Jack Nicklaus biography and he's impact on society - Essay Example

The Introduction of tournaments like Jack Nicklaus International invitation has motivated golf lovers with different skill levels to participate and to enhance the popularity of the game. Nicklaus himself was the most dominant personality among the golfers of his generation who has taken efforts to bring the sport of golf to the forefront. Jack Nicklaus-The golf legend Jack Nicklaus was born in Ohio on 21st of January 1962 and he started playing gold at the age of ten and even at this stage he showed immense talent and the rise of a promising player was in progress even from his childhood.

The world witnessed an irresistible growth of Nicklaus over the finest golf players like Arnold palmer, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller and Tom Watson in the next three decades. Nicklaus had eighteen professional and two armature wins in his golf career along with nineteen second and nine third place finishes. He has been ranked among the top ten players in 73 majors which constitute almost half of the successive majors he participated. Only five golf players in the world hold the record to win all the four major titles and Nicklaus became successful in obtaining this glorious achievement (Mackintosh 163).

It is better to have a look in to the achievements of Jack’s golf career in order to get a clear picture of his extra ordinary talent as a golf player. He won six masters title in 1963, 1965, 1966 1972, 1975 and 1986, five PGA Championships in1963, 1971, 1973, 1975 and 1980, three British Opens in 1966, 1970 and 1978, and four U S Opens in 1962, 1967, 1972 and 1980. These tournaments are considered to be the key ones of professional golf. Nicklaus is the only one to hold the record for three time wins of all these four major tournaments.

The list of his victories is pretty long and apart from the major tournament victories he won seventy one PGA Tours and achieved fifty eight second and thirty six third places. He also won five World Series of Golf titles, six numbers of Australian Opens, six Rider Cup appearances and many more victories around the world. Jack Grout discovered the abilities of Nicklaus for the first time and he took Nicklaus to the Scioto Country Club in Columbus his performance was very well appreciated by Senead, the defending champion of that period.

Bobby Johns a legendary golf player of the era had made comment on the talent of the fifteen year old Nicklaus as “he plays a game with which I am totally unfamiliar,” which shows the expectations that golfers had regarding the future of Nicklaus (Mackintosh 164). The determination and a genuine desire to strive towards perfection always prompted Jack Nicklaus to look introspectively and question whether “he was making the proper adjustments to correct his swing technique during rounds when his play was inconsistent” (Shaw 86).

It was this dedication, sincerity and hard work that made him an unchallenged champion in golf. Nicklaus turned professional after his victory in the 1961 U S Armature championship. In the year 1962, Nicklaus won U S Open title which was the first achievement in his professional golf career and in 1963 he won the Masters title and became the first ever golfer to achieve a