Nicklaus gives his team added incentive
Posted: Tuesday December 29, 1998 07:45 PM
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Nicklaus: "...I think the competition is an international goodwill event." Craig Jones/Allsport |
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Ask the International team why this Presidents Cup is so much more meaningful than the first two and the answer lies within the rugged terrain of Royal Melbourne, thousands of miles from the American shore.
Ask the Americans why these matches are special and they simply point to their captain.
Seven players on the U.S. team weren't even born when Jack Nicklaus won the first of his 18 major championships, but all 12 of them grew up watching him set a standard against which golf might forever be measured.
"There is a presence that Jack Nicklaus carries. There is a charisma about him," said Phil Mickelson. "A certain relationship develops between the players and the captain that wasn't there before. And that relationship is exciting for me and the other players because we are sharing that with the greatest player of all time."
That much was clear during the opening ceremonies Thursday morning, about 16 hours before the first ball was struck in the opening round of alternate-shot matches.
The U.S. team quickly rose when its captain was introduced, and Peter Thomson urged his International team to follow suit. Before long, all of the 5,000 people who braved searing temperatures and the playing of eight national anthems joined them for a long, loud standing ovation.
"This is quite an event," Nicklaus said, his voice cracking slightly.
Nicklaus has seen both sides of the Ryder Cup. He produced one of the greatest gestures of sportsmanship in golf in 1969 when he conceded a 2-foot putt to Tony Jacklin, which resulted in a tie of their matches and the cup. And he was captain of the first U.S. Ryder Cup team to lose on American soil, in 1987 at his own Muirfield Village.
It was that Ryder Cup that turned the matches into a rivalry so fierce that players have been known to cry after losing a match -- Mark O'Meara said recently he felt more pressure at the Ryder Cup than he did standing over his winning putt at the Masters.
Nicklaus has never been one to back away from competition, but he doesn't want the Presidents Cup to turn into a war.
"I'm probably not the world's greatest captain, simply because I think the competition is an international goodwill event," he said. "They should be honored to represent their country and it should be fun. They should have a good time.
"It's a week that they will have pressure that they'll put on themselves," he said. "But I'll try to make it as little as possible."
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