There are some fantastic old pictures of Jack Nicklaus launching a drive in the various archives, and some equally great shots of him standing over a putt in that unique hunched posture of his.
It’s hard, especially if you’re an equipment enthusiast, not to be drawn towards what clubs he was hitting. Back in his glory years, of course, he wasn’t playing with metal woods.
Incredibly, there was one club that Nicklaus used for 37 years and during all of his 18 Major championship victories. Yes, you read that correctly. And no, it wasn't his putter, even if he did use one model for a very long time. The trusty club was his 3-wood – he used the same one for nearly four decades!
This fascinating fact was revealed on the eve of the 2024 Memorial Tournament, an event that Nicklaus hosts each year on the PGA Tour. Remarkably, that MacGregor 693 – which he had from 1958 – only got re-gripped once during that time.
That regrip came in 1983, and the club stayed in the bag until 1995, before being put on display in the Jack Nicklaus Room at the USGA's museum at its Far Hills, N.J. headquarters; it's something Golf Monthly's Joe Ferguson talked about recently on the Kick Point golf gear show, something that completely blew his mind as an equipment tester.
Nicklaus won his last Major Championship in 1986, when he claimed his sixth Green Jacket; he did so using a 28-year-old 3-wood around Augusta National, which is hard to comprehend.
So, what else did the game's greatest ever player have in the bag?
Four years ago, Golf Monthly's deputy editor, Joel Tadman, played Jack Nicklaus’ club for a day, an experience he described as a “delight” and one you can watch in the video above. He even claims to have hit the odd stinger with Nicklaus’ 1-iron (Hmmm).
Back when Nicklaus was in his pomp, he was using persimmon drivers and pure blade irons. MacGregor was the established premium company at the time, and Nicklaus had these in the bag, as did the likes of Johnny Miller and Ben Crenshaw, as well as many other top players in that era.
Jack Nicklaus What's In The Bag?
Nicklaus' preferred line-up was driver, 3-wood and irons 1-9, two wedges and a putter. If you did a ‘What’s In The Bag?’ with Nicklaus some time from 1954 onwards, it would have looked something like this:
Driver: MacGregor Tommy Armour Signature Tourney 945W, 9° (1954)
Fairway: MacGregor Tommy Armour Signature Tourney 693 T, 15° (1950)
Irons: MacGregor MT 1-iron (1965), MacGregor VIP, 2-SW (1967)
Putter: MacGregor George Low 600 (1960)
According to Joel, the driver felt fantastic when he was able to hit one out of the screws (six screws actually hold a plastic insert in place to protect the Japanese wood), and he was a big fan of the rich cherry finish.
The revelation was the MacGregor MT 1-iron, which he managed to get to chase down the fairway, and it offered a “buttery feel”. Miss the sweetspot, however, and and his hands would certainly let him know.
Meanwhile, even for a low single figure player like Joel, the MacGregor VIP irons were hard to work with; “They felt very head-heavy and the leading edges were incredibly sharp because of the complete absence of any bounce,” said Joel.
The blades have rows of copper crowns either side of the hitting area on the face, which Nicklaus said helped with his alignment and concentration. The muscleback design and higher lofts meant Joel spun the ball significantly more than his modern irons – over 8,000rpm compared to around 6,000rpm – which meant he lost a fair bit of distance.
As for the short game, the pitching and sand wedges were part of the MacGregor VIP set and so weren’t designed for greenside versatility. Joel did manage to get a little spin on chip shots, but not to the level he was used to.
Finally, a word on Nicklaus' putter. The 18-time Major winner used the MacGregor George Low 600 for many years but switched to an oversize MacGregor ZT Response prior to the 1986 Masters – and we all know what happened that year!
As for Joel, he managed to putt surprisingly well with my MacGregor George Low 600 putter, despite the absence of any alignment aids or face technology.
In his book ‘Golf My Way’ (Nicklaus' not Joel's), which was first published in 1974, he talked about the clubs he played and his “long and close associations with the MacGregor company.”
“I’m not an equipment nut,” he also said, before revealing a few more interesting facts. Firstly, because of his height (5ft 11½ in), his clubs were a couple of degrees more upright than standard.
Secondly, he favored slightly oversize grips (one-sixteenth inch thicker than standard), even though his hands were small, and he preferred the feel of leather grips compared to rubber or composition.
His driver was also 42¾ inches. The standard length of a modern driver is between 45 and 46 inches. At the time, Nicklaus’ driver was considered about a quarter inch shorter than standard. The ‘Golden Bear’ said it cost him a few yards but gave him exactly the right amount of shaft flex for him to retain his ideal swing tempo.
These days, the 84-year-old needs a little extra forgiveness. He’s one of the Honorary Starters at The Masters, and last year he took advantage of modern technology in the form of a TaylorMade Qi10 LS driver, the same model used by Tiger Woods.
At the PNC Father/Son Challenge in 2018, Nicklaus had a Callaway GBB Epic driver (9°) in the bag with lead tape added to the toe portion of the sole, and a Graphite Design Tour AD-MJ 5S shaft.
He also had a TaylorMade M3 3-wood, with a Fujikura Atmos Red shaft, a TaylorMade GAPR-Mid 4-iron, TaylorMade P790 irons with Nippon N.S. Pro Modus3 shafts, Jack Nicklaus JNP Classic wedges, and a Nicklaus Personal-Edition putter.
Even the great man needs the help of modern technology, but we suspect he still has a few sets of MacGregor clubs locked up somewhere safe.
