Jack Nicklaus

2023 Frances K. Hutchinson Medal

For his pioneering conservation practices in golf course design and for rehabilitating urban sites.

Proposed by: a member of Little Garden Club of Columbus, Zone X

Jack Nicklaus, the famed professional golfer and golf course architect, is also a pioneer of conservation practices in golf course design. He is committed to utilizing native plants and limiting the use of pesticides.

For 50 years, he has strived to enhance, not compete with, Mother Nature’s canvas.

Nicklaus Designed courses around the world have been recognized for their sound environmental practices. Jack was one of the first to design self-sustaining golf courses which require minimal fertilizers and plant-protective materials. He is also committed to paying it forward by donating his services to economically challenged communities like Benton Harbor, Michigan where he designed and built a golf course on land once scarred by landfills, toxic waste, and abandoned factories. Proceeds from golf played at the course are being put back into the community.

Jack has leveraged his knowledge and celebrity to demonstrate effective environmental stewardship in golf course development and to show that one can combine a love of golf, community, and nature.

The Frances K. Hutchinson Medal is awarded to figures of national importance for distinguished service to conservation.

The Francis K. Hutchinson Medal was endowed by the Lake Geneva Garden Club, Zone XI, in memory of its founder, Francis Kinsley Hutchinson (Mrs. Charles Lawrence Hutchinson: 1857–1936) who was an avid horticulturist, naturalist, and conservationist. At her home, Wychwood, Frances created a 73-acre woodland sanctuary, which she donated to the University of Chicago and which served as a resource for scientific study for faculty and students until the trust ended and the property was subsequently subdivided. She was the author of the Wychwood country home trilogy on the natural history of the Lake Geneva region. She was president of the Wildflower Preservation Society, Illinois Chapter. The medal was designed by Spaulding-Gorham, Inc. in 1940.

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