John Frederick "Jack" Grout (March 24, 1910 – May 13, 1989) was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 professional golfer

Professional golfer

In golf the distinction between amateurs and professionals is rigorously maintained. An amateur who breaches the rules of amateur status may lose his or her amateur status. A golfer who has lost his or her amateur status may not play in amateur competitions until amateur status has been reinstated;...

 who competed on the PGA Tour

PGA Tour

The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...

 from 1931 to 1953. He is best-known as the ‘first and only’ golf teacher of Jack Nicklaus

Jack Nicklaus

Jack William Nicklaus , nicknamed "The Golden Bear", is an American professional golfer. He won 18 career major championships on the PGA Tour over a span of 25 years and is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional golfers of all time. In addition to his 18 Majors, he was runner-up a...

.

Early career

Grout was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...

. He began his golf career in 1918 as a caddie

Caddy

In golf, a caddy is the person who carries a player's bag and clubs, and gives insightful advice and moral support. A good caddy is aware of the challenges and obstacles of the golf course being played, along with the best strategy in playing it. This includes knowing overall yardage, pin...

 at the old Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club. In 1927, at the age of seventeen, he was named the golf professional at Edgemere Country Club in Oklahoma City. On October 30, 1929, just one day after the stock market collapsed, he was elected to membership in the PGA

Professional Golfers' Association of America

Founded in 1916, the Professional Golfers' Association of America is headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and is made up of more than 28,000 men and women golf professional members...

. Several months later in February, 1930 he and his older brother Dick moved from Oklahoma to Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...

. There, the older Grout began working as the head professional at Glen Garden Country Club. It was at Glen Garden where Jack Grout, working as his brother’s assistant, became friends and playing partners with 18-year-old Byron Nelson

Byron Nelson

John Byron Nelson, Jr. was an American PGA Tour golfer between 1935 and 1946.Nelson and two other well known golfers of the time, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead, were born within seven months of each other in 1912...

 and 17-year-old Ben Hogan

Ben Hogan

William Ben Hogan was an American golfer, generally considered one of the greatest players in the history of the game...

. Both Nelson and Hogan were junior members of the club, and would become two of the top players in golf history.

Grout made his PGA Tour début on December 18, 1931, playing in the Pasadena Open

Pasadena Open

The Pasadena Open was a golf tournament on the PGA Tour from 1929 to 1938. It was held at the Brookside Golf Course in Pasadena, California.-Winners:*1938 Henry Picard*1936-37 No tournament*1935 Horton Smith*1934 Harold "Jug" McSpaden...

 at Brookside Park Golf Course. He remained a regular member on the pro circuit until 1945. Though he had one of the finest swings in the game, he was never among the Tour’s top money winners because of extreme near-sightedness as well as problems with his feet.

Tournaments

In 1941, Grout's unofficial tournament earnings totaled over $4,200. According to PGA Tour statistics, he ranked #25 with $2,389 in official money. His best finish came in the St Augustine Professional-Amateur when he and partner Frank Allan placed second to Sam Snead

Sam Snead

Samuel Jackson Snead was an American professional golfer who was one of the top players in the world for most of four decades. Snead won a record 82 PGA Tour events including seven majors. He failed to win a U.S...

 and Wilford Wehrle. Other top ten finishes that year included: third (tie), Hershey Open

Hershey Open

The Hershey Open was a golf tournament on the PGA Tour from 1933 to 1941. It was played at the Hershey Country Club in Hershey, Pennsylvania on what is now called the West Course. It was played as a 72-hole stroke play event every year except 1938. That year, it was played as an 126-hole...

; fourth (tie), Atlantic City Open; fifth, Thomasville Open; seventh (tie), Harlingen Open; eighth (tie), Florida West Coast Open; ninth (tie), Miami Open

Miami Open

The Miami Open was a golf tournament on the PGA Tour from 1924 to 1955. It was played at what is now the Miami Springs Golf and Country Club in Miami, Florida. The event was played in December from 1924 to 1926 and from 1937 to 1955...

 and ninth (tie) in the PGA Championship

PGA Championship

The PGA Championship is an annual golf tournament conducted by the PGA of America as part of the PGA Tour. It is one of the four major championships in men's professional golf, and is the golf season's final major, usually played in mid-August, customarily four weeks after The Open Championship...

 at Cherry Hills

Cherry Hills Country Club

Cherry Hills Country Club is a private country club in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. The club was founded in 1922 and designed by William Flynn. The club features a championship 18-hole golf course, a 9-hole par three course, eight tennis courts, and a lap pool...

 in Denver, Colorado

Denver, Colorado

The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

. Again, in 1942, he ranked #25 on the PGA Tour in official money. In 1943, according to PGA Tour Player Rankings, he was ranked #18.

