Jim Nantz was in the CBS tower behind the par-3 16th hole on Sunday, April 13, 1986, when Jack Nicklaus won his sixth Masters title. Nantz had spent the previous two years watching his own career gather speed, but that afternoon at Augusta National belonged to Nicklaus, 46 years old and six strokes back when the day began.
The final round had its own crowded cast. Greg Norman led after three rounds. Nick Price had shot a course-record 63 on Saturday. Seve Ballesteros was chasing a third green jacket, Bernhard Langer was trying to repeat, and Tom Kite, Corey Pavin, Tom Watson and Sandy Lyle were all in the mix. Nicklaus, who had not won a major in six years, closed with the kind of round that turned a tournament into a broadcast memory. The 1986 Masters drew 7 million TV viewers, and Nantz was there to watch the finish from above 16.
For Nantz, the scene carried an extra layer of history. He had first met Nicklaus in June 1984, when he was one of two local sports broadcasters invited to serve as bag toters for an exhibition at Park Meadows Country Club in Park City, Utah, on a course Nicklaus designed. Johnny Miller joined Nicklaus for the 18-hole debut round, and Nantz carried Nicklaus's MacGregor tour bag for all 18 holes. Nicklaus occasionally asked for yardages and green reads. Nantz shot a birdie-free 73.
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That round helped change his life. He was hired by CBS Sports the following summer, at 26 years old and four years removed from a dormitory at the University of Houston. CBS golf producer Frank Chirkinian asked the network brass to include him on the broadcast team. At Pebble Beach, Chirkinian told him he was there only to observe how CBS presented a telecast and that the network would stash him in a villa off the left side of the first fairway with roommate Bob Drum. If things went well, Chirkinian said, he planned to include Nantz in the Masters broadcast 10 weeks later.
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Nantz first saw Augusta National in March 1986, when Chirkinian asked him to record promotional spots for the tournament. By the time Nicklaus made his run to the green jacket that April, the young broadcaster had already been folded into the CBS golf world. The rest of the afternoon belonged to the man who had won more Masters titles than anyone else. For Nantz, though, the day also marked the moment his own path in golf broadcasting became permanent.
