Nicklaus on Woods and Record:
‘I’d be first to shake his hand’
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Jack Nicklaus is an interview at any time, but especially on the 25th anniversary of his winning his sixth and last Masters at the age of 46, that in 1986. Remember? He was using an elephant-killer of a putter, something that looked like half a loaf stuck on a stick, and which, of course, then backed up sale orders for the thing until that July. Anyway, Nicklaus had finished his welcome-back interview, and the scrum immediately formed in front of the low stage in Augusta National’s interview room. The scrum – taken from the rugby terminology -- is that disorganized and sometimes polite crush of writers, each seeking a morsel of information for a particular line of inquiry. Nicklaus’ regular interview had been transcribed by a court reporter, but there is no recording of the question that came from the scrum.Said the writer: “Jack, do you want to see Tiger break your record?”
For pure inelegance, it’s hard to beat that question. The look on Nicklaus’ face fell somewhere between shocked and blank for, oh, 10 seconds or so. But he fielded it perfectly. All the lawyers in Augusta National couldn’t have crafted a better answer, nor done it faster.
“Do I want to see it?” Nicklaus said, searching for just the right answer. And he found it, and a finer bit of subtlety you couldn’t ask for. “If he breaks it,” Nicklaus said, “I’d like to see it.”
Nicklaus will go be an honorary starter with Arnie Palmer Thursday morning, and that will be the start and finish of his 2011 Masters. Whether Nicklaus lives long enough to see his record of victories in 18 majors eclipsed is one thing, but he’s hardly rooting for it to happen, Woods or no Woods.
“Nobody wants to see his records broken,” Nicklaus said, clearly figuring that someone in that cluster had to have that explained. “Why would I want to give up my record? Why would I say that?”
Nicklaus, now 71, racked up six Masters, four U.S. Opens, three British Opens and five PGAs – a total of 18. Woods has 14 majors, including four Masters, the last of them in 2005. He has often said that breaking Nicklaus’ is his Holy Grail. He hasn’t won anything since late in the 2009 season. His personal life crashed and burned in parking lots and seedy trysts over the years, and his game has come apart at the seams, and so far has resisted anything resembling restoration. He’s been the toy that keeps losing one part the instant the kid gets something else put on. Time was when it was accepted as dogma that Woods would break Nicklaus’ record. But Woods has sprung a variety of leaks, and he’s 35 now, and his clock is ticking.
But Nicklaus is not among the doubters. “I think Tiger will probably break my record,” Nicklaus said. “I don’t think too much about it, to be honest. Too busy doing other things. I don’t think about mine. Certainly don’t bother with that too much unless somebody asked me a question about it.”
But everything, he said, points to Woods breaking it.
“I’ve said many times that he’s got a great work ethic and he’s a very talented young man,” Nicklaus said. “And equipment will help extend his career beyond what it extended mine. I assume that he’ll get his focus back on what he’s doing, and he will probably pass my record.
“But then the last part I always say about it is, he’s still got to do it. He’s still got to win five more, and that,” Nicklaus added, “is more than a career for anybody else playing.”
“The Bird of Time has but a little way to fly …” Omar wrote.
“Last year was an important year,” Nicklaus said. The implication hits like a hammer. Three of the four majors in 2010 were played on courses he had frolicked on – Augusta National, Pebble Beach and St. Andrews. And so he was heavily favored on all of them.
“I knew if he won one or two, he would break my record more easily,” Nicklaus said.
But Woods won none.
“Now this year,” Nicklaus said, “is a very important year for him. The longer it goes, the tougher it’s going to be. That’s just simple mathematics.”
Woods is now in his 17th Masters, his15th as a pro. He missed the cut once, in 1996, as an amateur. He won in 1997, his first as a pro, and in 2001, ’02 and ’05. He’s had seven top-3 finishes, nine top-5s, 11 top-10s. In short, he owns Augusta National and the Masters.
How do you wish a guy well without wishing yourself out of the record book? Well, unless you’re a flower child living in some existential time warp, you don’t. So Nicklaus is clear about his own feelings. He hopes his record stands. And Nicklaus wouldn’t be human if deep down in the secret little recesses of himself, he didn’t maybe wish Woods a nifty snap hook here or a missed gimme there. But if he has, it’s still deep down in those little recesses.
“Nobody wants to see his record broken,” Nicklaus said, underlining himself. “But if he does, I want to be the first to shake his hand.”
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