We’ve known Jack Nicklaus was staunchly in the Donald Trump camp since he publicly endorsed the President-Elect back in May, but the winningest major champion of all time spoke to the impact he believes Trump will make on golf from the Oval Office.
Speaking with Yahoo! Finance’s Andy Serwer, Nicklaus heaped praise upon Trump as Golfer in Chief.
“I think he’s going to make a tremendous impact on the world of golf as he goes forward,” Nicklaus said. “He is a golfer, he loves the game of golf, his golf courses are all very, very good facilities.”
Nicklaus, who previously endorsed Trump for president, has collaborated with him on a number of golf courses in the US. But Nicklaus said it was his partnership with Trump on the new 18-hole public golf course in New York City’s Bronx borough that really drove home that Trump knows how to get things done. “He finished Ferry Point in New York. It was done on an old dump site right off the Whitestone Bridge, and it’s now Trump Links at Ferry Point.”
The Ferry Point project sits on over 400 acres and was stagnant for decades. Nicklaus said once Trump joined the public-private partnership to develop the area, the golf course was completed quickly because Trump “knew the people to talk to to get it done and finished.”
Because of Trump, Nicklaus added, New York City is now able to attract big golf tournaments. “Both the PGA and the USGA are all looking at it to have a significant event there,” Nicklaus said. “The City of New York has, I think, 17 public golf courses, but they wanted a tournament course—and now they have one.”
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