This week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is being held at one of the most historic venues in golf: Baltusrol Golf Club. Well, men’s golf, that is.

To be clear, Baltusrol has hosted big-time women’s events before. Four to be exact. A pair of US Women’s Opens and a pair of US Women’s Amateurs. But when you think of Baltusrol’s Lower Course and its iconic clubhouse, you think of Jack Nicklaus, Lee Janzen, Phil Mickelson and, yes, even Jimmy Walker. More recently, you think of rising star Michael Thorbjornsen, who won the U.S. Junior Amateur here in 2018 over fellow phenom Akshay Bhatia.

Stacy Lewis, who is competing in her 15th Women’s PGA in the Garden State this week, couldn’t help but notice the same thing during her initial clubhouse stroll.

“The biggest thing for me is you walk through that clubhouse, and you see the winners of all these past champions that have won big events here, and it’s guys, it’s guys, it’s guys,” Lewis said on Wednesday. “And then there’s maybe one here of a US [Women’s Am] or something like that.”

Stacy Lewis. USWO

In fairness, one of the members of the LPGA Tour’s Mount Rushmore (if such a thing were to exist), Mickey Wright, won the US Women’s Open on the Lower Course in 1961. But, up until this week, there’s been just one women’s event at Baltusrol since, and it took place on the just-as-good-but-not-as-storied Upper Course, also originally designed by the legendary AW Tillinghast. This week the ladies will take on the Gil Hanse-renovated Lower for the first time in over six decades. It is a huge and much-needed opportunity on the big stage for the women’s game.

“To just start a history here of women being on those pictures and being around that clubhouse, that’s the biggest thing for me of what’s changing in women’s golf,” Lewis said. “Because we’re doing this every year. We’re doing this every golf course we go play. It’s going to happen at Pebble, too. We’re changing the history of these golf courses. I’m just glad that the powers that be picked up the phone and said that they were ready for it.”

There is not a more historical figure at Baltusrol than the GOAT himself, Nicklaus, who won back-to-back US Opens on the Lower Course, 13 years apart. The first win in 1967 featured one of the most iconic shots in golf history, the Golden Bear hitting a 238-yard 1-iron into the 72nd green to set up a birdie for a final-round 65. There’s a plaque dedicated to the moment in the middle of the par-5 18th fairway, which is how Lewis learned about the shot’s existence during a practice round Tuesday.

“Oh, man. I learned about Jack Nicklaus’s 1-iron yesterday on the 18th hole,” Lewis said. “I honestly haven’t learned a lot about [the course] because I’ve been running from one thing to the next the last two days.”

Believe it or not, there’s even video of the shot despite it occurring in 1967. And it’s in colour.

In 1967, @jacknicklaus hit his famous 1-iron on the 72nd hole en route to his 4-stroke victory over Arnold Palmer in @usopengolf on Baltusrol Golf Club's Lower Course, where half the #USJuniorAm field is teeing it up today! pic.twitter.com/8OklLhK2J4

— USGA (@USGA) July 17, 2018

You’ll have to forgive Lewis for not being a massive golf nerd like the rest of us. The best way to learn about history is to see it and get a feel for it up close, which the women have not had a chance to do here at Baltusrol since 1985. This week, it’s their turn to make some history of their own.

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Jack Nicklaus sometimes hung up a virtual “gone fishing” sign during his collegiate career at Ohio State. And his coach, Bob Kepler, not only was OK with his star golfer skipping practice, but aided and abetted him.

Nicklaus, founder and host of this week’s Memorial Tournament, personally announced on Tuesday the Division I winner of the award that bears his name, informing the media that Texas Tech’s Ludvig Aberg won the Jack Nicklaus Award as the top male golfer. Nicklaus made the announcement in conjunction with the news that Workday, presenting sponsor of the Memorial, had signed on as presenting sponsor of the award that has been named in the Golden Bear’s honour since 1988.

Winner of the 1961 NCAA Division I title, Nicklaus said that Kepler was the man responsible for introducing him to fly fishing. And then he let out a secret about just how much the two enjoyed the activity — and at a fairly odd time.

“What he [Kepler] would do is he would come out and look at the sky and he would say: ‘Man, this is a beautiful day. It’s too nice a day to go play golf. Why don’t we get those guys started off the first tee and you and I will slip out the back door and go fishing.’” Nicklaus said. “Which is what we did. We’d get the team started and we’d go. He knew I was always going to have my golf game in shape. He wasn’t worried about that. So we’d go fishing, and we go over to Zanesville and we go trout fishing over there and we’d come back and we would go out and sit down and have a couple of [drinks] together. Not many coaches sit down with their players and have [drinks], but we did. We’d catch a few fish, we’d cook the fish, and we had a great time.”

Nicklaus said that he had scholarship offers from several colleges, but the Columbus native was intent on attending Ohio State. “I told them don’t bother,” he said. “I said, Ohio State doesn’t offer scholarships for golf, but it’s where I was going to go. … I just went to Ohio State, and I just happened to play golf when I went to Ohio State.”

Got some fishing in, too. And hauled in his greatest catch there when he met his future wife Barbara.

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“Years ago I used to dream about my swing,” Jack Nicklaus said at the Legends Luncheon, hosted by the Memorial Tournament. “If I was having trouble with my swing I’d give myself lessons quite often when I slept. Then I went out the next morning and tried it and it worked and I’d put it in.”

These detailed dreams often came during big tournaments and were critical in giving him some perspective that he ultimately used to win events.

“I went to the practice range after I played, which I did most of the time, and couldn’t quite figure out what it was,” he went on to admit. “Then all of a sudden it would hit me while I was sleeping. It’s the perfect time to think. You don’t have anything else to do.”

Now, usually, the layman’s golf dreams turn sour. It’s less about fixing a form error and more about waking up in a cold sweat. A missed shot, forgetting something crucial. Jack’s right there with us as well despite his winning ways.

