|- ! colspan="2" bgcolor="#4682B4" | Personal Information |- | Birth ||
Columbus, Ohio |- | Height || 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |- | Weight || 185 lb (84 kg) |- | Nationality || |- | Residence || North Palm Beach, Florida |- | College || Ohio State University |- ! colspan="2" bgcolor="E2725B" | Career |- | Turned Pro || 1961 |- | Tours || PGA Tour (joined 1962)
Champions Tour (joined 1990) |- ! colspan="2" bgcolor="ccccff" | Professional Wins (113) |- | PGA Tour || 73 (2nd all time) |- |Champions Tour || 10 |- | Other || 21 (Regular)
9 (Senior) |- ! colspan="2" bgcolor="#ACE1AF" | Major Championship Wins (18) |- | Masters | (6) 1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975, 1986 |- | U.S. Open | (4) 1962, 1967, 1972, 1980 |- | The Open | (3) 1966, 1970, 1978 |- |PGA | (5) 1963, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1980 |- ! colspan="2" bgcolor="#D8BFD8" | Awards listed here |}

Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940), also known as "The Golden Bear", is widely regarded as the greatest professional golfer of all time, in large part because of his records in major championships. Nicklaus accumulated a record 18 professional majors in a PGA Tour career lasting 25 years, from 1962 to 1986. Later, on the Champions Tour, the senior version of the PGA Tour, he won 8 of that tour's majors between 1990 and 1996. Both records still stand today.

Nicklaus has also taken part in many off-course activities, including golf course design, golf instruction book writing, and running his own tournament on the PGA Tour, the Memorial Tournament. Together with Arnold Palmer and Gary Player (collectively known as the "Big Three"), he is credited with turning golf into the major spectator sport it has become. While Palmer brought golf into the television era, it was the developing Nicklaus-Palmer-Player rivalry that drove subsequent interest.

Amateur career

Nicklaus was born in Columbus, Ohio, the son of a pharmacist. He was raised in the suburb of Upper Arlington, and attended Upper Arlington High School. Overcoming a mild case of polio as a child, he took up golf at the age of ten, shooting 51 for his first nine holes. At 13, he broke 70. He won the first of five straight Ohio State Junior titles at the age of twelve. He won the Ohio Open in 1956 at age 16, competing against professionals. While attending Ohio State University, he won the U.S. Amateur title twice (1959, 1961), and an NCAA Championship (1961). At the 1960 U.S. Open, he shot a 282, finishing second by two strokes to Arnold Palmer, who won the tournament with a final round 65. This score remains the lowest ever made by an amateur player in the U.S. Open. He represented the United States, against Great Britain and Ireland, on winning Walker Cup teams in both 1959 and 1961, winning both of his matches in each contest. He was also a member of the victorious 1960 U.S. Eisenhower Trophy team, winning the unofficial individual title with a four-round score of 269, a record which still stands. Nicklaus was named the world's top amateur golfer by Golf Digest magazine for three straight years, 1959-1961. Nicklaus also won two Trans-Mississippi Amateurs in 1958 at Prairie Dunes Country Club and 1959 at Woodhill Country Club.