Jack Nicklaus
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Nicklaus celebrates his victory in the 1980 U.S. Open |
Jack William Nicklaus (born
January 21,
1940), also known as "The Golden Bear", was a major force in professional
golf, first on the
PGA Tour from the 1960s to the mid-to-late 1980s, then on the
Champions Tour from the late 1980s to the 1990s. Nicklaus is widely regarded as the greatest golfer of all time.
Together with
Arnold Palmer, he is credited with turning golf into the major
spectator sport it has become. While Palmer brought golf into the television era, it was the developing Nicklaus-Palmer rivalry that drove subsequent interest.
Nicklaus was born in
Columbus, Ohio. He was raised and attended public schools in the suburb of
Upper Arlington. He took up golf at the age of ten, shooting 51 for his first nine holes. At 13, he broke 70. He won the first of six
Ohio State Junior titles at the age of twelve. While attending
Ohio State University, he won the
U.S. Amateur title twice (1959, 1961), and an
NCAA Championship (1961). At the
1960 U.S. Open, he shot a 282, finishing second by two strokes to Arnold Palmer, who won the tournament with a final round 65.
Nicklaus began his professional career in 1962, and his record of eighteen wins in
major tournaments (three
Open Championships, four
U.S. Opens, five
PGA Championships, and six
Masters) is as yet unmatched. He is one of only five golfers to win all four current majors in a career (the "Career Grand Slam"), the first of only two (the other being
Tiger Woods) to have won all four majors more than once, and the only golfer to win all four majors at least three times. In 1986, he became the oldest player to ever win The Masters. In all, Nicklaus racked up 48 top-3 finishes in majors (including 19 second-place finishes and nine third-places), 56 top-5 finishes, and 73 top-10 finishes.
Nicklaus's six wins at the Masters came in 1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975 and 1986. Not only is his win tally a record, but he also finished as runner-up a record four times. In the decade of the 1970s, Jack finished in the top ten at Augusta every year. Over his career, he appeared in the event 45 times and made the cut 37 times. In 1998, at the age of 58, he finished an impressive sixth.
Nicklaus won the U.S. Open in 1962, 1967, 1972 and 1980, and is tied with
Ben Hogan,
Bobby Jones, and
Willie Anderson for most wins. He is the only player to win the title in three different decades, and also had four runner-up finishes in his 42 appearances. He made the cut 35 times.
Nicklaus won the Open Championship (British Open) in 1966, 1970, 1978, and was runner-up seven times. He made the cut in 32 out of 38 appearances, and from 1966 to 1980 he never finished worse than sixth. So revered is Nicklaus in the
United Kingdom for his British Open exploits that in July 2005, the
Royal Bank of Scotland announced that Nicklaus's image would be printed on a special issue of two million £5 notes. Apart from
HM The Queen, he is the only living person to be featured on a Scottish
banknote [
1].
His five wins at the PGA Championship came in 1963, 1971, 1973, 1975 and 1980. He is tied with
Walter Hagen for most wins. He made the cut 27 times in 37 finishes and was runner-up four times. His 1971 victory made him the first player to win the career Grand Slam twice, an achievement which was matched by
Tiger Woods at the 2005 British Open.
Several of Nicklaus's epic defeats in major tournaments helped established the greatness of other players in the public's mind. Nicklaus suffered excruciating losses to, among others,
Tom Watson and
Lee Trevino that both raised the stature of those outstanding players and made Nicklaus a more sympathetic character (in contrast to Tiger Woods, who has won nearly every major in which he has ever led).
Nicklaus also won the prestigious
PLAYERS Championship three times (though never at the
TPC at Sawgrass, the current PLAYERS site and a course whose setup he harshly criticized, likening some of its approach shots to "stopping a 5-iron on the hood of a car"). He won various events around the globe as well, including six
Australian Opens (1964, 1968, 1971, 1975, 1976 and 1978).
He is second to
Sam Snead on the all-time list of players with
most PGA Tour wins, having accumulated seventy-three titles. In seventeen consecutive seasons from 1962 to 1978 he always won at least one PGA Tour title and always finished in the top ten on the money list. He topped the PGA Tour money list eight times: 1964, 1965, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976.
In 1996, Nicklaus was the first person in the history of the
PGA to win the same Senior PGA Tour (now the
Champions Tour) event four times. He is the only person in the history of the PGA to win all of the major championships on both the
PGA TOUR and Champions Tour. (Although he never won the
Senior British Open, it was not recognized as a major in the United States until 2003, after he had stopped playing the Champions Tour.) He never played a full schedule on the Champions Tour, but he won ten Champions Tour events, including eight
majors.
In 1978, he received
Sports Illustrated magazine's "
Sportsman of the Year" award. In 1980 he was awarded the
BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award.
