Jack Nicklaus won a record 18 major golf championships in his 54-year professional career, the last coming at the Masters in 1986 when he was 46 years old.
Before then, the five-time Masters champion hadn't put on the famous green jacket that goes to the tournament's winner since 1975, nor had he won any PGA tournament in two years before that magical Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club.
Two of the state's acclaimed amateur golfers said it will be a long time before anyone wins a tournament of that caliber at Nicklaus' age back then. Stan Lee, 63, and Beau Glover, 31, are on opposite ends of the age scale, but both acknowledge that victory will be etched in their minds forever.
Nicklaus rallied from a f0ur-stroke deficit going into Sunday's final round to win by a stroke over Tom Kite and Greg Norman and two strokes over Seve Ballesteros. Included in Nicklaus' final round was a 6-under-par 30 on the back nine that made him the oldest Masters winner. He won his sixth green jacket.
Lee knows a little about age defiance himself while playing against state competition. He won the Arkansas State Golf Association Match-Play championship at age of 60 in 2013, and he teamed last weekend with his brother, Louis Lee, to win their record seventh ASGA Four-Ball title.
"The back nine, that was an incredible thing," Lee said of Nicklaus. "Once he got there and could feel it and smell it, it was like he reverted to being 30 again. He forgot he was 46. He called upon those reserves that he knew he had in his system that are so hard to summon."
Nicklaus played his first eight holes of the final round in even par, but he birdied Nos. 9, 10 and 11 before falling three strokes behind after a bogey on No. 12. He began making his charge on the par-5, 15th when he hit an approach shot 12 feet from the hole and made the eagle putt. A tee shot to within 4 feet at the par 3, 16th led to a birdie and three-way tie at 8 under with Ballesteros -- who was finishing off a bogey -- and Kite -- who made a birdie -- one hole behind Nicklaus.
His second shot at the par 4, 17th left him with a 12-foot birdie putt that held its line, leading to a "Yes sir!" from CBS broadcaster Verne Lundquist and giving Nicklaus the outright lead. He made par on the 18th, watched Ballesteros fall out of contention, then saw Kite miss a 12-footer for birdie on the last hole. Norman, who birdied Nos. 16 and 17 to get to 9 under with Nicklaus, was playing in the final group with a chance to win or force a playoff, but his second shot went into the gallery. He couldn't get up and down for par, dropping a stroke and ensuring Nicklaus was the 50th Masters champion.
"Once he got that feeling and realized he had a chance, he was the old Jack for two hours there," said Lee, who spent time on the PGA Tour from 1976-80. "It was one of the neatest things in sports I have ever seen. I kept thinking he can't do this, he can't pull this off. Son of a gun, he did."
Glover was only 2 years old in 1986, but he said as he got older and more serious about the game Nicklaus became his idol. Replays of that Masters victory was the centerpiece of Glover's affinity. He even wore a yellow shirt similar to Nicklaus' while playing on the state amateur circuit during final rounds.
Glover said while playing at the University of Arkansas in the 2000s, Fayetteville resident and golf enthusiast Mark Seifert served as the team's bible study leader and described going to the Masters in 1986, returning home with an incredible story of his week at Augusta.
"He was at the practice rounds following Nicklaus Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and got his autograph after Wednesday's practice round," Glover said of Seifert, who died in 2008. "Seifert wrote '1986 Masters champion' on this flag and Nicklaus signed it. When he did, he laughed and said, 'You've got a lot of faith in me.' So, Thursday morning Mark's leaving his hotel room and a guy stopped him and said something has come up with his family, I have a badge for the next four days and do you want it? Mark said absolutely, and the guy just asked for him to send the badge back to him.
"So, he follows Nicklaus Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Wrote down every shot and where he hit it from on this piece of paper as a keepsake, plus he had this flag autographed that said, "Jack Nicklaus, 1986 Masters Champion" before he even teed off Thursday. I'd say that's a pretty cool deal."
"I always appreciated what a fierce competitor Jack was and the way he would grind it out until the end. He always seemed to thrive under pressure. The more pressure on the situation, the better he was, and he proved that at the 86 Masters."
Sports on 04/07/2016