Grout departed Texas for good in 1937 and spent the next three years at Hershey Country Club

Hershey Country Club

Hershey Country Club is a country club located just outside the eastern city limits of Hershey, Pennsylvania, which was founded in 1930 by Milton S. Hershey....

 in Hershey, Pennsylvania

Hershey, Pennsylvania

Hershey is a census-designated place in Derry Township, Dauphin County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The community is located 14 miles east of Harrisburg and is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area. Hershey has no legal status as an incorporated municipality...

, as an assistant to Henry Picard

Henry Picard

Henry Gilford Picard was an American professional golfer.Picard was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and learned to play golf while caddying at the Plymouth Country Club. Picard, already a talented player by his early 20s, came to prominence after coaching from the leading instructor Alex Morrison...

. At that time, Picard was one of the top players on the tour. Through Grout’s association with Picard, he was exposed to new theories on golf technique that had been advanced in the 1920s and 30s by Alex Morrison, a controversial West Coast professional. It was Morrison's coaching which primarily took Picard to stardom.

In many respects, Morrison, who courted publicity, was well ahead of his time. So, in his own quiet way, was Grout. By 1950, at Scioto Country Club

Scioto Country Club

Scioto Country Club, is a private country club and golf course in Upper Arlington, in suburban Columbus, Ohio. The course, designed by Donald Ross, opened in 1916 and since then has hosted five PGA tournaments throughout its history, including two majors...

 in Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

, when he started to work with the ten-year-old novice Jack Nicklaus, he had arrived at a very sound understanding of the golf swing –- a plexus of Morrison’s ideas, Picard’s ideas, and his own.

Golf philosophy

As Grout saw it, there were three main fundamentals. First, the head must be kept still throughout the swing. Second, good footwork means good balance. The basis of footwork is rolling the ankles correctly. Third, when a golfer is young and limber he should try to develop the widest possible arc by making a full shoulder turn and fully extending his arms on the backswing and downswing. It is best to learn to hit the ball far and improve on accuracy when you are older.

Coaching Jack Nicklaus

Grout and Nicklaus worked together as coach and student from the time Nicklaus began golf in 1950. They developed a unique arrangement where Nicklaus would visit Grout at the start of each new season to review fundamentals, virtually from scratch. Nicklaus would consult Grout periodically for tune-ups and minor modifications, away from the Tour, if he was struggling for form, but Nicklaus primarily stayed with the knowledge he acquired with Grout. Grout made annual visits to the Masters, U.S. Open and PGA Championship, but seldom instructed Nicklaus at major tournament sites. Grout believed in self-sufficiency, that a golfer had to be in charge of his own swing. His conviction was that a golfer could achieve his full potential only by being self-reliant.

Later career

Grout completed his PGA Tour career by playing in the 1956 U.S. Open

U.S. Open (golf)

The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...

 at Oak Hill Country Club

Oak Hill Country Club

Oak Hill Country Club, located in the Town of Pittsford, New York, a suburb of Rochester, has a rich history of golf. It started out in 1901 as only 9 holes on 85 acres on the banks of the Genesee River in Rochester. The clubhouse was no more than a converted farm house...

 in Rochester, New York

Rochester, New York

Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...

. In October 1961, he moved his family to Miami Beach, Florida

Miami Beach, Florida

Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter which separates the Beach from Miami city proper...

 where he became pro at La Gorce Country Club. Grout held that position until 1974 when, at the age of 64, he decided to say farewell to the day-to-day responsibilities of a head professional and accept the invitation of Jack Nicklaus to become the teacher-in-chief and professional emeritus at his Muirfield Village Golf Club

Muirfield Village

Muirfield Village is an upscale golf-oriented community located in the Columbus suburb of Dublin, Ohio. Founded by Jack Nicklaus, and named after Muirfield, the village contains a golf course that is home to the Memorial Tournament each year. A statue of the founder can be found along Muirfield...

 in Dublin, Ohio

Dublin, Ohio

Dublin is a city in Franklin, Delaware, and Union counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 41,751 at the 2010 census. Dublin is a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. Approximately 57,000 people live within the Dublin school district....

.

During the late 1970s and 1980s, Grout held wintertime teaching professional positions at Frenchman’s Creek Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

Palm Beach Gardens is a city in Palm Beach County in the U.S. state of Florida. The city is in the center of a rapidly-developing area north of West Palm Beach in the northern part of the county and the South Florida metropolitan area. , the population was 48,452...

 and, later at The Loxahatchee Club in Jupiter, Florida

Jupiter, Florida

Jupiter is a town located in Palm Beach County, Florida. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 39,328. The estimate population for 2009 is 50,606. As of 2006, the population had grown to 50,028, according to the University of Florida, Bureau of Economic and Business Research....

