Jack Nicklaus Says Good-bye to British Open Crowd

Only the Scots could invent a game that teaches humility with every shot. There are few arrogant jackasses in professional golf because their character doesn’t permit them to excel. Among touring pros, this inbred humility allows them to express their special admiration for Jack Nicklaus, who said farewell to the British Open on Friday, missing the cut by 3 strokes. They are all unashamedly standing on his shoulders.

Tiger Woods, who incidentally won the Open by 5 strokes, said, "He's been the greatest champion in the history of our sport. No one has ever played the majors as well as him -- he is just the greatest. It has been an honor to be around him." Long-time rival, Tom Watson, openly wept on the 18th green at the end of it all, and said, "You saw the greatest player who has ever played the game come up the 18th hole at the Old Course, his favorite course in golf." Yet, the Golden Bear himself said, “I was delighted to finish with a 72, the best round I've shot this year. I've played well and I've missed the cut by three shots. Then you know it's time to leave.” At 65, he’s not what he was.

Long, long ago, on a golf course far, far away, Jack Nicklaus was unpopular. He was a kid who dared to play well enough to challenge Arnold Palmer for the title of world’s greatest. And Arnie’s Army were an unforgiving bunch. Golf has no hooligans, but there were hard feelings that went beyond rivalry – never between the two golfers, but among their followers. Age decided the matter, as Mr. Palmer got old first. After the 1965 Masters, where he beat Mr. Palmer and Gary Player by 9 shots, Bobby Jones (the greatests of his generation) said Jack, “played a game with which I am not familiar.”

For a time, Jack Nicklaus was the one to beat on Sunday – and often on Saturday. Time went on, and he, too, lost something of what he was. He became beatable. Then, he became the man who could still make a tournament of it if he put a few strong holes together. By 1986, the 46-year-old Jack Nicklaus hadn’t finished at the top of the leader board in two years or won a major in six. Then at Augusta, he found one last round, the greatest charge golf had seen in ages, if ever. A final round 65, and a 30 on the back nine; holes 15, 16, and 17 were eagle, birdie, birdie.

And so at the Old Course at St. Andrews, he played his final round before the British fans who had marveled at him for years (so much so that the Royal Bank of Scotland has put him on a £5 note). He stood a moment or two on Swilken Bridge so the kids at the college one the other side of the green could wave and take a picture for Mam, as the Scots pronounce it. He came up to the 18th green and sank a 12-footer for birdie. “I knew that the hole would move wherever I hit it,” he later joked. The fairy tale ending didn’t come true, though. He missed the cut. And that is how golf teaches humility.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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