Nicklaus has also taken part in many off-course activities, including golf course design, golf instruction book writing, and running his own tournament on the PGA Tour, the Memorial Tournament. Together with Arnold Palmer and Gary Player (collectively known as the "Big Three"), 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-Player rivalry that drove subsequent interest.[2]
Amateur career
Nicklaus was born in Columbus, Ohio. He was raised in the suburb of Upper Arlington, and attended Upper Arlington High School, where he earned his nickname "The Golden Bear", as that was the school's mascot. Overcoming a mild case of polio as a child, 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 five straight[3] Ohio State Junior titles at the age of twelve. He won the Ohio State Open in 1956 at age 16, competing against professionals. While attending The 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. This score remains the lowest ever made by an amateur player in the U.S. Open. He represented the United States, against Great Britain, on winning Walker Cup teams in both 1959 and 1961, winning both of his matches in each contest. He was also a member of the victorious 1960 U.S. Eisenhower Trophy team, winning the unofficial individual title with a four-round score of 269, a record which still stands.[4]
PGA Tour career
Professional breakthrough
Nicklaus began his professional career in 1962. His first professional win came in the same year, defeating the heavily-favored Arnold Palmer in a Monday playoff at Oakmont for the 1962 U.S. Open. To this day, Nicklaus is still the youngest ever winner of this event. By the end of the year Nicklaus had picked up two more wins, those being the Seattle Open and the Portland Open back-to-back. He completed 1962 with over $60,000 prize-money, placed third on the tour money list, and was named Rookie of the Year.[3]
In 1963 Nicklaus won two of the four major championships - the Masters and the PGA Championship. Along with three other wins including the Tournament of Champions, he placed second on the tour money list with just over $100,000.[3]
Despite not winning a major in 1964, Nicklaus placed first on the tour money list for the first time in his career with a margin of $81.13 over Palmer. At the British Open at St Andrews, Nicklaus set a new record for the lowest score in the final 36 holes with 66-68. Despite this, Tony Lema won the event with Nicklaus placing second.[3]
Nicklaus won the Masters in 1965 and 1966, becoming the first consecutive winner of this event. In 1966 he also won the British Open at Muirfield in Scotland, which was the only major he had failed to win up to this time. This win made him the youngest player, age 26, and the only one after Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, and Gary Player (until Tiger Woods at age 24) to win all four major championships, now known as the Career Slam. Jack Nicklaus eventually accomplished the triple career slam in 1978, winning all four majors three times. Until Tiger Woods, no other golfer had won every major more than once. (As of May 2007, Woods has won the career slam twice, completing it in 2005 at the age of 29, needing only a 3rd U.S. Open victory to tie Nicklaus) In 1967 Nicklaus won his second U.S. Open title at Baltusrol, breaking Hogan's 72-hole record with a 275.[3]
Career downturn (1968-1970)
After Nicklaus won the 1967 U.S. Open, he did not win another major championship until the 1970 British Open at the Old Course at St Andrews. Moreover, his highest finish on the tour money list for the years 1968-70 was second; his lowest was fourth, his worst ranking on the list since turning professional. In 1970, Nicklaus's father, Charlie Nicklaus, died. Soon after this Nicklaus won the 1970 British Open, defeating fellow American Doug Sanders in a playoff round in emotional fashion. Nicklaus threw his putter into the air after sinking the winning putt, as he was thrilled to have won the Open at the home of golf, St. Andrews.[5] He describes this period in his life:
"I was playing good golf, but it really wasn't that big a deal to me one way or the other. And then my father passed away and I sort of realized that he had certainly lived his life through my golf game. I really hadn't probably given him the best of that. So I sort of got myself back to work. So '70 was an emotional one for me from that standpoint. ... It was a big boost."[6]
Record setter
With a win at the 1971 PGA Championship in February, Nicklaus became the first golfer to win all four majors twice in a career.[7] By the end of the year he had won four additional tournaments including the Tournament of Champions and the National Team Championship with Arnold Palmer.
Nicklaus won the first two majors of 1972, the Masters and the U.S. Open, creating talk of a Grand Slam. In the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, Nicklaus struck a one-iron on the par-three 17th hole into a stiff, gusty ocean breeze which landed, hit the flagstick and ended up six inches from the cup. The U.S. Open was Nicklaus's 13th career major, and tied him with Bobby Jones for career majors (although a different group of tournaments had been considered majors in Jones's time). He won a total of seven tournaments during the year, and was runner-up in a further three.
Nicklaus did not win the Grand Slam in 1972, however, as Lee Trevino repeated as the British Open champion, and Gary Player prevailed in the PGA Championship.
Jones's record of majors was soon broken when Nicklaus won the PGA Championship in August 1973 for his 14th professional major. In that year he won another six tournaments. The PGA Player of the Year was awarded to Nicklaus for the third time, and the second year in a row.
Nicklaus's failure to win a major in 1974 was offset somewhat by his being named one of the 13 original inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame.[8] Nicklaus says this honor was a "nice memento" after a "disappointing season".[9]
Nicklaus started off well in 1975: he won the Doral-Eastern Open, the Heritage Classic, and the Masters in consecutive starts. His Masters win was his fifth, a record he was to break eleven years later. In this tournament, Nicklaus made a 40-foot putt on the 16th hole to all but secure his victory. He also won the PGA Championship for the fourth time in August. His performance in 1975 resulted in his being named PGA Player of the Year for the fourth time, tying Ben Hogan, and he was also named ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year.
