Jack Nicklaus

Charlie Nicklaus ran drugstores in Columbus and had been an athlete first — football for Ohio State, semi-professional ball under an assumed name for the Portsmouth Spartans, and scratch golf. In 1950 he joined Scioto Country Club to work off a volleyball injury and brought his ten-year-old along. Jack shot 51 on his first nine and was handed to the club professional, Jack Grout, his instructor for life. At 13 he came through a mild case of polio. He entered Ohio State in 1957 on a pre-pharmacy track, meaning to take over the drugstores, then switched to insurance, planning to sell policies and stay amateur. He married Barbara Bash in July 1960, and when a son arrived in September 1961 he turned professional, a few course hours short of a degree.

His first win as a professional was the 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont, where 10,000 people turned out for the Sunday playoff, nearly all for Arnold Palmer, and taunted the 22-year-old rookie the whole way around. Nicklaus shot 71 to Palmer's 74. He finished with 18 professional majors — six Masters, five PGA Championships, four U.S. Opens, three Opens — and 19 second places, both of them records. He was first to a double and then a triple career grand slam, and won 73 PGA Tour events. At his first Ryder Cup, on September 20, 1969, he conceded Tony Jacklin a three-foot putt on the last green to halve the match and tie the Cup 16-16, telling him he did not think he would have missed but was not giving him the chance. Sam Snead, his captain, was furious.

He put on weight in the late 1960s and lost stamina with it. His money-list finish slid to the worst of his professional life, and after the 1969 Ryder Cup he took off 25 pounds in a month. Then, in February 1970, his father died of pancreatic cancer at 56. Nicklaus said afterward that he had been playing decent golf without much caring either way, and that his father's death made him see Charlie had lived his life through his son's golf game and had probably not been given the best of it. He went back to work and won the Open at St Andrews five months later. The 19 runner-up finishes are the other half of the record. He called himself a fine two-putter who was sometimes too worried about three-putting to go for the putts he should have.

On March 1, 2005, his 17-month-old grandson Jake drowned in a hot tub. Nicklaus played the Masters a month later unprepared and made it his last, and closed out at St Andrews in July with a birdie at the 18th. The second career covers more ground than the first. Nicklaus Design, run with four sons and a son-in-law, had 299 courses open by the end of 2005, near one percent of all courses on earth. The Memorial has been played at Muirfield Village since 1976. In 2006 he built the Concession in Sarasota with Tony Jacklin, named for the putt. He took the Medal of Freedom in 2005 and a Congressional Gold Medal in 2015. Tiger Woods has 15 majors.

Jack Nicklaus's life against the full span of the corpus — the fading end marks a life still in progress.

• Harbour Town Golf Links building
  His first design, credited jointly with Pete Dye 1969
• Muirfield Village Golf Club building
  Co-designed with Desmond Muirhead, in Dublin, Ohio 1974
• Golf My Way book
  The instruction manual, reissued for half a century 1974
• Glen Abbey Golf Course building
  His first solo design, at Oakville, Ontario 1976
• The Memorial Tournament other
  Founded in Ohio and played at Muirfield Village ever since 1976
• The Concession Golf Club building
  Built with Tony Jacklin to mark the putt he gave away in 1969 2006

• 1950 aged ~10 Takes up golf at 10 and shoots 51 for his first nine holes His father had joined Scioto Country Club to work off a volleyball injury.
• 1953 aged ~13 Comes through a mild case of polio at 13
• 1959 aged ~19 Wins the U.S. Amateur, and wins it again in 1961
• June 17, 1962 aged 22 Beats Arnold Palmer 71 to 74 in the U.S. Open playoff at Oakmont A crowd of 10,000, almost all of it for Palmer, taunted the 22-year-old rookie.
• September 20, 1969 aged 29 Concedes Tony Jacklin's putt and the Ryder Cup ends 16-16 His captain Sam Snead was furious. The two men were friends for life afterward.
• February 1970 aged 30 His father dies of pancreatic cancer at 56 Nicklaus won the Open at St Andrews five months later.
• April 1986 aged 46 Wins a sixth Masters at 46 with a back nine of 30
• March 1, 2005 aged 65 His 17-month-old grandson Jake drowns He played the Masters a month later without preparation and never entered again.
• July 15, 2005 aged 65 Plays his last round in a major, at St Andrews, and birdies the 18th

• Arnold Palmer 1929–2016
  Golfer whose charisma and television popularity helped turn golf into a mass spectator sport. rival, beaten in the 1962 playoff
• Tiger Woods b. 1975
  Golf icon who revolutionized the sport and became one of the most famous athletes in the world. chasing his 18 majors
• Babe Didrikson Zaharias 1911–1956
  Multi-sport athlete who won Olympic gold in track and field and became a golf legend. the American golfer of the generation before
• George W. Bush b. 1946
  43rd president who led the country after the September 11 attacks and launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. gave him the Medal of Freedom