“I haven’t had it recently, but I used to have a dream all the time that it was my time to get to the first tee and I could never get there,” the 83-year-old said. “No matter what I did, somebody ran into me and kept me from getting to the first tee. I never quite got there, and I always woke up before it was my tee shot.

“I’d know the courses, usually, and know how to get to the first tee, but I’d … have to go to the bathroom; I don’t have a ball; I couldn’t find my caddie — just so many different distractions. Not getting to the first tee is a nightmare.”

Now, that’s relatable content from the 73-time PGA Tour winner. It just goes to show you that despite our differences — millions upon millions of dollars and six green jackets — Nicklaus and whoever’s out there reading this have a lot in common. You’re just one good sleep away from becoming a major champion.

Pleasant dreams!

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Golden Age Auctions is currently presenting both a ball Tiger Woods used during the final round of his first major win in 1997 and one Jack Nicklaus used in the final round when he triumphed at age 46 in 1986. The story behind each has a familiar thread: Both have been consigned by then-child fans who got the balls as handouts during those famous rounds.

Woods had just made bogey on No. 5 and handed off his offending pellet to nine-year-old Julian Nexsen, who was promptly interviewed by a Washington Times reporter about the event. The ball comes in a frame with the article and Nexsen’s badge from that day.

Young fan Chris Timmerman was attending the 1986 Masters with his father, and they followed Nicklaus for nearly the entire round. Gary Nicklaus was caddieing for his father, and handed over a Nicklaus Tour Balata 392 from the pocket of his coveralls.

Bidding on the two items — which are a part of a Golden Age’s Masters auction that also includes a tournament-used Woods Scotty Cameron putter — is open until April 8.

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In talking to local reporters on Sunday, Jack Nicklaus shed a little light regarding what he believes the future holds for the Honda Classic at PGA National, which is losing Honda as its title sponsor after a 42-year relationship with the PGA Tour event.

Nicklaus and his wife Barbara live in the Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., area and have long had ties to the tournament as the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation has been a charitable beneficiary of the tournament for the last 16 years.

Some in the South Florida area are concerned about the long-term prospects for the event as none of the top 17 players in the Official World Golf Ranking was in this week’s field. That was largely due to the fact that the two tournaments proceeding Honda on the schedule were among the tour’s “designated” events (with lucrative $20 million prize money payouts), and the two events that follow it—the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players Championship—also come with the new moniker. So it was that several top players skipped this week to get some rest.

Still, the Golden Bear thinks there is a chance for the PGA National stop to eventually become as strong as ever. And it may not take as long as some have predicted, as Nicklaus relayed what he says the PGA Tour has told him about changes to the 2024 schedule that will give his beloved event a chance at attracting a better field.

“Next year’s schedule … Pebble and L.A. are their elevated tournaments,” Nicklaus said. “Phoenix is not. Then they go to Mexico, then they come here. So, we will have players next year. And then they’ve got Bay Hill and Players.

“The tournament’s going to be just fine. The tournament’s just fine anyway. Look at how this town has supported this event without having a great field. They stayed with it and supported it. I think they’ve done great.”

A patron holds a sign during Sunday’s final round of the Honda Classic at PGA National. Honda is ending its title sponsorship of the event in 2024 after 42 years. Sam Greenwood

If the schedule changes next year, as Nicklaus suggests, top players will have the option to take a week off before the Genesis Invitational at Riviera, then there will be an event in Mexico before the tour comes to the Honda Classic—with a new name—followed by the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players Championship.

PGA Tour officials, however, are reportedly still working out details of the schedule and are not expected to officially announce their plans until later in the summer.

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More than any other player in history, Tiger Woods at his peak refuted the adage that no golfer gets it all. The image of that once-supreme completist from the century’s first decade remains indelible and continues to magnify light onto every part of the game — especially the elements that constitute greatness.

Those who can perceive and convey that last piece with the most precision are the elders in an ultra-exclusive fraternity that includes Woods as a junior member. So as Tiger embarked on his latest comeback — begun remarkably free of back pain and with correspondingly surprising success at the Hero World Challenge — Golf Digest sat down with five of the best: Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller and Nick Faldo.

All are multiple major winners — collectively their total is 41, the inverse of Woods’ 14. All are essentially retired from competition yet remain avidly connected to the current scene. All are close students of a figure who has transcended and brought scrupulous attention to the game they once mastered.

For them, Woods is both an illuminating prism and a mirror.

Our idea was to exploit a premise that has proved reliable since Woods first came to world renown as an amateur in the mid-1990s: The better the player, the better the take on Tiger.

To varying degrees, each Hall of Famer possessed some or even all of Woods’ myriad qualities and strengths. But to allow the interviews to form a more coordinated whole, the subject matter for each former player focused on the area he most closely compared with Woods.

With Nicklaus, it was the uncanny ability for making it happen. For Player, an indefatigable self-belief. For Trevino, an undying obsession for the game. For Miller, a nearly identical crucial head start as a youth. For Faldo, a relentless focus on majors.

The individual framing allowed each of our sages to pull from personal experience and observation. The result is wisdom and insight about what it takes to reach the very highest levels of golf — and through a more intimate understanding of five all-timers, a more refined appreciation of Woods.

Greatness in golf will remain fascinating and mysterious. The current question: When, if ever, will Tiger, now 42, achieve the kind of late-career climax — Nicklaus’ 1986 Masters at 46 the epitome — that provides each of our five elders such an enduring satisfaction? As 2018 develops, they’ll retain the most interest and empathy as a renewed Tiger — still very much a completist — chases his missing pieces.

NICK FALDO: The Journey to Thursday Morning

Tiger and I were similar in that we could almost be in the zone for four days. I had this ability to focus on golf. You hear the psychologists say you should bounce around, but I didn’t. Sometimes Fanny [caddie Sunesson] would go off on a subject, and I used to drag her back: “No, no, no. Just keep talking golf.”

