HOW JACK NICKLAUS BECAME A LEGEND

The life of Jack Nicklaus is one extraordinary achievement after another.  Not only did Jack Nicklaus win two Amateur Major Championship titles, eighteen PGA Tour Majors, and eight Senior PGA Tour Majors during his one hundred victories worldwide, but he also gained fame as a golf course designer and goodwill ambassador.

Internationally acclaimed speaker and specialist medical practitioner Dr John Tickell was one of millions in awe of the achievements of Jack Nicklaus. He wanted to know the secrets of the great man’s enormous success in golf and life.  When Dr Tickell met Jack Nicklaus, he was given many insights into both the physical and mental demands of his accomplishments. In this book Dr Tickell talks with Jack Nicklaus about his remarkable success and illustrates the how and the why of that success.

Dr Tickell asked Jack Nicklaus to design a golf course in Melbourne, Australia - a City famous for its world-class golf courses.  They combined their talents to build a championship course at the Heritage Golf and Country Club in the beautiful wine-growing district known as the Yarra Valley.  During their time together, Nicklaus shared with Dr Tickell the Four Principles of Greatness and other pointers to success.  They spent many hours together discussing life and golf, golf and life, and now share with you those lessons on how to become a better golfer and, more important, a better human being.

This book represents seventy-two lessons on golf and life from a man who has consistently reached the top of the mountain in all aspects of life.  It will motivate and uplift you.

JACK NICKLAUS is widely considered the best golfer the game has ever seen. He has been a consistent winner as an amateur, a pro, and a senior. He lives with his wife, Barbara, in North Palm Beach, Florida. 
Visit his Web site at: www.nicklaus.com

DR JOHN TICKELL is a best selling author and an international corporate and conference speaker, specializing in health, stress management, and how to balance the priorities in life.  
Visit his website at:
www.drjohntickell.com
 

Published by
ST. MARTIN’S PRESS
175 Fifth Avenue
New York N.Y. 10010

An Excerpt from Chapter 12
- from the Book Golf & Life by Jack Nicklaus & Dr John Tickell

So at this stage it is interesting that after the first twenty-eight Majors as professionals, you both had a similar number of victories, but you had more second placings.  What do you read into that?

Trevino just gave you one reason.  Since 1999, the mental gap between Tiger and any one individual is larger than any gap that existed between me and my competitors - the great players in my era were winning Majors as well.

There are a number of players winning Majors, but nobody this century, apart from Tiger, has won two! Somebody out there needs to raise the discipline level and bridge that gap.

Let’s see how the next twenty-eight unfold, then the twenty-eight after that and the twenty-eight after that. I played one hundred and fifty-four Majors in succession - I think I need to lie down!

It is interesting to look at the number of attempts it took you to win each of the four Majors once you had turned professional.

You won the U.S. Open in your first attempt in 1962, the Masters and the PGA in your second attempt (both in 1963) and the British Open in your fifth attempt in 1966 at Muirfield.

Do you know what was significant about that win at Muirfield, apart from the fact that it completed my “Majors Slam”?

It was the realization that precision counts more than power in golf-something that has stayed with me ever since and something that has followed me into my golf course design philosophy.

And the reason for this realization was my counting up how many times I used my driver in the four rounds - a total of only seventeen, or an average four and a quarter times per round.

Attempts to Win the Four Major Championships As a Professional:

Nicklaus Masters 2nd attempt   U.S. Open 1st attempt   British Open 5th attempt   PGA Championship 2nd attempt   TOTAL 10 attempts Woods Masters 1st attempt   U.S. Open 4th attempt   British Open 4th attempt   PGA Championship 3rd attempt   TOTAL 12 attempts

So the golfers who have won the four Majors are Sarazen, Hogan, Nicklaus, Player and Woods.

Jack, you have, of course, won three Slams.  And Gene Sarazen didn’t know he was doing it because he won the earliest of his four Championships before the modern Slam was invented.

The next milestone or mountain you climbed was Bobby Jones’s records of thirteen Major Tournament wins.

That was PGA at the Canterbury Golf Club in Cleveland in August 1973.  Tom Weiskopf was the favorite that week and I was fortunate to ease myself around the final 18 for 69 and a four-shot victory over Australian Bruce Crampton.

Mind you, Bobby Jones achieved his thirteen Major victories in eight years - from 1923 to 1930 - during which period he was a part-time golfer while accumulating three college degrees.

But yes, it was a mountain I set myself to climb, so it was certainly an achievement of note.

Jack, why did you have chunks of time in your career when you cooled off and didn’t win as often as people expected?

Well, it happens.

Once I passed Bobby Jones’s record of thirteen Majors, I went through one of those “What’s wrong with Jack?” periods.

Even though my scoring average stayed much the same, the standards of play were improving. Better equipment, better physical conditioning and greater financial incentives all played a part.

But what I am about to tell you is so true about the will to win in many people.

Even though I didn’t recognize it at the time, my desire was dropping off - the will to win, the zest for battle.

The greater your desire, the greater your capacity to work.

The problem is this: The more success you have, the less desire there is - more of one and less of the other.

My attitude was faltering.

When I didn’t win, I did not burn enough on the inside.  I was becoming more philosophical.

Just not good enough.

Just not good enough.

Footnote 1.

Jack, you have told me on more than once occasion that you had great admiration for Lee Trevino, the man who interrupted your best chance to win the Slam in the same year.

Trevino was not only a wonderful golfer, but a great character.  The fans loved the way he played golf.  Trevino was extremely competitive and could he talk!  He beat me in four Majors that I remember and always gave me trouble.

Well, here’s a quote from an interview Lee Trevino did for Golf Digest.

People ask me who’s better.  Tiger or Jack?  It’s close, but if they played one 18-hole round, both men in their prime, I’d have to take Jack. He was longer than Tiger, a better putter and he’d game-plan Tiger to death. Nicklaus at his best always found a way to win.

Footnote 2.

They did some tests not so long ago on the ball Jack Nicklaus used for much of his career - the MacGregor Tourney.

Other comparable balls seemed to travel around 20 yards farther and some of the MacGregor balls tested could fly right or left.  It may have been the worst ball ever used for tournament play.

Jack, what do you think about that?

They should have done the tests forty years ago!

Footnote 3.

 Is there any particular record of yours that Tiger can’t surpass?

Well, he’s going to have to wait around awhile to win the four Majors on the Seniors Tour.

Just for the Record

Jack Nicklaus is the only golfer ever to win the four Major tournaments on the regular PGA Tour and, as well, the four Major tournaments on the Senior PGA Tour, namely -

The Tradition
Senior Players Championship
U.S. Senior Open
Senior PGA Championship

Nicklaus won all four Majors in his first two years on the Seniors Tour.