AUGUSTA | There’s never a dull moment with the storytelling and pecking between Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player at the Masters Tournament. Accompanied by Tom Watson this year, they recounted their prowess on the golf course.
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A reporter asked to identify the last time they recorded a score under their age.
At 86 for Player, 82 for Nicklaus and 72 for Watson, the responses surprised the audience. Without bragging of course!
Nicklaus even replied for his great rival and friend from South Australia.
“As late as last week. Gary came off the course and when I saw him he was angry. He had just missed a six-foot putt. I choked. I asked him what he had done.
“He said, ‘If I had done it, I would have played 18 shots under my age.’ I thought it was therefore a score of 72. He replied: “No, 68. It’s not worse at 86 years old. »
When we talk regarding the pipe draw between the two living legends of sport…
And Player does not play advanced mounds, especially not.
“This young man still knows how to play very well,” replied Nicklaus, who does not remember well the last time he broke his age on a course.
To add to the good words of his sidekick, Player added that he beat his age more than 2000 times in a row. The account would be there since he has 142 professional career victories.
None of his colleagues contradicted him.
But according to their words, Sam Snead would have improved his age on the course from 59 years old. In their eyes, he was the finest athlete that golf had ever known.
The first time Nicklaus achieved this personal feat, he had blown 64 candles. Same for the other two.
No doubt, they recite their incredible and interesting stories as well as their golf clubs.
The “rookie” at the start
Called to take over for the ceremonial blows ceremony traditionally launching the Masters Tournament, Watson thanked the leaders of the Augusta National and his valiant colleagues for the invitation.
The man with eight Grand Slam titles, including two conquests of the green jacket in 1977 and 1981, expressed his gratitude on the mound, in front of thousands of “bosses”, before running.
The 72-year-old ‘rookie’ who came on as a relief to Arnold Palmer, who died in 2016, and last year’s guest Lee Elder, who died in November 2021, placed his ball in the driveway at a fortnight yards ahead of Player.
“I was happy when I got the invitation and I’m humbled right now because the way I look at those two ‘old goats’ by my side, I’m not able to walk in their shoes,” commented Watson at a press conference. I do not belong to the same group as these two golfers. »
Nicklaus has 18 Majors while Player has won nine. Between them, they have 35 Grand Slam tournaments behind the tie.
No matter the number, a new trio is born.
But to observe and listen to Nicklaus, we feel that his health is bad. We see a “Golden Bear” more frail, more fragile.
In a press conference, he said he was “personally lucky to be able to participate, period” by pointing out to his friends that they knew what was going on. The octogenarian, however, did not go further.
