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Nicklaus Has Lofty Goal This
Week
By Ken Klavon, USGA
Toledo, Ohio – Jack Nicklaus will be the first one to admit
the game isn’t as fun as it used to be.
"Nope," he said Wednesday. "How in the world
could it be? I don’t enjoy going out and finishing 30th,
40th, 50th, missing the cut."
Therein lies the dilemma of the 63-year-old Jack Nicklaus
today compared to the Jack Nicklaus of yesterday. With 73
PGA Tour victories, 10 Champions Tour wins and 20 majors (the
USGA counts the U.S. Amateur as a major) over a 46-year career,
there’s no doubting his place in the game as perhaps its greatest
player.
But over the past five years, injuries and the effects of
age have taken their toll. Hip replacement surgery in 1999
and a sore back have turned him into a mere mortal.
Not in the fans’ minds, though. Nicklaus, like Arnold Palmer,
won’t ever cast a pall on galleries. Both players who met
years ago for the first time in Ohio are, by and large, the
two most dominating presences at the Inverness Club this week.
No matter how they’ve fared the past 10 years or so.
On Tuesday, Palmer attracted an audience young and old, which
still amazes him.
"I saw stuff in the gallery as far as photos and reminiscing
to so many years ago," said Palmer. "And it just
wasn’t one or two. It was a whole group of the gallery."
It was evident while Nicklaus practiced with 2001 Senior
Open champ Bruce Fleisher in the early afternoon. Fans crammed
walkways between holes, hoping for his signature. Nicklaus
obliged, but there were just so many.
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| Jack Nicklaus, who won the Senior Open
in 1991 and 1993, tries getting out of a bunker on Wednesday.
(John Mummert/USGA) |
Waiting to hit on No. 13, Fleisher, a witty sort, mused by
asking who’d be interested in teeing it up with Nicklaus –
for a price.
Nicklaus quipped: "Twenty years ago you might have gotten
$20. The last two years I’d be lucky to get $2." Laughter
everywhere.
On the 14th tee box, longtime Nicklaus admirer
Carol Driscoll of Petersburg, Mich., blurted out, "You’re
a man after my own heart."
Fleisher chuckled heartily. Nicklaus blushed.
As disarming as he tried to be, Nicklaus also kept his concentration
in check, poring over yardage, fairway angles and green undulations
with caddie Scott Lubin.
While Palmer freely admitted that his "objective is
to make the cut," something he hasn’t done in a major
since the 1998 Senior Open, Nicklaus wants more than that.
"Can I win here? Absolutely I can win here," said
Nicklaus of the site that also hosted the 1957 U.S. Open,
his first major. "Would I like to? Obviously I would
like to, or otherwise I wouldn’t be here."
On Tuesday he played a round with Tom Watson, one of his
most formidable rivals during both players’ primes. Over the
years they have become friends, sharing a mutual admiration
for one another.
"You know with Jack all it’s going to take is just four
good days with his back and his hip, because he can hit the
ball straight," said Watson, 10 years younger than Nicklaus.
Leading up to this week, Nicklaus’ best showing on the Champions
Tour was a seventh-place finish in the Kinko’s Classic of
Austin. He has placed no higher than 11th in the
other four events he’s played, failing to make one cut. Worse,
he didn’t make a single cut in the four PGA Tour tournaments
this season.
Part of the problem has been a mediocre short-iron game to
go along with skittish putting. Inverness, as he’s well aware,
will put an emphasis on both. The Donald Ross greens are tiny,
undulating like turtle shells and quick. Even the landing
areas are difficult.
"You can’t put the pressure on your putter," said
Nicklaus. "You’ve got to put it on your golf game.
"I don’t know whether anything will play to the strength
of my game anymore."
However, he’s not quite ready for his golfing epithaph. Two
years ago at Salem Country Club, Nicklaus was in contention
for the Senior Open title until the back nine on the final
day. Last year he withdrew because of back trouble.
He proved in 1991 and 1993 that he could win this event.
Then showed he could still be a factor two years ago.
And that’s precisely what he’s aiming for again.
Ken Klavon is the USGA Web Editor. E-mail him at kklavon@usga.org
with questions and comments.
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