Forty years ago, Jack Nicklaus produced an iconic Masters victory. It may still be golf’s greatest moment
Evin Priest
Augusta, Georgia: Few sporting events in the world revere anniversaries like the Masters.
There’s a soothing quality to a global sporting event returning to the same venue each year. Fans, on site and on TV, watch for Augusta National’s stunning landscapes, and come back to compare how the present crop of players will hit shots compared to the ghosts of Masters past.
The one anniversary that lingers on the hallowed turf this year is Jack Nicklaus’ iconic 1986 Masters victory.
Forty years ago, the legendary Nicklaus gave golf perhaps its most seminal moment. The “Golden Bear” – six years since his previous major win and in a state of semi-retirement – wowed the sporting world with a record 18th major victory at the age of 46.
It reverberated throughout history.
Nicklaus’ triumph was underlined by moments that became Masters folklore: his fist-pumping second shot into the par five 15th that set up an eagle; a near hole in one that yielded a birdie on the par three 16th; and a birdie putt on 17 that inspired the memorable Verne Lundquist call of, “Yes, sir”!
And then there was the famous line from CBS commentary debutant Jim Nantz, stationed in the tower behind the 16th green, who remarked: “The Bear has come out of hibernation.”
During that final round, the leaderboard featured Greg Norman, Nick Price (who shot a course-record 63 to take the third round lead), Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Tom Kite, Corey Pavin, Tom Watson and Sandy Lyle. Nicklaus began the day tied for ninth, four strokes back.
But he beat them all with a 65 featuring a back nine of 30, to defeat Norman and Kite by one shot.
As Nantz, now the voice of the Masters, wrote for Golf Digest US recently: “I’ve been blessed to see many things through the years – Tiger [Woods] in 1997, Tiger again with his “return to glory” in 2019, Rory last year. But 1986 in many ways stands alone. We remember it as the day Jack Nicklaus composed a golf fairytale that somehow came true.”
A 10-year-old Woods was watching Nicklaus on TV from his home in Southern California that day. Unknowingly, that would create a ripple throughout golf for decades to come. Woods was glued to the broadcast, fascinated that a golfer would celebrate individual shots and produce so much showmanship.
“I can tell you that ’86 meant a lot to me because that was the first memory that I have of the Masters, seeing Jack celebrate a four iron into the green on 15,” Woods has said.
It inspired Woods to his own tally of 15 majors, which in turn inspired a generation after him.
Forty years on, Nicklaus’ public appearances are rare outside his hosting of the PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament each May. One of those sightings was on Thursday morning (US time) at the 90th Masters – 67 years after Nicklaus made his debut at the 23rd Masters in 1959.
Nicklaus, Gary Player and Watson hit the honorary opening tee shots of the Masters. An 86-year-old Nicklaus had his son, Jackie, tee up the ball for him before the legend offered a hilarious warning to fans surrounding the hole: “Oh, boy, watch out, and I don’t mean that facetiously.”
He hit a low hook – but he did warn them.
Afterwards, Nicklaus, Player and Watson held their annual honorary starters press conference – a Masters tradition in its own right.
“I said, ‘Spread out on both sides because I don’t want to kill anybody’,” Nicklaus said of the tee shot. “If it’d been a little closer, I might have.”
The record six-times Masters champion – Woods is nearest with five – then offered a rare insight into his 1986 masterpiece. It had ended a long Masters absence for Nicklaus’ family.
“My mother, my sister [came] to the Masters for the first time since 1959 – all very special circumstances,” Nicklaus said on Thursday.
Nicklaus was 46 – still the oldest Masters champion. He calls it “absolutely No.1” among his green jacket wins. Nicklaus even suggested it might be his greatest achievement in the majors overall, and there were many: three career grand slams; five PGA Championships; four US Open trophies; three British Open claret jugs.
“I think to a lot of people [1986] sort of – I don’t know if the word is ‘verified’ my career – but it gained some career-ending respect, I suppose, for that and for me, too,” Nicklaus said on Thursday. “I couldn’t have been more thrilled.
“People [ask] what was your favourite [major] win? I love them all, but obviously ’86 was the one that I wasn’t expected to win. I was over the hill and the whole routine, and I won. So that was very special. It happened to be the most special to me, absolutely.
“It looked like I was pretty much done with playing golf when I won the US Open and PGA in 1980, and I really wasn’t, you might say, expecting to win any more. All of a sudden, I found a little lightning in the bottle, and it was kind of fun to find that.”
Indeed, but sports fans find it as much fun to relive.
