This legacy needs no burnishing. Jack Nicklaus has a hammerlock on the history books (and their higher-tech successors) with his Masters record alone: six victories, the last at age 46; four runner-up finishes and 15 among the top five; a 45-tournament scoring average that’s under par after 163 rounds and almost 12,000 strokes. Just to skim the surface.
In an age of fleeting attention spans, he stays on our minds through Tiger Woods’ often-cited Holy Grail of Jack’s 18 professional majors. Nicklaus also soldiers on at Augusta as an honorary starter.
And he keeps adding to his golden legacy in a largely overlooked way: offering quiet counsel to today’s players who seek it in hopes of climbing golf’s beanstalk. The reigning Masters and U.S. Open champions are notable examples. Charl Schwartzel and Rory McIlroy testify that visits with Nicklaus inspired their break-through major victories, and Luke Donald credits Jack with his improved driving.
Nicklaus also spent time with Trevor Immelman before he won the Masters, and Martin Kaymer before he won the PGA Championship. Call it the Nicklaus influence.
Even in his prime, Nicklaus never worried that sharing his knowledge would come back to beat him. Tom Weiskopf, who finished second to him twice in the Masters, famously said of his conqueror’s mind-set, "Jack knew he was going to beat you, you knew Jack was going to beat you, and Jack knew that you knew he was going to beat you."
It goes beyond self-confidence, says Jim Flick, the teacher who has worked with Nicklaus for years. "Jack has a deep love for the game, and he knows it is a game. He realizes how hard it is. He relishes the challenge of figuring it out like a puzzle."
Typical was the time Nicklaus told Tiger Woods to lighten his grip pressure so the club could swing through more freely.
Woods says, "One of my favorite memories is playing a practice round with Jack and Arnold in 1996, then joining them in the Par-3 Contest. Any Masters question I’ve ever had, Jack has been willing to answer. That’s one of the coolest things about that tournament. The older players pass on their knowledge to the younger ones."
Why has Nicklaus always been so forthcoming?
"I had a lot of help when I was growing up and when I started on tour," he says. "Even ol’ Sam—Sam Snead—sort of looked after me. A lot of people helped me, without pushing themselves on me."
Though Palmer and Nicklaus had their strained moments when Jack started to assert his dominance, "Arnold took me under his wing," Nicklaus says. "Gary Player, though he wasn’t that much older. Ben Hogan, when I was still an amateur, did, too. Byron Nelson was another. They gave of themselves, and I learned from all of them. So when these young guys come along wanting advice, I’m happy to oblige. I feel like I’ve been through all these years of experience, and I don’t want to die with it if I can help somebody improve—shorten the learning curve. Augusta is not an easy place to learn. I won’t force myself on anybody, but my door is always open."
Kaye Kessler is a former Ohio sportswriter who has followed Nicklaus since Jack’s boyhood. "He always would seek out Masters rookies and share his time and wisdom—invite them to play a practice round early in the week," Kessler says. "Wouldn’t even allow his money games with Arnold to interrupt the courtesy, often bringing Arnold into the foursome."
Enter Steve Melnyk, now an investment banker in Jacksonville, paired with Nicklaus at Augusta in 1970 after winning the U.S. Amateur. Melnyk had never met Nicklaus but got along so well with him that the next year Jack invited him to Augusta a week early on his private plane, and played with him for four days in money matches against ’67 winner Gay Brewer and Dave Hill. "I made a bunch with Jack as a partner," Melnyk says. "I learned a lot from him in those rounds. He was one of the few back then who had careful yardages. On 12 he knew the different carry distances. Knew how No. 4 played when the wind was a certain way. Told me that basically every green tends to break down to the 11th green."
A native Georgian, Melnyk at 23 had never been to Augusta until 1970. He says he couldn’t have been more nervous meeting Nicklaus on the first tee—and Nicklaus couldn’t have been more gracious (a word that comes up regularly from players who’ve shared his company).
"He hit a wonderful tee shot," Melnyk says. "I got off a popup that would have called for the infield fly rule. We walked down the hill, and he asked me if I was OK. I said no, I was scared to death. He held out his hands, and they were shaking. He said, ‘I’m scared, too. Let’s go have fun and play well.’ And we did. We chatted. A joke was that the tournament paired us by weight. It was probably the nicest pairing I ever had. From that round of golf we became lifelong friends."
Other past U.S. Amateur champions weigh in with equally vivid memories. Labron Harris Jr. was a long-hitting 21-year-old when he was paired with Nicklaus in 1963. "On the fourth hole he had the honor and hit a middle iron onto the green," Harris says. "I hit the same club and left it short in the bunker. He said, ‘You didn’t have enough club, did you?’ I said, ‘I don’t hit it as far as you do.’ I was a young stud and not short, but I found out he hit his irons so far because they carried so well, on a beautiful, high trajectory. He had great, great control of the irons—and with that old equipment! It’s like cheating now."
Fred Ridley, chairman of the Masters competition committee, was paired with Nicklaus in ’76. Ridley was taking lessons from Jack Grout, Nicklaus’ teacher, so he knew Nicklaus, but he says it was "a surreal experience" nonetheless.
"I was surprised Jack was so talkative," Ridley says. "I parred the first hole and hit what I thought was a good drive around the corner on the second hole. Walking off the tee he said it was good, but that my second shot was going to be blocked by one certain limb that protruded from a pine tree about 200 yards from the green. At that moment I realized why he had won five Masters at the time. I birdied the eighth hole to tie Jack at one under. I was feeling pretty good after a drive near the bottom of the hill on 9. He smiled at me before hitting his drive 50 yards past mine. "
Stewart (Buddy) Alexander is the University of Florida golf coach. In 1987 he was the Amateur champion paired with Nicklaus. Alexander was 34 years old but uneasy.
"At 10 tee we had a wait," Alexander says. "He told me he was quite superstitious and had used the same penny to mark his ball on the green for 18 years. I said I used a quarter or nickel to keep track of where I am as others putt and to keep up the pace. He said, not criticizing me, that he used a penny so it wouldn’t distract anybody. If he was giving me some subtle advice, I took it as such."
In 2011, advice from Nicklaus helped propel Schwartzel and McIlroy. Nicklaus told McIlroy after his meltdown in the Masters—a final-round 80—to examine his mistakes and learn from them, relating how Tom Watson blew majors early in his career but turned the failures into stepping stones. He told McIlroy to embrace final-round pressure and expect to play well.
After overwhelming the field at Congressional, McIlroy said, "It’s nice to sit down with the most successful player who’s ever lived and hear those great things, and to put a little bit of it into practice so early."
It was widely reported after last year’s Masters that Nicklaus had detailed an 18-hole game plan for Schwartzel. Last summer I asked Schwartzel to provide a few examples.
"Every hole has so much subtle strategy," he said. "The first hole he said to go to the center of the green with your approach shot, never left because of the falloff over there. The second hole, when the pin is left you can aim at the crowd on the right. The 12th is a short little par 3, but he never fired at the flag. He said to never aim outside the bunkers because if you’re short or long you’ll be in the sand, not the water or the bushes. That stuck with me."
The legacy keeps growing.