Jack Comes To Grips With Topic A

What's wrong with Jack Nicklaus?

A little more than halfway through his 18th professional season and his 40th year, Jack Nicklaus is playing like a has-been. He has not won a tournament in almost a year, ranks 51st on the money list, where he is sandwiched between Charles Coody and Alan Tapie, and has an indecently high scoring average. This year he probably will not make the Ryder Cup team. He says he cannot putt, that his back hurts and that he keeps reading Tom Watson's name in the headlines. Even his caddie's girl friend is worried about job security. What's going on?

The simple answer is that the most difficult trick in sports is to grow old gracefully. But somehow Nicklaus seems still too young and too good to have reached that awkward stage. After all, he won a major championship, the British Open, and earned $256,672 on the tour just last year—an average of $17,000 per appearance.

Last week Nicklaus was clearly unconvinced that he had come to the great divide of his career. Busy as he was, it's a wonder he had time to think about the question at all. He took a few days off with his family at their Muirfield Village Golf Club home in Dublin, Ohio, and one of his major disappointments was that he did not have time to play basketball. He got a putting lesson from Lee Trevino, addressing himself to an aspect of his game that does concern him, and deeply; practiced with his longtime tutor, Jack Grout; opened a new business; watched his sons play golf; received some advice from Arnold Palmer; booted a football around the front yard; set a course record; and generally had the mien of a confident man.

And it is true that in the two major championships played so far this season, the Masters and the U.S. Open, Nicklaus was by no means humiliated. He finished fourth and tied for ninth, respectively. But even his most fervent well-wishers concede that his play this year has been ragged, especially in the closing rounds. In his 10 tournaments he has four times shot his worst score on Sunday, which isn't like the real Jack. In a fifth, the Tournament Players Championship, his 78 in the last round was eclipsed only by his 82 the day before.

No wonder those close to him are genuinely worried. The girl friend of Angelo Argea, Nicklaus' caddie, recently asked Argea what he planned to do if his boss retired. Jack's wife, Barbara, told him that if his doleful streak continued, perhaps he might be better off on the sidelines. The concern is evident in other ways. Last week, well-meaning friends kept presenting him with putters, as if they were talismans that might restore his touch on the greens.

Theories to account for his travail are legion. Quite amiably, Nicklaus examined the most plausible ones last week, and commented on them.

1. Managing his business empire takes too much time.

"I've been busy with my businesses for as long as I have played on the tour," said Nicklaus. "I enjoy what I'm doing with them. And I've really got plenty of time to do what I want to do." As he spoke, Nicklaus was wearing tennis shorts and tennis shoes, and was on his way to watch the Ohio Junior Amateur, in which his sons Jackie, 17, and Gary, 10, were playing. He did not seem rushed. "Someday I'm going to sorely miss having to putt that three-footer to win a tournament," he said. "But I'm a little luckier than most athletes in that when I make the transition from my sport I'll have something to do that I enjoy. Still, I'll hate the day when I don't have to make that putt.... I'd like to have that opportunity right now."

2. He is worried that his projects have overextended him financially.