With 18 major victories, 73 PGA Tour wins, 19 major runner-up finishes, and five Player of the Year awards, Jack Nicklaus’ list of achievements is almost unparalleled. Naturally, it should come as little surprise that when two-time major champion Greg Norman found himself in a slump, the 18-time major winner was the man he turned to for advice.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
“Now, I did have a slump in golf,” Norman told Golf Digest. “I went two years without any titles, which felt like an eternity. But how did I get around that? I went to speak to Jack Nicklaus. I got in my car, and I called him, I said, ‘Hey, can I come see you?… He said, ‘Sure.’ … And I went around his house. Jack, typical Jack, opened arms, said, ‘Sit down,’… Jack opens up about his slump and how he worked with Jack Grout and what he wanted to go through. And we all think it’s the physical. What are we doing wrong physically? Most of the time it’s right here [in the head].”
It’s unclear which two-year stretch Norman was referring to. However, in previous interviews, he has discussed a roughly two-year winless period, which, by the record, ran from the 1990 Memorial Tournament to September 1992, a span of 27 months. During that stretch, Norman sought out Jack Nicklaus for advice on handling the mental side of a prolonged slump, drawing on Nicklaus’ own experience with the ups and downs of his career.
Regardless, Norman recalled that Nicklaus did not focus solely on the technical side of his game. Instead, the two discussed his life away from golf. His relationships, home life, and whether he felt comfortable and at peace with his surroundings.
The Shark emphasized that personal struggles can become a “heavy burden,” particularly for a golfer who has to face the pressure alone on the first tee and on the 18th green. The conversation stretched for hours, and by the time Barbara, Jack Nicklaus’ wife, joined them, the pair had been standing in the driveway in the rain without even realizing it.
“So I get in my car … I said to myself, ‘Okay, you just soaked up all that information. What are you going to do?’ And so I went to the golf course, and before I drove in … I pulled over on the [side of the] road. I put the roof back on the car, and I laid the seat back, and I looked at the clouds floating over the top, and I said, ‘Do you want to go to this driving range now and practice with a purpose, or do you want to be burdened with all this c**p you’re carrying with you?'”
What followed he described as the “best I ever hit the golf ball in years.”
More importantly, Norman went on to win the 1992 Canadian Open, defeating Bruce Lietzke in a playoff to end his winless stretch. He credited this turnaround in his career to the conversation with Nicklaus.
While the Shark has fond memories of Nicklaus, their relationship has taken a turn in recent years, particularly since 2022, when LIV Golf staged its first event. Norman had been leading the Saudi-backed league as CEO since 2021 before departing in late 2025.
Nicklaus, who was 82 at the time and is 86 now, publicly said in 2022 that he had turned down an offer of more than $100 million for a role similar to Norman’s and reaffirmed his support for the PGA Tour. LIV officials said the offer was for an “ambassador” type role rather than the same job.
Norman criticized Nicklaus in an interview with The Washington Post in June 2022, calling him a “hypocrite,” claiming Nicklaus had previously encouraged the breakaway league.
In any case, though, Greg Norman appears to be focusing on the good from the past, rather than the ugly in the present.