Word: nicklaus
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...what Jack Nicklaus can do for golf; ask only what golf can do for Jack Nicklaus. What more, that is. In a little over four years as a pro, Nicklaus, 26, has won 18 tournaments and earned $449,048 in prize money-plus another $2,000,000 or so from endorsements, investments, articles, books and TV. That allows him to live in a $140,000 house, fly his own $225,000 airplane, stuff himself with steaks (sometimes four per meal), and get eleven hours sleep a night. It also entitles him to blow a round now and then. Like...
...Jack!" Now there was a week. The august members of Georgia's Augusta National Golf Club were embarrassed when Nicklaus ripped their course to shreds last year-firing a record 17-under-par 271 for 72 holes, winning the Masters by nine strokes. Last week there were spongy fairways to deaden long drives and two new greens that were as fast as billiard tables. Hostile fans screamed, "Too bad, Fat Jack!" whenever Nicklaus flubbed a shot. History was against Jack: nobody had ever won the Masters twice in a row. And so, it seemed, was fate...
...night before the tournament started, Nicklaus' close friend Bob Barton was killed in a private-plane crash (along with his wife and another couple) while en route to watch Jack play. "Golf has never seemed so secondary," muttered the melancholy champion. "It's pretty hard to get excited about 5-ft. putts this week...
...clear measure of Nicklaus' greatness that he shot a four-under-par 68 in the first round, when the wind was blowing in gusts up to 30 m.p.h. It was a measure of his state of mind that he soared to a 76 next day, three-putting five greens. Grimly telling himself to "concentrate! concentrate!", he pulled his game together for a third-round 72 that tied him for the lead with Tommy Jacobs...
...haven't played well enough to have a shot at winning," said Nicklaus, going into the fourth round. Even so, he came within a hairbreadth. On the 400-yd. 17th hole he laid his No. 9-iron second shot just 40 in. from the hole. Incredibly, he bungled the birdie putt. On the 420-yd. 18th, his second shot left him 40 ft. from the pin; his long curling putt for a birdie slid an inch past the cup. The tap-in gave him an even-par 288, locked him in a three-way tie with Jacobs...