If one simply looks at the record books, Jack Nicklaus is the greatest golfer of all time. Maybe he is anyway. He is certainly the most successful, in no small part due to the intense thoroughness with which he always prepares himself and the sheer strength which in his prime enabled him to strike the ball as if it were fired from a bazooka. He hit the ball farther than his contemporaries and higher than anyone ever has, especially with the irons. He has unbeatable tally of 20 major championships: two US Amateurs, a record six Masters, a record-equalling four US Opens and five US PGA Championships, and three British Opens. He has thus collected at least three each of professional golf's most important titles. Nicklaus's tally of seven Opens matches the mark set by Harry Vardon and Bobby Tones.

It could be that the 20th of his 20 majors was Nicklaus's finest hour, because when he won the 1986 Masters by playing the last 10 holes in seven under par, he was, at 46, regarded by many as over the hill. As remarkable as the number of tournaments the 'Golden Bear' has won is the frequency with which he has been second or third. Above all, he has always put his wife and family first while simultaneously managing to maintain a balance between his golf on the one hand and business commitments in club and clothing manufacturing and golf course design on the other. His work as a golf course architect in particular, with courses of the calibre of Muirfield Village and Glen Abbey to his name, has established a fine reputation for himself in another sphere of the game. Variety of life is part of the reason for his longevity at the highest level. His success has carried on to the (over-50) US Senior tour, where he won on his debut in 1990 and has regularly since - that is, when he can be bothered to play in the 'minor league'. Nicklaus is today regarded with universal affection and respect.

It was not always so. As an overweight, crew-cut kid who ousted Arnold Palmer before the hero's reign had hardly begun, he was subjected to ridicule and venom by overly partisan spectators. The stoical manner in which Jack Nicklaus accepted all that stamped him as a man apart, and stamped him also as a worthy heir to Jones's reputation for graciousness and sportsmanship.

Nicklaus - a career that will never be matched

A fierce determination and peerless concentration have made Nicklaus maybe the best golfer of all time.