Golf: A Different Game

A golfer who hits a two-iron 210 yds. to within 3 in. of the pin and then complains, “Shucks, I pulled it,” either has to be kidding—or Jack Nicklaus. Other people play golf; Nicklaus plays a different game. Last week, shooting what he called “the best competitive round” of that game he has ever played, Jack won the Sahara Invitational and boosted his season’s earnings to an all-time record of $211,000.

On the first hole at Las Vegas’ Paradise Valley Country Club, Nicklaus elected to use a No. 3 wood off the tee, blasted the ball nearly 400 yds., and collected his first birdie of the day. At the end of nine, Jack was three strokes under par. On the 375-yd., par-four tenth hole, his tee shot left him 85 yds. from the pin. Jack put his wedge to work. The ball sailed onto the green, bounced, bit, and dropped into the hole for an eagle two. Darn, groused Jack: “I hit it too solidly. It nearly got out of the cup.”

There is no telling what the score might have been if Nicklaus’ putter had been hot. Twice in the next eight holes he hung birdie putts on the lip of the cup; on the 15th, he blew an easy 41-footer and took a bogey. But he birdied the llth, and 13th and the 14th, and on the 495 yd., par-five 17th, he collected his second eagle—covering those 495 yds. with a drive, a No. 4 iron and a 12-ft. putt. With a par on the 18th, Jack was finished. His score: 33 on the front nine, 29 on the back, a total of 62 for a nine-under-par round. Sighed his playing partner, Bob Goalby, who shot a 68 himself: “He made me feel like I didn’t belong out there.”