Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1994
But ask anyone associated with the game of golf, not just across the United States but around the world, about Jim Flick and the response would be instantaneous. He is recognized in golf circles everywhere as one of the premier teachers of the sport, and is a man who has devoted his professional life to helping others enjoy the game to its fullest.
Flick came to Wake Forest in 1949 from his hometown of Jeffersonville, Ind., on a basketball scholarship, eventually lettering two years under coach Murray Greason. At the same time, he developed a close relationship with classmate (and roommate for a time) Arnold Palmer and other members of the Deacon golf squad and competed with them for two seasons.
In 1950, Palmer and Flick were brought together by a tragic car accident. Flick's best friend, Gene Scheer, and Palmer's closest friend, Buddy Worsham, died in an auto accident. The four friends had been working as ticket-sellers at a Wake Forest-Duke football game. When Palmer and Flick could not balance their cash drawers, Worsham and Scheer left the stadium on their own.
That sport would provide his future. In 1955, he began a career as a teaching professional at the Evansville (Ind.) Country Club following a two-year military stint. Flick eventually became affiliated with the highly regarded Golf Digest Schools as their director of instruction, a position he held for nearly 20 years. From 1991-2001, he devoted the majority of his energy to the Nicklaus-Flick Golf Schools, which were held in a number of locations across the country, including his present home of Scottsdale, Arizona.
Flick has served as a golf instructor in 23 nations and has worked with close to 300 former or current professional players at all levels. Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson, Ian Woosnam and Tom Lehman.
An author of five books and producer of 20 instructional videotapes on his sport, flick also holds the distinction of having given a lesson to golf's living legends, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.
Flick was inducted into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame on Jan. 14, 1994.