. Throughout his long career, Grout played a pivotal role in the development of many fine players. His reputation for having a non-irritating manner, an uncanny eye in spotting flaws and knack of transmitting simple solutions to what seemed like complicated problems attracted such golfers as Jack Nicklaus, Raymond Floyd

Raymond Floyd

Raymond Loran "Ray" Floyd is an American professional golfer who has won numerous tournaments on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour....

, Tommy Aaron

Tommy Aaron

Thomas Dean Aaron is a former American professional golfer who was a member of the PGA Tour during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Aaron is best known for winning the 1973 Masters Tournament.- Early years :...

, Joe Turnesa, Dow Finsterwald

Dow Finsterwald

Dow Henry Finsterwald, Sr. is an American professional golfer who is best known for winning the 1958 PGA Championship. He won 11 Tour titles between 1955 and 1963, played on four Ryder Cup teams, and served as non-playing captain for the 1977 U.S. Ryder Cup team.Finsterwald was born and raised in...

, Ben Crenshaw

Ben Crenshaw

Ben Daniel Crenshaw is an American professional golfer.Crenshaw was born in Austin, Texas. He attended and played golf at Austin High School and the University of Texas, where he won three NCAA Championships from 1971 to 1973...

, Grier Jones, DeWitt Weaver

DeWitt Weaver (golfer)

DeWitt Thompson Weaver, Jr. is an American golf consultant and former professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Senior PGA Tour....

, Marty Fleckman

Marty Fleckman

Martin A. Fleckman is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour in the 1960s and 1970s.Fleckman was born in Port Arthur, Texas. He credits Byron Nelson, Carl Lohren and Jim Hardy with teaching him how to play golf. At the age of 20 in 1964, Fleckman won the individual title at the...

, J. C. Snead, Gibby Gilbert

Gibby Gilbert

C.L. "Gibby" Gilbert II is an American professional golfer who has won tournaments on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour....

, Jerry Heard

Jerry Heard

Jerry M. Heard is an American professional golfer who won several PGA Tour events in the 1970s.Heard was born in Visalia, California. He became a professional golfer in 1968 and joined the PGA Tour in 1969. His first professional win came in the American Golf Classic at the Firestone Country Club...

, Roger Maltbie

Roger Maltbie

Roger Lin Maltbie is an American professional golfer and on-course analyst for NBC Sports and ESPN.Maltbie was born in Modesto, California and grew up in San Jose. He attended James Lick High School where he was a teammate of former PGA Tour player Forrest Fezler...

, Tom Purtzer

Tom Purtzer

Thomas Warren Purtzer is an American professional golfer who has won tournaments on both the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour....

, Lanny Wadkins

Lanny Wadkins

Jerry Lanston "Lanny" Wadkins, Jr. is an American professional golfer. He ranked in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Rankings for 86 weeks from their debut in 1986 to 1988....

, Bruce Devlin

Bruce Devlin

Bruce William Devlin is an Australian professional golfer, sportscaster and golf course designer.Devlin was born in Armidale, Australia. He turned pro in 1961 and joined the PGA Tour in 1962 after an amateur career in Australia which included a win at the Australian Amateur in 1959...

, Jim Colbert

Jim Colbert

James Joseph Colbert is an American professional golfer.Colbert was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He attended Kansas State University, where he finished second in the NCAA golf championships in 1964, before graduating and turning professional in 1965.Colbert won eight times on the PGA Tour,...

, Butch Baird

Butch Baird

Fred "Butch" Baird is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Senior PGA Tour .Baird was born in Chicago. He learned the game at the age of 14 from his father...

, George Burns III

George Burns (golfer)

George Francis Burns III is an American professional golfer who has won several tournaments at both the amateur and professional levels....

, Jerry McGee, Fred Ridley, Steve Melnyk, and Olin Browne

Olin Browne

Olin Douglas Browne is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour as well as the Champions Tour.Browne was born in Washington, D.C. He graduated from St. Albans School in 1977. He then went on to Occidental College in 1981. He turned professional in 1984. He lives in Hobe Sound,...

. Additionally, Grout peered at the swings of quite a few LPGA Tour players, including; Barbara Romack

Barbara Romack

Barbara Gaile Romack is an American professional golfer.Romack was born in Sacramento, California. She won the North and South Women's Amateur at Pinehurst in 1952, the Canadian Women's Amateur in 1953, and then in 1954, she defeated Mickey Wright in the finals to win the U.S. Women's Amateur...

, Jo Ann Prentice

Jo Ann Prentice

Jo Ann Prentice is an American professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour.Prentice was born in Birmingham, Alabama...

, Maria Astrologes

Maria Astrologes

Maria Elana Astrologes Combs is an American professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour. She played under her maiden name, Maria Astrologes, until her marriage in 1979.Astrologes won once on the LPGA Tour in 1975....

