Sir Nick Faldo has a unique place in golfing history, with his first major win coming one year after Jack Nicklaus’ triumph at the 1986 Masters, while his last a decade later came one year before he was putting the green jacket upon Tiger Woods’ shoulders at Augusta National.
No other player positioned themselves between the eras of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods more perfectly than Sir Nick Faldo.
The Englishman is tied for 12th for the most major wins of all time in the men’s game. Faldo won The Masters and The Open Championship on three occasions.
Of course, Faldo’s potential was clear for some time before he took that step and emerged victorious for the first time at Augusta National in 1987.
The inspiring lesson Sir Nick Faldo took from playing with Jack Nicklaus in the mid-1980s
It was 10 years earlier that Faldo beat Nicklaus and Tom Watson on his Ryder Cup debut.
But it was in the mid-1980s that Nicklaus seemed to leave the biggest impression on Faldo.
Speaking to Golfing World in 2011, Faldo explained how he took so much from playing alongside the Golden Bear and watching how he went about making a score.
He said: “Jack Nicklaus was the one who inspired me, watching him for the first time on TV. I then played with Jack – the next lightbulb moment – I played with Jack in San Diego and he shot 63 and I shot 71 which felt like 81. And I came back and I thought how did he do that?
“It was a piece of cake, it didn’t look impressive. It just happened. And I worked out this shot making thing. The flag’s in the back left corner, he’d fire in the middle of the green and it just tipped towards the flag. If it was the other side, it would tip the other way. So this was the early days of thinking, right, I need to see if I can do that, and having that ability to work the golf ball both ways, so that was pretty inspiring. I’m sure that was ’83 or ’84, that must have been the time when I thought I’ve got to go away and rebuild to be able to do that.”
Sir Nick Faldo suggests whether Jack Nicklaus was the best he ever played with
It is incredible that Faldo had Nicklaus to present him with the green jacket, while he would go on to pass golf’s most iconic torch on to Woods 10 years later.
Faldo made his major championship debut at The Open in 1976. And he continued to play in the event for nearly 40 years before bowing out at St Andrews in 2015.
The likes of Nicklaus, Gary Player, Watson, Seve Ballesteros, Greg Norman, Woods, Phil Mickelson and even Rory McIlroy won major titles in that time.
But when asked if Nicklaus was the best he played with, Faldo suggested that he would have to put the 18-time major winner at the very top of an incredible list.
“Well, yes,” he replied. “I played with Jack at a couple of majors. I would have to say yes because he was in that era. I played with Tiger when it was a totally different game. Even Seve had his moments. There were some rounds where I played with Seve which were special. And even Greg as well.”
Given the players he rubbed shoulders with, Faldo’s achievement should not be overlooked either, with Harry Vardon the only European male to have more major titles than the 68-year-old.
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