'Retired' Nicklaus is still everywhere in golf world
SALEM, S.C. -- The most powerful man in golf is plucking folded turkey slices off a deli plate with his fingers. Jack Nicklaus just finished doing a 40-minute gig with the local media and now has about 15 minutes to duck into a private golf cottage, chow down on cold cuts, rinse his contacts and answer a few more questions before he has to conduct a clinic and then play the inaugural round at his latest course, the drop-dead gorgeous The Cliffs at Keowee Falls.
Nicklaus isn't too busy. Last week he was in Texas, Vancouver Island, Japan, China, Korea, Arizona and on Saturday, the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He leaves two days later for Boston, then heads to the west coast of Africa, and from there to Ireland and Scotland.
"People talk about jet lag," said the 67-year-old Nicklaus. "I keep moving and never let it catch me … I've got more energy than you can imagine."
And clout too. Golf Inc. Magazine didn't name Nicklaus the sport's biggest mover and shaker in 2004, 2005 and 2006 by accident. He hasn't won a major in more than 20 years, hasn't played a competitive round in almost two years (save for a Skins Game here and there) and yet Nicklaus is the Oprah of golf. He's everywhere.
Nicklaus has his own magazine, clothing line, equipment line, tournament, museum, calendar and currency (a Royal Bank of Scotland-issued 5-pound note bearing his likeness, as well as a 113-gram gold coin -- legal tender in the Cook Islands -- that features Nicklaus on one side, the Queen of England on the other). He has the legacy of those 18 major victories and, of course, a golf architecture empire.
That's why he was in South Carolina a few days ago. You hire Nicklaus himself to design your course and you get all the perks, including his drawing power. But he doesn't come cheaply. Depending on the project, his design fee can be in the $2 million vicinity.
There were so many people at the Keowee Falls opening that the real estate developer used a shuttle system to transport visitors from a huge gravel lot to the course about a half-mile away. I saw lots of Range Rovers, BMWs and seersucker pants. Good thing, too, since those just-completed, 3,000-square foot "cottages" go for anywhere from $800,000 to $1.7 million (though the new owners get a personalized concierge service that will even arrange for personalized music).
Nicklaus played six holes before an afternoon downpour forced him back to the hospitality tent with the rich people. No problem. He spent about two hours talking about the layout, happily agreed to a Q&A session and then signed autographs until there was nothing left to sign.
Sales, said one of the developer associates, were very good.
I wasn't there to buy, but to listen. I last saw Nicklaus at the 2005 British Open at St. Andrews, where he missed the cut, but birdied the final hole of his competitive playing career. But his pre-tournament and post-round interview sessions were required stuff because Nicklaus always had something interesting to say. He still does.
Nicklaus was his generation's Tiger Woods. It is Nicklaus' 18 majors that Woods pursues, which partly explains why Woods has systematically reduced the number of tournaments he plays. A New York Times columnist recently called him "the J.D. Salinger of golf."
Woods played a Tour-mininum 15 events a year ago, but to be fair, a large portion of his absence was related to the death of his father. This season he has played seven Tour events and is expected to play another 10 or 11 tournaments, though that could change with the birth of his child later this summer.
"Does he have an obligation to play some? Yes, and he does play," said Nicklaus. "What does he play, about 15? That's about what I played. That's a pretty good number, I think.
"I know he always supported me [Nicklaus' The Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio], always supported Arnold [the Arnold Palmer Invitational], always supported Byron [Nelson, who died last September; Woods skipped this year's EDS Byron Nelson Championship]. He supported the areas where he grew up in Southern California."
So he's earned the right to be more selective?
"I think so," said Nicklaus, who compares Woods' influence on the sport to that of Palmer and himself. "I think with Tiger, the Tour has come to another level. And I think he has been part of helping it go to that level. I think he's earned the right to do a lot of those things. To try to mandate to Tiger that he play a bunch of places that he doesn't want to play, or doesn't really fit what he's trying to accomplish as a goal … I assume his primary goal is to win as many majors as he can. And to do that, you just don't go and become a globe-trotter.
"He does play outside the United States. He's taken the game internationally to a lot of places. Sure, he gets paid a lot of money for it. But he still does it."
Woods is 31 and already has won 12 majors. It's simple math, said Nicklaus. If Woods stays healthy, Nicklaus' record will soon be broken.
"Oh, I think he probably will [break it]," said Nicklaus. "He probably should. He's got that in his mind and as a goal. I think he's as talented a player as I've ever seen. I think he's absolutely fantastic. Will he? Who knows, but I would say he has a lot of years to win not many more tournaments. If he wins one a year for the next, what, seven years … that's not that big a feat."
Other than during his own tournament, which begins May 31, Nicklaus doesn't watch golf. His travel schedule is too nutty and his family obligations are too numerous. To prove the point, Nicklaus reaches into his pocket and pulls out a laminated card that includes the full names and birthdays of each of his 20 grandchildren, as well as the birthdays and wedding anniversaries of his own children.
"My secretary made it," he said. "The middle names are the toughest to remember."
But Nicklaus still has opinions. I tell him he's just been appointed the Tour's new commissioner and that he can change any three things. He responds by almost spitting out a bite of turkey.
"First of all, I wouldn't take the job," he said. "I would turn it down because I wouldn't know what to change. How's that?"
Nicklaus said he thinks Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has done "a great job." So I tell him he's been named Golf Czar and can change anything in the sport.
"Equipment," he said. "That would be one thing I would do. I would fix the friggin' equipment."
The problem is this: The difference between what a pro can do with the latest club technology compared to what an amateur can do with it continues to grow wider. Unless golf's two ruling bodies can figure out a way to even things up (a standardized golf ball?), the pros will continue to make courses obsolete and create a bigger disconnect with the amateur players.
"The whole idea of the R&A and the USGA is to try to play the same equipment for the average golfer and the pro, and they couldn't be friggin' further apart," Nicklaus said.
The same could be said for the Europeans and the U.S. players when it comes to the Ryder Cup. Team Europe has earned the last three Cups and five of the last six. The 2006 and 2004 competitions were complete routs.
"I think the Ryder Cup has become a bigger deal for them than it has for us," said Nicklaus, who played on six Ryder Cup teams and captained two other U.S. teams. "We no longer dominate the game. The game is a worldwide game and it's going to continue that way. There are a lot more people outside the United States than there are inside the United States. Just because we happened to dominate before doesn't mean we're going to continue to. And that's probably great for the game of golf."
An assistant standing nearby glances at his watch. The clinic was supposed to start five minutes ago and people have sighted Nicklaus from the outside and are beginning to inch toward the cottage windows with their digital cameras. So Nicklaus scarfs down one last item from the deli tray, disappears into the downstairs bathroom to fix his contacts, reemerges a couple of minutes later and then says, "Ready to go?"
A golf cart waits outside, complete with a caddie in Masters-like white coveralls with Nicklaus' name on the back. Nicklaus does the clinic, then pars the first hole, and then sticks his approach shot to 8 inches for a birdie on the par-5 second hole.
This is why they came. Not to see Nicklaus the golf architect, but Nicklaus the Golden Bear. One more time.
Gene Wojciechowski is the senior national columnist for ESPN.com. You can contact him at gene.wojciechowski@espn3.com.
