Nicklaus

ANDREWS, Scotland -- First, it was Arnold Palmer on Friday morning walking his final 18 holes in a British Open, over the hallowed soil of the Old Course at St. Andrews, where he revived this championship 35 years ago. Yesterday, it was time for Jack Nicklaus to follow suit, as he said a partial farewell to the tournament he's competed in since 1962.He rolled in a 5-foot putt on the 18th hole for a birdie and a 71296 valedictory that included a woeful 10 on the 14th hole in Thursday's opening round.

Dart hits McIlroy George Diaz Orlando Sentinel Got some darts? Might as well be throwing them to pick a winner in the PGA Championship. With his victory at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational last weekend, Adam Scott became the 10th different winner in the last 10 PGA events. And with Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods winless in that span, there's zero reason to trust their game over 72 holes. So, the envelope please: Rory McIlroy. He likes the weather hot and sticky, and that's just how it's going to be in Georgia this week.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Looking for one last hurrah, Jack Nicklaus, who has won more Masters tournaments than anyone, was describing his first-round performance when suddenly he was joined by an unannounced visitor. It was the kid from the amateur ranks, Phil Mickelson, who unexpectedly walked in on an in-progress news conference.Nicklaus was relating how it felt to be on the scoreboard with an opening 68, only a shot off the lead, when he was joined by Mickelson, the 20-year-old collegian who is a member of the Arizona State University golf team and holder of the national amateur title.

Eighteen suddenly seems like an awfully large number, like Roger Maris' 61 and Hank Aaron's 755. Those figures towered over baseball until sluggers began injecting power into their veins. But Tiger Woods won't be able to ingest his way to Jack Nicklaus' record for major championships. If there existed a pill to help make 12-footers, we all would have taken it by now. Just 81/2 months ago, around the time Americans were pouring gravy on their stuffing and dark meat, Woods seemed an absolute cinch to reach 18. Not yet 34, Woods had claimed 14 majors, one by 15 strokes (the 2000 U.S. Open)

The images from Shoal Creek had faded from memory:The pickets and protests outside the Birmingham, Ala., golf club whose president, Hall Thompson, fiercely defended its right to a private, all-white membership.The insensitive remarks from prominent members of the PGA Tour inside the press tent during the 1990 PGA Championship.But those memories were stirred recently when one of the most celebrated and respected players in the game's history was asked why blacks had not made more of an impact at the highest levels of the sport.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The Bear is growling again, and although Jack Nicklaus may not be happy with his golf game, he can still beat the best on the Senior PGA Tour.Nicklaus turned back the challenge of tough Isao Aoki on the third playoff hole yesterday at Desert Mountain to win his third Tradition."I was tickled pink," Nicklaus said. "I hadn't won in two years, and this was tough. It just shows that hard work can pay off. I played better today, and winning makes it great."It's a great finish when all three in the final group shoot 67s. I'm very encouraged.

TULSA, Okla. -- Jack Nicklaus, whose recent comments to a British Columbia newspaper about the lack of black players in professional golf drew criticism from Sports Illustrated and from blacks in the sport, tried to clarify his remarks yesterday.In a two-paragraph statement released through his publicists, Nicklaus said, "I would like to personally clarify an issue which has unfortunately been misinterpreted by some of you. Despite confusion over my initial comments and the resulting publicity, let me make clear the position and feelings: I have never knowingly or willingly made a statement or action that is racist."

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Jack Nicklaus was uncharacteristically erratic yesterday, but his flashes of brilliance outweighed his mistakes and gave him the lead in the first round of The Tradition at Desert Mountain.Nicklaus made just seven pars, but offset a bogey and double bogey with eight birdies and an eagle for a 7-under-par 65.Nicklaus is after his third straight championship in the $800,000 tournament, played on the 6,864-yard Cochise Course he designed Desert Mountain.Scores were low because of greens softened by nearly a week of sometimes heavy rain.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- A time capsule was opened at Augusta National Golf Club yesterday. Magnolia Lane turned into Memory Lane. It could have been 1966. Or '76. Or '86.It began with Arnold Palmer making birdies on his first three holes. The roars filled the cool morning air and raised goose bumps on nearly everyone, including Jack Nicklaus."I got to the first tee and people were saying, 'Did you see what Arnold did?' " Nicklaus said. "When he birdied the first three holes, that sort of relaxed me. I said, 'Well, I can't let Arnold be low senior.

OAKMONT, Pa. -- After the final round of the 1992 U.S. Open, Jack Nicklaus greeted Colin Montgomerie in the television tower behind the 18th green at Pebble Beach."

