During this Vin Scully interview of golfer Jack Nicklaus at the 1985 Skins Game…..the question posed by Scully was regarding how Nicklaus’s golf game changed after he lost weight after his first 7 years on the Tour…..after which he no longer fit his nickname as The Golden Bear…..which makes for a really insightful mental framework of probably the greatest golfer of all time. We here at ImaSportsphile found his response to the question of “Whether he was worried about his golf game changing after losing all that weight?”…..to which he responded as follows…..‘After returning to the Tour after being on my strict diet, I went to Silverado and won that tournament, then I went to Las Vegas the next week and won that tournament, and then I went to Hawaii and came in second, so, I never worried about the weight loss after that.”
The truth of the matter is that this interview attest to the fact that Jack Nicklaus’ greatness on the golf course was far more evident because of his mental toughness and his mental game……and not so much as a result of his physical skills…..which adds to our theory that the truly greatest athletes of all time didn’t have more physical talents than those who were really good…..but they did have more mental toughness and prowess…..and that is what separated them from the rest.
