Jack Grout

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

It was at Glen Garden where Jack Grout, employed as his brother's assistant, became friends and playing partners with 18-year-old Byron Nelson and 17-year-old Ben Hogan.

[2] Grout made his PGA Tour début on December 18, 1931, playing in the Pasadena Open at Brookside Park Golf Course.

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 having a chronic back condition.

Through Grout's association with Picard, he was exposed to new theories on golf technique that had been advanced in the 1920s and 1930s by Alex Morrison, a controversial West Coast professional.

A golfer should try to develop the widest possible arc by making a full shoulder turn and fully extending his arms on the backswing and downswing.

They developed a unique arrangement where Nicklaus would visit Grout at the start of each new season to review fundamentals, virtually from scratch.

[10] Grout made annual visits to the Masters, U.S. Open and PGA Championship, but seldom instructed Nicklaus at major tournament sites.

He is quoted as saying: "The golfer who must fall back on a teacher every time any little thing sours in his game cannot but have a limited future.

He wanted his students to be able to function at the highest level without him.”[12] Grout completed his PGA Tour career by playing in the 1956 U.S. Open at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York.

In October 1961, he moved his family to Miami Beach, Florida where he became pro at La Gorce Country Club.

His reputation for having a non-irritating manner, an uncanny eye in spotting flaws and a knack for transmitting simple solutions to what seemed like complicated problems attracted such golfers as Jack Nicklaus, Raymond Floyd, Tommy Aaron, Joe Turnesa, Dow Finsterwald, Ben Crenshaw, Grier Jones, DeWitt Weaver, Marty Fleckman, J. C. Snead, Gibby Gilbert, Jerry Heard, Roger Maltbie, Tom Purtzer, Lanny Wadkins, Bruce Devlin, Jim Colbert, Butch Baird, George Burns III, Jerry McGee, Fred Ridley, Steve Melnyk and Olin Browne.

[12] Additionally, Grout peered at the swings of quite a few LPGA Tour players, including; Barbara Romack, Jo Ann Prentice, Maria Astrologes, Beth Stone, Kathy Cornelius, Kathy Farrer, Dianne Dailey, Silvia Bertolaccini, Sandra Spuzich and Sally Little.