The preparation time between majors is vital, and this is where I think Tiger was absolutely phenomenal. It’s the journey getting to Thursday morning of the US Open or whatever, and if you’re really smart and know more about the game, it starts the week before or two weeks before or, in the case of the Masters, months before. But you’ve got to start well, to be absolutely ready for Thursday morning. I remember reading that Arnold Palmer said he would take the intensity of 17 and 18 on Sunday of a major and bring that to Thursday. And that was a little jolt to me. I used to say to myself in the majors: Every shot is history on Thursday as well, so don’t waste them.

With Tiger, I think of the opening nine holes when he shot 40 at the 1997 Masters. [Faldo, the defending champion, was his playing partner in the first two rounds of Woods’ 12-stroke victory.] I wonder if that was one of his epiphanies where he said: ‘I’m never going to do that again. I’m never going to set myself up to get that far down. I’m going to find a way to prepare.’ And I think that’s what he did so brilliantly. How he could go out, win a tournament, disappear for three weeks and come back out in a major, and there was no wastage of shots or sloppiness. And the number of times you would say, How does he come out holing every putt?

Tiger knew he was different. Special. He hit a golf ball differently — full stop — than anybody else. Nobody could drive it like him, nobody could hit long irons like him, or the wedges and the putter. There wasn’t anybody ever who was that good in every department. And then he’d believe he was better prepared for Thursday than anyone else, and it became a pattern.

It’s true in other sports. With Tom Brady, I tune in to make sure I watch his first possession. I love Formula One racing. How come these guys will all qualify within tenths of a second, and then on the first lap of the race, Lewis Hamilton will be a full second ahead of everybody?

I birdied a lot of opening holes at the Open Championship. You psych yourself all week, and you visualise it, seeing yourself knock it out there, on the green, in, and off you go. Whereas some people stand up on the first tee, and they can’t see the fairway.

I’d like to do some of my career differently. I made mistakes working too hard at tournaments. I know I wore myself out, wore out my golfing batteries. But I said to myself, I don’t want to get to 45 and regret that I didn’t try hard enough. Because I know some golfers, I watched them get into their 40s, and they were lazy. And suddenly it’s gone. You’re an athlete given a window of opportunity. And while you’ve got your nerve, you’d better make the most of it. Because once your nerve starts to go, you ain’t getting that one back.

That last round at the 1996 Masters [overcoming Greg Norman’s six-stroke lead] was the best round mentally I ever had. The swing wasn’t quite right, and I had to mentally push myself through each shot. I would think to myself: ‘Are the wheels coming off?’ And I had to yell at myself: ‘No, they’re not! Come on, what are we going to do? OK, hit it, land it there, piece it together,’ and I’m going to do this in the swing, because I know if I do this, I’ll hang on to it. I had a little checklist I had to go through. I’d lost that 100 per cent self-belief, or whatever the percentage is where you’re Superman. Once it gets chinks, it becomes: ‘Oh, I got away with it.’ And then one day, you say all those things to yourself, and twang! — it goes sideways. And that’s the day when you go: ‘Oh, blimey.’

To go to a major with the intention of winning it and doing it, that gives me the greatest pride. I did that in three of them [1990 at the Masters and St Andrews, and 1992 at Muirfield were among Faldo’s six major victories]. With Tiger, I don’t know if he’s done 14 with the intention quite like that. It gives you that sense of power. You definitely feel everybody must be looking at you. The way you act probably [annoys] a lot of the players — has to. Because I’m sure that’s when you’re at your rudest. Because you’re so focused, you’re so engrossed.

Tiger was quite happy to come into a tournament with a horrendous spotlight on him. I was amazed how he could do that. I’ll never forget, I was on the range doing TV at Augusta. He came on the range, and you could feel the aura. Every player would turn and look. All the gallery, every eye was on him. He turned it into energy. I’m sure Ali had that.

Once you get everything right, it’s that wonderful feeling knowing that you’re going to do it. I had that once: walking down the first fairway at St Andrews, in 1990. They had put the flag just over the burn, into the breeze, and David [Leadbetter] came to tell me that balls were spinning back into the burn. So it’s a 9-iron, but I’m worried, so I’ll hit 8. And then I get a little more nervous and take out a 7. So I chip a 7, and I land it right in the back of the green, and I’ve got a 30-yard putt. And I said to myself, Just relax. You’re going to win.

You can say it now 30 years later, and people don’t think you’re an ass. But how cool a line is that to say to yourself? That is your ultimate. The millions of golf balls and the thousands of hours just to be able to say you know what to do and how to do it under the ultimate pressure, and you love it.

JOHNNY MILLER: The Father Influence

When Tiger came up, I saw a lot of my golf upbringing in him. I don’t know exactly how Earl worked, but I could tell he had that affirmation thing going big time with Tiger. I mean, he said, This guy’s going to be the greatest, and he probably said it a million times to Tiger. He also paid the price with Tiger with his time, doing a lot of things my father did. Everything was centred around his dad, right?

With Tiger, what I saw was the drive, even a stronger drive than I had. And he had the rarest of all abilities: If he needed to make the putt, somehow he could make it go in. Not many guys can actually make it, you know. I think of [Billy] Casper, Nicklaus — for a while, Trevino. It’s very rare to have a guy who actually improved his putting when it mattered the most. Tiger was definitely that way. I could do it with my ball-striking. But you still had to finish it off with the putts.

I think Earl had that sense that this guy is special, and I think it was a special relationship. Tiger wanted to please his dad and follow what his dad wanted to accomplish with him. Sometimes you hear some of the negative, but I think most of it was pretty amazing. I believe Tiger, if it wasn’t for Earl, would be just another guy. I really believe that.

When my dad started me out hitting balls into a canvas tarp in our basement when I was 5, you couldn’t use too much loft because it would hit the rafters. So I hit a lot of 5- and 6-irons. And I would wear out this dark-green canvas, making a little light green line where it would start to shred. I’d aim for that little stripe about 15 feet away, and I knew where a perfect 6-iron would hit. The thing that the basement did for me, is that it really got me to know what the sound and feel of a pure shot was. You could hear the strike, and you could feel no vibration. Trying to get that would really focus you.

