Jack Nicklaus, others look back at 1986 Masters victory | 2022 Masters Skip to main content
Breaking news
 
R4   
2 Rory McIlroy   -7 F
T3 Cameron Smith   -5 F
T3 Shane Lowry   -5 F
    Full Leaderboard
Posted April 4, 2016, 3:40 pm
BY |

Jack Nicklaus, others look back at 1986 Masters victory

  • Article Photos
    Jack Nicklaus, others look back at 1986 Masters victory
    Photos description
    Nicklaus celebrates at No. 17 in the final round of the 1986 Masters.

Jack Nicklaus arrived in Augusta in April 1986 at the crossroads of his career. At 46, he had nothing left to prove as a golfer. He was considered the game’s all-time greatest player with 17 professional major titles, including five at the Masters.

Nicklaus hadn’t won a PGA Tour event in nearly two years, and he was six years removed from his last major triumph. As the namesake of a growing business empire, he was focusing on that more than his golf game. His desire to compete at a high level was still there, but his effort was lacking.

“Through the ‘60s and ‘70s, I used to start thinking about the Masters in January and started preparing in January to get ready,” Nicklaus said. “Around the ‘80s, I started thinking about it in January and started preparing for it in the latter part of March. And that’s sort of about where I was in ‘86.”

In seven tournaments leading up to the Masters, Nicklaus had missed three cuts and had withdrawn from one event. His best finish was a tie for 39th in Hawaii.

But Nicklaus always found another gear when he arrived in Augusta, and he had high hopes despite his poor play leading to Augusta. He also had some extra motivation: family friend John Mont­gomery had posted an article written by Tom McCol­lister in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that said “Nicklaus is gone, done.”

Nicklaus had his oldest son, Jackie, as his caddie that week. His mother and his sister also were in attendance, making it a true Nicklaus family affair.

He opened with rounds of 74 and 71 to make the cut, and he fired 69 in the third round to move into the top 10.

Still, he trailed 54-hole leader Greg Norman by four shots, and a who’s who of the game’s top players – Bern­­hard Langer, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Price, Tom Kite and Tom Watson – stood between him and a sixth green jacket.

What follows is the oral history of April 13, 1986, and what many consider to be the most exciting golf tournament ever played.

 

NICKLAUS: Steve (Nick­laus) called me on Sunday morning. He said, “What do you think, Pops?” I said, “I think 66 will tie and 65 will win.” He said that’s the exact number I had in mind. Go shoot it.

 

Nicklaus had switched to Mac­Gregor’s Response ZT putter early in the season. The oversized putter was light but featured a large moment of inertia that kept the face from twisting at impact. At the Honda Classic, a strong gust of wind knocked the putter into the ball on a short putt.

 

NICKLAUS: I was ready to can that putter. But then I started making putts with it, and I got one that was a little bit heavier, and actually it was quite a nice putter.

 

At Augusta, the putter had betrayed Nicklaus for 3½ rounds. He had played the first eight holes Sunday in even par before arriving at the ninth green with a tricky birdie putt.

 

NICKLAUS: I didn’t feel like I could get anything going until the ninth hole. And then we had that rigmarole with Ballesteros and Kite making eagles at 8. And I turn to the crowd. I’ve backed off the ball twice because of the shots, so I ask the gallery, “OK, you’ve heard all of that noise, let’s see if we can make some noise here ourselves.” And I knocked it in, and I was off.

 

JACKIE NICKLAUS: He backed off twice. He said let’s see if we can make some noise up here. The crowd, the interaction, it just completely energized my dad and energized the crowd. That was pretty neat.

 

Nicklaus holed lengthy birdie putts at Nos. 10 and 11 to creep into contention.

 

SANDY LYLE (Nicklaus’ playing partner): That putter never trembled one minute. It was like it was coming out of a machine. If you watched the putter head, it was straight back, straight through. There was no toe overlapping the heel or whatever, or any kind of flinching.

 

JACKIE NICKLAUS: At 12 tee, the crowd is standing up, people have their arms up and they’re screaming. It was terrific. It’s probably the first time I noticed Dad getting emotional. Basically from that point on every time he approached a green or tee you see him getting emotional, teary eyed, having to push back his emotions.

 

Nicklaus’ tee shot at the par-3 12th missed the green, and his chip left him seven feet away and with a big spike mark directly in his line. Nicklaus missed the putt and made bogey.

 

NICKLAUS: It really upset me, but it was probably the best thing that ever happened. Because it sort of brought me off of cloud nine, down to a place that was still pretty good, where I said, “OK, I’ve played the last four holes in 2-under, and I’ve got the stretch coming up and let’s see what we can get done.”

 

Nicklaus resumed his charge with a two-putt birdie at the 13th, and he made par at the 14th. But Nicklaus still trailed Ballesteros by four shots as he walked down the 15th fairway.

