NEWPORT BEACH – Jack Nicklaus, arguably the greatest golfer of all time, knows how to make a ballroom full of avid golfers — weekend hackers and country club members alike — feel better about their game.
As the featured speaker at the annual Hoag Classic community breakfast on Tuesday at Balboa Bay Club, Nicklaus casually mentioned the state of his golf game these days. The winner of a record 18 major championships and 120 tournaments around the world said he has played one round this year. Keep in mind that he turned 85 in January.
“I played in the father-son (event) at The Bear’s Club, because my grandkids wanted to play,” Nicklaus said, referring to his family’s exclusive private club that he designed in Jupiter, Fla., not far from his longtime home in West Palm Beach. “So, they gave me a 14 handicap, and I shot 91. That’s about what I shoot.”
There you go. Feel better now?
There’s more. At a charity fundraiser called “The Jake” that was named after a 17-month-old grandson he lost in a drowning accident years ago, Nicklaus “came out of retirement” last winter to auction off a round of golf with him “at a golf course of my choice.”
To make a long story short, the bidding started at $500,000, and Nicklaus eventually agreed to play with three groups at $700,000 apiece.
“The course of my choice ended up being Augusta (National),” Nicklaus revealed, “so I took these three groups to Augusta, three days in a row in April last year (after The Masters). I shot 88, 90 and 91 – that’s my game now. And you know what? I never hit an iron to (reach) a par-3, par-4 or par-5; that’s how far I hit it now.
“Anyway, I had a great time, and we raised a lot of money for our foundation – about $4.8 million for one event. Pretty good. I’m proud of that.”
That elicited one of many thunderous ovations from the audience of 500 who shelled out $5,000 for a table to hear “The Golden Bear” tell stories, this time benefiting the Hoag Orthopedic Institute. And Nicklaus clearly loves hospital charities, because he and his wife Barbara have raised more than $200 million for the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation over the past 20 years.
Nicklaus seems to enjoy reciting those numbers even more than the numbers that have made him one of the most famous athletes in sports history and earned him Sports Illustrated’s distinction as the “Individual Male Athlete of the 20th Century” and one of the “10 Greatest Athletes of the Century” by ESPN.
Perhaps that helps explain why he also received a standing ovation Tuesday when he announced, midway through his Q&A: “I’m embarrassed, but I need to use the little boys room. Give me two minutes, and I’ll be right back.” (This also led to a ballroom stampede by dozens who felt a similar urge, or merely wanted to emulate Nicklaus.)
Upon his return, Nicklaus did tell a few golf stories to entertain the audience, and suffice to say he has a zero handicap when remembering the details of tournaments he played in 60 years ago. He remembered his first check as a professional, the season-opening 1962 LA Open at Rancho Park. “Hauled in a big check of $333.33 for tying for 50th place,” he quipped, adding that he made $440 at Torrey Pines, $330 at Pebble Beach, $256 at Palm Springs and $3,200 for second place in Phoenix.
The 1962 Phoenix Open also was memorable to him, because he played in the last group with Arnold Palmer, then the world’s most popular and successful pro golfer and 10 years older than Jack. “We walked off the 17th green, and Arnie says, ‘If you birdie the last hole, you can finish second, if you play it smart. That was a really nice gesture. So, I birdied the last hole and finished second – and he won by 12 shots!”
Later that year, in his 17th pro tournament, Nicklaus won his first of 73 PGA Tour titles, beating Palmer in an 18-hole playoff to win the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania, essentially in Arnie’s backyard, where everyone was loudly cheering for Palmer and against Nicklaus.
“I didn’t mind it; I was a young kid with blinders on,” Nicklaus recalled. “I didn’t hear anything.” That, however, was not the case in the gallery, where fiery Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes was walking with Jack’s father. “My dad had to restrain Woody,” Nicklaus added, smirking.
Naturally, the conversation eventually turned to Nicklaus’ victory for the ages — or was it for the aged? — at the 1986 Masters, where he won the last of his 18 majors at age 46. All the details are still fresh in his mind, hole by hole, shot by shot. He shot 74 in the first round, 71 in the second round, 69 in the third round.
“Sunday morning, I looked at the leaderboard, and I was four shots behind with eight guys ahead of me,” he recalled. When his son, Steve, called that day, he asked, “Pops, what do you think it will take today?” Jack answered: “I think 66 will tie; 65 will win.”
But Nicklaus, in his own words, said, “I screwed up the front nine,” missing two short putts and treading water at even par through eight holes.
As he lined up a birdie putt on No. 9, a roar from behind him, at the eighth green, startled him. Then came another roar. Turned out, Seve Ballesteros and Tom Kite had both holed third-shot pitch shots for eagle.
“I knew what had happened,” Nicklaus recalled Tuesday. “I turned to the gallery and said, ‘They made some noise; let’s see if we can make some noise here. I made the birdie putt, and the crowd loved it.”
But Nicklaus didn’t think he had a chance at that point. “It made me 1-under – 9,000 shots behind,” he said.
But that was before he played the back nine in 6-under: birdie at No. 10, birdie at No.11, bogey at No. 12, birdie at No. 13, eagle at No. 15, birdie at No. 16, birdie at 17 en route to a record-tying back-nine 30 and 7-under 65, to finish at 9-under for the tournament. He recited his shots and distances on every hole.
Then he went to Butler Cabin, plopped down on the couch and watched as Kite missed a birdie putt on No. 18 and and Greg Norman bogied No. 18 after making five birdies in a row. Nicklaus was a Masters champion again – after the greatest comeback of his career.
“I gave my son a hug,” he said, referring to his caddie Jackie. “That’s what I remember most.”
Another ovation in the ballroom. Jack Nicklaus is still a closer, at age 85, even if he doesn’t shoot his age.
