The 1969 Ryder Cup will always be synonymous with one of the greatest displays of sportsmanship the game has ever witnessed.
Jack Nicklaus was the superstar for the US team at the Ryder Cup in 1969 at Royal Birkdale.
Before the 1969 Ryder Cup, the United States had lost the contest just three times, and they had won the last five meetings in a row with Great Britain.
However, Great Britain put up a real fight at Birkdale 56 years ago.
The Americans had a real powerhouse of a team, led by the likes of Billy Casper, Lee Trevino and of course, Nicklaus, who had already won seven major championships at the time.
Great Britain had been totally dominated in the competition throughout the years, so they were desperate to salvage some pride on England’s north-west coast in 1969.
Their task was not an easy one, though, as the might of the American team — including multiple major champions and prolific PGA Tour winners — rolled into town.
Jack Nicklaus produced remarkable sportsmanship at the 1969 Ryder Cup
It wasn’t until 1979 when the Great Britain and Ireland team called upon Europe to help make the matches more evenly contested.
Before then, it was very one-sided, and many expected that to be the case at Royal Birkdale in 1969.
However, the scores were tied at 8-8 after the first two days of team play, with only the singles matches remaining.
Back then, there were two sets of single matches on the final day.
Jacklin had already beaten Nicklaus 4&3 in the morning, before facing off against him once again in the afternoon.
And with the scores tied at 15.5-15.5 with just their match remaining, Jacklin faced a two-and-a-half foot putt to earn a half point in his match with Nicklaus.
However, rather than put the Englishman through the potential pain of missing the short putt, the American told his rival to pick up his marker.
It was an incredible display of sportsmanship and one that left an indelible mark on not only the Ryder Cup, but the game in general.
Jack Nicklaus explained why he gave Tony Jacklin his putt at the 1969 Ryder Cup
56 years ago, Nicklaus proved that he was just as good a person as he was a golfer.
And years later, he explained the reasoning behind his decision to give the short putt to Jacklin, rather than make him hole out.
Nicklaus explained: “I said, ‘Tony, I don’t think you would ever miss this putt but I wasn’t going to give you the chance’. I thought that was the spirit of the Ryder Cup. Tony was the British Open champion. He was the first hero that Britain had in years. And if he had missed that little putt, they’d still be talking about it.“
That is such a superb way to look at things, and Nicklaus giving Jacklin the putt was perfectly in keeping with the spirit of the Ryder Cup.
Jacklin would have been delighted with what Nicklaus did as well. Can you imagine how he would have felt had he missed that putt to gift the Ryder Cup to the United States?
However, if the same situation arises this year at Bethpage Black, it will be very interesting to see whether Nicklaus’s generosity is replicated by any of the players of today.
Sometimes there are bigger things at play than golf itself and Nicklaus was clearly very aware of that in the moment on the final green at Royal Birkdale all those years ago.