In that regard, the life story of Jack Nicklaus is a story worth knowing simply because of his attitude, humility and tremendous accomplishments.
So while watching the Final Four NCAA basketball games this weekend, please take a minute to think of Jack's life lessons and reflect on how he did things.
The Nicklaus Way of Golf --- and Life, is subtitled 'Polio as a boy didn't stop the future holder of the all-time majors record:'
"Who would have guessed it? The leader in the clubhouse is Jack Nicklaus.
For so many years, that phrase was heard constantly during weekends of big golf tournaments. By now—heading into next week's Masters at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia—the phrase was expected by many to be a distant memory.
The supposition was that Mr. Nicklaus's record for the most major championships won—18—might very well be eclipsed by now. In 2008, Tiger Woods had reached 14, with no signs of letting up. The Nicklaus crown seemed destined to be removed. On Tuesday, Mr. Woods announced that he will miss the Masters due to back surgery for a pinched nerve. His majors count remains at 14.
Not that Mr. Nicklaus groused about it when his record appeared more likely to fall. Jack Nicklaus came of sports-glory age in the era of Muhammad Ali and Joe Namath, but in those "I am the greatest" years he never felt the need to proclaim such a thing. Guarantee victories? It wouldn't have occurred to him. He would have found such showboating to be personally embarrassing.
His theory of golf—and of life—was pretty elementary. Do your best, and everything else will take care of itself. If you're good enough, people will say it for you. Hit one shot, keep your head down and then hit the next. If you make a poor shot, it's no one's fault but your own; don't scream and don't blame the course or the gallery. You're going to end up in the rough on certain days of your life. It's your job alone to find your way out.
Golfer Jack Nicklaus
In central Ohio when I was a boy, he was the pride of our town. You could walk around neighborhoods on weekend afternoons in summer and, from the screened-in porches, hear people in front of their television sets cheering for his shots as he competed in tournaments around the world. For profile writers over the years wanting to compose colorful stories about him, tales of his bitter and nasty feuds with other golfers, of his bombast and explosions and piques, the anecdotes just weren't there. Which may be the most telling anecdote about him of all.
When my best friend and I were 12, and Jack was seven years older, he won the United States Amateur Championship. We were writing for our mimeographed junior-high-school newspaper; his father, Charlie Nicklaus, was a local pharmacist with a listed home phone number, and for us getting an interview was as easy as calling that number and asking if Jack was there. He was. We sensed that he was thoroughly un-full of himself, and we appreciated that, in his quiet voice, he didn't talk down to us or make us feel rushed.
Those of us from that part of Ohio have long known something of which even most golf fans may be unaware: As a teenager, Jack had polio. Think of the fear that must have gripped the heart of a boy who hoped to become an athlete. He didn't use it as an excuse. It was his problem to deal with, and he did. He seldom discusses it publicly; when, 10 years ago, Golf Digest magazine asked him about it, his reply was direct and unadorned:
"I had polio when I was 13. I started feeling stiff, my joints ached, and over a two-week period I lost my coordination and 20 pounds. . . . My sister, Marilyn, was diagnosed at about the same time; the doctors deduced that she got it from me. Marilyn, who was 10, was unlucky. For a year she was unable to walk but eventually got 95 percent of her movement back. . . . Polio is just a memory now, but it was a horrible disease. I got it a year or two before Jonas Salk's polio vaccine was distributed."
You step up to the ball wherever it has landed and you don't complain and you play your game. He always seemed to believe that if you did things the right way, all would work out in the end. When the Masters, more than a decade ago, decided to abolish the policy that gave former champions—including Mr. Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer —a lifetime invitation to play in the tournament, he was upset. He said nothing publicly. When the decision was reversed, he explained that it was his wife, Barbara, who convinced him that silence was the proper approach: "She said, 'You know it's wrong. They will figure out it's wrong and it will get changed.' She was right."
Sooner or later someone may surpass his record of 18 major championships. It could be Mr. Woods, or it could be someone else. If Mr. Nicklaus is still around, you can expect a gracious reaction. Charlie Nicklaus taught his son early that when someone has done better than you, give him credit—and mean it.
For now though, at age 74, Jack Nicklaus is in the clubhouse, still with the lead. His masterpiece."
Thanks. Bob.
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