 

NICKLAUS: I hit a really good drive at 15. I turned to Jackie and I said, “How far do you think a 3 will go here? And I don’t mean a club.” He said, “I think it will go a long way.” I hit a 4-iron and knocked it in 12 feet left of the hole. I made that putt.

 

JACKIE: That’s when you started thinking, “Wow.”

 

RICK REILLY (Sports Illustrated writer): That’s the day the no-running rule was totally violated. I mean, women with heels were running. People were abandoning their pimento cheese stations. Because you had to see it, you had to be there.

 

NICKLAUS: Ballesteros had eagled 13 around the same time. I don’t know that he was going to run away, but he was in pretty darn good shape. Anyway, there weren’t many more than Ballesteros in front of me at that point. I wasn’t doing a whole lot of math about that time. I was too busy making birdies.

 

The eagle at 15 pulled Nicklaus into a tie for second with Kite at 7-under, but he still trailed Ballesteros by two with three to play. Nicklaus had worked magic at the par-3 16th hole before – he made crucial birdie putts there en route to victories in 1963 and 1975 – and he needed another one. He nearly jarred his 5-iron tee shot and left himself a 3-foot birdie putt.

 

NICKLAUS: I hit the shot, and I didn’t even look at it. I just reached down and picked up my tee, and Jackie said, “Be right.” I said, “It is.” And the ball, of course I saw it land, you couldn’t see the base of (the pin), but it had a chance to go in the hole. Of course the gallery there is going wild, the gallery at 15 was going wild.

 

JACKIE NICKLAUS: He has such great belief in what he’s doing. He knew it was the right club. He doesn’t say stuff like that. Kind of an internally cocky comment. My reaction was, “Wow, he’s really dialed in.”

 

JIM NANTZ (CBS announcer assigned to 16th hole): The sun at 16 is at your back in the tower, and when the ball comes off the clubface, it looks like a beach ball. You can track it so easily. When Jack hit it, I knew it was going to be close. I knew what was going to happen coming off the slope. I said nothing. I was too nervous. My teeth were chattering.

 

NICKLAUS: I’ve had a lot of great receptions at 16 in my life, but that one was pretty special. I made that putt and they were just going bananas. I’m sure Ballesteros could have heard that if he was still back on the first tee. It was pretty loud.

 

NANTZ: (CBS director) Frank (Chirkinian) never cut off from Jack. As he walked around the water’s edge, he had the camera trained on Jack. He’s got Lyle off the green, and I set it up. I said, “The bear has come out of hibernation.” As soon as I said it, I said someone’s already said that. I’ve just repeated that line. As it turns out, I hadn’t.

 

Nicklaus knocked in the birdie putt to pull to within one. As he prepared to tee off on 17, he heard a strange noise from the vicinity of the adjacent 15th green. Ballesteros had pull-hooked his second shot into the pond guarding the green.

 

NICKLAUS: We go over to the 17 tee, and I hear that horrible sound. I knew exactly what it was, that sort of half cheer, half groan. The people that wanted me to win were cheering, the people that wanted Seve to play well were groaning, and I would have groaned, because I don’t believe in wishing someone bad luck, I never have. But I knew what had happened.

 

TOM KITE (Ballesteros’ playing partner): I was trying to win a golf tournament and I wasn’t paying much attention to what he was doing. I had hit a beautiful 3-iron in there about 18 feet below the hole, and I was thinking about making my eagle.

 

NICKLAUS: I always reflect right back to the beginning of the week at the Masters dinner. I was talking to Seve about the tournament, and he was like, ‘I haven’t played much this spring. I’m not really sharp, I haven’t played enough golf.’ When he did that it just went, boom, right in my mind. I said I knew that when a guy is not as sharp as he feels he should be, he’ll have a tough shot. Instead of hitting 5-iron he hit a light 4-iron, and when he hit it he quit on it. His ball didn’t get halfway across the water. He just quit on it. It was a horrible break for him, but it obviously changed the whole tournament.

 

BEN WRIGHT (CBS announcer at No. 15): He claimed it wasn’t a bad shot, it was a bad choice of clubs. I told him he needed to be honest. I said (he) was scared of the next noise that was going to smack him in the ears.

 

Nicklaus pulled his tee shot on No. 17 but hit his approach to 11 feet. With Ballesteros taking a bogey and Kite making birdie at the 15th, those two were tied with Nicklaus for the lead.

 

GREG NORMAN (playing in final pairing with Nick Price): We both hit good shots into 14, and there were about 22 people behind the green. I said to Nicky that we need to show these people we’re not out of the tournament. And we both made birdies and I put myself back into competition.

 

VERNE LUNDQUIST (CBS announcer at No. 17): We knew when Jack was getting ready that if he could do something magical on 17 he was going to be in good shape. I remember thinking, “Don’t get in the way of this.”

