There have been some titanic battles over the years in golf but when it comes to two behemoths of the game, they don’t come much bigger than Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus.
The American duo are two of the most iconic names in the history of the sport, with 27 major championships won between them.
In terms of the era they played in, some would argue there’s never been finer, with players like Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Gary Player among a cluster of top class names to walk the fairways in the era.
However, when it comes to one on one battles between these greats, few can come close to when Nicklaus and Watson went head to head at The 106th Open at Turnberry in 1977.
Known as ‘The Duel in the Sun’, the iconic battle lives long in the memory.
What happened when Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson faced off in ‘The Duel in the Sun’
You know a golf event is special when it gets its own nickname. The Duel in the Sun has become synonymous with golf history buffs, and for good reason.
With identical scorecards going into the final round, Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus faced off.
After a tremendous back and forth, Watson and Nicklaus were left tied after 15 holes and facing a huge three holes to decide the winner. What came next, couldn’t have been anymore dramatic, as Watson’s 60 foot putt on 15 set up a grandstand finish.
Nicklaus then missed a golden chance for birdie on 16, missing from inside six feet, before Watson made his own birdie on 17, seemingly handing the tournament to himself. Indeed, when Nicklaus hit a wayward drive on 18, it looked for all the world like it was over and done with.
However, golf is never that simple and the 18th proved to still hold a few twists in this epic tale.
Despite being out of position, Nicklaus somehow found the green and then, remarkably, made his putt for birdie to put Watson under the most intense pressure.
Nevertheless, in true Tom Watson style, he holed his own putt to win the tournament with his final stroke, carding a then record -12 at The Open for his second Claret Jug.
What Tom Watson said about The Duel in the Sun
Looking back at such an iconic event, it’s impossible to capture all the comments Watson and Nicklaus have made on the matter.
Still, it’s worth harking back to Watson’s comments back in 2017, where he recalled the drama of that final putt on the 18th.
“When Jack made his putt the crowd erupted into a roar that didn’t cease,’ he recalls with increasing excitement. ‘It continued, and continued, and continued. I wanted to get on with it and make the putt. But it continued. I said ‘to hell with this! I’m going to putt even if they’re still roaring for Jack!’,” Watson said.
“So I put the ball down, picked up my marker and as I was standing up, Jack raised his hands, like this, to silence the crowd.
“Only in golf would this happen: in three seconds that roar went to dead silence. Not 10 seconds – three seconds. It was amazing. You couldn’t silence a crowd like that in any other sport with any other thing that you do, nothing. Only in golf. And Jack did it.'”
In the modern era, this is like watching Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy go into battle in an all or nothing shootout.
If we do ever get it, we can only hope it’s even half as entertaining as what Nicklaus and Watson served us up here.