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It's a gorgeous Texas winter morning — just cool enough to remind you it's January; just warm enough to tempt you to head to the golf course for a leisurely 18.
Jackie Burke has already made his morning rounds, checking in with the pro shop and office. Just down the hall from his office, crews are giving the clubhouse an early 2019 cleaning. Outside, the parking lot is filling up and members are heading to the first tee.
Burke will turn 96 in a few weeks, but he rarely misses a morning at the office. He and Jimmy Demaret built Champions Golf Club back in the late 1950s when Jack Rabbit Road was the Road to Nowhere and the land around the iconic golf course wasn't houses, but rather cattle fields and farms.
Folks thought they were crazy to build out there at that time, let alone build a golf-only club with two courses. What they were was prescient.
"There were nothing but ranches and farms and they used to call this game cow pasture pool,'' Burke said, chuckling. "Some of them had golf clubs and they'd just be just watching their cows and hitting a few balls.''
Sixty years later, the course — like Burke — has stood the test of time. The club and the championship Cypress Creek course is but one piece of an incredible legacy Burke continues to build on daily.
A Hall of Fame player. A teacher. A wise counsel. A businessman. A true keeper of the game.
A member of the 2019 Class of the Houston Sports Hall of Fame.
Life with Jackie is never dull. There's always an opinion or two teed up and ready to roll off his tongue. He's part philosopher, part teacher, part gruff uncle with a heart of gold and a few words that you don't want to hear, but he tosses out anyway because knows you need to hear them.
He's slowed down a bit — and even mellowed a tad — but he can still remind you that you can't get lost on a straight road, toss out a one-liner or needle the keepers of the game by saying he wouldn't dare leave the flagstick in the hole when he was putting on the green.
And when you ask him about being inducted into yet another Hall of Fame?
"As you play, the Hall of Fame is not exactly on your mind,'' he said. "The next 7-iron shot is.''
Champions member Robert Scardino had — under pretense — been bothering him about a putting lesson and pulled him out onto the green. "There were a lot of people out there and then a lot more showed up,'' Burke said." I didn't have a clue. I was surprised.''
In many ways, Burke is a reflection of his father, Jack Sr., who brought the true game to Houston in the 1920s when he was the pro at River Oaks Country Club. He was — like so many of his era — a clubmaker as well as a teacher who built the original Donald Ross course at RO, hired Demaret as an assistant, and taught not just a swing, but the game. He even tried to bring major events to River Oaks, but the time wasn't right.
"It was just a little early for the state of Texas,'' Burke said.
By the '60s, the timing was perfect.
A decade after Champions was founded, the course held the 1967 Ryder Cup. Two years later, it played host to the 1969 U.S. Open. He and Demaret had taken the best ideas they saw at clubs around the country and blended them into Champions where golf wasn't just a social gathering, but life.
"That was the beginning of Champions stepping into national spotlight,'' Burke said. "We gave them a golf course that was capable of handling a major event.''
A decade later, the course hosted the TOUR Championship for several years then the 1993 U.S. Amateur followed by other USGA events. Next year, it will host the 2020 U.S. Women's Open — the crown of all the women's majors.
"He had the vision in 1957 to build a golf course that would last," said Burke's' wife Robin, a nine-time Houston Women's City Champion and elite amateur. "The game hasn't outgrown this course. The course is still relevant.''
So is Burke. Over the years, a long line of PGA Tour players has stopped by for a short game lesson or two. Or a little common sense. A Hall of Fame player, Burke won both the Masters and PGA in 1956 and had 19 professional wins total.
His lessons are simple and to the point like "first things first." But the core swing teachings are based on the four Ts — tension, timing, temp and trust. "The way to play,'' he said, "is to go to the first tee and not have a lot on your mind.''
"I took a lot from my dad. He was the one who invented the rubber grip so he as always on to something. Our dinner table had Jack Grout, Babe Zaharias, and many, many good players around it. And taught people like Harvey Penick.''
Another part of Burke's legacy? That would be another prescient moment when, in 1978, he and Demaret turned visionary once again, creating the Legends of Golf tournament — an event that launched what is now a thriving Champions TOUR.
Demaret passed away in 1983, but Burke continued to run the club in the same way and with the same vision.
In the 1950s, he said, "They were building clubs, but weren't building the game with it's rules and having young kids learning the game and the rule book.''
Today, 300 of the club's 800 members have single-digit handicaps and some of the best young players in the game — players like UT's Cole Hammer and Texas A&M's Walker Lee — have junior memberships so they can play against some of the best amateurs in the city.
Burke grew up listening to some of the great storytellers in the game and played with a few too. Today's he's the one telling the tales and weaving them through lessons. He's slowing down and Robin is overseeing the club, but Burke is still there pushing forward.
Both hope the 2020 Women's Open will be a springboard to even more major events — maybe even a U.S. Open, a PGA Championship, another Ryder Cup or a Solheim Cup.
"I think because of the reputation Jack's built and the membership that's willing to do that to continue to bring championships to this club,'' Robin said. "Obviously a men's Open would be incredible. So would a PGA.
Burke agreed. He thought anything was possible in 1957 and anything is still possible all these decades later.
He's looking forward to taking his place in the Hall of Fame next month as well as meeting Foreman and Foyt. He knows Pastorini.
But between now and then, he has a 96th birthday to celebrate. And the party? Of course, it will be at Champions with the members, who are really his extended family. And it'll be on Chicken Night — his favorite night of the week.
And Burke? He'll be smiling and telling stories. And giving to a few lessons too.
Some things never change.
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