There’s been a lot of mileage out of just a two-foot putt,” he recently told Golfweek.
Actually, there wasn’t even a putt. Nicklaus made sure of that with an act of sportsmanship that lives on 50 years later.
Back then, the team from over the pond was comprised of the best golfers from Great Britain and Ireland (players from continental Europe were added in 1979). The matches had been lopsided in favor of the U.S. heading into 1969, with the Americans winning 14 of the first 17 encounters.