American Free Enterprise Day

Jack Nicklaus

Lead Medalist

No name is more synonymous with greatness in the sport of golf than the name Jack Nicklaus, and no single person has changed the face of the sport more than Jack Nicklaus – the player, the course designer, the philanthropist, and the global goodwill ambassador.
Jack was named “Golfer of the 20th Century” or “Golfer of the Millennium” by almost every major golf publication in the world. He was also named Individual Male Athlete of the 20th Century by Sports Illustrated, and one of the 10 Greatest Athletes of the Century by ESPN.
The excellence associated with Jack Nicklaus transcends what he did on the golf course. He became the first athlete/sportsperson and just the fourth person in history to be honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2005), the Congressional Gold Medal (2015) and the Lincoln Medal (2018).

Jack’s competitive career spanned five decades, and his legend has been built with 120 professional tournament victories worldwide, including a record 18 major-championship titles (six Masters, five PGA Championships, four U.S. Opens, three Open Championships) won over a 25-year period (1962-1986). He is one of only six golfers who have won all of golf’s modern majors—referred to as the career “Grand Slam.”
The legacy Jack has left as a player can be rivaled only by the legacy he is leaving as a golf-course designer, businessman, ambassador and philanthropist.
For a record six consecutive years, Golf Inc. magazine ranked Jack “The Most Powerful Person in Golf,” due to his impact on various aspects of the industry through his course design work, global business and brand (with licensees in at least 14 countries), his ambassadorial role in promoting and growing the game worldwide, and his involvement on a national and global level with various charitable causes.

Beginning with the debut of Harbour Town Golf Links in November 1969, Jack launched a golf course design career that has been as successful and transformational as his legendary playing career. Nicklaus Design, the company Jack created decades ago, has been responsible for over 450 golf course designs in six continents, 47 countries and at least 40 states. Jack has personally designed close to 325 of those courses over a career that has touched parts of seven decades. He is still very active today, with courses under development in and outside the United States.
Among his more recent work, Jack has donated his design services to a number of courses that impact charities.  Included is the reimagining of Normandie, located in North St. Louis County. Opened in 1901, Normandie Golf Club is one of the oldest public golf courses west of the Mississippi River, and Jack’s redesign is part of a massive community revitalization project.  American Dunes Golf Club in Grand Haven, Michigan benefits Folds of Honor—a non-profit that provides educational scholarships to the spouses and children of our fallen or disabled military and first responders. Since opening May 2021, the course averages $1.5 million a year donated back to Folds of Honor.

Tireless philanthropists, Jack and wife Barbara are the guiding light for the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation, which supports numerous pediatric health-care services in South Florida, as well as nationwide, and has raised over $255 million since its inception in 2004. Renowned Miami Children’s Hospital and Miami Children’s Health System have been re-branded to Nicklaus Children’s, and along with the flagship hospital, there are over 30 Nicklaus Children’s Centers spread across Florida. Nicklaus Children’s Hospital has treated children from over 120 countries and every state in the union.  Recently, the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation of Canada was established.
Residing in North Palm Beach, Fla., since 1965 and in the same home they have lived in since 1970, Jack and Barbara Nicklaus are parents to five children, grandparents to 24, and, by the end of 2026, great grandparents to 11.

Grant Horvat

Companion Medalist

Grant Horvat is a professional golfer and one of the most recognized creators in the rapidly growing world of golf media. A 2021 graduate of Palm Beach Atlantic University, Horvat played four years of NCAA Division II golf for the Sailfish while studying marine biology. During his collegiate career, he earned four Sunshine State Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll selections and was named a GCAA All-American Scholar.

Following his success at PBA, Horvat began building his career at the intersection of golf, entertainment, and digital media. He gained national attention as a member of the golf-content collective Good Good before launching his own independent channel, Grant Horvat Golf. Today, his YouTube channel has more than 1.7 million subscribers, where he produces competitive matches, instructional content, and collaborations with some of the most prominent names in golf. Horvat has competed alongside and against fellow professional golfers and leading golf creators, including Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, and the Bryan Brothers. In 2025, he won the second Creator Classic at TPC Sawgrass, earning him an invitation to compete in a PGA Tour event, further elevating his profile within professional golf.

Beyond content creation, Horvat has expanded his work into golf business, entrepreneurship, and supporting various non-profit organizations. He became partial owner of Takomo Golf in 2025 and continues to develop partnerships and projects in support of faith-based outreach, youth golf mentorship, and high-profile charity tournaments. Horvat works extensively with the College Golf Fellowship (CGF), a non-profit ministry dedicated to mentoring and discipling collegiate golfers.

Through his platform, Horvat shares his faith and introduces a new generation of audiences to golf while demonstrating the growing influence of creator-driven media in professional sports.