Jack Nicklaus had an unusual playing style, combining being one of the greatest putters of all-time with being the longest hitter on the tour during his prime. He popularized the "power fade," which was his characteristic ball flight.
When Nicklaus won the
1986 Masters using the
Response ZT putter, the manufacturer,
MacGregor Golf, received 5,000 orders the next day; the company had planned to sell only 6,000 for the entire year.
Nicklaus always played a limited schedule, entering only enough minor tournaments (usually less than ten) to prepare himself for the major tournaments each year. As a result, he never played in enough tournaments in any given year to qualify for the
Vardon Trophy awarded annually to the Tour player with the lowest stroke average, although his stroke average was consistently the lowest on Tour during his prime.
In what could be seen as a symbolic passing of the torch from one golf great to another,
Tiger Woods won each major in the year that Nicklaus last appeared in it as a player. In 2000, Nicklaus played in the U.S. Open and PGA Championship for the last time, with Woods winning both; Woods also won The Open Championship in that year, which Nicklaus originally intended as his last appearance in that event. In 2005, Nicklaus made his last Masters appearance, and decided to play The Open one last time. Woods won both events as well.
Jack Nicklaus has been inducted into the
Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and the
World Golf Hall of Fame.
Nicklaus turned 65 in January 2005, which was the last year he entered a PGA tournament as an exempt player. He announced that he would retire from tournament golf in 2005 at
The Open Championship at The
Old Course at St Andrews. The very fact that the 2005 Open was scheduled at The Old Course can be seen as a tribute to Nicklaus. Several years earlier, the organizers of The Open, The
Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A), had scheduled the 2006 Open for The Old Course. However, aware that Nicklaus' exemption to play in The Open would run out after the 2005 Open, The R&A moved The Old Course up in the rotation one year to give Nicklaus an opportunity to play his last Open there.
Nicklaus devotes much of his time to golf course design and operates one of the largest golf design practices in the world. His first design was opened for play in 1970. For the first few years all of his projects were co-designs with either
Pete Dye or
Desmond Muirhead, who were two of the leading golf course architects of that era. His first sole design opened for play in 1976. He is now in partnership with his four sons and his son-in-law through Nicklaus Design. The company had 299 courses open for play at the end of 2005, which was nearly 1% of all the courses in the world (In 2005
Golf Digest calculated that there were nearly 32,000 golf courses in the world, approximately half of them in the
United States. [
2]). There are Nicklaus Design courses in more than thirty U.S. states and more than twenty five countries around the world. Jack Nicklaus is personally responsible for over 200 golf course designs. These include
Muirfield Village,
Shoal Creek, Castle Pines and the PGA Centenary Course at the
Gleneagles Hotel.
Nicklaus also continues to manage the
Memorial Golf Tournament he created in his home state of Ohio, which is played on a course he designed and is one of the more prestigious events on the
PGA TOUR. His other interests are varied and many, and include a golf equipment company and golf academies. There is a Jack Nicklaus Museum on the campus of The
Ohio State University in his home town of
Columbus, Ohio. [
3]
Nicklaus played without much preparation in April 2005 at The Masters, a month after the drowning death of his 17-month-old grandson Jake (child of his son, Steve) on
March 1 2005. He and Steve played golf as therapy for their grief following the death. After days of playing, it was Steve who suggested his dad return to The Masters. He made that his last appearance in the tournament. The last competitive tournament in which Nicklaus played in the
United States was the "Bayer Advantage Classic" in
Overland Park, Kansas on
June 13,
2005.
However, Nicklaus finished his professional career at
The Open Championship at
St. Andrews on
July 15,
2005. He played with
Luke Donald and
Tom Watson in his final round. On the 18th hole, Nicklaus hit the final tee-shot of his career, and strolled to the Swilcan bridge and waved to the appreciative crowd (who gave him a ten-minute standing ovation). He then began posing for commemorative photographs with his son and caddy, Steve, as well as Donald and Watson. Afterwards, Nicklaus ended his illustrious career in style, making a fifteen-foot birdie putt and extending his putter and left arm in the air as he had done so many times to celebrate crucial putts. Jack wound up missing the 36-hole cut with a score of +3 (147).