 

LYLE: Very, very, very hard putt to read. I don’t think you can explain in words how difficult that was. He himself could barely read the green, it was so crispy and fast. It could go either way, you could knock it six foot past and miss a chance to be in a playoff or something like that.

 

NICKLAUS: Jackie and I were looking at the putt. The putt looks like it has to go a little right, which it does. He says, “What do you think, Dad?” I said, “I think it goes a little right; what do you think, Jackie?” He says, “I think it’s going to go to the right, Dad.” I say, “Rae’s Creek, I think it will straighten up and try to turn back to the left.” He said, “You sure?” I said, “It always has.” So I hit the putt and that putt will not straighten up.

 

The putt breaks into the middle of the cup, and Lundquist makes his famous call: “Maybe … yes sir!” Nicklaus, at 9-under, has sole possession of the lead.

 

NICK PRICE: We were walking past 15, walking past 17 green, which was to the right of us. Jack was putting, and so Greg and I slowed down so you can visually see through. We were just back and short of the green on the right. We saw him hit the putt and saw him raise the putter and when the ball went in the hole, it was probably the loudest roar I’ve ever heard on a golf course. It was deafening. People were running. It was frenzied. They were running to get spots on next tee, to get up the next fairway. It was incredible.

 

Now Nicklaus has to fight his emotions as he plays the final hole. He splits the fairway with his tee shot.

 

BARBARA NICKLAUS: Jack had tears in his eyes walking up 18, and Jackie said, “Come on dad, we’ve got more golf to play.”

 

NICKLAUS: I hit a 5-iron as good as I could hit it. As soon as I hit it, I felt the rush of wind in my face. I said, “Oh, it’s not going to get there.” It hit and wound up down at the bottom of the green, and I had 40 feet left. I hit a good putt up, rolled up to about four inches, and I felt I could probably make that one.

 

Nicklaus taps in his par putt to complete a final-round 65, including 30 on the final nine. He and Jackie embrace.

 

JACKIE: We both knew he had done all he could do. I think he was very happy that I was there to see his run at a Masters. It was one of the most special times of my life.

 

With the clubhouse lead of 9-under 279, Nicklaus had to wait in Jones Cabin and see whether anyone could catch him. Ballesteros 3-putted No. 17 to fall out of contention, leaving only Kite and Norman with a chance.

 

NICKLAUS: Norman started making birdies, and I said, “I’m not going to sit here and watch this, I’m going to get up and walk around.”

 

JACKIE NICKLAUS: That was the hardest part. My stomach was in knots.

 

Kite hits his approach to 10 feet on No. 18 but misses his birdie putt.

 

KITE: I hit a good putt. Had a great chance to go in. Wish it would have.

 

That leaves Norman, who had made four birdies in a row beginning at No. 14. A perfect tee shot on the 18th leaves him 185 yards to the pin, and Norman selected a 4-iron. But the Shark badly missed, and his ball sailed far right into the gallery.

 

PRICE: If I’d been his caddie that day, I think I would have been more prone to give him the 5-iron. And see if he could have hit a hard one and run it up that slope. And if it got down to the bottom of that slope, see if he can make a 30-footer to win. But he was playing to win. He was so fired up. It was wonderful to watch.

 

NORMAN: You go back and if there’s three things in golf you could have back, that’s definitely one of them. No question. It was a bad selection. I was just playing aggressive all day, hitting it solid. I just tried to hit a hard 4-iron.

 

Norman pitched onto the green, well past the hole, and he missed his long par putt. At age 46, Jack Nicklaus, thought to be washed up and past his prime, had won his sixth Masters.

 

FURMAN BISHER (Atlan­ta columnist, who died in 2012): If you’re of my age and class, to see an old guy of 46 slipping into that green jacket on Sunday afternoon, that made your spine tingle.

 

NANTZ: I was walking back to the compound and a golf cart flies up. It’s Ken Venturi. He said, “Young man, let me tell you something, I can promise you this. You’ll never see a greater day around Augusta National.”

 

REILLY: It’s my No. 1. Jack Nicklaus, 46 years old, which in those days was ridiculous. He’s got his kid on his bag, hadn’t won any majors in six years, he was out here and we thought he was just sort of a living statue, then he wins and comes from behind. I’ll never forget people trying to climb trees. Seeing guys trying to write afterwards. I remember one old guy clutching his hair and saying, “It’s too big, it’s too big.”

 

BISHER: I was up there watching the finish but I remember when they brought Jack in for the interview, the first thing he said when he walked in was, “Where’s Tom McCollister?” Tom started hiding. Jack said, “No, no, I just want to thank you. You helped me win this thing and I appreciate it.”

 

NICKLAUS: I get so many people who come up to me and go, “Oh Jack, I was in this restaurant and I stopped everything and watched it and never even finished my meal.” Or they said, “I was in an airport and I was watching and I let the plane go.” People tell me all kind of stories. It’s kind of neat. I still get them.