He placed first on the tour money list again in 1976, despite competing in only 16 events, winning only two — neither of them majors — and playing what he called "hang-back-and-hope golf".[10] He also won the PGA Player of the Year award for a record fifth time. Between 1972 and 1976 the only time he failed to win this award was 1974.
The following year, 1977, was also majorless for Nicklaus, but his second-place finish behind Tom Watson at the British Open at Turnberry created headlines around the world. In a one-on-one battle dubbed the "Duel in the Sun," Nicklaus shot 65-66 in the final two rounds, only to be beaten by Watson, who scored 65-65. Nicklaus would later say:
"There are those in golf who would argue into next month that the final two rounds of the 1977 British Open were the greatest head-to-head golf match ever played. Not having been around for the first five hundred or so years of the game, I'm not qualified to speak on such matters. What's for sure, however, is that it was the most thrilling one-on-one battle of my career."[11]
During 1977, Nicklaus won his 63rd tour event, passing Ben Hogan to take second place on the career wins list, behind only Sam Snead.
Nicklaus won the 1978 British Open to become the only player to have won each major championship not twice but three times. Nicklaus won three other tournaments on the PGA Tour including the Tournament Players Championship, and was named Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated. After this year he suffered a lapse of form, not winning another tournament until June 1980. The year of 1979 was the first in which he failed to win a tournament; he had only one runner-up finish.
In 1980, Nicklaus recorded only three top-ten finishes, but two of these were victories in majors (the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship); the other was a runner-up finish in the Doral-Eastern Open. During the next five years Nicklaus won only twice on the tour, including his own tournament (Memorial Tournament) in 1984.
In 1986, Nicklaus capped his career by recording his sixth Masters victory under incredible circumstances, posting a six-under 30 on the back nine at Augusta for a final round of seven-under 65. At the 17th hole, Nicklaus hit it to within 18 feet and rolled it in for birdie, raising his putter in celebration and completing an eagle-birdie-birdie run. Nicklaus made a victory-sealing par-4 at the 72nd hole, and waited for the succeeding players to falter. At age 46, Jack Nicklaus became the oldest Masters winner in history, a record which still stands. This victory was his 18th major title as a professional.
Nicklaus won the 1986 Masters using the Response ZT putter. Its manufacturer, MacGregor Golf, received 5,000 orders the next day; it had planned to sell only 6,000 copies of this model for the entire year.[12] Before the tournament a journalist wrote that he was "done, washed up, through", and this spurred him on, as he says:
"I kept thinking all week, 'Through, washed up, huh?' I sizzled for a while. But then I said to myself, 'I'm not going to quit now, playing the way I'm playing. I've played too well, too long to let a shorter period of bad golf be my last."[13]
This victory was to be his last in his long career on the PGA Tour. At the age of 58, Nicklaus made another valiant run at the 1998 Masters, where he tied for sixth.[14]
Champions Tour career
Nicklaus became eligible to join the Champions Tour when he turned 50 in early 1990.[15] He then quickly won in his first start on the tour, the Tradition, which was also a Champions Tour major championship. Nicklaus would go on to win another three Traditions, while the most anyone else has won is two. Later in the year, Nicklaus won the Senior Players Championship for his second win of the year, and also his second major of the year. The next year, in 1991, Nicklaus won three of the five events he started in, those being the U.S. Senior Open, the PGA Seniors Championship and the Tradition for the second year straight. These, again, were all majors on the Champions Tour.
After a winless year in 1992, Nicklaus came back to win the U.S. Senior Open for the second time in 1993. Also in that year he teamed up with Chi Chi Rodriguez and Raymond Floyd to win the Wendy's Three Tour Challenge for the Champions Tour team. In 1994 he won the Champions Tour's version of the Mercedes Championship for his only win of the year. The Tradition was his again in 1995, in a year where he made the top 10 in all of the seven tournaments he entered in. His 100th career win came the next year, when he won the Tradition for the fourth time, and second time in succession. This was to be his last win on the Champions Tour, and the last official win of his career.
Close of playing career
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.[16]
The last competitive tournament in which Nicklaus played in the United States was the Champions Tour's Bayer Advantage Classic in Overland Park, Kansas on June 13, 2005.
Nicklaus finished his professional career at the The Open Championship at St. Andrews on July 15, 2005.[17] Nicklaus turned 65 in January that year, which was the last year he could enter a PGA tournament as an exempt player. He played with Luke Donald and Tom Watson in his final round.[18] 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. Nicklaus missed the 36-hole cut with a score of +3 (147).
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 played The Open one last time. Woods won both events as well.
Off-the-course career
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, Glen Abbey Golf Course in Oakville, Canada, 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.[19]). 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, Porta Cima, Castle Pines and the PGA Centenary Course at the Gleneagles Hotel.
Nicklaus also continues to manage the Memorial 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.[20] He had the unique privilege of dotting the "i" of "Script Ohio" (specifically the "i" in "Ohio"), the signature formation of the Ohio State University Marching Band, at the Ohio State homecoming game on October 28, 2006 when the Buckeyes played Minnesota; this is considered the greatest honor that can be bestowed on a non-band member.[21] While at Ohio State University, Nicklaus became a member of the Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta.[22] Nicklaus also started/ heavily supported a private school in North Palm Beach called The Benjamin School.
Playing style
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. He was also known as a conservative player at times, going for broke only when he needed to. This was especially apparent on the green, where he would often choose to be less aggressive and make sure of an easy two-putt.[23]
Nicklaus, a pioneer of performance science, was also known for eating bananas on the golf course as an energy food.