Long before he famously stalked birdies and eagles, it seems Arnold Palmer also had an eye for landscapes and contours.
''My first-grade teacher told me I should be an artist when I grew up,'' the greenskeeper's son said with a playful grin.
Plenty of folks, of course, would suggest Palmer simply crafted his art with sticks other than a paintbrush -- a colorful style marked by slashing drives and bold attacks at the green.
Jack Nicklaus, on the other hand, never considered himself the artsy type.
''I had trouble putting two lines together and making a circle,'' the winner of 18 major championships recalled with a chuckle. ``They never came together. I just never had any interest in it.''
Like Palmer, though, Nicklaus' passion for golf sought an outlet as his competitive days began to wind down. Both found it in their creative side, throwing as much energy into designing the playing fields as they once did in mastering them.
''It's an extention of what we've always done,'' Nicklaus said. ``Creating something that'll be here a long time beyond your golf game and your lifetime -- it's something I've come to enjoy.''
Shot value, rather than shot making, has become the focus.
GLOBAL DEMAND
It's why Nicklaus' travel schedule in recent weeks has taken him to Anguilla to break ground on a new layout, and later to Hong Kong, China and his first visit to India.
Palmer will fly his jet Friday to North Carolina, where several trips are upcoming to look in on various projects. His appointment book recently included two South Florida stops, checking out Deering Bay Yacht & Country Club and his namesake layout at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens.
Last month, Palmer, 78, sat down in his Orlando office with a prospect to discuss a course in Bulgaria.
''Both of them have taken design to an unprecedented corporate model,'' said Bradley Klein, Golfweek's longtime architecture editor. ``They have taken on an enormous scale of work.''
Indeed, one usually doesn't have to look very far to find a course bearing one stamp or the other.
Arnold Palmer Design lists 246 courses either open for play or in development, with designs in 26 countries. The count at Nicklaus Design is up to 399 courses in 58 nations.
Both also have a strong South Florida presence. Deering Bay and PGA National are among seven Palmer creations; Nicklaus, 68, has left his mark on 11 courses, including the PGA National's Champion course (the Honda Classic's home) and an upgrade of LaGorce Country Club in Miami Beach.
''This is certainly an ideal situation for me to stay in the business of golf,'' Palmer said during his visit to Deering Bay. ``We'd like to hope that [golfers] appreciate what we're trying to do.''
Not that Palmer and Nicklaus have the capability to get intimately engaged in each design -- though it's available for developers willing to pay higher prices.
Both, though, leave a mark on nearly every blueprint that crosses their desk.
''He's real careful with not pushing his thoughts on us,'' said Erik Larson, Palmer Design's vice president and one of his lead designers. ``But there are certain design philosophical items that he embraces that he wants to make sure we incorporate.''
Hazards and greens should be visible. Subtly rolling greens, rather than severe humps and bumps. Make the round visually pleasing.
''Give the golfer something to look at,'' Palmer said, standing on the 13th tee of PGA National's Palmer course. The par-3 green slopes off to a collection area behind, but it all runs together.
Palmer suggests two bunkers instead.
''One on the left and one on the right,'' he said. ``That'll make a better target.''
As the caravan gets ready to move on, he adds: ``This is potentially the best hole on the course.''
He has a stronger suggestion for No. 18, where a fairway bunker melds into a larger waste area bordering water.
''We have a beautiful hazard here and it's not showcased,'' he said, all but ordering up sod and vegetation.
Palmer's suggestions will be incorporated this summer.
FANTASTIC GRASS
The Hall of Famer liked what he saw at the renovated Deering Bay, where the entire layout was regrassed with Paspalum, a hardier strain that thrives in brackish waters.
''It is fantastic,'' Palmer said. ``I have built six golf courses in various parts of the world with Paspalum and have not had one that wasn't successful.''
Palmer got his first taste of course design in the early 1960s, when he helped his father, Deacon, lay out a second nine at their home Latrobe (Pa.) Country Club.
His first paid job came shortly thereafter, another nine-hole layout called Indian Lake in southwestern Pennsylvania.
''And it was quite a job,'' he recalled. ``The methods of design have changed. When I first started, we had an occasional bulldozer on the job and a truck and a bunch of people. Now we've got all modern equipment.''
It's worth noting that, despite the words of that first-grade teacher, Palmer doesn't do his own drawing.
''He'll give us some sketches occasionally,'' Larson said. ``But mostly his direction is verbal. Drawing is our job. . . . That's part of the beauty. There's five different guys here. We don't have a certain style and every job is different.''
Nicklaus, too, makes do with ''little sketches'' on a sheet of paper or even the back of a napkin. And he's found he likes it that way.
''I'll do a sketch and then let the [site chief] interpret that sketch,'' he said during a recent appearance in Coral Gables, promoting a design project in Mexico.
``They understand strategy and all the nuances I want in a hole there. Then the bulldozer operator will interpret that. So you end up with a different look.''
Whatever the method, Nicklaus' designs have garnered more critical acclaim. Seven of his courses are ranked on Golf Digest's ''100 Greatest'' list, a roster topped by Muirfield Village (18th) and Castle Pines (36th).
Muirfield Village is seventh on Golfweek's ranking of top designs since 1960, where seven Nicklaus courses are listed. Palmer, by comparison, has two.
ALWAYS IMPROVING
''[Nicklaus has] evolved dramatically,'' Klein said, ``both as a function of the market as well as changes in Jack's own game.''
Early Nicklaus creations frequently caught criticism for favoring a left-to-right ball flight -- matching Nicklaus' playing style. As time has evolved, though, so have the patterns.
''Pretty soon I found out,'' Nicklaus acknowledged. ``I learned from that and adjusted what I did.''
Not bad for a guy who can't get a circle to close.
''I never thought that I was artistic,'' he said. ``For some reason, I'm able to look at a piece of ground and envision what I want to do.''
Nicklaus, more or less fell into design. The bug was planted by Pete Dye -- elected this week to the World Golf Hall of Fame -- as he picked Nicklaus' brain for a course in Columbus, Ohio.
''Pete and I had been friends for years,'' Nicklaus recalled. 'We went out and went around -- `How do you like that hole?' So I told him what I thought. To my surprise, he did about a half-dozen things I'd suggested.''
In 1970 came Harbour Town, a cooperative work with Dye that still ranks among the nation's top 50 layouts.
''I made 23 visits,'' Nicklaus said. ``That's a lot of visits to make to a golf course.''
And an indicator of Nicklaus' meticulous attention to detail. He's learned to scale things back, but still likes to give hands-on attention.
Hence the 25 weeks a year he spends visiting sites.
''I used to spend 25 weeks a year playing tournament golf,'' he shrugs. ``I don't do that anymore. I've got to fill those 25 weeks somehow.''
He's especially intrigued by the prospect of new territory. Nicklaus Design is finishing its first golf course in Moscow, with at least three more to come.
''It's like being in Central Park, right on the Moscow River,'' he said. ``How do you get [land] like that?''
Still to come are courses in Poland, Romania, Croatia, Turkey and Cyprus, among others.
''Anyplace that golf hasn't been, that certainly perks me up,'' he said. ``We're basically shaping the future of the game. None of those places play much golf, but they will.
``To be in all those different places and doing all those different things, it kind of keeps me going.''
