Jack Nicklaus has suggested why he found the majors easier to win than regular events on the PGA Tour, with Tiger Woods also possessing the same skill.

Of course, Nicklaus is the most successful male golfer of all-time. The Golden Bear won 18 majors during his incredible career, more than any other player.

In fact, Nicklaus has exactly double the number of major wins as the players in fourth on the all-time list.

Why Jack Nicklaus found winning the majors much easier than regular events

Obviously, talent was a key reason for his success. But Nicklaus also seemed to have such a strong mental game, going all the way back to his first major victory – which came after a playoff with Arnold Palmer at the 1962 US Open in Palmer’s backyard at Oakmont.

The fans were certainly not on Nicklaus’ side that week.

Interestingly, Nicklaus received a boost from knowing just how nervous players were about the prospect of winning a major.

Speaking on Winners of the Wanamaker, Nicklaus explained to Rich Beem how important his mentality was to helping him win the four biggest events of the season.

“I geared my whole year around the four major championships. And the PGA when we played was always the fourth one, except for ’71. When you get to the last one, that’s your last shot of the year, so you want to give it your best shot. The way I looked at it, when I played in a golf tournament, I wanted to put myself in a position to be able to win,” he said.

“If I happened to win it, great, but I didn’t want to lose it through stupidity or through doing something. I wanted somebody to have to beat me to win. And I got beat a few times. But after the first couple of years, I gave the thing away at Lytham, at the British Open, I didn’t give many tournaments away.

“Much like Tiger, I think Tiger looked at the leaderboard a lot. And when he looked at the leaderboard, he saw ‘Smith, Jones, Taylor’, whatever it might be, names he’d never heard of. He says, well I just need to play good solid golf to finish. If I looked at the leaderboard and I saw Palmer, Player, Casper, Trevino, Watson, I knew I had to play. But if I saw those other names, all I needed to do was go play good solid golf.

“Most people self-destruct, particularly in a major. Majors, I felt, were easier to win coming down the stretch because people were afraid to win majors. That’s what I did when it got to the PGA.”

The most remarkable statistic from Jack Nicklaus’ major career may not actually be the amount of wins

Nicklaus is unquestionably one of the most important golfers the game has ever had. He would certainly take a place on most people’s Mount Rushmore of golfing greats.

And his record in the majors speaks for itself. Not only did he win 18 times, but he also managed to finish second on 19 occasions.

Obviously, the amount of victories jump off the page. But Nicklaus probably does not get enough credit for the fact that he has registered 73 top 10s in the majors.

To put that into some context, Rory McIlroy has played in 68 majors across his career. So he will have to play in five more before his appearance tally matches the number of top 10s Nicklaus had.

Nicklaus finished outside the top 10 in the majors on just five occasions throughout the 1970s. Two of those results saw him still finish inside the top 15.

Incredibly, Woods and McIlroy combined only achieved two more top 10s than Nicklaus on his own.