Who is the greatest Open champion?
 | THE CONTENDERS |
Tom Watson has beaten off five other Open legends to win your nomination for the greatest ever Open champion.
All week we asked you to vote on your favourite winner, and we can now reveal the five-time Open champion polled 37% with three-time champion Nick Faldo in second on 26%.
Seve Ballesteros and Jack Nicklaus - voted your Masters master back in April - shared 14%, while Gary Player and another five-time winner Peter Thomson were well back.
America's Watson ruled the Open roost in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His easy manner and affinity with the British crowds made him a popular champion.
Jack Nicklaus
By Ben Dirs
 Nicklaus won his third Open in 1978 |
In terms of victories, the Open Championship was Jack Nicklaus' least profitable major.
But the Golden Bear's three titles (1966, '70, '78) only hint at the impact he had on the event over the four decades he competed in it.
Nicklaus was also runner-up seven times, holds the record for top five finishes (16), has the highest number of rounds under 70 (33) and played in every championship between 1962 and 1997.
More importantly, Nicklaus' three-way rivalry with Arnold Palmer and Gary Player restored world-wide interest in the Open after more than a decade of apathy from many of the game's leading lights.
True, fellow American Tom Watson won more titles (five) in the modern era, but Nicklaus' star shone fiercer for longer.
And Nicklaus' dignity in defeat as much as in victory - an attribute honed by his many near misses - only added to his aura of greatness.
The man from Columbus, Ohio, tied for 32nd in his first Open at Troon in 1962, the year Palmer won his second - and last - championship.
| NICKLAUS NOTES Born: 21/01/1940, Ohio Turned pro: 1962 Career wins: 113 Major titles: 18 Open wins: 3 (1966, 1970, 1978) Other Open facts: Runner-up a record seven times; 16 top-five finishes |
A year later, at Royal Lytham, Nicklaus came third and in 1964 at St Andrews he finished second for the first time, five shots behind the tragic Tony Lema.
Nicklaus first got his hands on the Claret Jug at Muirfield in 1966 and in doing so joined Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Gary Player as the only players to have won all four majors.
His place cemented as the world's top golfer, Nicklaus did not finish outside the top 10 for the next 14 Opens.
He was runner-up again in 1967 and 1968 before landing his second title at St Andrews in 1970 after Doug Sanders' infamous missed putt from less than three feet on the final green.
Lee Trevino denied Nicklaus at Muirfield in 1972, while the Golden Bear came second again in 1976, this time to Johnny Miller at Royal Birkdale.
Perversely, perhaps Nicklaus' defining Open moment came in defeat in 1977, the 37-year-old duelling with Watson over the dunes of Turnberry before losing the finest championship ever by a single stroke.
But Nicklaus did conjure one last title a year later, once again at St Andrews, and managed yet another second place in 1979 as Severiano Ballesteros ushered in a new era for golf with a spell-binding win.
While Nicklaus would win three more majors, he never again challenged for the Claret Jug, but continued to woo British galleries with his artistry until 2002.
Whether a certain Tiger surpasses Nicklaus' deeds in the years to come only history will tell, but, for now, the Bear remains the greatest this country's links courses have ever seen.
MMIX
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