By Greg Johnson
The acclaimed course designer attends Harbor Shores’ KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship on the heels of the announcement of a new scholarship.
Jack Nicklaus, golf legend and course designer of The Golf Club at Harbor Shores, and his wife Barbara Nicklaus attended the 2018 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship this past weekend to help announce a new scholarship created in their honor.
The couple was recognized by Whirlpool Corporation, KitchenAid’s parent company, and the PGA of America with the establishment of a scholarship program meant to inspire its recipients to find opportunities through education.
The Jack and Barbara Nicklaus KitchenAid Senior PGA Champions for Change Scholarship Program will provide an annual $25,000 scholarship to a young member of the Benton Harbor community who has graduated with an Associate’s Degree from the local community college—Lake Michigan College—and is planning to continue their education.
“Barbara and I are very honored,” Nicklaus said. “It’s a little different scholarship – you go through a junior college before you get it – so you know the kids are going to be serious kids, kids that really want an education. We just hope that a lot of kids find great use for it and develop into great citizens.”
The program also works with youth involved in the Boys & Girls Club in Benton Harbor and the First Tee Program at Harbor Shores.
Nicklaus designed the golf course a decade ago and it has hosted the Senior PGA Championship four times in the eight years it has been open for play. England’s Paul Broadhurst won the 79th Senior PGA championship hosted at the Jack Nicklaus signature course on Sunday.
Part of the property is a dramatic reclamation of a federal Superfund site where nearly three million square-feet of dilapidated buildings and about 140,000 tons of waste material were removed. There are three dramatic holes on the dunes and beach at Lake Michigan.
“This place has gotten some pretty good recognition in a very short period of time,” Nicklaus said. “We’re very proud of what contribution that the golf course has made to the revitalization of Benton Harbor and the community and everything that goes on there.”
