Shake on it: A handshake from Jack Nicklaus means everything at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday

One paleoanthropologist has estimated the handshake is at least seven million years old, while others say the modern version dates back only 3,000 years or more. Which brings us to the handshake tournament host Jack Nicklaus gives to the winner of the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, which is timeless.

No one knows when it all began. Nicklaus competed in the early days of his tournament, so he couldn’t sit around and wait for the winner to finish, but after his decorated playing career ended, he decided at some point to park next to the 18th green and watch the action, invariably locking hands with the champion. “It just happened,” he said. “I just thought it was appropriate, so I started doing TV earlier and started going down to the 18th green to greet the winner.”

That greeting has become one of the most coveted in all of golf. “To walk off the green and to greet Mr. Nicklaus and have him congratulate me, that’s something I’ll never forget,” Matt Kuchar said in 2013.

Neither will any of the other lucky winners.

Billy Horschel took a five-shot lead into the final round last year but finally showed his first cracks on the front nine. His wife and three kids had never been on site for one of his PGA TOUR wins, and now here they were, waiting for him to close it out. Horschel steadied himself on the back, then effectively ended it with a thunderous, 55-foot eagle putt on the 15th hole.

“Just like you, big man,” he said to Nicklaus after walking off the 18th green. Later, Horschel said it wasn’t just Nicklaus who loomed large that day. It was the presence of his family, wanting to see him win in person for the first time.
“Having a five-shot lead,” Horschel said, “knowing it was mine to win, I really wanted to get the monkey off my back.”

Tiger Woods won the Memorial five times, building a robust highlight reel and becoming a veritable connoisseur of the Nicklaus handshake.

“There’s nothing better,” Woods said in 2019. “It’s something that stays with you. I’ve gotten the chance to shake hands with Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus after winning their tournaments. That’s quite a trio. That’s quite a special feeling.”

These days, as host of The Genesis Invitational and unofficial Hero World Challenge, it’s Woods himself who doles out the special handshake to the tournament winners.

Ernie Els birdied 18 for his second straight 66 to win by four over Fred Couples in 2004, also holding off Tiger Woods, K.J. Choi and Justin Rose for his 14th PGA TOUR title. Els needed only 100 putts on the week, which was a new tournament record.

“I made almost every putt that I had to make,” he said. “It means a lot. It’s not quite like any other tournament. It’s got a little more prestige to it, especially with Jack Nicklaus as the host.”

Justin Rose one-putted eight straight holes and 11 overall in the final round to shoot a bogey-free 66 and salt away his first PGA TOUR win at age 29. It felt like a long time coming for a player who first burst onto the scene at age 17 at The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in 1998.

“It’s a great way to win,” said Rose, who also became the tournament’s first British winner. “And to win here at the Memorial, at Jack’s tournament, I can’t think of a better place to win my first tournament.”

Patrick Cantlay was having trouble closing out tournaments when he sought the counsel of Nicklaus, who told him to look around and soak in the moment. To have fun. Following that advice, Cantlay made it look easy as he captured not just one Memorial title but two, in 2019 and 2021.

“Yeah, I think it’s something, when you watch golf on TV growing up, it’s something you always dream of doing,” Cantlay said. “And it was really cool to do in person and Jack obviously has been a mentor of mine and a good friend for almost ten years now. And so it was even more special just because it’s his place and his tournament and because of the relationship that he and I have.”

Steve Stricker had never finished in the top 10 in his 11 prior Memorial starts. He was 44 when he made two late sand saves to preserve a one-shot victory over Matt Kuchar and Brandt Jobe in 2011, his final-round 68 just good enough after struggling on the back nine.

“All I can remember is saying is, ‘I didn’t finish like you would have, Jack,’” Stricker said with a laugh at a recent PGA TOUR Champions stop. “I was all over the place, getting it up and down and so forth. He’s like, ‘But you got it done.’”

Stricker had played the front nine in 20 under and the back in 4 over for the week. He moved to fourth in the world and got the handshake from a legend he’d first met in the 1980s, when Jackie Nicklaus was playing at Ohio State and Stricker was at Illinois.

“That’s a special feeling when you walk off that green and he’s there waiting for you,” he said.

Jon Rahm shook Nicklaus’ hand as the winner of the Nicklaus Award, given to the nation’s top collegiate golfer, in 2015.

That was just the start.

After the PGA TOUR’s three-month COVID hiatus, and with the No. 1 world ranking in the balance, Rahm won the 2020 Memorial with a final-round 75, the highest score by a winner since Roger Maltbie shot 76 in 1976. The course was that hard; the greens were literally hard, the result of being allowed to bake out, destined as they were to be redone after the tournament.

“It’s very different, especially because of the atmosphere that’s created here on 18,” Rahm said. “It’s a lot of people, it’s an amphitheater and it’s a special place. There’s a lot of history here. So, it’s a very unique moment, especially when you get to embrace Jack.”

Or even give him a knuckle-bump.

Hideki Matsuyama, then 22, had never won on the PGA TOUR when he came down the stretch at the 2014 Memorial. And it looked like he would remain winless as he hit his tee shot in the water and double-bogeyed the 16th hole, went over the green with his approach and bogeyed 17, and lost his tee shot right on 18.

After pounding the tee box with his driver, and watching the head fall off, Matsuyama saw his ball hit a tree and fly back into the fairway. He took advantage of the break, strafing a 7-iron to 5 feet and rolling in the birdie putt to force a playoff with Kevin Na, then won it with a 10-foot par putt on the first extra hole. Nicklaus predicted Matsuyama, the fourth PGA TOUR winner from Japan, would go on to become one of the world’s best players (yep).

“To win my first PGA TOUR event is enough,” Matsuyama said. “But to win it here at Mr. Nicklaus’ course, it really gives me a lot of confidence now going on.”

For all the greats who have won, others have unfinished business at Muirfield Village. “It’s a special moment in anyone’s career being able to walk up that hill and … get that handshake,” said Rory McIlroy, who has four top-10s in 11 Memorial starts. “I’d love to win here.”

Collin Morikawa won the 2020 Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village, but it wasn’t the same as winning the Memorial. “Knowing that Jack will be there on the 18th hole just makes it that much more special to win, hopefully,” he said.

Scottie Scheffler finished third in 2021 and T22 in 2020 in his two Memorial starts.

Adam Scott was tied for the lead in the final round in 2014 but went 4 over for his last seven holes to finish T4. He did get a Nicklaus handshake upon his runner-up finish in 2019; it was, to say the least, bittersweet. “That was really more commiseration because I haven’t won,” Scott said with a rueful smile. “I finished second and it wasn’t the handshake I was really hoping for that day.”