PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Like grandfather, like grandson.
No, not the way he performs on a golf course. Nick O’Leary, 35, is not a great golfer and never will be. He plays only once a week. He works for a construction company.
But for O’Leary, who will tee it up in this week’s PRO Tour event at PGA National, there is something he values a lot more than hitting a little white ball.
Much like Grandpa, the Golden Bear himself.
It is called family.
So much, in fact, that in 2024, O’Leary, a former tight end in the NFL, decided not to pursue a possible career in coaching — for a year, he had been an assistant coach at Florida State, his alma mater—because it would have meant too much time away from his wife and kids.
“It was different than I thought it was,” said O’Leary whose children are ages 4, 3 and seven months. “You don’t see your family. I want to see my kids grow up. I really don’t know how [the coaches] do it.”
Sounds exactly like something Jack Nicklaus would have said. Nicklaus attended all of his kids’ sporting events, missing so many tournaments that Chi Chi Rodriguez referred to him as “a legend in his spare time.”
The construction job — the name of the company is Ten Point Services — is perfect for O’Leary. He gets to spend time at home and is part of a team. Just like the old days.
“We’re all working together to get a job done,” he said. And if someone comes up short, like the NFL, it’s “next guy up.”
Strange, isn’t it, considering his pedigree, that golf was not a big passion of his growing up?
Not strange, according to O’Leary.
“I had football,” he explained.
He sure did. In his four years at Florida State, he had 114 receptions for 1,591 yards, which included 17 touchdowns. As a senior, he set a school record for most receptions for a tight end, and won the John Mackey Award, handed to the best tight end in the country.
Unfortunately, his accomplishments in the pros did not match his accomplishments in college. Selected in the sixth round of the 2015 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills — he hoped to go higher but didn’t do well in the combine — O’Leary, who would later play for the Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars, finished with only 53 receptions and four touchdowns before leaving the game in 2020.
The career may not have been all that he had hoped for, but, as he pointed out, “it’s what I had wanted to do since I was a kid.”
Still, the career might have gone at least a little bit longer if not for a blockage in an artery near his heart. He was put on blood thinners for a year—and that was pretty much it.
As for him and his grandfather, the two have played their share of golf together over the years, including at Augusta National, the Golden Bear showing him how to navigate his way around a golf course.
More importantly, he showed him how to navigate his way around in life.
“How to be a good person,” he said, “to be a family guy.”
Like grandfather, like grandson.