30 things you didn't know on the 30th anniversary of Jack Nicklaus' historic Masters win
1. Nicklaus was motivated by a Tom McCollister column in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, clipped and put on the fridge by his friend. It read, "Nicklaus is gone, done. He just doesn't have the game anymore. It's rusted from lack of use. He's 46, and nobody that old wins the Masters." No one does. No one did. Except one.
2. It was the 50th playing of The Masters, which began in 1934 but took off three years during the war.
3. Jack played seven events before that year's Masters. His finishes: T60, CUT, T39, CUT, T47, W/D, CUT. That's three missed cuts, one withdrawal and three finishes so far off the leaderboard he'd have needed a telescope to find it.
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4. However, Jack had finished tied for sixth in the 1985 Masters, five years removed from his last major win and a decade after his last win at Augusta.
5. His run at Augusta in the 1970s might be the most impressive golfing achievement in history:
I'm just gonna leave that there. Stare, appreciate, soak at your own leisure.
6. Nicklaus' mother was in attendance - the first time she'd been to Augusta since Jack was an amateur in 1959. His sister was there too, also for the first time in 27 years. "I always wanted to come back and see the course again," his 76-year-old mom told reporters. "I'm a flower lover. I think I wanted to see all of that more than the golf."
7. Fifty-four hole leader Greg Norman was eight years old when Nicklaus won his first Masters. Seve Ballesteros, who was bunched in a group tied for second, was just five back in 1962.
8. Nicklaus's son, Jackie, was on the bag for his father that week. The Golden Bear didn't expect to contend so why not spend two or four rounds with his son?
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9. Perhaps the most famous story from that weekend happened Sunday morning, when Jackie asked his dad what it would take to win. "I said, 'Sixty-six will tie and 65 will win,'" Nicklaus recounted after. He shot a 65, of course.
10. Nicklaus started the day four back and made the turn five back thanks to two missed gimmies on the front. A bogey on No. 12, one that was caused, in part, due to a stray spike mark, was "probably the best thing that ever happened," Nicklaus said, as it fired him up and brought him back to reality at the same time.
11. After playing No. 14, during which leader Seve Ballesteros drained an eagle on No. 13, Nicklaus was still four back of the Spaniard and two back of Tom Kite.
12. Greg Norman said there were about 50 people watching him and Nick Price in the final group after they played Amen Corner. Though joking, he wasn't far off.
(Brian Morgan/Getty Images)
13. After Jack drained his three-footer on No. 16, Seve stood over his second shot on No. 15, where Jack had made eagle minutes earlier. Whether it was the roar, the pressure or just simply a bad shot, Seve hit it in the water on the most famous par-5 in golf.
14. In two of his five Masters victories, Nicklaus drained a birdie on No. 16 that wound up leading to victory. He birdied 16 in 1986.
(Photo by Brian Morgan/Getty Images)
15. Nicklaus stood over his 18-footer on No. 17 for nearly 20 seconds before unleashing his quick-release putt. While Verne Lundquist's "yes sir!" has gone down as one of the great Masters (and sports) calls ever, it began with an expectant "maybe..." just as Nicklaus' putt began its slight right-to-left break.
16. It turns out "yes sir" was something of a run-of-the-mill call in '86. Years later, Peter Kostis would tell Lundquist that his "yes sir" came 24 minutes after another announcer had said it. That was Ben Wright, the great, though flawed, British announcer who was later fired from CBS after allegedly making comments about lesbians in women's golf and then for saying that female golfers had it tough because "their boobs get in the way." Wright had made the same call on Jack's eagle at No. 15.
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17. Legendary CBS producer Frank Chirkinian said he "needled" Lundquist about his call while the patrons were in their full-throated roar. "We're paying you all that money for "maybe, yessir?'" he recalled telling Verne. Years later, Lundquist would make the second-most famous Masters call on the same hole, on Tiger Woods' famous chip-in hanger.
18. Speaking of calls, Jim Nantz, who was on the call at No. 16, said he was worried his famous line "the bear has come out of hibernation" was ripped off from someone else. Later, he discovered that it was no "yes sir" and hadn't been mentioned on the telecast.
19. On No. 18, Jack almost drained a 45-footer for birdie from the front of the green.
20. Though the mind likes to believe Nicklaus walked off the 18th green a winner, he actually finished well before his competitors, which meant he had to watch Tom Kite stand over an 12-footer on No. 18 to tie. The retelling of Jack's tale also omits the fact that Greg Norman stood on the 18th tee tied with Nicklaus at -9. His approach sailed into the gallery and he couldn't scramble for what would have been a playoff-forcing par. That was the real start of the Norman-as-choker narrative, one that would become legendary in 1996 when he blew a six-shot lead and lost by five, a swing of 11 shots with Nick Faldo.
21. Rick Reilly's "gamer" for Sports Illustrated included what has to be one of the greatest paragraphs in that magazine's illustrious history.
22. In that SI there was a rave review about a book featuring numerous essays on beekeeping as well as an article about the start of trout fishing season.
23. The winner's check in 1986 was for $144,000. That's about what the 19th-place golfer won last year. Even factoring in inflation, Jack's winnings were "just" $311,000. Jordan Spieth took home $1.8 million for his 2015 win.
24. Nicklaus would play 10 events after the Masters and made the cut in each, with three top-10 finishes to finish 1986.
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25. Only four of Nicklaus's 18 major wins were by a single stroke, as was the '86 Masters.
26. Nicklaus won five tournaments in the 1980s. Three of them were majors.
27. Jack never won another tournament on the PGA Tour after his Masters triumph.
28. However, after the win Nicklaus didn't miss a cut at The Masters until 1994, when he was 54 years old. In all, Nicklaus made cuts in 33 of 34 years from 1960-1994. (He missed one in 1967.) He'd end up playing 17 more Masters, finishing in the top 10 three times and making the cut in 12, all of which came in his next 13 starts after the victory. Starting in 2000, he'd go: T54/CUT/DNP/CUT/CUT/CUT before finishing his Masters career in 2005.
29. In 1998, just as CBS was coming on air, Nicklaus, then 58, was making a charge up the leaderboard amidst roars that were threatening to dwarf those heard in 1986. This was one year after Tiger Woods' record-setting Masters, an amazing overlap of golf history.
30. Before interviewing Nicklaus for SportsCenter on the night of his win, ESPN reporter Alan Massengale asked, off-air, "Jack, before we start, you think now might be a good time to retire?" Nicklaus smiled. "How'd you know I was thinking about that?"
