There was no World Golf Ranking until 1986, when his prime was behind
him, so Jack Nicklaus never officially claimed the top spot. But that's
okay. He can settle for the honor of No. 1 Player of All Time,
according to more than 3,000 votes cast on Golf.com.
Nicklaus reached sublime heights as a player, with 18 major wins. And
the father of five did it as the consummate family man. (One afternoon
in the late 1970s, he jetted from Ohio to Florida to catch one of his
sons' high school football games, then flew back for the third round of
the World Series of Golf.) Since bidding farewell to competitive play in
2005, Nicklaus has embraced the role of golf's No. 1 Ambassador,
designing dozens of courses and growing the game in far-flung places
like China and the former Soviet Union; he also played a pivotal role in
the campaign to make golf an Olympic sport in 2016. Not to mention that
everyone from Rory McIlroy to Ernie Els seeks his counsel.
Although he's spent his adult life in the spotlight, were you aware
of the 72-year-old icon's passion for tennis? Or that he keeps bugging Arnold Palmer
to go fishing? Or that he came this close to throwing away a legendary
career to become...a pharmacist? You may think you know the Golden Bear,
but as this candid conversation shows, you don't know Jack.
Jack, our readers named you the No. 1 player of all time. Not bad for an Ohio kid who almost became a pharmacist.
I thank them for their vote of confidence. My record [18 major wins, 73
Tour wins], and what I did over time and against my competition, it's
generally determined and voted on by other people, like your readers.
And that's very nice. But all I ever wanted was to be the best I could
be.
You won majors in three different decades. Your first win was the 1962 U.S. Open, and your last was the 1986 Masters. If 1962 Jack played 1986 Jack in match play, who would win?
That's hard to answer, because in '86 I don't know what I would have played like the week after I won the Masters.
Now, if you take Jack from 1980 vs. Jack from 1962, I would say '80
Jack wins because he would be more experienced, a better player. I was
more powerful in '62. I think my nerves would not have been much
different year to year -- I always had pretty good nerves. But my
experience in 1980 was far greater than it was in 1962.
So when does 40-year-old Jack close out the kid? On 18?
I say it goes into overtime.
You mentioned always having good nerves, but you're still human. What was your most nervous moment as a pro?
When you have a dangerous shot without any bailout or relief -- water
on one side of the fairway and out of bounds on the other, and there's
not enough room to play the shot -- those situations I disliked. You're
forced to play a shot, without an option. Where? The sixth at
Carnoustie, a par 5 -- if you played to the right [off the tee] you
didn't leave yourself with anything, and if you played left, out of
bounds was staring you in the face. I hit out of bounds there in the
last round of '75 [British Open].
It cost me the tournament. Also, the [par-4] 17th at St. Andrews -- on
your second shot you've got the road on one side and the [Road Hole
greenside] bunker on the other, which doesn't leave you a whole lot in
between. Yes, you can play it short, but if you have to make birdie,
what do you do?
You played conservatively in majors, so those must have taken you out of your strategy.
Yes, they put me in situations where I couldn't play conservative golf.
The [par-4] seventh at Augusta is another -- you want to hit driver,
but miss it on either side and you're dead. The situations where I
didn't have an alternative I found the most difficult.
Since this is the No. 1 Issue, what's the No. 1 greatest swing you ever saw?
Sam Snead. I don't think there's ever been a swing more rhythmic, fluid, or prettier than Sam's.
How about the best shot you've witnessed?
The one Tiger hit at the [2012] Memorial was about the greatest shot I've ever seen.
You're talking about the greenside flop shot Tiger holed on No. 16
on Sunday. You're ranking that above, say, Watson's chip-in on No. 17
at the 1982 U.S. Open?
If Watson's shot at Pebble Beach doesn't go in the hole, he still has a
12- to 15-foot putt to salvage par. He doesn't put himself out of the
tournament. Lee Trevino's shot [chip-in for par] on the 71st hole at
Muirfield in 1972, if it doesn't go in he's not out of the tournament.
But Tiger's shot? You couldn't tell on TV how difficult it was. He
didn't have a good lie. If he'd hit it two feet shorter, he's faced with
a similar shot, just shorter. If he'd hit it two feet farther, it goes
in the water. Given that he's trying to recover from all the issues he's
had with his game, and with the game of life, he played it
fantastically. The ball went in the hole, but that was immaterial. It's
how he performed the shot that was so good.
You had one swing coach, Jack Grout, and you didn't change your
swing much over your career. That's very different from Tiger's
approach. How many majors would you have won if you'd had three
different coaches and several swing overhauls?
I don't know. Jack Grout was smart. He knew that he didn't know
everything about golf, so he sent me to Byron Nelson and Claude Harmon
and other guys. When I came back, I would say, "That's much different
than what you taught me. What do I do?" He said, "Jack, understand that
there's more than one way to play the game." From that, I learned that I
was able to blend [other philosophies] into my swing. It was part of my
learning process. So if you talk about Tiger and different swing
coaches and different swings, Tiger knows more about the swing than
anybody. He doesn't need a swing coach. It's just another pair of eyes,
as long as he understands that he has to be responsible for his own
swing, just like I had to be responsible for my swing. Do you understand
what I mean?
You're saying that the media makes too much of who's coaching Tiger.
The press makes a lot more of the issue of Tiger's swing coach than it
actually is. Tiger understands the game and his swing very well. His dad
did a great job. As long as you understand what you have to do and how
to correct yourself on the course, and Tiger's been pretty good about
that. Early in my career, I used to go see Bobby Jones, and he said to
me, "Jack, I used to be just another golfer. I had my seven lean years,
until I learned what [Jones's teacher] Stewart Maiden taught me, which
was to be responsible for my swing and learn how to correct it -- and
how to be patient. And that's when I became a golfer." It's a learning
process that Tiger's going through, and that I went through.
You're 72. If you could go back 50 years and give young Jack advice, what would you tell him?
Obviously, it would be something a 22-year-old would never listen to
[laughs]. I'd tell him to be more patient. I had pretty good patience in
my twenties, and that's probably why I won so much, but I made mistakes
in my early years on Tour, and [had I corrected] those, I would have
won several more majors. But near misses in majors are part of the
learning process. Tom Watson went through that. Rory McIlroy
went through that -- you blow a couple of majors, but you learn how to
win. I wouldn't want to trade it, because the learning process is so
valuable. But still, I look back and say, "Boy! If I would have just
done that, bam, what I could have won."
Your old rival Johnny Miller speaks movingly about the role his
father played in making him a champion. What's the No. 1 most important
thing that your dad, Charlie, taught you?
That I'm not the only person on the golf course and I'm not the only
person in life. I had to treat other people the way I wanted to be a
treated. He taught me sportsmanship -- how to smile and sincerely
congratulate someone when they beat me. I remember him saying, "Go beat
your head against the locker later. When you're on the course, you
genuinely say congratulations." I felt that if a guy played better than
me, he deserved to be congratulated. He also taught me family values:
how to be part of your kids' lives without intruding on their lives.
Didn't he also correct your career path?
He always let me choose what I wanted to do. I was going to college to
be a pharmacist, because that's what he was. After three years of
pre-pharmacy, he said, "Jack, with your golf game, do you really think
the best way to spend your life is behind a medicine counter? I suggest
you find something to utilize your talents."
So if it wasn't for your dad, you would have been one hell of a player in the Columbus pharmacists' golf league.
My dad had a lot of wisdom for me. What I truly regret is that he
didn't live long enough to impart more. He was 56 when he died.
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