Paul McGinley shares what Jack Nicklaus told him at dinner just months after he became a professional golfer

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It is certainly a moment to pinch yourself as a young professional if you get the opportunity to have dinner with Jack Nicklaus.

Of course, Jack Nicklaus is the most successful golfer to have ever lived. The Golden Bear won 18 major titles while he also came second on 19 occasions in the four biggest events of the year.

There were nearly 38 years between Nicklaus’ first top 10 in a major and his last. It is remarkable to think that he finished tied for sixth at the 1998 Masters, just one year after Tiger Woods had taken the world by storm at Augusta National.

One of Nicklaus’ biggest strengths was his mental game. You never got the impression that he panicked in a tournament or felt the need to play outside of his strengths.

The advice Jack Nicklaus gave Paul McGinley shortly after he turned professional

And he made that point clear to Paul McGinley shortly after the Irishman had turned professional.

As McGinley told the Sky Sports Golf Podcast as he reflected on Matthew Fitzpatrick‘s win this past week, Nicklaus made it clear that managing expectations is one of the most important skills a golfer can have.

“Yeah [Fitzpatrick’s] made a couple of changes behind the scenes. And that’s the thing. Rasmus [Neergaard-Petersen] as well as too in your career, I remember just after I turned pro way back, you weren’t even born then, 1992, and I was only three months on tour and I knew Gary Nicklaus, Jack’s son, who was playing at the time. He invited me for dinner with his dad, Jack on the Friday night,” he said.

“Jack had just missed the cut. He was just in his early 50s at that stage. And he was playing a tournament down in Spain on a course he had designed – that’s why he was there. I managed to have dinner with him and his agent and Gary and me, just the four of us having dinner, it was amazing having dinner with Nicklaus.

“But as I was leaving, he gave me great advice and I’ll say the same advice to you. He shook my hand and he said, ‘I want to wish you good luck in your career, Paul, but just remember one thing in this game. I have spent 90 per cent of my time losing at this game and 10 per cent winning. And I’m the most successful player who’s ever played the game’.

“Now, it wasn’t said in an arrogant way, but it was the reality of the difficult sport that we’re in, in golf where you do have to come off the floor so many times and that’s what makes McIlroy so brilliant, his resilience. Success is not a straight line, you’re going to have ups and downs.”

What Jack Nicklaus said every player should aim to do with their approach shots

It is no surprise that the putt on the 17th hole on Sunday at the 1986 Masters is arguably the most iconic shot of Nicklaus’ career.

Of course, the amount of coverage changed considerably as his career went on. But it also spoke to how Nicklaus was someone who never thought about the shot that would improve his highlight reel.

And writing for Golf Digest in 2017, Nicklaus explained what his thinking was whenever it came to approach shots.

“The middle of the green should be your default target. In my career, I always preferred a pair of 69s than to card 65-85. It doesn’t matter how talented you are. If you habitually go directly at flagsticks, hoping every round might be a scorcher, you’re going to shoot way more scores at the high end of your range,” he said.

Clearly, it was a strategy which worked for him. Nicklaus teed it up in all 40 majors in the 1970s – and he missed out on the top 10 in just five of them.

Meanwhile, he won eight of them. His ability to treat every shot as if it was the moment which could cost him the tournament reaped huge rewards.