Visualizing Success

One of the more remarkable years in professional golf was the one notched by Jack Nicklaus in 1972.  Individual athletic performances aside, his accomplishments in that year were as much an example of vision as execution.

 Jack Nicklaus lost his father, Charlie, to cancer in 1970 at the age of only fifty-six.  This, coupled with the 1971 death of his idol, Bobby Jones, from complications of a degenerative disease, caused Nicklaus to reassess his career and recommit himself to the game.  Nicklaus decided that he would attempt to scale the immortal path blazed by Jones in winning his ear’s Grand Slam, by becoming the first man to win all four of the professional Majors in one year. (Story continued below...)

Nicklaus began his march at the Masters.  He led all four rounds and posted a three-stroke victory at Augusta, finishing at two under, as the only player to break par.  While a three-stroke victory would suggest a typically Nicklaus-like dominating performance, the great golfer was actually uncharacteristically shaky down the back nine stretch on Sunday.  Fortunately for him, so was his competition and none could mount a charge.

 Perhaps his jitters occurred because he was chasing history, his aspirations, and golf immortality.  Or perhaps they came from pressure of doing exactly what everyone expected him to do, for Nicklaus was far and away the pre-tournament favorite.

Regardless of how he accomplished it, with his victory at the Masters he would tie Arnold Palmer with four Green Jackets, jump past Walter Hagen on the all-time list of Majors won, and stand only one Major victory away from his hero, Bobby Jones, who had won thirteen Majors (including his U.S. and British Amateur titles, considered Majors during his era).

If the weight of history lay heavily upon Nicklaus’ shoulders, then it was surely blown from its perch by the final round of the windy 1972 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

Nicklaus entered the final round with a one-shot lead over Lee Trevino, two shots ahead of Kermit Zarley and Bruce Crampton, and three in front of Arnold Palmer.  Palmer would take a run at Nicklaus and close the gap to just one shot by the twelfth hole.  But, by the time Nicklaus reached the seventeenth tee, he had worked his lead back up to three strokes.  He then proceeded to hit one of his most famous shots.  Playing into a stiff breeze, Nicklaus struck his ball with is 1-iron with such accuracy that the ball actually hit the pin and settled some five inches from it.  The birdie insured what would end as a three-stroke victory over a surging Bruce Crampton.

The next stage of Nicklaus’ quest would be the Open Championship at Muirfield.


Jack Nicklaus signing autographs prior to
a practice round at the 1972 Open Championship

Nicklaus prepared for this Major with the same intense preparation as he had all others.  He arrived early and checked into the Greywalls Hotel, which overlooks the tenth tee, for practice and to get acclimated.  Nicklaus loved Muirfield, having competed there successfully as a Walker Cup member in 1959 and winning the Open Championship there in 1966.

It is a matter of record that through the first two rounds of the tournament, Nicklaus trailed Lee Trevino and Tony Jacklin by one stroke.  What is not widely known is that Nicklaus had been suffering all week with a sore neck that inhibited his ability to swing freely.  This condition, coupled with a conservative game plan on a course that can get you into trouble quickly, caused Nicklaus to drop six shots behind the leader Trevino and five shots behind Jacklin after three rounds.  In fact, Trevino finished his round with a flourish, making birdies at five consecutive holes and posting a 66 to Nicklaus’ 71.

Nicklaus awoke on the morning of the final round free of pain and convinced he should be aggressive, feeling that if he could post a score of 65, it should be enough to win.  Nicklaus would go out in 32, including a birdie on the ninth hole.  He would continue the streak on the tenth, and when he also birdied the eleventh hole, he was in sole possession of the lead.  Meanwhile, behind him, Trevino and Jacklin started to mount a counterattack, with each scoring an eagle on the ninth.  Nicklaus was well aware that neither player was likely to fold, so he would have to finish strong.  Fate stepped in when he missed an eight-foot birdie putt at the fifteenth hole that witnesses reported seemed to be kept out of the hole by air alone.  At this point, he felt he would need to go one under over the last three holes.  However, Nicklaus would bogey the sixteenth hole, his first bogey of the day, and par the seventeenth and eighteenth holes, finishing two strokes higher over the final holes than where he thought he needed to be.  He would post a final-round score of 66.  Nicklaus’ Grand Slam hopes were now in the hands of the two men behind him.


Lee Trevino, 1972 Open Championship

Both Trevino and Jacklin were tied at six under as they came to the pivotal par-5, seventeenth hole.  Trevino proceeded to hit four uncharacteristically poor shots, and as he approached his ball in the rough, past the pin, he seemed to have given up the fight.  Trevino quickly swatted at the ball in an effort he would later admit was “a give-up chip.”  Remarkably, the chip shot went into the hole to preserve par.  An understandably rattled Jacklin three-putted the hole for bogey (listen to Tony Jacklin talk about this shot, on the Fairways of Life show, click here:  ).  Trevino took full advantage of his new lease on life by securing a solid par at the eighteenth hole to secure the championship and deny Nicklaus golf’s first professional Grand Slam. 

Even though Jack Nicklaus did not win the Grand Slam, the mere fact that he had the vision to attempt it and the talent to come as close as he did, attests that he deserves his lofty profile among the game’s greatest players.