Jack Nicklaus won his first Masters title in 1963 after finishing just one shot clear of Tony Lema at Augusta National.

No one has won The Masters more often than Jack Nicklaus, with the Golden Bear emerging victorious on six occasions during his career. Perhaps his most famous win came in 1986 at the age of 46.

But it all started for Nicklaus 23 years earlier. He had not actually finished in the top-five at Augusta National before his win in 1963.

Despite posting two rounds of 74, Nicklaus finished the week as one of just two players under par. His round of 66 on Friday was the lowest score of the entire tournament.

Why Jack Nicklaus gave Bobby Jones his golf ball after his first Masters win

It was an even more significant week for Nicklaus because of Bobby Jones’ role in turning The Masters into one of the most important events on the sporting calendar.

Despite never getting to watch him play personally, Nicklaus viewed Jones as his hero, having heard stories of him winning the 1926 US Open at Scioto Golf Club, the course Nicklaus grew up at.

“I felt like it was a little silly. Oddly, nobody’s ever asked me that question. When I came off the 18th green, Ralph Hutchison, who was the announcer on the 18th green, Ralph, I’ve known him for 100 years, he grew up with Jack Grout as a matter of fact, Ralph says, ‘Jack, save that ball and give it to Bobby Jones at the presentation’,” he said.

“Jones didn’t want the golf ball at the presentation. I said okay, but I was 23 years old, I didn’t know any different. So I get done with the presentation and I said, ‘Mr Jones, I’d like to present you with the golf ball that I finished with’. He probably took it a lot better, I felt like an idiot giving it to him. What did he care about my golf ball?”

What happened when Jack Nicklaus played golf in front of Bobby Jones for the first time

Unfortunately for Nicklaus, it was not the only slightly awkward meeting he had with Jones in the early stages of his career.

Nicklaus won the US Amateur on two occasions as a youngster. However, he was beaten in the early rounds in 1955, and Jones may have inadvertently played a part.

Nicklaus had been leading around the turn of his match with Rob Gardner. However, he revealed in the same interview that Jones’ presence seemed to get to him.

“In 1955, I was 15 years old and I qualified for the national amateur. It was at the James River Course at the Country Club of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia. I went down and in the last practice round, I hit a shot into the 18th green, a long par four. A gentleman was in a cart beside the green. He started waving at me like this and he introduced himself as Bobby Jones. He said, ‘I’ve been here all afternoon young man, three people have reached this green. That’s a nice shot you played in there’. I said, ‘thank you very much, sir’,” he said.

“That night, he spoke at our banquet. At that time, he was walking with canes. That’s what he could walk with because he had paralysis in his neck. He came down to me after the dinner and he said, ‘Jack, just a second’. He says, ‘I want to come out and watch you tomorrow for a few holes, if you don’t mind. I said, ‘no, sir, Mr Jones, that would be very nice’.

“I kept looking over my shoulder, where’s Bobby Jones? Where’s Bobby Jones? I was playing Bob Gardner, turned out I had played in the Eisenhower Trophy and Walker Cup with Gardner later on. Anyway, I had Bob Gardner one down after 10 holes. And all of a sudden down the 10th hole comes this cart, and here’s Bobby Jones coming to watch me play golf. I’m a 15-year-old kid. I went bogey, bogey, double bogey, lost all three holes. He turned to my dad and said, ‘Charlie, I don’t believe I’m doing Jack much good. I think I’ll get out of here’.”

Nicklaus ended up losing the match on the final hole after staging a comeback. That experience would have surely motivated him to show Jones, someone he respected so highly, what he was truly capable of over the next 15 years.