Jack Nicklaus

Lore & Background

Nicklaus won the U.S. Amateur in 1959 and 1961 and finished second in the 1960 U.S. Open, two shots behind Arnold Palmer. Nicklaus turned professional in 1961 at age 21. He won his first professional victory at the 1962 U.S. Open, defeating Palmer by three shots in an 18-hole playoff beginning a long-running rivalry between the two. Nicklaus, Palmer, and Gary Player became known as "The Big Three," a name given to the trio due to growing popularization of golf in the 1960s. In 1966, Nicklaus became the first player to win the Masters Tournament in back-to-back years; he also won the 1963 PGA Championship and the 1966 Open Championship, becoming at age 26 the youngest player at the time to complete the career grand slam. Named the AP Athlete of the Decade for the 1970s, Nicklaus had won 17 major championships by 1980. He overtook Bobby Jones's record of 13 majors, and became the first player to complete double and triple career grand slams. At age 46, Nicklaus won his final major championship at the 1986 Masters Tournament, which was a record sixth Masters title. He joined the Senior PGA Tour (now known as the PGA Tour Champions) when he became eligible in 1990, and by 1996 had won 10 tournaments, including eight senior major championships, despite playing a limited schedule. He continued to play at least some of the four regular majors until making his final appearance at the 2005 Open Championship held at the Old Course at St Andrews. As of 2026, Nicklaus heads Nicklaus Design, one of the world's largest golf course design and construction companies. He runs an event on the PGA Tour, the Memorial Tournament, which is held at the Nicklaus-designed Muirfield Village Golf Club, and is the subject of the Jack Nicklaus Museum on the campus of his alma mater, Ohio State University. Nicklaus's books vary from instructional to autobiographical, with his Golf My Way considered one of the best instructional golf books of all time; the video of the same name is the best-selling golf instructional to date. Nicklaus won the Ryder Cup with the United States five times as a player, he also captained the team in 1983 and 1987. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2015.

In Their Own Story

The morning fog still clung to the fairway at Augusta when Nicklaus stepped onto the first tee. He did not rush. He stood with his club in his hands, watching the mist curl off the pond, and you could see him doing the arithmetic—wind speed, lie, the exact yardage to the pin. Around him, the gallery was silent in that particular Augusta way, the kind of quiet that feels almost sacred. He swung. The ball tracked left, tucked perfectly against the trees, and he simply nodded, once, as if confirming a number he had already calculated. He walked to the next tee, and the crowd exhaled, because they understood: the round was not over, but the outcome, in his mind, was already written.

Reader's Guide

Nicklaus was born on January 21, 1940, in Columbus, Ohio, and grew up in the suburb of Upper Arlington. He is of German descent, the son of Helen (Schoener) and Charlie Nicklaus, a pharmacist who ran several businesses named Nicklaus Drug Store. Charlie was a skilled all-round athlete who had played football for the Ohio State Buckeyes and had gone on to play semi-professional football under an assumed name for the Portsmouth Spartans (who later became the NFL's Detroit Lions). Charlie had also been a scratch golfer and local tennis champion in his youth. In February 1970, Charlie Nicklaus died of pancreatic cancer at age fifty-six. Nicklaus attended Upper Arlington High School, whose nickname and mascot are coincidentally the Golden Bears. In Nicklaus's senior year, he was an honorable mention All-Ohio selection in basketball as a shooting guard, and he received some recruiting interest from college basketball programs, including Ohio State. During his youth, he also competed successfully in football, baseball, tennis, and track and field. Nicklaus took up golf at the age of 10, scoring a 51 at Scioto Country Club for his first nine holes ever played. Charlie Nicklaus had joined Scioto that same year, returning to golf to help heal a volleyball injury. He was coached at Scioto by club pro Jack Grout, a Texas-developed contemporary of golf greats Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan; Grout had played quite successfully on the PGA Tour and would become Nicklaus's lifelong golf instructor. Nicklaus overcame a mild case of polio as a 13-year-old. Nicklaus won the first of five straight Ohio State Junior titles at the age of 12. At 13, he broke 70 at Scioto Country Club for the first time, and became that year's youngest qualifier into the U.S. Junior Amateur, where he survived three match-play rounds. He had earned a handicap of +3 at age 13, the lowest in the Columbus area. Nicklaus won the Tri-State High School Championship (Ohio/Kentucky/Indiana) at the age of 14 with a round of 68, and also recorded his first hole-in-one in tournament play the same year. At 15, Nicklaus shot a 66 at Scioto Country Club, which was the amateur course record, and qualified for his first U.S. Amateur. He won the Ohio Open in 1956 at age 16, highlighted by a phenomenal third round of 64, competing against professionals. In all, Nicklaus won 27 events in the Ohio area from age 10 to age 17

Did You Know?

• Nicklaus overcame a mild case of polio as a 13-year-old.
• He won his final major championship at the 1986 Masters Tournament, which was a record sixth Masters title.
• Nicklaus won 117 professional tournaments in his career, including a record 18 major championships.
• At age 26, he became the youngest player at the time to complete the career grand slam.