50 Fun Facts About Jack Nicklaus

How many major championships did Jack Nicklaus win?

18 major championships, from the 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont to the 1986 Masters; he also finished runner-up in majors a record 19 times.

What is Jack Nicklaus's famous nickname?

The Golden Bear: a sportswriter pinned the name on the blond, burly young Nicklaus during a 1962 overseas trip, and his Upper Arlington high school teams were already called the Golden Bears.

In which city was Jack Nicklaus born?

Columbus, Ohio: Nicklaus was born there and grew up in the suburb of Upper Arlington, learning the game at the city's Scioto Country Club.

Whom did Nicklaus beat in an 18-hole playoff to win the 1962 U.S. Open, his first professional victory?

Arnold Palmer lost the playoff at Oakmont 71 to 74; Nicklaus's first professional win came in front of galleries pulling hard for the Pennsylvania favourite.

Nicklaus, Palmer and which third golfer were marketed as 'The Big Three' in the 1960s?

Gary Player completed the trio; agent Mark McCormack managed all three and staged the televised Big Three Golf matches of the 1960s.

How old was Nicklaus when he won his final Masters?

46: Nicklaus closed with a 65 at Augusta in April 1986 to become the oldest Masters champion, 23 years after his first green jacket.

How many times did Nicklaus win the Masters?

6 Masters titles: 1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975 and 1986, spanning 23 years at Augusta National.

Nicklaus took up golf at what age, scoring 51 for his first nine holes at Scioto Country Club?

Club pro Jack Grout became his lifelong instructor.

Which illness did Nicklaus overcome as a 13-year-old?

A mild case of polio struck Nicklaus at 13, yet that same year he broke 70 for the first time with a 69 at Scioto Country Club.

Who was Nicklaus's lifelong golf instructor, the Scioto club pro who coached him from age 10?

Jack Grout, the Scioto Country Club professional, taught Nicklaus from boyhood and rebuilt his swing in early 1980 after the winless 1979 season.

In which two years did Nicklaus win the U.S. Amateur?

1959 and 1961: he beat Charlie Coe at the Broadmoor in 1959 and Dudley Wysong at Pebble Beach in 1961, the year he also won the NCAA individual title.

Who, playing alongside amateur Nicklaus, said he should have won the 1960 U.S. Open by ten?

Ben Hogan, paired with the amateur for the final 36 holes at Cherry Hills, said the kid should have won by ten; Nicklaus's 282 stood as the U.S. Open amateur record until 2019.

Which university did Nicklaus attend, later the site of the Jack Nicklaus Museum?

Ohio State: Nicklaus enrolled in 1957, won the 1961 NCAA individual title for the Buckeyes, and the Jack Nicklaus Museum opened on the university's campus in 2002.

Nicklaus's father played semi-pro football under an assumed name for which team, later the Detroit Lions?

Portsmouth Spartans: Charlie Nicklaus, a scratch golfer himself, played for the Ohio side that moved to Detroit in 1934; he died of pancreatic cancer in February 1970 at 56.

Who first put Nicklaus's famous nickname in print?

Melbourne Age writer Don Lawrence attached the name during Nicklaus's 1962 visit to Australia; it stuck within a year, and Nicklaus later used it for his own management company.

How much prize money did Nicklaus earn for winning the 1962 U.S. Open, including the playoff bonus?

$17,500, including the playoff money, was Nicklaus's cheque for the 1962 U.S. Open; Gary Woodland collected $2.25 million for the same title in 2019.

What 72-hole total did Nicklaus post to win the 1965 Masters?

271: rounds of 67, 71, 64 and 69 broke the Masters 72-hole record of 274 set in 1953, and the mark stood until Tiger Woods's 270 in 1997.

Nicklaus's win at the 1966 Open Championship completed his career grand slam at what age?

26: the 1966 Open in July made him, at 26, the youngest man to complete the career grand slam, a mark Tiger Woods lowered to 24 in 2000.

At which Scottish course did Nicklaus win the 1966 Open, using his driver just 17 times?

He later named his own Ohio club Muirfield Village in its honour.

Nicklaus closed out his 1967 U.S. Open win with a famous 238-yard shot using which club?

1-iron: from 238 yards on Baltusrol's par-five 18th he found the green and holed a 22-foot putt for birdie, a closing 65 and a then-record 275.

Who was Nicklaus's caddie for most of his professional career?

Angelo Argea, the silver-haired caddie who first carried for Nicklaus at the 1963 Palm Springs tournament and stayed on the bag for some twenty years.

To which British golfer did Nicklaus concede a putt on the final green of the 1969 Ryder Cup, forcing a tie?

Tony Jacklin, the reigning Open champion, had holed a 35-foot eagle putt on the 17th to square the match; Nicklaus picked up his marker on the 18th and the Cup ended 16–16.

Whom did Nicklaus beat in an 18-hole playoff to win the 1970 Open at St Andrews?

Doug Sanders, who had missed a three-foot putt to win on the 72nd hole, lost the playoff 72 to 73; Nicklaus's father had died five months earlier, making the win an emotional boost.

Nicklaus's win at the 1971 PGA Championship made him the first golfer to achieve what?

Winning all four majors twice: the 1971 PGA at PGA National completed his second career grand slam, something no golfer had done before, and he completed a third set in 1978.

What did Nicklaus's tee shot on Pebble Beach's 17th famously do at the 1972 U.S. Open?

Hit the flagstick and stopped inches away: the long iron into the wind on the 218-yard 17th left a tap-in birdie that sealed a three-shot win and his 13th major.

Whose record of 13 major championships did Nicklaus break at the 1973 PGA Championship?

