Museum Corner September 2020
Jim Flick played on Bedford High School’s 1947 basketball team. Front row: Coach Holmes, Morris Root, Jack Allen, Jim Flick, Joe True, Bob Corbin. Back row: Wayne Girdley, Bob Sohn, John Condiff, Dick Pace. Their signatures surround the photo. Image at right is one of the golf books Flick created.
Basketball picture by Long Studio courtesy of the Lawrence County Museum.
Local boy became golf instructor to the pros
By Becky Buher and Joyce Shepherd
Golfing has been one of the activities people could safely experience locally during the COVID pandemic this summer. Looking back about 75 years, a Bedford High School student and a golfer in the 1940s would later become one of America’s outstanding golf teachers.
That local boy was Coleman and Ruby Lightner Flick’s son, James Myron “Jim” Flick, who was born at Dunn Hospital in 1929.
As Jim grew up in Bedford, his closest childhood friend was Arch Voris.
Jim’s father worked in the service department of Public Service Indiana. In 1935, Bedford received three Works Progress Administration (WPA) project grants, and he supervised the WPA laborers who worked on the beautiful stacked-limestone wall that still borders Otis Park. Coleman was a member of the golf board in 1940 and was city senior golf champion in 1943, 1944, and 1945. Young Jim was the city’s junior champion in 1945.
When Jim was in high school, the family lived on M Street. In 2010, he said: “I feel very fortunate to have grown up in Bedford and been able to play at Otis Park. …The first year we joined, I think it was something like $24.00 for a family membership for the year and for swimming at Thornton Park. I played varsity golf in high school. I was a lifeguard at Otis Park for two years, and I rode my bicycle from M Street out there to work and back every day.”
Jim praised his teachers for the education he received in Bedford: “I went through the first eleven grades in Bedford, and I had some of the greatest teachers that you can imagine. The teachers prepared us. … In my day, Coach Holmes [basketball] was on to me constantly. I would go home and say, ʻDad, I donʼt think he likes me.ʼ But he was trying to help me develop myself.”
“My dad played a lot [of golf] with Fred Wampler [Sr.], who lived, I believe, up on M Street. Fred [Jr.] was a very very nice player. Fred and Craig [Bowden] probably have been the two best players to come out of Bedford.”
Jim attended Wake Forest University on a basketball scholarship, and he roomed with Arnold Palmer for awhile.
Few people are likely to have taught more golfers than Jim Flick. He spent half a century advising more than 200 touring professionals and countless weekend warriors and corporate groups as the sport of golf grew in popularity.
He received the National Golf Foundation Award for contributions to the sport of golf in 1974, the Joe Graffis Award in 1982, and was inducted into the Indiana Golf Hall of Fame in 1987.
Jack Nicklaus was a student of Flick during Nicklaus’ transition to a successful career on the senior tour. Flick began working with Nicklaus in 1990.
In addition to Flick instructing Nicklaus, the two men went into business together. From 1991 to 2003, Flick ran Nicklaus-Flick Golf Schools. He also ran golf schools for “ESPN” and “Golf Digest.
In 1999, “Golf World” named him one of the top 10 teachers of the century.
Flick said in an interview in 2010, “In my opinion, the priority is learning to use the club first. Then you train the body to be supportive of what you want the club to do.”
Another of Flick’s students was Tom Lehman, the winner of the 1996 British Open. In an interview on the Golf Channel show, “Morning Drive” Lehman said Flick taught that golf required not only proper swing mechanics but also self-confidence: He always said: “Remember who you are. Remember how good you are. I believe in you, so go believe in yourself.”
Through the years, lots of people asked him for help—Gary Player, Ernie Els, Tom Watson. He regretted that he didn’t have a chance to spend time with Ben Hogan. He did spend time with Sam Snead at the Golf Digest Schools back in the 1970s.
Flick’s own mentor was Bob Toski, who he considered to be the best teacher in the history of golf.
When asked why he decided to become a golf teacher, he replied, “Itʼs very simple. I wasnʼt good enough to be a player.”
Jim taught his last lesson on Oct. 8, 2012. He died a month later.
For more of the Jim Flick story, see the museum publication, “Seedling Patch, Summer 2010.
Source: William Hardley, “New York Times,” Nov. 8, 2012, Joyce Shepherd, “Seedling Patch,” No. 27, Summer 2010.