, Beth Stone, Kathy Cornelius

Kathy Cornelius

Kathy Cornelius is an American golfer.Cornelius was born in Boston, Massachusetts and attended Florida Southern College, where she played on the men's golf team, as the school did not have a women's team at the time. She turned pro in 1953 and married golf pro Bill Cornelius the same year...

, Kathy Farrer, Silvia Bertolaccini

Silvia Bertolaccini

Silvia Bertolaccini is an Argentine professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour.Bertolaccini was born in Rafaela, Santa Fe. She won the Argentine and Colombian amateur championships before turning professional and moving to the United States to play on the LPGA Tour in 1975...

, Sandra Spuzich

Sandra Spuzich

Sandra Spuzich is an American professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.Spuzich was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was an amateur golfer and elementary school teacher when she decided to turn professional in 1962. Her first win came at the 1966 U.S. Women's...

 and Sally Little

Sally Little

Sally Little is a professional golfer. She originally had South African nationality, but became a United States citizen in August 1982....

.

Family

Grout continued to teach and promote the game until his death in Tequesta, Florida

Tequesta, Florida

Tequesta is an incorporated village in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,273 at the 2000 census. It is the northernmost municipality in the South Florida metropolitan area, which in 2007 had an estimated population of 5,413. According to the U.S...

 at the age of 79. He and Bonnie Ann (Fox), his wife of 46 years, had four children and six grandchildren. He is interred beside her in Riverside Memorial Park in Tequesta, Florida. Furthermore, Jack Grout came from a fine family of golfers. His older brother Dick played in the 1926 PGA Championship at Salisbury Golf Links, Westbury, New York

Westbury, New York

Westbury incorporated in 1932 as a village in Nassau County, New York in the United States. The population was 15,146 at the 2010 census.The Village of Westbury is in the Town of North Hempstead....

 and the 1929 U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club

Winged Foot Golf Club

Winged Foot Golf Club is a 36-hole golf course located in Mamaroneck, New York. The course architect is A. W. Tillinghast, who also designed Baltusrol , Bethpage Black, Shackamaxon Country Club, San Francisco Golf Club, Cedar Crest Park, and nearby Quaker Ridge Golf Club and Wykagyl Country Club...

 in Mamaroneck, New York

Mamaroneck (town), New York

Mamaroneck is a town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 29,156 at the 2010 census. There are two villages contained within the town: Larchmont and the Village of Mamaroneck...

. Also, Dick won the Oklahoma Open

Oklahoma Open

The Oklahoma Open is the Oklahoma state open golf tournament, open to both amateur and professional golfers. It is organized by the Oklahoma Golf Association. It has been played annually since 1910 at a variety of courses around the state...

 in 1927 and 1929. His younger brother Raymond (Dutch) played in the 1934 U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club

Merion Golf Club

Merion Golf Club is a private golf club located near Ardmore, Pennsylvania that is consistently rated by Golf Digest, among America's greatest golf courses, and will host the U.S. Open in 2013...

 in Ardmore, Pennsylvania

Ardmore, Pennsylvania

Ardmore is a census-designated place in Delaware and Montgomery counties in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The population was 12,455 at the 2010 census...

 and, later that same year, won the Oklahoma State Open Match-Play Championship. His youngest sister Jenny was one of the greatest female golfers in Oklahoma history. She won both the state high school girls' championship in 1934 and the state amateur championship in 1937. In addition, Grout's youngest son Dick was a contestant in the 1979 U.S. Open at Inverness Club

Inverness Club

Inverness Club is a country club in Toledo, Ohio that is famous for its golf course . The golf course is so well known since it has hosted four U.S. Opens, two U.S. Senior Opens, two PGA Championships, and a U.S. Amateur...

 in Toledo, Ohio

Toledo, Ohio

Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...

.

Professional wins

• 1938 Mid-South Four-Ball (with Henry Picard
  Henry Picard
  Henry Gilford Picard was an American professional golfer.Picard was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and learned to play golf while caddying at the Plymouth Country Club. Picard, already a talented player by his early 20s, came to prominence after coaching from the leading instructor Alex Morrison...
  
  )
• 1941 Radio City Invitational
• 1945 Illinois PGA Championship
  Illinois PGA Championship
  The Illinois PGA Championship is a golf tournament that is conducted by the Illinois PGA . The 54-hole, stroke play Championship conducted over three days is the premier member event on the Illinois PGA calendar...
  
  
• 1948 Spring Lake Invitational

Writing

• Let Me Teach You Golf As I Taught Jack Nicklaus, by Jack Grout, 1974, Atheneum.
• On The Lesson Tee, Basic Golf Fundamentals, by Jack Grout, 1982, The Athletic Institute.
• Jack Grout's Golf Clinic, Jack Nicklaus' Teacher and Coach, by Jack Grout, 1985, The Athletic Institute.