The most unforgettable Sunday didn’t start until midafternoon.
Long after lunch that warm April day in 1986, Jack Nicklaus stood on the ninth green at Augusta National Golf Club, one more piece of decoration on a day that seemed destined to belong to someone else.
Nicklaus had 10 holes remaining in his 28th Masters, was six shots out of the lead and had 12 players–including Seve Ballesteros, Greg Norman, Tom Kite and Payne Stewart–in front of him as he studied an 11-foot birdie putt.
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As Nicklaus settled over his putt, a roar went up from the eighth hole behind him. Kite had holed a wedge shot for an eagle.
Nicklaus readied himself again and another roar came rumbling down the hill from No. 8. The fiery Ballesteros, playing with Kite, had holed a 60-yard wedge shot for another eagle.
“Why don’t we see if we can make a little noise ourselves,” Nicklaus told his son and caddie, Jack II, and playing partner Sandy Lyle before he finally hit his putt on the ninth green.
And that’s when Nicklaus called down the thunder.
Twenty years later, Nicklaus’ sixth and final Masters victory, remains the warmest memory from a tournament that has spun golf together with grand theater and high drama unlike any other event.
Unique Augusta drama
There have been other Augusta Sundays–when Nicklaus left bear tracks on the 16th green in 1975; and, when Tiger Woods changed the color and history of golf in 1997, among them.
But none has touched the emotional soul of a sport like the 46-year-old man in the checkered pants and yellow shirt did that day.
“It was kind of like watching an old boxer like Muhammad Ali fighting Larry Holmes and you hope he’s going to beat the guy, but you think he’s going to get the crap beat out of him,” said Ernie Els, a 15-year-old at the time who watched it unfold on television in South Africa with his father.
“You’re thinking, `I hope he wins, but I don’t think he’s going to do it.’ And then he came out with the goods and it was unbelievable. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing.”
Few could.
Nicklaus hadn’t won in two years and he ranked 160th on the tour money list when he drove down Magnolia Lane on tournament week.
Earlier that Sunday morning, Nicklaus had received a phone call from his son, Steve. Knowing his father was four shots out of the lead starting the final round (after shooting 74-71-69), Steve asked Nicklaus what score he needed to win.
“I think 65 will win the tournament and 66 will put me in a playoff,” Nicklaus said.
“Exact number I had in mind,” Steve said. “Go shoot it.”
Magnificently, he did.
Standing on the 10th tee, still too far behind to think seriously about winning, Nicklaus knew how Augusta Sundays can twist. The back nine on Sunday is where hearts jump and hands shake and mouths parch. It is a place that defines careers.
Less than 30 minutes later, Nicklaus had birdied the 10th and 11th holes and Augusta National was alive. Grown men who knew better began running down the hill toward the par-3 12th hole at Amen Corner. News of Nicklaus’ three straight birdies blitzed across the property.
The Golden Bear was on the prowl.
“Now I’m nervous,” Nicklaus said looking back last month. “I’m nervous because I think I can get into contention.”
A bogey at the 12th stalled the Nicklaus momentum.
A two-putt birdie at the par-5 13th and a par at the 14th got Nicklaus to 5 under par for the tournament but still four behind Ballesteros, the leader, who made his second eagle of the day at the 13th.
It seemed Ballesteros’ tournament to win. He could play Augusta like few others, blessed with a heavenly short game that seemed capable of forgiving any mistakes. A two-time Masters champion, Ballesteros marched on, defiantly playing against the gathering emotional tide.
At the par-5 15th hole, facing a dangerous 204-yard second shot over a pond, Nicklaus turned to his son and asked, “How far do you think a three will go here?”
“I think it will go a long way, Pops,” Jackie said.
Nicklaus hit a high 4-iron that settled 12 feet right of the hole. Moments later, when he holed the eagle putt, the ground seemed to shake.
Ballesteros was still two ahead when Nicklaus went to the par-3 16th. Ask Nicklaus to name his favorite spots in golf and the 16th at Augusta on Sunday is near the top of his list.
Thousands of fans gather in the hollow behind the 15th green and beneath the sixth tee.
Nicklaus knew where the hole was cut–midway back on the left side of the green close to the fringe. That’s where it always is on Masters Sunday.
When Nicklaus launched his 5-iron tee shot on the 175-yard hole, he didn’t need to see it land.
“Be right,” Jackie said watching the ball in the air.
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“It is,” Nicklaus said, leaning down to pick up his tee.
Ballesteros falls apart
The ball landed perfectly and rolled down the slope, seeming to glance in the hole as it rolled past by 3 feet. Nicklaus played the birdie putt inside the left edge and, when it went in, the Masters nearly had mayhem.
Standing back in the 15th fairway, Ballesteros could feel the noise as much as hear it. He still led by a stroke and had a 198-yard 4-iron second shot to the 15th green. With one good swing, he could kill a miracle.
Instead, Ballesteros hit a terrible shot, a chunky 4-iron that died stunningly in the pond.
Cheers mixed with groans when Ballesteros’ shot found the water.
“I heard this ugly sound,” Nicklaus said. “I hate that sound. So you knew exactly what it was.”
Nicklaus was tied for the lead with Ballesteros and Kite.
A birdie at the par-4 17th–captured forever by the image of Nicklaus, tongue stuck out, squinting into the sun and raising his putter to follow the ball into the hole–put him ahead by a stroke.
Behind Nicklaus on the course, Norman suddenly appeared as a challenger, stringing together birdies as he chased down the lead. Kite lurked, too, as Nicklaus went to the 18th.
A solid par at the finishing hole–where Nicklaus left a long uphill birdie putt inches short–closed out his 65.
Amid the cheers and tears that gilded the moment, Nicklaus walked off the final green and into a hug with his son.
“The father-son deal coming up the 18th at Augusta is as good as it can probably be in golf,” Jeff Sluman said. “You always expect Jack to hit unbelievable shots but to share it with his son on his favorite course”
“I love the picture watching the two of us walk off,” Nicklaus said.
In at 9 under par, all Nicklaus could do was watch and wait.
Kite missed a putt on the final green that would have tied him with Nicklaus, the ball skinning the edge of the cup.
Then it was left to Norman, who needed only to par the 18th hole to force a playoff.
Nicklaus was nervous. Waiting out the finish in the Jones Cabin near the 10th hole, he felt players were making too many birdies.
Norman missed the 18th green to the right, pitched past the hole and when his tying putt missed, the story was complete.
“It’s 20 years since that happened; seems like yesterday,” Nicklaus said. “It’s about the only television event when I see it come on I actually stop and watch a little bit.
“I [could] still summon what I had back in [my prime] and still could use it coming down the stretch. That was special for me and special to, I suppose, the golfing world because they just didn’t expect that to happen.”