Surrounded by a crowd of soldiers, veterans and volunteers, golf legend Jack Nicklaus graciously signed golf balls, hats, books and pretty much whatever was handed to him Tuesday morning at American Lake Veterans Golf Course.

The 18-time major championship winner took time to sign autographs and pose for pictures with the gathered crowd before getting down to business.

Nicklaus visited the course on a stop in the South Sound as part of a scouting trip to tour a plot of land that his design team is helping to develop, expanding the course from nine to 18 holes.

"It's pretty exciting ... it's not something that happens all the time or every day, so it's a special event for us, especially when we have so many wounded warrior veterans out here," said John Beckham, acting assistant medical center director for VA Puget Sound. "He came out to look at the course and meet some of the veterans and look at some of the faces of the people he's going to be helping when he does this."

The golf great hosted a fundraiser last October that raised well over a half a million dollars to help support the construction and the building of the new course, Beckham said.

Nicklaus' design team is donating all its services to the course, which provides a therapeutic environment where accommodation is welcome and all golfers can enjoy the benefits of golf, such as exercise and relaxation in a positive and accepting social environment. Nicklaus got acquainted with the course through friend Ken Still, a former PGA Tour player and Fircrest resident who accompanied the golf legend on Tuesday's tour.

"Now (Nicklaus) is out here because he found out what it's all about and he's literally fallen in love with it," said Greg Gooch, a course volunteer. "This is a project he has taken on. That's what's cool about it."

Before mounting up as part of a caravan of golf carts to tour the course, Nicklaus expressed his excitement toward the project, telling the crowd, "We're going to take a look at what we can do to make this an even better facility."

The course's vision is to help veterans increase their independence and improve their attitude toward lift through golf.

"We have a course now that we're setting up just for them, so that disabled veterans can come out and learn how to play golf," Beckham said. "It's a psychological as well as a physical rehabilitation for a lot of them."

The course is operated and maintained by an all-volunteer force consisting of grounds crews and maintenance, operations and management personnel. Nearly one-third of the more than 300 volunteers put in more than 160 hours a year.

"There's thousands of hours from hundreds of volunteers each year that make this course a success," Beckham said. "Any recognition that we can give those through some big names like Jack Nicklaus coming out here is very, very valuable."