1986 Masters revisited: Nicklaus made Response ZT putter famous, but now he doesn't have it

Apr. 8—Editor's note: The Aiken Standard is looking back at the 40th anniversary of the 1986 Masters, the first one John Boyette covered as a journalist.

The most famous club used by Jack Nicklaus to win the 1986 Masters Tournament is no longer in his possession.

It's not in a trophy case at Augusta National Golf Club, and it's not at the Jack Nicklaus Museum in Columbus, Ohio.

But Nicklaus thinks he knows where the oversized putter, a MacGregor model called the Response ZT, is located.

"It's the only club I won a major with that I don't have from 1962 on," Nicklaus said in February.

The mystery starts with a tennis match. Nicklaus has grass courts at his family home in North Palm Beach, Fla., and former major tennis champion and world No. 1 Ivan Lendl asked if he could use the courts to prepare for an upcoming tournament.

Lendl brought his coach, Tony Roche — the Australian was a 16-time major champion in doubles and mixed doubles — and another tennis player named Billy Scanlon.

"Roche and Billy were playing Ivan and me," Nicklaus said. "In the afternoon, we played golf. We did this for about 10 days."

Scanlon was having trouble with his putting, so Nicklaus lent him a putter one day.

"I reached in the room and grabbed a putter and at the time I didn't realize it was THE putter," Nicklaus said. "And so I said, 'Billy, try this putter.' He never gave it back."

Nicklaus wanted to put the putter in his namesake museum in Ohio, and he also said Augusta National was interested in displaying it in its clubhouse.

"I don't know why he didn't give it back. Four or five years later, we start looking for golf clubs to put in the museum," he said. "And that's the only club we couldn't find. Lendl called me. He said 'Jack, I know where that putter is.'

"'What do you mean you know where that putter is?' Billy Scanlon has it, Lendl said. It's in his trophy case in his house. I said 'Oh really? I know where it is. I can get it back anytime from Billy. He knows I just lent it to him, I didn't give it to him."

Scanlon died in 2021, and his widow kept possession of the famous putter.

"We tried to get it back and she wouldn't let us have it back, buy it back or anything," Nicklaus said. "I told her that's not your putter. It's my putter. I just loaned it to Billy. She said, 'Well, I've got it now.' I didn't want to create a scene."

The putter was reportedly put up for auction and Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay was going to buy it, Nicklaus said.

"So I put a call in to Irsay but he was too sick to talk. Then he passed away," Nicklaus said. "That's what happened. Hopefully one of these days (she) will understand it's not her putter and give it back and we'll credit her with that."

The putter

Nicklaus excelled in all facets of golf. He was among the longest drivers of his era, if not the longest, and was also a marvel with long irons.

His putting was pretty good, too.

For 15 of his 18 major championship wins as a professional, Nicklaus had used a George Low Sportsman Wizard 600 blade model.

Nicklaus used a Slazenger model at the 1966 Masters when he became the first to successfully defend his title at Augusta National.

At the 1967 U.S. Open at Baltusrol, Nicklaus won using "White Fang." It was a Bull's Eye model that had the head painted white to eliminate sun glare.

Ironically, White Fang went missing for a few years. Nicklaus's son Steve had lent it to a friend, who returned the famous club after finding it in his garage one day.

By 1986, Nicklaus was experimenting with a new putter from MacGregor — he was one of the equipment manufacturer's owners by this point — and seeing mixed results.

The putter was a Response ZT.

Designer Clay Long was commissioned by Nicklaus to produce a putter that resembled the model by Ping, which was known for its putters.

Long and his team came up with an oversized putter with a large moment of inertia, which helped the club not twist or turn at impact. ZT stood for "zero twist."

"It was such a goofy looking thing," Long recalled.

Nicklaus, when he first saw it, asked if it was a joke.

But after trying the putter and having some success at clubs around his Florida home, he agreed to try it in competition for 1986. The "MI 615" model was born.

At the Honda Classic, Nicklaus nearly gave up on it. He had about a 4-inch putt, but the wind was blowing so hard that it blew the Response ZT into the ball and moved it a couple of inches.

Nicklaus stuck with it, and by April he found some confidence. In the final round of the 1986 Masters, he made three consecutive birdies at Nos. 9, 10 and 11 of 12 feet, 25 feet and 20 feet.

Augusta National came alive with excitement, and Nicklaus and the Response ZT delivered. He rolled in a 12-foot putt for eagle at 15, a 3-footer for birdie at 16 and an 11-footer for birdie at 17.

At 18, he two-putted from 40 feet for a par. He remembered his "golden rule" of putting: don't leave a second putt.

"It got pretty close, I just needed to hit it a little harder," Nicklaus said.

According to Golf Digest, MacGregor received 5,000 orders for the Response ZT the day after his Masters win. By the end of 1987, the company had sold 350,000 of the putters.

The Response ZT used to win perhaps the most famous Masters of all time would likely fetch a pretty penny.

"I don't know what it's exactly worth," said Nicklaus, noting with a laugh that it retailed for about $60 in 1986. "From a museum standpoint, my George Low putter that I won 15 majors with was a $3 million evaluation.

"White Fang was a $1 million evaluation. So, I'd put it between $1 and 3 million."