DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) -- It took two years, but Jack Nicklaus finally made a
cut in a PGA Tour event.
Now he wants more.
``Once you start playing and once you start playing well, the cut is not
your goal,'' Nicklaus said Friday after shooting a 74 to survive the cut bu a
shot in his own Memorial Tournament.
``It's nice to make the cut, but the goal is to get myself in contention and
play some golf. I did that for a while. I wanted to kick myself real hard for
giving it back away.''
At 62, Nicklaus is enough of a realist to understand that he can no longer
contend with Tiger Woods and the rest of the premier players in the world.
Hampered by injuries and cutting back his schedule to accommodate his
business interests and family, he had not made a cut since the 2000
Memorial.
Nicklaus has a lot of pride. He plans no ceremonial tours in the near
future.
``I don't want to go out there, walk around, shoot 85 and wave to
everybody with a false smile on my face,'' Nicklaus said after shooting an
age-defying 71 on Thursday. ``That's not me.''
Nicklaus birdied two of the first three holes in the second round and, just
like in his younger days, started squinting at the leaderboard to see where
3 under put him and what he needed to do to move up higher.
``It sort of got me excited. I didn't get nervous, anything like that. I
thought, 'Boy, I've got a chance here to do some good,''' Nicklaus said.
He did just the opposite. Nicklaus bogeyed the next three holes, then made
two more bogeys at Nos. 9 and 10.
``I just messed up. Probably a lot of that is from because the little
competition I've had has not been enough to keep me sharp enough,'' he
said.
He righted himself with a string of pars and then birdied the 17th hole to
get back to 1 over for the tournament. He knew when the putt fell that,
barring a problem at the last hole, he would be playing on the weekend.
Sam Snead, who died Thursday afternoon, holds the tour record for being
the oldest to ever make a cut. He was 67 when he made the cut in the 1979
Westchester Classic.
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