AUGUSTA -- The golf world was fixed on Jack Nicklaus in 1986 as he torched Augusta National’s back nine and at the age of 46 won perhaps the most memorable Masters.
The audience to the Bear’s last roar included those who had made their own memories on Masters Sunday as well as champions not yet crowned. Here are the reflections and reactions of other Masters winners to Nicklaus’ victory 25 years ago.
Arnold Palmer
They were golf’s greatest rivals -- Palmer the dashing, charismatic one who carried the sport into the TV age, and Nicklaus, the next big thing who had to try a little harder to win the fan’s affections.
By 1986, Palmer was 56, and 22 years past the last of his four Masters titles. He was by this time a presence only early in the week, making his last Masters cut in 1983. He was back home in Orlando when Nicklaus was making his charge.
And watching every moment on television.
“What can you say?” Palmer said all these years later. “That was a great victory for his sixth one. I think that just was indicative of the way he’d played and how his golf career had lasted through the years.”
“Did it surprise me? Well, he won six times.”
And here the old rivalry reared again: “I should have won six times.”
Now Palmer and Nicklaus stand together on the first tee at daybreak Thursday, hitting the ceremonial tee shots that officially signal the beginning of another Masters.
Tiger Woods
As they did most mornings, Woods and his father, Earl, spent the early hours of April 13, 1986, on the golf course. The schedule allowed them to get home in plenty of time to catch the Masters’ last round.
Woods had just turned 10, and as he remembered, “I truly didn’t understand what the Masters was all about.”
To the best of his recollection, he and his father sat down and began watching just as Nicklaus birdied No. 10, making the first move on what would be a back-nine 30.
To the young Woods, what really made an impression was Nicklaus’ birdie putt on No. 17. That produced perhaps the most famous image of the tournament: That of Nicklaus raising his putter in celebration as the ball tracked toward the hole, the aging champion stalking the shot that would give him the lead.
He always did like the distinctive celebratory gesture.
“I remember just how the putter went up, and how basically he walked it in,” Woods said. “I had not seen anyone else doing that. I don’t remember anyone ever walking a putt in like that. That’s what stuck in my head.
“But after that, I’ve seen that thing thousands of times -- the whole round, the whole tournament.”
Gary Player
There is another anniversary on the grounds here this week -- 50 years since South Africa’s Player became the first international competitor to win a Masters.
As for 1986, Player said he said doesn’t quite recall where he was at the moment of Nicklaus’ triumph. He didn’t make the cut that year and, “I don’t remember not making cuts -- I made the most cuts in a row (22).”
Player came along and joined Palmer and Nicklaus to form a three-sided rivalry in the 1960s and ’70s. He won three Masters, his last in 1978 at the age of 42.
“I thought nobody was going to beat [winning at that age],” he said. “Jack comes out at 46 and wins the tournament, which was so remarkable and touching. What greater dream could you have than to win with your son [Jackie] caddying at 46?
“I can honestly look you in the eye and say I’ve never been jealous of people. There’s a lot of jealousy in sports, and in life. ... I was thrilled [with Nicklaus winning] and it was touching, and it was encouraging for people to know that they are not getting old because they are 46.”
Phil Mickelson
A 16-year-old living in San Diego could find a lot of other things to do on a Sunday afternoon than stay home and watch other people play golf.
But the young Mickelson could not have imagined himself anywhere else other than glued to the action on a pine-covered course in far-away Georgia.
A three-time winner of the green jacket, Mickelson now calls this week and this place the absolute favorite on his golf calendar.
His feelings toward the Masters had some of its initial stirrings in 1986.
“Just like everybody else [watching], I was going nuts. It was an incredible thing to watch,” Mickelson recalled.
“When he bogeyed 12, I didn’t think he was going to be able to pull it off. Even after he birdied 13 and eagled 15, I still felt like it was in control of maybe Seve [Ballesteros], [Greg] Norman or even Tom Kite.
“By the end it was one of the most exciting tournaments I’ve ever seen -- if not the most exciting.”
