Jack Nicklaus - Biography

Last Editor: annie_k				Jack Nicklaus Biography -   Name : Jack Nicklaus Profession : Golfer Birth Details : born January 21, 1940 in Columbus, Ohio

Jack Nicklaus Trivia -

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Jack Nicklaus Detailed Biography -

Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940 in Columbus, Ohio), also known as "The Golden Bear", was a major force in professional golf from the 1960s to the late 1990s, and is widely regarded as the greatest golfer of all time. Together with Arnold Palmer, he is credited with turning golf into the major spectator sport it has become. While Palmer brought golf into the TV era, it was the developing Nicklaus-Palmer rivalry that drove subsequent interest. Nicklaus attended public school in Upper Arlington, a suburb of Columbus. He took up golf at the age of ten, shooting 51 for his first nine holes. He won the first of six Ohio State Junior titles at the age of twelve. While attending Ohio State University, he won the U.S. Amateur title twice (1959, 1961), and an NCAA Championship (1961). Nicklaus began his professional career in 1962, and his record of eighteen wins in major tournaments (three Open Championships, four U.S. Opens, five PGA Championships, and six Masters) is as yet unmatched. He is one of only five golfers to win all four current majors in a career (the "Career Grand Slam"), the first of only two (the other being Tiger Woods) to have won all four majors more than once, and the only golfer to win all four majors at least three times. In 1986, he became the oldest player to ever win The Masters. In all, Nicklaus racked up 48 top-3 finishes in majors (including 19 second-place finishes and nine third-places), 56 top-5 finishes, and 73 top-10 finishes. Nicklaus's six wins at the Masters came in 1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975 and 1986. Not only is his win tally a record, but he also finished as runner-up a record four times. In the decade of the 1970s, Jack finished in the top ten at Augusta every year. Over his career, he appeared in the event 45 times and made the cut 37 times. In 1998, at the age of 58, he finished an impressive sixth. Nicklaus won the U.S. Open in 1962, 1967, 1972 and 1980, and is tied with Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones, and Willie Anderson for most wins. He is the only player to win the title in three different decades, and also had four runner-up finishes in his 42 appearances. He made the cut 35 times. Nicklaus won the Open Championship (British Open) in 1966, 1970, 1978, and was runner-up seven times. He made the cut in 32 out of 38 appearances, and from 1966 to 1980 he never finished worse than sixth. So revered is Nicklaus in the United Kingdom for his British Open exploits that in July 2005, the Royal Bank of Scotland announced that Nicklaus's image would be printed on a special issue of two million £5 notes. Apart from HM The Queen, he is the only living person to be featured on a Scottish banknote . His five wins at the PGA Championship came in 1963, 1971, 1973, 1975 and 1980. He is tied with Walter Hagen for most wins. He made the cut 27 times in 37 finishes and was runner-up four times. His 1971 victory made him the first player to win the career Grand Slam twice, an achievement which was matched by Tiger Woods at the 2005 British Open. Nicklaus also won the prestigious PLAYERS Championship three times (though never at the TPC at Sawgrass, which is the current PLAYERS site and a course he harshly criticized the setup of, likening some of its approach shots to "stopping a 5-iron on the hood of a car"). He won various events around the globe as well, including six Australian Opens (1964, 1968, 1971, 1975, 1976 and 1978). He is second to Sam Snead on the all-time list of players with most PGA Tour wins, having accumulated seventy-three titles. In seventeen consecutive seasons from 1962 to 1978 he always won at least one PGA Tour title and always finished in the top ten on the money list. He topped the PGA Tour money list eight times: 1964, 1965, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976. In 1996, Nicklaus was the first person in the history of the PGA to win the same Senior PGA Tour (now the Champions Tour) event four times. He is the only person in the history of the PGA to win all of the major championships on both the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour. (Although he never won the Senior British Open, it was not recognized as a major in the United States until 2003, after he had stopped playing the Champions Tour.) He never played a full schedule on the Champions Tour, but he won ten Champions Tour events, including eight majors. In 1978, he received Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" award. In 1980 he was awarded the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award. 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. Nicklaus always played a limited schedule, entering only enough minor tournaments (usually less than ten) to prepare himself for the major tournaments each year. As a result, he never played in enough tournaments in any given year to qualify for the Vardon Trophy awarded annually to the Tour player with the lowest stroke average, although his stroke average was consistently the lowest on Tour during his prime. In what could be seen as a symbolic passing of the torch from one golf great to another, Tiger Woods won each major in the year that Nicklaus last appeared in it as a player. 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 decided to play The Open one last time. Woods won both events as well. Jack Nicklaus has been inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and the World Golf Hall of Fame. Nicklaus turned 65 in January 2005, which was the last year he entered a PGA tournament as an exempt player. He announced that he would retire from tournament golf in 2005 at The Open Championship at The Old Course at St Andrews. The very fact that the 2005 Open was scheduled at The Old Course can be seen as a tribute to Nicklaus. Several years earlier, the organizers of The Open, The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A), had scheduled the 2006 Open for The Old Course. However, aware that Nicklaus' exemption to play in The Open would run out after the 2005 Open, The R&A moved The Old Course up in the rotation one year to give Nicklaus an opportunity to play his last Open there. He is currently a golf course architect, in partnership with his sons and son-in-law through Nicklaus Design, and is personally responsible for over 200 golf course designs. These include Muirfield Village, Shoal Creek, Castle Pines and the PGA Centenary Course at the Gleneagles Hotel. Nicklaus also continues to manage the Memorial Golf 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.