Jack on Jack
Last updated: 28th March 2008
Jack Newton: talking to Golf Night
In America the fans always loved Palmer over Nicklaus and I could never understand why. Certainly Nicklaus was a better player in my opinion.
Jack Newton
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One of Australia's most successful golfers in the 1970s and early 1980s, Jack Newton, told Golf Night this week of how Jack Nicklaus was hero back in his playing days.
Newton, a winner of 13 professional events and something of a trailblazer for Australian professionals on the European and American golf circuits, told Sky Sports of how he revered Gary Player, Arnold Palmer and Nicklaus growing up as a rugby league and golf fan in New South Wales.
But it was Jack Nicklaus that he came to admire the most when he finally played with him having turned professional.
"Jack was my idol," said Newton. "I just loved the way he played golf and in those early days he was a massively long hitter.
"When I got to know him a lot better I just thought he was a wonderful guy. He was great for the game. In America the fans always loved Palmer over Nicklaus and I could never understand why. Certainly Nicklaus was a better player in my opinion.
"He helped me a lot and from where I was sat he was a great role model for the game itself, in that he was very good with the press, very good with the public, he kept his nose clean, there was never too much controversy about him."
Newton said he turned to Nicklaus for help when he first arrived on the scene Stateside and that he was the welcome recipient of some 'money can't buy help', as he revealed with a little anecdote.
"In my case when I asked his advice the first time I played at Augusta and when I first started playing in America, I asked him what sort of golf balls I should use," he said.
"And there is good story there because he gave me a dozen of his own McGregor golf balls and Tom Weiskopf, a good friend of mine, and I were playing in a practice round and on the first green he picked the ball up and he said, 'where did you get that from?', because he was a McGregor player too.
"And I said, 'off Jack', and he said, 'you're unbelievable, I can't even get those golf balls'. He was their second best player on the roster but Jack got the first pick of the golf balls and Weiskopf was filthy that I had got one of them and he couldn't get one."
To watch the full Jack Newton interview, including his recollection of his near miss at the 1975 Open, click play on the video in the top right hand corner of the screen.
- Video
