Jack Nicklaus, nicknamed the "Golden Bear," is widely regarded as the greatest golfer in the history of the game, the holder of more major championships than any other player. Born in Columbus, Ohio, he was a prodigy who turned professional in 1961 after a brilliant amateur career.
He announced himself in 1962 by defeating the immensely popular Arnold Palmer in a playoff to win the U.S. Open, the start of a rivalry that helped make golf a major television sport. Over the following quarter century Nicklaus dominated the game as no one before him, combining prodigious power off the tee with a peerless competitive temperament and skill under pressure.
He won a record eighteen professional major championships — including six Masters titles, five PGA Championships, four U.S. Opens, and three British Opens — and finished second in majors a remarkable nineteen times, a measure of his sustained excellence across decades.
His most celebrated triumph came in 1986, when at the age of forty-six he charged from behind to win the Masters one final time, electrifying the sporting world. After his playing career he became a prolific and influential golf-course designer and a respected elder statesman of the game, his record and sportsmanship securing his place as one of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century.