The obvious answer to this question is – we’ll never know. At the peak of his powers Jack Nicklaus did not have access to modern golf equipment. Right, it was good to get that out of the way quickly, now we can get on with some conjecture!
What we do know is that Jack was a famously strong driver of the golf ball and was renowned as one of the longest hitters of his generation.
What we also do know is that when the PGA Tour first started keeping records for driving distance in 1980, Jack (who was 40 by then) ranked 10th for the season with an average of 269 yards. He also ranked 13th for driving accuracy – quite a blend of power and precision.
As a younger man, Jack could really shift it. Back in 1967, IBM kept records for driving distance at a selection of tournaments on the PGA Tour. Nicklaus was the longest player in those rankings with an average of 276 yards.
We also have one-off evidence of how far he could hit the ball. He drove through the green at St Andrews in the playoff for the 1970 Open Championship. Although conditions were favourable, that was still a blow of some 370 yards.
Nicklaus won a long-drive event at the time of the 1963 PGA Championship. His winning shot was of an impressive 341 yards.
If we say then that Nicklaus was very much to the top of the list when it came to long drivers of the 1960s and 70s and he hit the ball around the 275 yard mark on average. With modern equipment, at least 10% could be added. He would surely have averaged well over 300 yards with a modern driver and modern golf balls.
Although Nicklaus was a fit young man in his prime, he wouldn’t have trained in such an intense way as the modern golf professional. Modern pros like Rory McIlroy undergo a rigorous physical programme to maximise their strength and speed.
If we hypothesised even further than we already have and said, if peak Jack Nicklaus was given modern equipment and underwent an intensive programme of modern physical fitness training, its highly likely that he would have been able to hit the ball a comparable distance to the leading drivers of the ball today. We’ve gone on a great journey of conjecture so let’s finish it by saying – Peak Jack with modern equipment and physical conditioning would hit the ball somewhere around the 320 yard mark on average.
