When he joined the American tour in 1962, Jack Nicklaus made a pact with his young wife Barbara that he would never be away from their children for more than two weeks. In the ensuing 36 years, he has broken the promise only once, and his reward has been a closeness with his offspring that is the envy of his contemporaries.

Nicklaus's one transgression happened when he and Barbara took their respective parents on a holiday to South Africa and were gone for a total of 17 days. "Aside from that, he's never broken his pledge," she said.

In a charming play on words, the American magazine, Golf World, recently referred to the Golden Heirs. And by his own admission, Nicklaus was determined that his children wouldn't have cause to complain at college - "Gee, I wish I'd known my dad."

The extent to which he succeeded in avoiding such an emotional rift, can be gauged from the fact that all five children have places in the family business. Indeed, the ultimate accolade to the closeness of the Nicklaus clan is that they have been compared with the Kennedys. They are the royal family of American golf, with a monarch of unparalleled achievements in the game.

Fiercely loyal and clannish, Jackie (36), Steve (35), Nan (32), Gary (29) and Michael (24), all live within a few minutes of each other in North Palm Beach, Florida. And they are heirs to the Nicklaus/Golden Bear empire, encompassing private and public sectors with more than 700 employees and annual revenues in excess of $80 million. The companies' activities include golf course construction and design, licensing, golf schools, real estate, television production, publishing, golf equipment and golf management. "The kids don't run the company," said Nicklaus, who is executive chairman. "They all have different ways to go and different things to do in a variety of areas."

Whatever their future achievements, the offspring can feel proud of how they have coped with a surname which could be potentially crippling. With admirable composure, they have been able to take great pride in their heritage, as evidenced by the fact that the second of Nan's four children was christened Nicklaus O'Leary.

But it can't have been easy. I can recall the British Amateur at Royal Lytham in 1986, when Jackie was in the field having had his greatest success in winning the prestigious North and South tournament in the US the previous year. Apart from the fact that he drew far larger galleries than the defending champion Garth McGimpsey, I remember him as a very mechanical-looking player who seemed to have an abundance of technique but precious little feel.

Among the English challengers at Lytham was Simon Holmes, who had the misfortune to break bones in both wrists when making full-blooded contact with a hidden tree stump. The injuries effectively ended his playing career and led him into coaching where he is now one of the game's most respected tutors.

"At various stages, I have played with Jackie and Gary and they are both very good players," he said. "Clearly, they were never going to be talented enough to bear comparison with the greatest player the game has seen. But in extremely difficult circumstances, I believe they have done remarkably well."

The name clearly imposed problems, both for the parents and the children. For their March 11th issue of 1985, Sports Illustrated gave over the cover to Gary, then 16, hailing him as the "Next Nicklaus." His father was furious, seeing it as a classic example of attention being focused on one of his children simply because of his name.

"I played good at a young age but I didn't win enough to justify the recognition I received," admitted Gary, who is currently plying his craft on the European Tour, where he has so far failed to make any real impact, missing his first five cuts this season.

He was named after family friend Gary Player, who marvels at the apparent lack of rivalry among the Nicklaus children. "It's a very rare thing the way they get on so well," he said. "As a parent, you always hope your children won't fight over business or inheritance, but that's rare when money and celebrity are involved."

By a fascinating coincidence, Jackie, the eldest of the Nicklaus children, married a Barbara and they now have four offspring - Jack III (aged 8), Christy (5), Charlie (3) and Casey (2). Among other things, his marriage brought a realisation that he was better at building courses than playing them.

So, he became deeply involved in his father's design business. Ten years on and with dozens of projects to his credit, he has established a reputation in the US as a fine designer in his own right.

Steve concentrated mainly on football while attending Florida State University. Last September, however, he and John Hines, a former football coach, bought the sports management company, Executive Sports, from Golden Bear for an undisclosed sum.

By Steve's own estimation, he and Hines now manage some 40 golf tournaments, including all the Golden Bear Tour events, along with "a dozen or so tournaments on each tour, including the Honda Classic, the Memorial, Doral and four events in Japan."

As a family friend pointed out: "Steve could have just taken an office at Golden Bear and sponged. But he has found a niche in the sports marketing business and he works very hard to get things done."

Once spoken of by Tiger Woods as "a guy who hits the ball further than I do," Michael graduated as a civil engineer from Georgia Tech and is ideally qualified for a career in golf course design. For the moment, however, he wants to play tournament golf.

He competed last summer on the family-owned Golden Bear Tour, missing the cut in his first nine events. But he is not discouraged. "It's going to take me three of four years to get to the point where I can compete," he said.

Nan met her future husband, Bill O'Leary, at the University of Georgia where they were both student-athletes. And O'Leary, affectionately referred to by his father-in-law as "a very bad golfer," is gradually becoming involved in the design business.

From a marketing standpoint, the family's appeal was captured by the man himself. "People realise that I have a support staff," said the Bear. "So they say to themselves `I can pay Jack a million dollars to do a golf course, or I can pay one of the kids three or four hundred thousand to do a golf course, and I get virtually the same thing. Along with the Nicklaus name.' A lot of smart developers are choosing that option."

For the record, Tim Mahony paid $1.25 million as a design fee for Mount Juliet, which is a so-called Nicklaus Signature Course. Small wonder that Michael acknowledged: "My dad is the drawing card for the business right now. If he were to retire today, the company would be in trouble."

Indications, however, are that when the time comes for mother and father to hand over the business to their offspring, the next generation will know what to do. Essentially, all that remains to be decided is the timing.

In this regard, it is clear that despite a superb sixth place finish in the recent US Masters, Nicklaus is rapidly approaching the end of his playing career, certainly in regular tour events. "When the call came from the USGA offering me three further exemptions into the US Open, I went and talked to Barbara," he admitted.

He went on: "When we both made sure, I told them I would do it on a year-to-year basis. I think that no matter what happens over the next 12 months, the year 2000 will probably be my last year doing any of it. In the meantime, I don't really know what I'm going to do.

"I'll try and play at Augusta National and I'm going to try to play at Pebble Beach (2000 US Open) and the British Open at St Andrews and Valhalla (USPGA). Those are four courses I'd like to play.

"I've entered this year's British Open and obviously if I play well in the US Open (at the Olympic Club, San Francisco on June 18th to 21st) you'll see me at Birkdale. But if I don't play well at the Olympic Club, you won't see me at Birkdale or the PGA."

As to his 58 years, he said: "I feel pretty darn good and where discipline is concerned, I have it over some things. But you know I happen to like a good bowl of ice cream at night sometimes." Then, with a smile: "Okay, every night."

He went on: "But if somebody was interested, I know I could go out and play four or five sets of tennis. And I could certainly walk any golf course. I think the average American would be very happy to be where I am but nobody's ever happy with themselves. They always want to do better."

Perhaps that has been the saving of his children. They knew that no matter how hard they tried at golf, they could never hope to match the achievements of their father. So they settled for setting themselves realistic, personal targets. And all the while, there was the absolute conviction that their father would never criticise them, certainly not publicly.

It has been an amazing achievement by both the parents and the children - entirely in keeping with their illustrious name.