Pair invokes nostalgia

Nicklaus and Watson tee it up at Bayer Classic

By Rick Dean
Courtesy of The Topeka Capital-Journal

The occasion meant nothing to him at the time.

It's only now, nearly 40 years later, that Jack Nicklaus even has reason to recall that 1967 day in Topeka when he first played golf with the wavy redhaired kid from Kansas City's Pembroke Hill Academy.

But the kid, now 55 years old, remembers the day vividly. The chance to play with the world's best golfer isn't something you forget, even if some minor details blur over four decades.

"I was 16 and was invited to play at Topeka Country Club with the (Kansas) women's amateur champion -- McDonald was her name, I think -- on a cold day in March," he recalled. "I popped up my drive off the first hole -- hit it off the top of the club straight up into the air about 100 yards. I was so embarrassed, even though I ended up making par on the hole."

"But watching Jack play a round that day was a great joy. I always looked at Jack as the guy I tried to emulate. When I was playing the satellite tour, I'd finish my round in the morning and follow Jack around in the afternoon. I had that much respect for him. I still do."  

Just for the record, the Kansas women's amateur champion that day was Jean Ashley. Bill McDonald, one of Topeka's premier golfers of that time, was the kid's playing partner.

Also for the record, it was the last time Tom Watson ever embarrassed himself in the presence of Jack Nicklaus, who at the time had won five of his eventual 18 major championships.

"He's inconsistent at times like a lot of young golfers, but the thing about Tom that impressed me was the way he took the club back," Nicklaus told The Capital-Journal on that May 1 day. "Tom looks like he'll be a real fine player."

Today, a long-standing relationship that began unknowingly for Nicklaus on that day in Topeka reaches a historical milestone on a Nicklaus-designed golf course just minutes from Watson's home.

Nicklaus and Watson, fierce rivals for golf supremacy in the late 1970s and early '80s, will play together today and Saturday at what could be Nicklaus' last competitive tournament in the United States. The occasion is the Bayer Advantage Classic, a PGA Champions event at the Nicklaus Golf Club at LionsGate.

The weekend tournament, with its two days of Nicklaus-Watson pairings, will be more sentimental for golf fans than for the 65-year-old Nicklaus. The Golden Bear's voice never shows emotion when discussing his retirement from competitive golf after 73 PGA victories.

"I always said I would play as long as I could successfully compete and enjoy it," he told reporters Thursday before playing a pro-am round before a large gallery.

"Well, I don't enjoy shooting 75 or 80 and going home," Nicklaus said. "That's not fun for me. I haven't had what I consider a golf game for some time. I have a semblance of a golf game. I can shoot 75 occasionally. But it's almost become a chore for me to compete (in tournament golf)."  

Like many of Nicklaus' contemporaries, Watson -- whose legendary pitch in on the 17th hole at Pebble Beach gave him the 1982 U.S. Open victory over Nicklaus-- scoffs at Nicklaus' statement that this year's British Open at St. Andrews will be Nicklaus' last competitive tournament.

"He isn't quitting!" he called out as Nicklaus explained his desire to step away from tournaments and concentrate on his new life as a course designer and, among other interests, a recreational fisherman.

"Really?" a bemused Nicklaus called back with a "watch-me" look to his host during his weekend in Kansas City.

Nicklaus was a frequent participant in Watson's annual fundraising tournament for Children's Mercy Hospital, but he has avoided KC's stop on the Champions Tour. He would have skipped this one had not his son, Steve, expressed a desire to play with his father.

Golf has been therapeutic for the pair since last March when Steve's 17-month old son, Jake, drowned in a tragic accident.

"I had no intention of playing much golf after we lost Jake," Jack Nicklaus said. "But it was Steve who wanted to play, which is the only reason I played (in the Masters) this year. We've really played a lot as a way of spending time together."

But as his scores continue to grow, Nicklaus' competitive hunger wanes. His last PGA title was one of his most memorable, his 1986 Masters victory at age 46. Since then he's won 10 times on the Champions Tour, but his heart was never really in the senior circuit.

"I enjoyed the competition," he said, "but it was not the competition where we made our names. Now I can't compete on anything but the 65-and-up circuit, and I don't want to be part of that."

When Nicklaus failed to make the cut last month at The Memorial, the tournament he hosts in his native Ohio, he announced that he'd played his last PGA Tour event. But he never says never. He will reserve the right to play in his own tournament, he said, if organizers don't close a spot to a more deserving player to accommodate the host.

This weekend he'll give Kansas City fans what he hopes is a last good show.

Asked if he could turn back the clock and replay any one round of golf in his career, a whimsical Nicklaus flashed back to a time when the golf world was his domain and challengers only waited their turn.

"I'd go back to Topeka and play Tom again when he was 16," he said.