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Ailing Nicklaus rides cart for first time June 26 11:45am ET | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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DEARBORN, Mich. -- The Bear finally bit the bullet. Jack
Nicklaus rode a golf cart in competition for the first time Friday.
Nicklaus, who had hip-replacement surgery in January, rode for about half the holes while shooting 74 during the second round of the Senior Players Championship. His 145 left him nine shots behind leader Graham Marsh. "The hip is fine, but everything around it is a little sore," said Nicklaus, who argued against the use of carts in the Casey Martin lawsuit. "I'll probably ride a little bit Saturday and Sunday, too." Nicklaus was one of several golfers who spoke out against the court ruling that allowed Martin to use a cart on the PGA Tour and in the U.S. Open. "I have never taken a cart on the senior tour," Nicklaus said. "If I had to use it ... that's the rules of that game. Do I want to take a cart? No. I much prefer to walk." 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." Nicklaus, 59, returned to competition 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 in his Memorial tournament at Dublin, Ohio and made the cut. Last week, he played two rounds and missed the cut at the U.S. Open in Pinehurst, N.C. He now feels he may have rushed his recovery. He said he has developed bursitis and tendinitis in the muscles around his new hip, and said walking is more of a problem for him now. "That will go away," Nicklaus said. "It's just the muscles. It's not the hip. I have to learn how to play golf with it." 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 on a course he designed, the TPC of Michigan. "My game's coming around a little bit," Nicklaus said. "I just want to try to play a decent round of golf and try to do the best I can." Martin, during a March interview, found the situation ironic. "However, I hope he uses one," Martin told CBS Sportsline. "I would feel really bad if the best player of all time didn't play because he testified against me. Swallow your pride and ride." Martin has a rare circulatory disease in his right leg, making it nearly impossible for him to walk 18 holes. Martin said a cart would not give Nicklaus an unfair advantage. What it might give him, he said, is a new perspective.
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Nicklaus to skip second straight British Open Marsh leads wet, windy Senior Players
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