where he has been recognized by selection into the prestigious American Society of Golf Course Architects. He works as both a solo designer and as a collaborator with his father and has designed nearly fifty golf courses that are open for play today. He serves on the board of directors for Nicklaus Children's Healthcare Foundation and is chairman of Muirfield Village Golf Club and chairman of the Memorial Tournament. Jack is married to Allison (Alli) and is the father of five-Jack, Christie, Charlie, Casey, and Will. Don Yaeger is an eleven-time New York Times bestselling author, longtime associate editor at Sports Illustrated, and today is one of the most in-demand public speakers on the corporate circuit. He delivers an average of seventy speeches a year to an average annual audience of almost one hundred thousand. He and his wife, Jeannette, live in Tallahassee, Florida, with their two children.