I was very little. When I graduated from ninth grade, I was 5-feet-2, 105 lbs. I was a phenomenal putter. I’ll bet you when I was 12, I was in the top 10 in the world putting. I once had 16 putts for 18 holes [at San Francisco’s Lincoln Park]. On terrible greens, by the way.

But I loved the game, everything about it. My dad, he made me like a little pro, had me practise how I put my hat on, how I tipped my hat, how I put my glove on, and how I squinted my eyes and gritted my teeth. Sort of a little Hogan. He always talked about psyche. And he had a blackboard with certain things he wanted me to do because I was small and I needed to be strong — push-ups, squeeze grips, pull-ups.

He would work the midnight-to-8am shift so that he could sleep while I was in school. After school, he’d take me to San Francisco Golf Club, where I was taking lessons [from John Geertsen], and the club sort of adopted me. They averaged only 20 players a day, so in the afternoon no one was even out there, so I could hit as many balls as I wanted. Even on approaches into the greens, I could hit eight balls, fixing my divots.

If I hit a bad shot, my dad didn’t really focus on the bad at all. It was just: ‘OK, one more shot.’ It was always one more, no matter how many balls I had hit. It was: ‘OK, let’s see you hit another one,’ never: ‘OK, let’s go home.’ I don’t think he ever said: ‘Let’s go home.’

He was a smart guy, and he was teaching the best he could. He’d give me 10 things to try, and eight of them were just way out there. But I would analyse why each one was not a good idea. And then one of the ideas was really good, and one was fantastic. Like when I was 10 or 11, he had me carry a left-handed 5-iron. So I became quite good left-handed, about a 6-handicap. Now coaches recommend swinging left-handed as a training aid. It wasn’t boring, because he was super creative.

I was a good little fighter. My dad was a boxing fan, and he taught me how to box. I didn’t get in that many fights, but I never lost a fight. The fight would last only 30 or 40 seconds, but that’s the way you settled disagreements back then. When he taught me how to box, that gave me confidence, too.

When I was a young player, I didn’t even know what a bad stretch was. Never played bad. Never. It’s not like I would shoot a bad round and then a real good round. It was just always good. I was a plus-2 when I was 16 years old on the Lake Course at Olympic Club.

I do think you need a start like I did to get a head start. All my friends would work as hard as I did, but they were always a little behind me. They didn’t have their father involved. That can work negatively if the guy is overbearing. But my dad was always about affirmations — “You’re doing great. You’re on the right track. Keep doing those exercises. You’re going to be a champion.” Over and over. He’d call me Champ — that affirmation of potential. Actually, not just potential, because I knew when I was nine years old that I was going to be a champion golfer. Something inside me said: ‘Just keep doing what you’re doing. You’re going to be a champion, like your dad said.’ So that affirmation of greatness or being successful from your father is the strongest affirmation there is for a boy.

JACK NICKLAUS: Making It Happen

When you say: ‘Making it happen,’ I think the key to that, and what Tiger and I both understood, is knowing what was happening.

I go back to some of the mistakes that I made. I look at the 39 I shot on the last nine holes of the US Open at Cherry Hills in 1960. At Pebble Beach in 1963, I came to the last hole tied with Billy Casper but three-putted from 22 feet by being too aggressive with the first putt and then missed the comebacker. As good as Casper was, my chances of beating him in a playoff were higher than making that 22-footer. Later that summer, down the stretch at Royal Lytham, I lost by one after bogeying the last two holes by not being smart.

Those are things you learn from, how to assess a situation and learn who you are and what you can do. And you gain confidence when those lessons teach you how to choose the correct course. Ultimately you become that golfer.

If I had a putt on the 18th to make, that I needed to make, more often than not I made it. Inside 10 feet, more than likely I made that putt. With Tiger, the same thing. Think of Tiger at the [2003] Presidents Cup in South Africa in sudden death with Ernie Els. Particularly the second putt, the one in the dark. I mean, that was just … he made it happen.

In those situations, I always stood over a putt, and I’d say: ‘I need … I HAVE to make this putt. Period. I gotta make it.’ And more often than not, that made me focus more, and I made it. And once you do that a couple of times, you say: ‘Well, what should I say this time: Gee, I’d LIKE to make it? No. I HAVE to make it.’ Once you find something you tell yourself that works, you continue to do that thing until it proves it doesn’t. For me, it kept working most of the time.

I got nervous all the time, as nervous as the next guy. It’s just that I caught myself before it became destructive. You might be thinking: ‘Gosh, I’m worried about missing it.’ When you get that out of your system, you eliminate all the negatives.

I don’t know how much is innate. I mean, I started winning when I was 10, 11 years old. I was out playing with [wife] Barbara at Lost Tree on the sixth hole one time, a par 5, and Barbara hit three fairway woods up there and made 4. And I had a 25-footer for 4, and I made it. And she says: ‘You can’t ever let me win one?’ I said: ‘I’m sorry, it’s what I do. I’m like the scorpion and the frog. It’s my nature.’

Why, I don’t know. I wish I could answer that question, but I can’t — I just don’t know. It was not an accident. No, I worked very hard for that. But no, I never tried to figure it out. How does Jack Nicklaus know who Jack Nicklaus is? Whatever I had to do, I just went ahead and did it.

Sure, I could have gone the other way. Why didn’t I? Because I didn’t want to [chuckles]. I didn’t want to be a bad player. I didn’t want to lose tournaments. I wanted to learn why I made mistakes. I think Tiger does much the same thing.

