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.”

(Getty Images, PGA TOUR)

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.”

(Getty Images, PGA TOUR)

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.

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