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Nicklaus withdraws from Senior Players Championship June 26 5:44pm ET | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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DEARBORN, Mich. -- First he put aside his pride and rode a
cart, yet the pain in his hip was just too much. The Bear could no
longer bear it.
Jack Nicklaus, who used a cart in competition for the first time Friday, withdrew from the Senior Players Championship after nine holes of the third round Saturday. "You know, it's certainly not my choice," Nicklaus said. "I've always finished. But I felt like I could have caused too much damage today. When they start talking about nerves, that was what bothered me." Nicklaus, who had hip-replacement surgery in January, rode all nine holes at the TPC of Michigan -- a course he designed. He said he decided to quit after the seventh hole, feeling something pinching a nerve. "I told the guys, 'I'll finish nine with you, and that will be the easiest place for the transition,' " Nicklaus said. "I think it's kind of foolish for me to go on and just aggravate something beyond what I should do with it." Despite his discomfort, however, Nicklaus curled in a 12-foot putt for birdie on the ninth hole, giving him a 2-over-par 38 for the side. He had gone 71-74--145 during the first two rounds, heading into the third round nine strokes behind leader Graham Marsh. "But it finally got to where I could not get into my left side hitting golf balls the last three or four holes," Nicklaus said. "It was about as much as I could handle." Nicklaus said he would return home and try to take it easy. "Hopefully, I'll be all right for the U.S. Senior Open (July 8-11 in Des Moines)," Nicklaus said of the event scheduled for July 8-11. "I'll play it by ear." This is only the third time in his long and distinguished career that Nicklaus has withdrawn from a tournament. The first was the 1980 World Series of Golf, where he had to be carried from the practice area. A sore back also forced him from the 1983 Masters. Nicklaus, 59, returned to competition with a titanium left hip at the Senior Tour's Bell Atlantic Classic in May, four months after surgery at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston and played three rounds on a hilly course, the 6,961-yard Hartefeld National Golf Club. Two weeks later, he played at his Memorial Tournament in Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, and made the cut. He also played in the U.S. Open, where he missed the cut. "I did what I wanted to do, which was play the Memorial and the U.S. Open," Nicklaus said. "I got through that, which was my goal. But I didn't realize that I'd pay a price for that, which I'm paying now." Nicklaus has won 18 majors, plus two U.S. Amateurs and 70 times he's finished in the top 10 in a major. He was granted an exemption into the Senior Players Championship. And, despite all that happened this week, he still was defiant about the use of carts in competition. "I never used a cart in a tournament, when a cart wasn't part of the rules," Nicklaus said. "My position has not changed. I hate them." Nicklaus was one of several golfers who spoke out against the court ruling that allowed Casey Martin to use a cart on the PGA Tour and the U.S. Open. Carts have always been part of the scene on the Senior PGA tour, however. "The Senior Tour is the Senior Tour -- it's not the walking tour," Nicklaus said. "It's the walking wounded, that's what it is." He should know.
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Ailing Nicklaus rides cart for first time
 Jack Nicklaus thought he would be able to play through his injury.207k wav RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 |
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