The reminiscent memories of 1980s and top 15 golfers of that time (Part 4)
And now the remaining top three golfers of 1980s with the relevant memories of that era.
Nicklaus and Obote
Jack Nicklaus spent three successive decades of the previous century nothing short of a golfing God. He ruled the sixties, the seventies and then the eighties exactly like Apollo Milton Obote reigned Uganda as its president.
Nicklaus collected 5 PGA events and three Majors in the eighties. He is the winner of 1980s U.S. Open as well as the PGA Championship. Nicklaus became much famous in the eighties due to his tremendous win at the 1986 Masters.
While Nicklaus won the 1980 U.S. Open, Obote was re-elected the same year after he led a revolution and installed himself as the president from 1966 to 71. He was later overthrown by Idi Amin in ‘71 and was later voted for back in the 1980. Obote continued
to perform his duties till 1985 but Factionalism directed an army coup and he went in exile. This was a year before Nicklaus won his 1986 Masters.
After Obote spent ’85 as the last year in Uganda, Nicklaus played his 18th final Major in ’86. The match was a tremendous finish by the 46-year-old after he defeated Greg Norman and Tom Kite with one stroke.
Among his Ryder appearance, Nicklaus played his last Ryder Cup in 1981 and captained his team in 1983.
Seve Ballesteros and the WhiteSnake
Standing with the runner-up position in our top 15 list of golfers, Ballesteros collected seven PGA Tour wins in the eighties. Ballesteros was more famous in Europe in his reign and had a total of 50 career wins.
Ballesteros won his first major win in 1979 British Open while the rest were collected in the 80s. His first major victory took place 2 years after the formation of the WhiteSnake, an English rock band.
Out of his four major wins in the ‘80s, the first two were won in 1980 and 1983. His second win has the same time line as the WhiteSnake’s shift from early blues to hard rock. The WhiteSnake is regarded as the 85th greatest rock band in the history
of commercial heavy metal.
Ballesteros other two major wins were accumulated in the year 1984 and 1988. Seve’s last win took place in the year when the WhiteSnake re-recorded the original song on Saints & Sinners, ‘Here I Go Again’ which became the number one hit single of ’88.
Where ‘Here I Go Again’ ruled the ’88 billboard charts, Ballesteros spent 61 weeks as the World’s top ranked player in the eighties.
As far as the Ryder event is concerned, Seve Ballesteros was a regular contributor and scored a total of 22.5 points for the Europe’s side over the years.
Tom Watson and Harrison Ford
Now comes the winner, the frontrunner, the champ of golf -Tom Watson. In the 1980s, this golfer collected a total of 19 victories and 5 majors to earn the highest ranking. Other than collecting the previously mentioned 5 titles, Watson finished at the top
5 list 8 times.
As 80s was Tom Watson’s year to rule the golf rankings, it was Harrison Ford’s year in Hollywood. Ford’s overall rankings put him on number 1 in action, number two in sci-fi and number 3 in thriller genre in the 1980s era.
He started his career in 1966 but attained most credits in the year 1980 after he did “Star Wars Episode V- the Empire Strikes back” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark” in ‘81.
Back to the golfer number one, Watson finished in the top 5, 8 more times other than the 5 major finishes. The top ranked 80s golfer is one of the top bad-weather player of this era and the top link player of all times.
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