My dad loved playing all sports, and so did I. I’ve played tennis all my life. I played basketball in a rec league until I was 40. I’d take the kids to football practice, and I’d throw to them in passing drills. Playing all those sports taught you a lot about yourself and about what you can do and what you can’t do. Especially when you’re dealing with team sports, you’re working with your teammates and seeing them make mistakes and their strengths. And you relate those things right back to yourself and how to make yourself better. Did what I learned from team sports help me to learn to rise to the occasion in golf? Absolutely.

Tiger was always a guy who once he got ahead, he was able to gain the ability to just bury everybody. And I never really thought about burying the field. All I ever thought about was, I got my lead, now how do I not do something stupid to lose my lead? The 1965 Masters [where Nicklaus won by nine], it just happened. And the 1980 PGA [Nicklaus won by seven at Oak Hill], I was playing terrible.

I try to subdue my emotion in competition. When I was a kid, I’d find myself getting excited when I did something good, and I’d lose my focus and wouldn’t get back down for a hole or two. I said, I can’t do that. So I was one of those guys who didn’t pump himself up by getting excited. I had to control it so I could continue to do something good.

The game is unpredictable, and it’s different every day. I don’t think I ever had two problems to solve in a round that were exactly the same, ever. You always have to figure out: ‘How do I really make this happen?’ I trusted my instinct. I always felt like any time I played a tournament, any place in a round, if I didn’t like how I was swinging, I would change it. I go back and look at a lot of times I did that, and who knows why I did it, but I just said: ‘This is not what I want to be doing. I need to make an adjustment, and I need to make it now, and I’ve got to do it without destroying myself to do it.’

GARY PLAYER: Bound for Great Things

Tiger had advantages physically and in his early exposure to the game that I didn’t have. It put him on the road to being the greatest golfer who ever lived. But the thing where we were equal, or I might have even had more of, was drive. Man, I was driven. There is never enough success for me.

One of the first things I noticed about Tiger is his strong belief in his destiny. He carried himself with a peaceful but powerful sense that he was bound for great things. I understand that feeling. It was vital to my inner view of myself, especially when I knew others might not have shared it. But that only made me more determined.

When I was 15, I broke my neck showing off for some other boys by jumping headfirst into what I thought was a pit of soft leaves and grass, and hit the bottom. I had to stay inactive for nearly a year. I had been playing golf for only a year, but I was already consumed by the game. During my convalescence, I would be alone in the house and stand in front of a mirror, saying over and over: ‘You’re the greatest golfer in the world.’ It was absurd, but something told me that mattered. Later, I learned from reading and befriending Norman Vincent Peale. He once wrote: ‘If you want something and you go for it, you will be astonished at the values you will find.’

My parents, Harry and Muriel, always encouraged us. I’m sure it gave me the belief that what I could conceive, I could achieve. It’s the greatest gift you can give a child.

My older brother, Ian, was a tremendous influence on me. I remember at 8 or 9 trying to run a five-mile course with him, but I fell down less than halfway, exhausted. I cried: ‘Ian, I can’t make it.’ He yanked me to my feet and very sternly told me: ‘You can do anything you want to. Remember that. There’s no room for can’t in this life.’ Then he kicked me on the backside to emphasise the point. Ever since, if I’ve ever been tempted to say I can’t, I feel that kick again.

A golfer’s true greatness is revealed not when he’s playing his best, but when he’s not and still manages to win. For all his talent, Tiger has shown even more will, and so often when he was fighting his swing he still found a way. There were many times in tournaments when I was lost, hitting absolute rubbish, but I would get the ball on the green and make the key putts. How does that happen? Desire. Tiger has always had more of that than the players he’s beaten. You feel as if he cares more than anyone else. I was told that when I played, I gave that impression.

Tiger has hit so many amazing shots under pressure. Often, with some players more than others, pressure can destroy performance. But I’ve found it’s amazing how the intense pressure of the crucial moment, when something special is required, produced the best shots of my career. I don’t know if you can say it’s luck if you continuously did that. Talent, maybe?

Obviously I’m pulling for Tiger — I am a big Tiger Woods fan. But I think we could look back and say that his downfall was striving for too much perfection. He was on the way to being the best player the world had ever known. He wins the US Open by 15 shots, and shortly after he’s having lessons and changing his swing. There is always a limit, and I don’t think he could have gotten better. I pursued better technique my whole career — my only regret is a lost chance to learn from Ben Hogan — and it’s a capricious thing that often doesn’t lead to improvement. Golf is such a very, very intricate game, and there is a limitation.

LEE TREVINO: A Reason for Everything

Tiger, like me, is obsessed with golf. People have to understand that he made himself what he is. He wasn’t born with that. Superstars make themselves that way.

When you want to be the best, you gotta do something extra. You can’t just do the same thing that everybody else is doing. All the great ones do that. I outpractised them. The better I did it, the more I’d like to see it, and the more I practised.

The secret is, everything that you do, there’s a reason. The good players figure out the why. Why that ball’s doing that. And why you can do this. Most people don’t do that.

I played a hook with a pretty swing until I came back from the Marine Corps and saw Ben Hogan hitting fades at Shady Oaks. After that, I figured out a way to play to avoid the left side. See, I play with two flags. I aim at this flag, but I hit it at that one. I’ll stand here, and I’ll go like this [simulates his open stance]. I’m looking right at the target. I don’t have to do this [looking more over his left shoulder from a square stance]. And then I played a block fade. You have to, if you’re aiming left. It’s in your mind, it’s in your make-up, it’s in your body. Putted the same way. Copied Jack Nicklaus, the greatest putter I’ve ever seen.

You have to respond to the target. During the swing, I look for the target in my subconscious mind. You can’t think when you swing. The more you think, the worse you’ll play. What’s happened, unfortunately, and I mean no disrespect by this, is that people who are teaching are getting way too crazy with too many little movements and muscles. You can’t let too many people mess with you. Mr Palmer had it right when he said: ‘Swing your swing.’

