Someone was going to be left out.
The whole idea behind a Mount Rushmore in sports is that only the greatest are allowed to ascend to it’s top.
But with all of golf history funneled into just four spots on a theoretical mountain-side sports sculpture in South Dakota, legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus faced a difficult task when creating his own personal Mt. Rushmore.
“I’d like to join them. Myself, that’s four,” said Nicklaus, who leads all golfers with 18 major wins and claimed the Masters trophy six times.
His other three replies were highly debatable and left Nicklaus with no easy answer.
“Bobby Jones,” Nicklaus said.
Jones was born in 1902, so many contemporary golf fans might not know his name.
But he won the US Open four times and took The Open on three occasions, leading Nicklaus to place him on his Mt. Rushmore.
Ben Hogan also made Nicklaus’ cut, as did Tiger Woods.
But that meant that a few big names were left off, and one kept being repeated by fans.
“I would add Arnold to his list,” one fan tweeted.
“Arnold,” a second fan posted. “No reason for Hogan to be there ahead of The King.”
“Replace Hogan with Arnold,” a third fan wrote. “Arnold is the most important player in the game.”
“Arnold” is Arnold Palmer, who had 62 career wins and rivaled Nicklaus as the best golfer in the world for years.
Palmer raised the profile of the sport while winning seven majors, including four Masters.
The two-time PGA Player of the Year received the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998, co-founded The Golf Channel and to this day hosts the Bay Hill Invitational – one of the PGA Tour’s highest profile tournaments.
While Nicklaus placed Woods on his lifetime Mt. Rushmore, the only contemporary golfer to make that list had his own ideas.
Woods selected Sam Snead, Jones, Nicklaus and himself when asked the same question.
“My all-time Mt. Rushmore of golf?” Woods said. “Probably Snead, Jones, Nicklaus, me.”
Palmer also didn’t make Woods’ list, which means that the debate will only continue.
In 2024, Chris Kirk leads the St. Jude Championship at six-under after the first round in Memphis as the FedEx playoffs get underway.
Olympic champion and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is tied-for-fifth, while Rory McIlroy is tied-for-18th at two-under.
Most majors wins in men’s golf
- Jack Nicklaus: 18 majors
- Tigers Woods: 15
- Walter Hagen: 11
- Ben Hogan: 9
- Tom Watson: 8
News Summary:
- Fans think iconic golfing legend made a stunning omission when building a Mount Rushmore of golf that included himself
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