Columnist Dean Juipe: Jack should have pulled out of PGA

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2000 | 10:40 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.

This is a sensitive topic. And, arguably, none of our business.

But it's a subject that undoubtedly received considerable discussion in the pro shops and clubhouses throughout the country the past few days, eliciting divergent sympathies and opinions.

Here's one: It was wrong for Jack Nicklaus to play in the PGA Championship just one day after his 90-year-old mother died at her home in Ohio.

It was self-centered and egotistical and Nicklaus simply shouldn't have done it, let alone say his mother would have wanted him to play in the tournament that concluded Sunday at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville and was won by Tiger Woods after a terrific head-to-head duel with Las Vegan Bob May.

To each his own, and maybe Nicklaus wasn't even that close to his mother. But he probably was, and, even if he wasn't, for appearance's sake alone he should have withdrawn and returned home and rejoined his grieving family.

This was an uncharacteristic faux pas for Nicklaus, who knows proper decorum inside out and who is as honorable as they come. Aside from the golf exploits that have made him a legendary athlete, he is equally revered for his unassuming personality and gracious disposition.

But when your mother dies, you owe it to her memory to step back from your daily routine. For many, many people, it's impossible to carry on for at least a few days.

Even if Nicklaus knew his mother's death was imminent, he's a public figure who is held to a higher standard and he shouldn't have been out on the golf course the next day.

She died last Wednesday and he played Thursday, paired as he was with Woods for the tournament's first two rounds. An interesting thought: Would Nicklaus have played the PGA had he been paired with, say, Joe Ozaki or Corey Pavin?

Best guess: He would not have.

But because Woods was his playing partner, Nicklaus was in position to bask not only in his own glory but in that of his successor as the greatest player the sport has ever known. At 60 years old, Jack is clinging to the past and taking his orchestrated bows whenever and wherever he can get them.

The fact that he no longer is a legitimate contender to win a tournament at golf's highest level also has to be taken into account. At Valhalla, Nicklaus shot 77 and 71 and, predictably, missed the cut in what was his 37th -- and, he says, last -- PGA Championship.

Wouldn't it have been far more prudent of him to withdraw from the tournament and, if he felt the need, request a special invitation to play in next year's event?

Under these extenuating circumstances he certainly would have been accorded that wish, and if that extended his swan song an additional year, so what? He could shoot 77-71 next year just as easily as he did at Valhalla.

Besides, how many rounds of golf do you figure Nicklaus has played in his lifetime? He likely plays at least 300 days a year and he has been playing for a good 50 years, so that's somewhere around 15,000 rounds.

It wouldn't have hurt him to take a few days off, even if it was merely symbolic, after his mother's death.

At least some of us would have thought more of him if he had.