Tiger outsmarted himself. He didn’t realise that if he just maintained, he would still be winning everything. Instead, he wanted to do something else. He got bored. He wasn’t satisfied winning by 15. He wasn’t satisfied by winning 30 per cent of his tournaments. It was too easy for him. He was actually too good, and it got in his way.

Here’s what Butch Harmon told me. I said: ‘Tiger?’ He said: ‘Lee, I can’t teach him anymore. He knows more than I do about the swing. You can’t believe what he knows about this thing.’

Because Tiger dissected it like me. He knows why it happens this way when you do a certain thing. But like Butch said: ‘There are some guys that want somebody watching over them.’

I didn’t. Jack told me one time: ‘You’re the smartest golfer I ever met.’ That was the best compliment I’ve ever had. Ever had.

You never stop dreaming it. I love the art of it. I love the people. And still being able to go out and perform. With Tiger, it’s even more so. It would be very easy for him to say: ‘I don’t even want to mess with it.’ I mean, his retirement fund alone has got more money than AT&T. So no, he loves the sport, he loves competition, he loves to win, he loves to play well. That’s his whole thing. If Tiger does not hurt anymore, I think he’ll play until he’s 50, and then he’ll play the majors on the Champions Tour.

One of the greatest feelings in the world is when you’re out of pain. When my L-5 nerve was completely trapped, I was in that bed upstairs for three months. Wasn’t able to even put my pants on. I could not move. Then [after a 2004 procedure to implant a spinal spacer], no pain. It was like cutting me loose with 31 flavours. Tiger is going to be the same thing. He lost his body, but he didn’t lose his talent. And the longer he goes with no pain, the more confidence he’s going to build. And then he’s going to get up one day and say: ‘I’m back, baby!’

The post Speaking to the best — from Nicklaus to Faldo: What made Tiger Woods great? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

A lawsuit was filed against the 82-year-old in May, accusing Nicklaus of engaging in “repeated acts in bad faith against the best interests of the Company, including acts to intentionally and maliciously undermine the company.”

The complaint alleges Nicklaus received a cash payment for promoting an event in Belgium, his involvement developing a video game, and negotiating with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund over a role with LIV Golf. Nicklaus, who sold his company in 2007, has countered the claims were untrue while acknowledging a personal fallout with the company’s owner. “Our relationship has been a difficult one, at best,” Nicklaus said. “I have little doubt about the outcome, but I don’t intend to make this a public spectacle, if it can be avoided.”

Following a three-day hearing in late November, a New York supreme court judge has allowed Nicklaus to compete against his former company for golf course architecture work and other business, except commercial endorsements. Nicklaus has announced he will be providing his design services through a new firm, named 1-JN.

Nicklaus has designed more than 300 courses across the world, highlighted by Muirfield Village in Columbus, host to Nicklaus’ annual Memorial tournament on the PGA Tour.

“I have been blessed in my long life to have more than one successful career — first playing the game and then designing courses for where this great game is played,” Nicklaus said in a statement. “It has been more than 50 years since my first course, but I am even more passionate than ever about golf course design. I strongly believe that my ideas and creativity are even better now than they have ever been, and I am inspired to continue producing memorable and sustainable golf experiences that can be enjoyed for years to come.

“You might say I have nothing to prove, but I have a lot left to give.”

In an email to Golf Digest, a Nicklaus Companies spokesperson issued the following statement: “According to the court’s order, the injunction extends to all ‘officers, directors, agents, shareholders, successors, employees, representatives, heirs, attorneys, and all other persons who are in active concert or participation’ with Mr. Nicklaus or GBI Investors. This would include golf course developers, commercial sponsors, and any other entity who would look to exploit Mr Nicklaus’ name, image or likeness, or any of the company’s intellectual property — including its ‘JACK NICKLAUS’ trademarks — for commercial gain.

“It is also important to understand that while the court declined to issue a preliminary injunction as to whether Mr Nicklaus can compete with Nicklaus Companies in designing golf courses, this is only pending a full trial to determine whether or not he has that right. Plus, any such design work would be subject to the court’s limitations on any use of the Nicklaus Companies’ intellectual property — or any use of Mr Nickalus’ name, image and likeness — to endorse the golf course. All of these issues have yet to be litigated in full, and after hearing the evidence at trial, we will learn the final decision of the court.

“As we have said all along, our goal was to have the court sort out the legal responsibilities of the parties so that there is no confusion or misunderstanding going forward. The court’s injunction is a step in that direction. We still hope for a collaborative and amicable resolution to these matters. Despite the disparaging statements orchestrated by Mr Nicklaus’ attorneys against Nicklaus Companies and Jack’s business partner, we continue to have great admiration for Jack and his accomplishments, and will use our rights to his name, image and likeness to keep his legend alive. We will do everything we can to ensure his legacy lives on for generations to come.”

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Nicklaus said commissioner Jay Monahan has some work ahead to make the upcoming adjustments — specifically the elevation of a handful of tournaments — fit into the tour’s delicate tapestry.

“I’m not sure what to make of it yet,” Nicklaus said. “I think the tour was going to get there, but the LIV thing pushed them. That’s pretty obvious. What it’s done is made the PGA Tour almost two tiers. All of a sudden the other tournaments become feeders.”

At the Tour Championship in August, Monahan announced that in 2023 the tour is moving to a new schedule that will feature 12 elevated events, in addition to the majors and the Players Championship, and a commitment from the game’s “top players” to compete in at least 20 tournaments. A “top player” will now be defined by the tour as an individual who finishes in the top 20 in the PIP, meaning making the list grants invites into the tour’s biggest events featuring the biggest purses. Eight of the events have been announced — the three legs of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, the Genesis Invitational, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Memorial, the WGC-Dell Match Play and the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Four other events will be announced at a later date.

