Bear impressed by Tiger

Monday, Feb. 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

WHEN Jack Nicklaus was dominating professional golf in the 1960s and 70s, golfing legend Bobby Jones said of Nicklaus, "He plays a game with which I am not familiar."

Thirty years and 18 major championships later, Nicklaus takes one look at Tiger Woods and knows exactly how Jones felt. Although many have compared Woods' emergence as a professional to Nicklaus', the Golden Bear said he can't comprehend what the 21-year-old is going through in his first year on the PGA Tour.

"I can't relate to that, no," Nicklaus said Sunday during his first round on the course he designed at the Lake Las Vegas development. "I don't know if anybody can ever relate to what he's going through."

While Woods' amateur career -- and the expectations of him as he turned pro -- closely mirrors that of Nicklaus, the six-time Masters champion said it is unfair to place the same expectations on Woods.

"I don't think anybody coming in today would have the career, the numbers, that I had just because the competition is so great today," Nicklaus said. "But he might. He's got a pretty good head start."

Nicklaus added that he is thoroughly impressed with the way Woods has dealt with the enormous media and fan attention that has been focused on him since he turned pro late last year.

"I think what this young man has done in a short period of time, with all the media attention and pressure that he has had on him, has been phenomenal," Nicklaus said. "I think the young man has handled himself beautifully.

"I think 99 percent of the time, this young man has come out and handled the press, he's handled the players, he's handled himself, he's handled this game of golf better than anybody has in years -- and he's only 21 years old. I think he's a rather amazing young man."

Could Nicklaus have achieved the success he did under the same microscope that Woods has been under the past six months?

"I don't know," Nicklaus said. "I think I would love the opportunity. I think I went through probably as much as somebody in my age and that era as could be.

"Every week I would turn up and there would be an article -- after I won $33 my first tournament -- 'Ah, there's our next champion, huh? Oh, he's just killing us, he won $33 his first week.' You get those kind of articles and those kind of things -- everybody is going to take a shot at everything. There's nothing that they don't take a shot at this young man for."

Like Jones before him, Nicklaus just shakes his head when he watches today's PGA Tour players.

"(Woods) is playing a game right now that I'm not familiar with -- they all are," Nicklaus said. "The scores they're shooting on the tour are unbelievable."

Nicklaus recalled winning the 1972 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach with a score of 2-over-par 290 and compared it to last week's AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, won by Mark O'Meara with a 20-under-par 268.

"I won the Open there at 2 over par," Nicklaus said. "I won one of my (PGA Tour tournaments at Pebble Beach) in maybe 3 under, 5 under -- whatever they were -- and I shot 2 under this time and missed the cut by two shots. I shot 67 in the third round and didn't even get to play on the weekend. (In the past,) anytime you were 2 under on that golf course going into the last round, you had a chance to win the golf tournament.

"The guys are shooting some incredible scores. It's a tribute to how well they are playing now -- and sure, equipment has a lot to do with it. Equipment allows a lot of that to happen, but equipment can't let all of it happen. There is a lot of talent out there that is being displayed now."

On the subject of modern golf equipment, Nicklaus used the forum to discuss his pet subject: how technological advances in clubs and balls is making a mockery of the game.

"I think it's a problem," Nicklaus said. "I've always been a power player but most of my golf courses, if you look at them, are golf courses that require more precision and club selection than power.

"Power should be used when it needs to be used but thinking and placement and playing the proper shot is far more important. But the equipment today and how far the golf ball is going, they're negating the strategy of golf courses because you knock it right over it, you eliminate it."

The solution, according to Nicklaus, is for the United States Golf Association to adopt a standardized golf ball for tournament play that would reduce players' distance and bring strategy back to the game.

"We're the only game that doesn't play a standard ball," Nicklaus said. "The USGA is talking about limiting the length of golf shafts and limiting how far you can hit the ball by doing different things with golf clubs. Come on guys, get to the issue. And the issue is the golf ball.

"Give them a (standard) golf ball and go play -- learn how to play it. If you give them a standard ball, then we can take tournament golf and pull it back ... and those are the people you worry about; the average golfer needs all the help he can get and the technology has really helped them and I think that's fine. For tournament golf, to eliminate making the golf courses all obsolete, you've got to control it somewhere and the golf ball is the only place we can control it."

But as was the case with Nicklaus in the '60s and '70s, it may take more than a "dead-ball era" to close the gap between Tiger Woods and the rest of professional golf.