Bobby Jones, Nicklaus's boyhood idol, held the mark with 13 titles counting his amateur championships; the 1973 PGA at Canterbury was Nicklaus's 14th major.

What name is given to Nicklaus's 1977 Open battle with Tom Watson at Turnberry?

The Duel in the Sun: Watson shot 65–65 over the weekend to Nicklaus's 65–66, winning 268 to 269 while third place finished eleven shots behind.

Nicklaus's proposal at the 1977 Ryder Cup led to what change from 1979?

Continental Europeans joined the GB&I team: Nicklaus urged Lord Derby, the British PGA president, to widen selection, and Seve Ballesteros and Antonio Garrido played at The Greenbrier in 1979.

Which former rival helped rebuild Nicklaus's short game after his winless 1979?

Phil Rodgers, a tour rival in the 1960s, moved into the Nicklaus home in early 1980 to overhaul his chipping and pitching; Nicklaus then won the U.S. Open and PGA that summer.

Nicklaus opened the 1980 U.S. Open at Baltusrol with a record-tying score of what?

63 in the first round matched the U.S. Open record, and Tom Weiskopf equalled it the same day; Nicklaus then beat playing partner Isao Aoki by two with a record 272 total.

By how many shots did Nicklaus win the 1980 PGA Championship at Oak Hill, then the stroke-play record?

7 strokes: his 274 at Oak Hill left Andy Bean second on 281, the widest PGA Championship margin in the stroke-play era until Rory McIlroy won by eight in 2012.

What score did Nicklaus shoot on the back nine of the final round of the 1986 Masters?

30: birdies at the ninth, tenth and eleventh, a bogey at the twelfth, then birdie-par-eagle-birdie-birdie from the thirteenth gave him a back nine of 30 and a closing 65.

Which two players had chances to tie Nicklaus on the 72nd hole of the 1986 Masters?

Tom Kite and Greg Norman: Kite missed a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th to tie, then Norman, needing par, pushed his approach and bogeyed to hand Nicklaus the title.

Which senior major did Nicklaus win on his first Senior PGA Tour start in 1990?

The Tradition: Nicklaus won at Desert Mountain in Arizona on his senior debut in April 1990 and took the event four times in all, the last in 1996.

What did Nicklaus make in the final round of his 100th career win, the 1996 Tradition?

He closed with back-to-back 65s.

Where did Nicklaus make his final major championship appearance, in 2005?

The Open at St Andrews: in July 2005 he waved farewell from the Swilcan Bridge, then holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the Old Course's 18th green.

Which bank put Jack Nicklaus on a commemorative five-pound note in 2005?

Royal Bank of Scotland issued two million of the notes in July 2005, making Nicklaus the first living person outside the royal family to appear on a British banknote.

Which PGA Tour event did Nicklaus found in 1976 at the Ohio club he built?

The Memorial Tournament, first played in 1976 and modelled on the Masters, honours a different golf figure each year; Nicklaus won it himself in 1977 and 1984.

Which architect co-designed the Ohio club Nicklaus opened in 1974?

Desmond Muirhead co-designed the course with Nicklaus; it was dedicated on Memorial Day 1974 with an exhibition match in which Nicklaus shot 66.

Nicklaus's first course design, Harbour Town Golf Links, was co-credited with which architect?

Pete Dye designed Harbour Town on Hilton Head Island in 1969 with Nicklaus consulting, after seeking his opinion on The Golf Club in Ohio in the mid-1960s.

Nicklaus's first solo design, Glen Abbey, opened in 1976 in which country?

Canada: Glen Abbey in Oakville, Ontario, became the long-time home of the Canadian Open, the national title Nicklaus never won despite seven runner-up finishes.

How many Nicklaus Design courses were open for play at the end of 2005?

That was nearly 1% of all the golf courses in the world.

Nicklaus's classic instruction book, first printed in 1974, is called what?

Golf My Way, written with Ken Bowden and first published in 1974, set out Nicklaus's upright swing and his habit of visualising each shot before playing it.

Which two US honours did Nicklaus receive in 2005 and 2015 respectively?

Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal: George W. Bush presented the Medal of Freedom in November 2005, and Congress's Gold Medal followed at the Capitol in March 2015.

In which years did Nicklaus captain the US Ryder Cup team?

1983 and 1987: he captained the 14½–13½ win at PGA National in 1983 and the 15–13 defeat at his own Ohio club in 1987, Europe's first win on American soil.

How many consecutive U.S. Opens did Nicklaus play, starting in 1957?

44: from Inverness in 1957, where the amateur missed the cut, to Pebble Beach in 2000, Nicklaus never missed a U.S. Open.

Which entertainer, like Nicklaus, was a non-band member honoured with 'dotting the i' in Script Ohio?

Bob Hope dotted the i in 1978, the first non-band member so honoured; Nicklaus did it in 2006, and coach Woody Hayes had in 1983.

Who joined Nicklaus, Palmer and Watson at Harbor Shores in 2010 and doubted a wild uphill putt Nicklaus holed?

Johnny Miller, the 1974 money leader ahead of Nicklaus and the runner-up to him at the 1975 Masters, watched the 100-foot putt climb the 10th green's mound and drop.

What did Nicklaus first major in at university, planning to follow his father's trade?

Pre-pharmacy was his first course of study, following his father Charlie, who ran pharmacies in the city; he later switched to insurance, planning to stay amateur and sell policies.

What was Barbara Bash studying when she married Nicklaus in July 1960?

Nursing: Barbara Bash was a nursing student when she met Nicklaus at university in 1957; the first of their five children, Jack Jr., was born in September 1961.