Nicklaus is one of the beneficiaries of this new structure, as his annual gathering at Muirfield Village outside of Columbus, Ohio, has elevated status. However, Nicklaus also works closely with the Honda Classic, a tournament that in recent years that has been bypassed by most of the game’s bigger names despite the event being played in close proximity to Jupiter, Florida, a popular hangout for tour players. Though the event used to draw solid fields, it has been the victim of scheduling, sandwiched between the Genesis on one end and the API and Players Championship on the other. That predicament will continue as all three tournaments have elevated status.

“It’s been in a tough spot for the last four to five years sitting there between LA [Genesis] and Bay Hill [Arnold Palmer]. I think they’d like to get out of that spot,” Nicklaus said. “Since we’re beneficiaries, I’ve had some reasonable talk with Jay about it. I’ve got a few ideas we’re exploring. We’re trying to figure out a way to move the date and make it more significant.

“But you know what? You go there, you’ll find out the people will still be there. There will be great crowds, they’ll raise a lot of money and it will do well in spite of not having some of the players. It’s still pretty good.”

Whatever reservations Nicklaus’ harbours, It’s worth noting he remains an ally of the PGA Tour. In May, Nicklaus confirmed he turned down an offer in excess of $100 million to partner with LIV Golf as its CEO.

“I turned it down. Once verbally, once in writing,” Nicklaus said. “I said, ‘Guys, I have to stay with the PGA Tour. I helped start the PGA Tour.’”

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The post Jack Nicklaus concerned PGA Tour has turned into ‘two tiers’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Michael Bamberger
A small group of golf fans and autograph-collectors were on one side of a flimsy metal chain-link fence and Lee Trevino was on the other. This was near the driving range at the Old Course on Monday afternoon. The fence started to topple over, in Trevino’s direction. The brief, sudden roar that announces unfolding chaos went up. A security guard went running over.

“Mr Trevino, Mr Trevino, are you all right?”

Mr Trevino was busy just then. The 82-year-old golfing icon, activating his big bottom and short arms and bare hands — the tools of his profession, along with his mind — was holding the fence up while telling the people on the other side to pull as he pushed. Order was restored in no time. Trevino resumed signing.

Trevino has been struck by lightning. He has been broke and rich and broke and rich. He has been through periods where he was at odds with certain business partners, with his back, with the lords of Augusta. He could handle a falling fence and a group of polite, exuberant fans without batting an eye. He was handling everything.

“I watch you,” Trevino told the American golfer Brian Harman. “I see everything you’re doing.”

It was not meant as a literal truth. It was meant to convey: I’m current in this game, and the things I know will last forever. That was Harman’s take.

The left-handed golfer chatted with Trevino for a few minutes at the driving range. Harman was asking how closed you could get with your lead foot without getting too closed. Trevino talked about the relationship between the front foot and the back. Trevino has a PhD in the yin and the yang of golf. It was the first time Harman had spent time with him.

“Here’s a legend, on the range,” Harman said later. “To have a chance to talk to Lee Trevino and not do it, that would be just wrong. He has the gift for making the golf swing simple. Sometimes you get so stuck in the TrackMan numbers, and all the numbers, you lose that the golf swing is more art than science.” For Trevino, Harman said, golf was more art than science. He hopes it is for him too.

What Trevino did in his one-of-a-kind golfing life, he did by himself. (He won two US Opens, two Open Championships, two PGA Championships and scores of other events.) What he knows about golf, he figured out for himself. Whatever doors he opened in this world, through his skill at golf and savant-like understanding of it, he opened himself. Some of us are always drawn to golfers like that. Lee Elder. Moe Norman. Carlos Franco. Larry Nelson. Earl Woods, in his own way, had those qualities. He didn’t become an elite golfer, but his youngest son did.

Lee Trevino. David Cannon

About the only thing Trevino seems to need in his at-large golfing life is an audience to validate him. Jack Nicklaus never needed an audience. Neither did Ben Hogan or Mickey Wright or Woods. Arnold Palmer did. Seve Ballesteros did. Phil Mickelson does, even though he declined to play in Monday’s outing. Lee Trevino did and Lee Trevino does.

He doesn’t have that many opportunities to show off what he knows to the tiny population of the world that will understand what he’s talking about. Monday was one of those opportunities. He was on the course for about four hours, warming up, playing, hanging out, and he seemed completely, uniquely alive.

Regarding the validation thing: That’s OK. If we were all the same, the world would be a dull place. It’s the very thing that keeps Trevino young. He was playing in the four-hole exhibition for former champions on Monday afternoon. Nicklaus, his contemporary and foil, was not. “Come join us on 17 and 18 and I’ll ride in with you,” Trevino told Nicklaus as they gathered on the 1st tee. Yes, filling in as a 1st-tee starter. Trevino’s foursome included Woods, Rory McIlroy and Georgia Hall, the English golfer who won the 2018 Women’s British Open. They played the 1st and 2nd holes and when they arrived at the 17th tee, Nicklaus was there. There was a lot of talk and a lot of laughing. Trevino did a killing imitation of Nicklaus over a putt and Nicklaus laying sod over a long-ago pitch shot. Nicklaus was giggling. Woods was cracking up. Hall was trying to understand it.

But the most telling thing was this: Trevino bragging about his sand wedge, with 17 degrees of bounce (half that is more typical)! “For soft sand,” Trevino said. Like, in case he got into the Road Hole bunker. All his life, Trevino collected golf clubs like they were friends, and he put the exact clubs in play he needed for each round. His youngest son, Daniel, carried them in a small, plain black bag on Monday.

Lee Trevino with Tiger Woods at St Andrews. Harry How

A crowd had assembled in front of the Jigger Inn, there to see Tiger and Rory — and Trevino. Adam Scott came out of the Old Course Hotel to watch. He sees all of Tiger and Rory he needs to see. He was there to watch Trevino, walking, waggling, swinging. Pontificating. Trevino’s gait remains nearly perfect. When he walks into a golf ball and positions his feet, he looks completely at home. Nicklaus’ mind is still incredibly sharp, but playing even four flat, short holes for public consumption holds no interest for him and walking can be a struggle. Whatever Trevino is doing, it’s working.

