Columnist Dean Juipe: Gary, not Jack, could win Masters

Dean Juipe

Monday, April 3, 2000 | 10:38 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

It's a resplendent notion, albeit a bit too fanciful for reality.

At 60 years old, Jack Nicklaus is playing golf's four majors one last time this year. He says this is it, his last hurrah.

His family, if not the man himself, believes he's capable of winning one of the majors, particularly The Masters that opens Thursday in Augusta, Ga. It's a tournament he has won six times, and one he finished in sixth place as recently as two years ago.

But a man of 60 is not only long past his athletic prime of 25 or 30, he is already in the midst of an inescapable decline. He may not even have the abilities he had two years ago at 58.

Nicklaus had a great round of golf Sunday in the PGA Senior Tour's Tradition tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz., shooting a final-round 67. After opening with scores of 73, 75 and 72, he missed a three-way playoff for the championship by eight strokes.

Across the continent, in Duluth, Ga., Gary Nicklaus lost a one-hole playoff to Phil Mickelson and took home $302,400 for a second-place finish in the PGA Tour's BellSouth Classic.

For all his youth and relative inexperience, it's Gary Nicklaus -- and not his father, Jack -- who has a better chance of contending in The Masters. A man of 60 is simply too old for the task, even if that man is arguably the finest player in the history of the sport.

While remaining a wonderful personality and an agreeable gentleman of infinite class, Nicklaus' golf game has changed. Once a left-to-right player, now he's more apt to hit a line-drive hook. Once a confident putter, now he takes four putters to the practice green -- "Not a good sign," says broadcaster and ex-player Curtis Strange -- and picks one that seems to be working that day. Once physically rock solid, now he walks with a slight limp as a result of having his left hip replaced. Once 5-foot-11, now he's closer to 5-9.

Once seemingly able to will the ball into the hole, now he's merely trying to send it in the right direction while hoping for the best.

Nicklaus has won 70 PGA Tour events, including 17 majors, and the notion of capping that career with a storybook ending occupied four pages in the Golf Plus editions of Sports Illustrated this week. Carried largely by his family's optimism, the piece outlines the victory possibilities and accentuates Nicklaus' earlier successes at the four courses that are hosting this year's majors.

In each case he knows the courses by heart. Aside from winning six times at Augusta, he has won at Pebble Beach (which will host the U.S. Open), on the Old Course (in Scotland, which has the British Open this year) and he built Valhalla (in Lousville, Ky., which will host the PGA Championship).

Those advantages aside, thinking he may win one last major is more a reflection of sentiment than one of perception or intuition. In 15 rounds of competitive golf in 2000 his average score is 73, and, Sunday's excellent round aside, Nicklaus is probably no better than the 200th best player in the world.

At least one of his four sons, Gary, would have to be ranked ahead of him -- and until this past weekend he had missed 29 of 36 cuts on the PGA Tour.

But Gary, 31, something of a visual dead ringer for his dad, is hot and age is still on his side.

He's the best bet if there's yet another Masters championship to be won by a Nicklaus.