Nine weeks to make a move. That's the time remaining until the British Open, with the U.S. Open three weeks earlier. And it might loom as the most critical juncture in Tiger Woods' closing push toward 19 major titles. His neck hurts every time he swings a golf club. His body seems in persistent breakdown mode. When Woods does get back to the range, the man he entrusted with his swing for six years won't be around. As recently as six months ago, the planets seemed aligned in 2010 for Woods to take a chunk out of the five majors he needs to break Jack Nicklaus' gold standard.

AUGUSTA, Ga.-- --The murmurs erupted into a chorus of cheers when each man took his place at the first tee box. What year was this? 1968? 2008? If it weren't for the digital cameras held high along the short fairway, like flickering torches lighting the path to the green, you'd never know. And you wouldn't care. The first round of golf I'd ever witness at Augusta National wasn't a threesome as much as a Mount Rushmore ripoff: Jack Nicklaus, 68, who first played here in 1959 and has won six green jackets in 45 Masters appearances; Arnold Palmer, 78, who first played here in 1955 and has four wins in 50 tries, and Gary Player, 72, who has won three times and tees off for the 51st time today.

TULSA, Okla. -- Row after row, they rose to their feet in the sun-splashed late afternoon and cheered as Tiger Woods reached the 18th green at Southern Hills Country Club, ready for another chapter of history to be written, this time right before their eyes. He didn't keep them waiting for long. Woods carefully steered a three-foot par putt into the hole to conclude his round of 69, then picked the ball out of the cup, faced the gallery and raised both arms in his own salute. Perhaps predictably, that's how the PGA Championship ended yesterday, with Woods the winner for a fourth time and second year in a row, his 13th major title safely tucked away and one step closer to the only record that matters to him. His margin of victory was small, only two shots over Woody Austin, who had a 67, and by three over Ernie Els, who had a 66. But the ramifications are great.

GAINESVILLE, VA. -- Presidents Cup As Chris DiMarco surveyed the 15-foot birdie putt he was about to take on the 18th green yesterday at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, his caddie, Pat O'Bryan, said quietly, "It's the moment you've been waiting for your whole life, so go ahead and do it." DiMarco, who went from stalwart to star over the course of four days in this year's Presidents Cup, seized the moment, and the U.S. team, which had been waiting five years to win an international competition, took home a trophy that it had shared in South Africa in 2003.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland - Once again, there was no stopping Tiger Woods, not the pressure of a Sunday with a major championship on the line, not a swirling wind, not the burden of history and not the heat generated by those determined to chase him down. The sky above the Old Course was as gray as the stone buildings that line the 18th fairway when Woods closed out his round of 2-under-par 70 yesterday, winning the British Open for a second time and completing his second career Grand Slam.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland - Of all the accolades that have come his way, Jack Nicklaus always has aimed for the one he felt worthy of this last time. After the final round of his championship career, he said, "I was a golfer today." It kind of went without saying that he always has been a golfer, and likely is the best one who ever lived. Tom Watson did say just that after he saw Nicklaus' farewell to major championship golf on the 18th hole at St. Andrews yesterday, calling him "the greatest player who has ever played the game."

BETHESDA -- Tom Weiskopf spent the better part of 20 years on the PGA Tour trying to win a major championship in the United States, while also trying to remove himself from the massive shadow of a legend named Jack Nicklaus. He came close to winning several, but Nicklaus always seemed to be in the way.What Weiskopf couldn't accomplish during his prime, he finally succeeded at yesterday in the 16th U.S. Senior Open. Though Nicklaus still managed to draw some of the loudest roars at Congressional Country Club in a final-round 67 that included a hole-in-one, he couldn't get in Weiskopf's way.Nor could anybody else.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland - On yet another day when it seemed that no one could catch Tiger Woods, history gave him a reminder about whom he is trying to catch. Woods crossed paths with Jack Nicklaus yesterday in the British Open interview tent, on the way to the record book. "Good playing!" Nicklaus said to Woods, giving him a pat on the midsection as they met between news conferences at the Old Course. Woods, who was coming in to talk about being 11-under par after two rounds and leading the Open by four strokes, knew it wasn't just another day, and that the compliment wasn't coming from just anybody.

Nobody could quite believe what they were seeing that day. Perhaps because almost nobody saw it. Jack Nicklaus swung at a golf ball, and it seemed to obey him. Not a bad trick for a 10-year-old. Jackie, as he was known back then, shot 51 on the first nine holes he ever played. Fifty-five years, 73 professional wins, 18 majors, one wife, five children, three body types, one hip replacement and millions of spectators later, Nicklaus' career is about to end in the perfect spot. St. Andrews, Scotland.