On the range and by the practice green, an international parade of golfers and golf people — Harman, Jon Rahm of Spain, Sungjae Im of South Korea, the notably international golf instructors Dave Phillips and Pete Cowan — were hanging on Trevino’s every word. Shot after shot after shot was on the face. He hooked putts. He sliced putts. His putting stroke looks like a golf swing, not something produced by a machine. It’s hard to think of a golfer who putts like that today. Tiger released the clubhead, but Trevino released the body.

Trevino, forever, has been able to turn on and off his showman switch like you’re silencing your phone. When he feels the need, Trevino can be a storyteller, a comedian, a golf historian, a charmer. He wrapped up his day, the public portion of it, by telling a film crew about the charms of the R&A museum here, the scores of early Open winners, the numbers of holes they played, his love of history. It was extraordinary. The day was giving him what he needed. But here’s the more significant thing. He was giving us what we need: pure golf, at the place where it all began. He jump-started this week. He gave us what golf, the actual game, desperately needs.

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The post Open Championship 2022: Lee Trevino, the last pure golfer, steals the show on the Old Course at St Andrews appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Jack Nicklaus leaves Younger Hall after receiving the Freedom of St Andrews, with his wife Barbara prior to the 150th Open at St Andrews Old Course. Oisin Keniry/R&A

By John Huggan

In Britain, the natives have long been accomplished in the arts of both pomp and circumstance. Ceremony too, as was the case when the University of St Andrews and the Royal Burgh of St. Andrews Community Council hosted a wee get-together on Tuesday to give out five honorary degrees and make Jack Nicklaus — already Dr Nicklaus in their academic eyes — an honorary citizen of the Auld Grey Toon.

Watched by a packed audience in the Younger Hall on North Street — which included PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, USGA executive director Mike Whan and Augusta National president Fred Ridley among others — Catriona Matthew, Jose Maria Olazabal, Sandy Lyle, Lee Trevino and Bob Charles all emerged as ‘Doctors of Law’. Previous recipients include Gary Player, Colin Montgomerie, Seve Ballesteros, Peter Alliss, Nick Faldo, Peter Thomson, Charlie Sifford, Renee Powell, Tom Watson, Padraig Harrington, Arnold Palmer and Paul Lawrie.

All of which added another unforgettable chapter to the story of the place where, 64 years earlier, Bobby Jones had famously accepted the Freedom of St Andrews. He, Benjamin Franklin and now Nicklaus (with the modern equivalent) are the only three Americans so honoured.

This time was just as emotional, especially for 82-year-old Nicklaus. Back at the Home of Golf for the first time in 17 years, the 18-time major champion — two of which he won at the Old Course — was at times unable to continue. Just as he had done back in 1966, when he completed the career Grand Slam with victory in the Open Championship at Muirfield, the Golden Bear took refuge in the same phrase: “Do you mind if I just pause and enjoy this for a minute?”

No one did. One of the great things about the greatest game in the land where it began is the deep affection the Scots have always had for the truly great American players. As Nicklaus has more than once noted, he, Jones, Palmer and Ben Hogan have almost enjoyed more popularity in Scotland than in the United States.

Nicklaus was typically modest during his short address, drawing on a quote from the late, great American journalist Grantland Rice that ends with the line that even the most famous are “replaced by others and soon forgotten.” There was also time to remember the four shots Jack expended in Hell Bunker en route to a quintuple-bogey 10 on the Old Course’s par-5 14th hole during the 1995 Open. “I don’t want to go to hell again,” he said with a smile.

No one in the room was having any of that, of course. As Nicklaus wound up by thanking the people of St Andrews, “for remembering me and allowing me to be one of you”, everyone rose in what turned into a prolonged ovation. All of which again evoked memories of 1958, when a nearly disabled Jones noted that he “could take out of my life everything except my experiences at St Andrews and I would still have a rich, full life.” The only thing missing this time was a poignant rendition of the old Scottish song, “Will ye no come back again?”

Earlier, the graduation rituals — immaculately hosted by University Principal and Vice-Chancellor Sally Mapstone — provoked only occasional emotion from the recipients, although Olazabal was moved to tears by the presentation read by the university’s head of development operations, Louise Taylor.

Lee Trevino during a procession after Jack Nicklaus has been made an Honorary Citizen of St. Andrews. Ross Parker

There were laughs too. How could there not be with Trevino in the room? After telling the next man up, Charles, to get comfortable in his seat as he was going to talk “for a while”, the two-time Open champion made a typically witty speech. Inevitably, he found space for an old favourite among his many jokes.

“I have trouble getting to sleep,” he said. “Because I can’t wait to get up and hear what I have to say in the morning.”

And of course, the Merry Mex was moved to pay tribute to Nicklaus, an old friend as well as rival. Back when the Senior Tour first came into being, Trevino sent a dozen red roses to Barbara Nicklaus every week she kept husband Jack at home and “off the tour”. In 1990 that added up to 31 dozen flowers.

In conclusion though, even Trevino was serious. This is a man who has travelled further than perhaps any other golfer. Humble does not begin to describe his start in life. The first paragraph of his history in the programme says it all:

“Lee Buck Trevino was born in a three-room shack with no plumbing on a cotton farm in Garland, Texas, in December 1939 and raised by his mother, Juanita, and grandfather, Joe, a gravedigger. At the age of three he was picking cotton, at six helping irrigate the cemetery at night. The family moved to falls next to the then Glen Lakes GC, where Trevino learned to play on a makeshift three-hole dirt course in the caddie yard.”

“This is the greatest honour I’ve ever had,” he said. “This place is truly special.”

As was this ceremony. “No sport celebrates its heroes better than golf,” was Olazabal’s verdict. “And no country does it better than Scotland.”

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The post Open Championship 2022: ‘No country does it better than Scotland’ as Jack Nicklaus receives honour at emotional ceremony in St Andrews appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.