*1962 (3)
U.S. Open, Seattle World's Fair Open Invitational, Portland Open Invitational
*1963 (5)
Palm Springs Golf Classic,
The Masters,
Tournament of Champions,
PGA Championship, Sahara Invitational
*1964 (4)
Phoenix Open Invitational,
Tournament of Champions, Whitemarsh Open Invitational, Portland Open Invitational
*1965 (5)
The Masters,
Memphis Open Invitational, Thunderbird Classic, Philadelphia Golf Classic, Portland Open Invitational
*1966 (3)
The Masters,
The Open Championship, Sahara Invitational
*1967 (5)
Bing Crosby National Pro-Am,
U.S. Open,
Western Open,
Westchester Classic, Sahara Invitational
*1968 (2)
Western Open, American Golf Classic
*1969 (3)
Andy Williams-San Diego Open Invitational, Sahara Invitational, Kaiser International Open Invitational (October)
*1970 (3)
Byron Nelson Golf Classic,
The Open Championship, National Four-Ball Championship (with
Arnold Palmer)
*1971 (5)
PGA Championship,
Tournament of Champions,
Byron Nelson Golf Classic, National Team Championship (with
Arnold Palmer),
Walt Disney World Open Invitational*1972 (7)
Bing Crosby National Pro-Am,
Doral - Eastern Open Invitational,
The Masters,
U.S. Open,
Westchester Classic, U.S. Professional Match Play Championship,
Walt Disney World Open Invitational*1973 (7)
Bing Crosby National Pro-Am,
Greater New Orleans Open,
Tournament of Champions,
Atlanta Classic,
PGA Championship, Ohio Kings Island Open,
Walt Disney World Golf Classic*1974 (2)
Hawaiian Open,
Tournament Players Championship*1975 (5)
Doral - Eastern Open Invitational,
Sea Pines Heritage Classic,
The Masters,
PGA Championship, World Open Golf Championship
*1976 (2)
Tournament Players Championship,
World Series of Golf *1977 (3)
Jackie Gleason-Inverrary Classic,
MONY Tournament of Champions,
Memorial Tournament*1978 (4)
Jackie Gleason-Inverrary Classic,
Tournament Players Championship,
The Open Championship, IVB-Philadelphia Golf Classic
*1980 (2)
U.S. Open,
PGA Championship*1982 (1)
Colonial National Invitation*1984 (1)
Memorial Tournament*1986 (1)
The MastersMajor championships are shown in bold.
*1990
The Tradition at Desert Mountain,
Mazda SENIOR TOURNAMENT PLAYERS Championship*1991
The Tradition at Desert Mountain,
PGA Seniors' Championship,
U.S. Senior Open*1993
U.S. Senior Open*1994
Mercedes Championships*1995
The Tradition*1996
GTE Suncoast Classic,
The TraditionSenior majors are shown in bold.
*1959
U.S. Amateur Championship*1961
U.S. Amateur Championship,
NCAA Championship (individual)
*1962
World Series of Golf (U.S. - not then a PGA Tour event)
*1963
World Series of Golf (U.S. - not then a PGA Tour event),
Canada Cup (team event with
Arnold Palmer and individual event)
*1964
Australian Open,
Canada Cup (team event with
Arnold Palmer and individual event)
*1966 PGA Team Championship (with Arnold Palmer),
Canada Cup (team only, with
Arnold Palmer)
*1967
World Series of Golf (U.S. - not then a PGA Tour event),
World Cup (with
Arnold Palmer)
*1968
Australian Open*1970
World Series of Golf (U.S. - not then a PGA Tour event),
Piccadilly World Match Play Championship*1971
Australian Open,
World Cup (team event with
Arnold Palmer and individual event)
*1973
World Cup (with
Johnny Miller)
*1975
Australian Open*1976
Australian Open*1978
Australian Open*1983 Chrysler Team Championship (with
Johnny Miller)
*1991 Senior Skins Game
*1999
Wendy's Three-Tour Challenge (with
Tom Watson and
Hale Irwin), Office Depot Father-Son Challenge (with Gary Nicklaus), Diners Club Matches (with
Tom Watson)
*2000 Hyundai Team Matches (with
Tom Watson)
LA = Low Amateur
DNP = did not play
WD = withdrew due to injury
CUT = missed the half way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.
Summary of major championship performances :
*Starts - 163
*Wins - 18
*2nd place finishes - 19
*Top 3 finishes - 46
*Top 5 finishes - 57
*Top 10 finishes - 73
*Longest streak of top-10s in majors - 13
*
Golfers with most PGA Tour wins*
Golfers with most major championship wins*
Golfers with most Champions Tour major championship wins*
Nicklaus.com Official site and portal to other official Nicklaus-related websites **
PGA Tour career summary**
Nicklaus Design**
Nicklaus Museum*
Profile on PGA Tour official site*
Jack Nicklaus at Golf Stars Online Links to relevant sites, interviews, feature articles and similar.
*
Jack Nicklaus Profile, trivia, quotes and other resources from About.com.
*
Details of the Jack Nicklaus RBS £5 note (PDF file).
*
nicklauSite - fansite*
Jack Nicklaus Profile at Golf Legends
