Insider: Trevino and Watson recall '86 Masters fondly

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As Jack Nicklaus walked up 18 in 1986, Tom Watson was one group behind and Lee Trevino was watching anxiously in an airport.

They were two of the toughest opponents he's ever encountered.

Their fierce rivalries with Jack Nicklaus were special, a piece of golf history worthy of all the words -- spoken and written - they have generated over the years.

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Who can forget the clash of titans when Tom Watson defeated Nicklaus at Turnberry to win the Claret Jug in 1977? Or the finish at Pebble Beach at the 1982 U.S. Open?

Lee Trevino won six major championships. In four of those, Nicklaus was the runner-up, including a playoff in the 1971 U.S. Open.

We all remember where we were on that Sunday in 1986 when Nicklaus rekindled the magic and won the Masters for an unprecedented sixth time at age 46.

What constitutes history? We know it when we see it and 25 years later the impact of Nicklaus's victory at Augusta National continues to reverberate. That's history.

Ask Trevino and Watson to recall the occasion and there is no hesitation. They know where they were on April 13, 1986.

Trevino was anchored in an airport bar, glass in hand. Watson was right there on the course at Augusta National where he had a first-hand look -- once again -- to the greatness of Nicklaus.

"When I finished, Jack hadn't teed off," said Trevino, who finished 47th. "My wife and I are driving to the airport. Jack is on 14. And then he eagles 15. There was a bar across from the gate at the airport and I am drinking double scotches."

And finding it impossible to pull himself away from the television in the lounge.

"Hold the plane, hold the plane," Trevino said. "We are screaming at this guy to hold the plane. Everybody is watching. The airport is going nuts. My wife and I are there and I'm hitting it hard. Come on, Jack."

Trevino would have loved to see a final appearance by Nicklaus at the Masters. The last time was 2005 and, Trevino said, it wasn't right.

"I begged him to go back," Trevino said. "I begged him to go back one more year and so did Barbara, but he didn't. For the greatest player who won that tournament six times, he finishes on 9. You can't do that. You are supposed to yank him out there and say, 'You are going off the front.'

"I don't give a damn if you are playing by yourself. You are going to finish on 18. You are going to take that walk. He never had a shot to take that walk. I couldn't believe it. I was absolutely dumbfounded. He never got a chance to come up 18."

Trevino remembers the oversized MacGregor Response putter used by Nicklaus in the '86 victory.

"I looked like a sailboat," Trevino said. "It was made out of aluminum. That thing was light. It was big. Hell, my first car wasn't that big. He could putt with it, too. He could putt with anything. Jack, the way he stroked, his mannerisms of putting, he could put with a broom. It didn't make any difference what he putted with."

Nicklaus (18), Watson (8) and Trevino (6) won 32 professional majors between them. On the Champions Tour, they have combined for 17 more -- Nicklaus with eight, Watson five and Trevino four.

Watson started the final round of the 1986 Masters with a 212 total, two shots better than Nicklaus and was playing in the group just behind.

"I was right there," Watson said. "I was both watching and listening."

Watson had so many encounters with Nicklaus over the years that he could anticipate what Nicklaus was thinking, what he would do and how he would do it. Nicklaus had a habit of identifying a score he needed to win.

"He would say, 'This is my goal to shoot 32 on the back nine,'" Watson said. "'If I can shoot 32 on the back nine, I would win the tournament.' I always played it one hole at a time. I never look ahead, and I never looked behind. I looked present tense. Jack would say 'this is what I have to do.'"

Nicklaus shot a final-round 65 (with a 30 on the back nine) for a 279 total, 9-under, to win by 1 shot over Tom Kite and Greg Norman. Watson shot a Sunday 71 and finished tied for sixth, 4 shots behind Nicklaus. It was the 18th, and last professional major victory for Nicklaus.

Watson, arms folded and watching, was standing on the 15th hole at Augusta National when Nicklaus made his dramatic final round eagle there. What was Watson thinking as Nicklaus made the charge?

"I was worrying about my own shot," Watson said. "I've seen that happen enough times with Jack. It didn't surprise me. Obviously I knew how excited everybody was about it. By the electricity, you could feel in the air. The air was tense. It was very tense.

"I wasn't surprised or shocked. Anything but shocked. Because Jack knew the golf course better than anybody and he still had the ability to play. He did say one thing, which I thought was very poignant, he said, 'This is a young man's golf course.' Meaning that you had to putt well.

But I think that maybe he was saying that just kind of tongue-in-cheek because he knew he could still win there. He knew if everything went right, he could win there.

"I think if you asked him, he thought of a score he had to shoot on the back nine, and I think he shot that score and he bettered it by one, and that was typical Jack."

For Watson, Nicklaus's age was insignificant.

"The bottom line is that after winning there five times, he knew the golf course and he knew how to play it to win," Watson said. "So it didn't make any difference whether he was 46 years old or 66 years old, he still understood how to win there. And he still had the tools to do it."