Jack Nicklaus has won the Masters a record six times and yet he doesn’t even own the best shot hit at Augusta National Golf Club in his family. Sorry, Jack, but none of yours – not the 40-foot bomb at the par-3 16th in the final round in 1975 or any of the shots from his back-nine 30 in 1986 en route to winning the Green Jacket at age 46 – rank as the second best either, although that one may be a tie.
This all came to light when Jack responded to Golfweek/USA Today’s annual Masters Survey – as he’s been kind enough to do every year that we’ve asked – to the question of the best shot or round he’s witnessed at the home of the Masters.
Jack Nicklaus at the green jacket presentation after winning the 1986 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club
“The most memorable shots to me were made by my family. Everyone saw GT’s hole in one at 9 in the Par-3 Contest,” he began, referring to his grandson’s heroics in 2018. “But Jack III, the oldest of my 24 grandchildren, made an albatross at 15 on May 21, 2022. He hit driver, 8-iron from 168 yards to a middle-right pin. We all saw it land behind the pin and suck back in.”
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Stop the presses! Jack’s grandson did what? Nearly 90 years after Gene Sarazen holed a 3-wood from 235 yards for a deuce at 15 in what became known as “The Shot Heard Round the World,” Jack III still has the ball with the Augusta grass stain in a display.
“Played the tips that day on all the holes but the par 5s,” he said. “We wanted a chance to get to them.”
“A year later, on April 24, 2023, Jack’s son Steve made an ace at No. 6 from 179 yards using a 5-hybrid and his son Stevie made one on No. 16 with a pitching wedge from 130 yards.
To borrow a famous saying of John McEnroe, You cannot be serious!
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“Yes that happened,” said Stevie. “My dad hit a hybrid on the 6th and (his ball) two-hopped into the hole. We got to the 16th hole and I knew this was my last chance to make a hole in one in the same round as my Dad, while my grandpa is watching at Augusta!”
The hole location that day was in the front of the green, front middle, and just below the ridge. Stevie selected a wedge. “I look over to Peepaw and he goes, ‘Why are you aiming at the pin? I’ve never hit a ball in the water on 16 during a Masters Tournament round.’
“As I started to line up my ball on the tee box, he says, ‘Hold on. Aim a little bit more right at the edge of the bunker on the right, and with that same (swing), the ball may just go in.’ So I lined up at the edge of the bunker. The ball landed above the pin on the ridge, spun back and went in the hole. I looked at him and he said, ‘I told you so.’”
Jack never made an ace in competition or a practice round but in 2015 at the Par-3 Contest, he showed there was still a little magic left in his bag. Nicklaus was wrapping up an interview with ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt when he asked the Golden Bear if he had any Wednesday afternoon plans. Nicklaus, then 75, said he was going to play in the Par-3, one of the great traditions of the Masters.
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“Why I did it, I don’t really know,” Van Pelt recalled, “but I said to Jack, have you got any magic left in that old bag?”
Nicklaus never flinched and responded, “How about I go make a hole-in-one?”
He went out and did just that, spinning his tee shot back into the hole at No. 4. After Nicklaus completed the round, Van Pelt went out to tip his hat to Nicklaus.
“Somehow I goaded him into it,” Van Pelt said. “The greatest major champion in history started pointing at me and kept saying, ‘I told you I was going to do it.’ I was like, yes, Jack, you did.’ ”
Magic happens seemingly all the time at the Masters but it turns out that if your name is Nicklaus it goes a long way.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Jack Nicklaus family most incredible golf shots at Augusta National
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