It Was a Great Ride, but It’s Over for Jack

AUGUSTA, Ga. —  With Jack Nicklaus in the front seat, a green-roofed golf cart traveled over a muddy asphalt path toward the clubhouse at Augusta National Golf Club, through a crowd of fans who watched and waited near the huge, white Masters scoreboard.

They made way for Nicklaus when he came closer, and as he did, they cheered and clapped and called his name.

From where he sat, he could observe a brief but sentimental farewell tour. Nicklaus smiled, waved once or twice and rode off around the corner.

It was Jack’s last ride, or at least that’s the way it looked to the guy in the front seat of the golf cart.

This was it, the last of 45 trips to play in the Masters, from his first round of 76 in 1959 when he was 19 to his last tap-in for par on his final hole Saturday afternoon, missing the cut at age 65 with a closing round of 76.

From beginning to end, in 163 rounds at the Masters, Nicklaus’ scorecard would show 502 birdies, 1,809 pars, 473 bogeys and six victories -- two more than anyone else. Nicklaus would corner the market on green jackets.

The scene Saturday at the ninth green, where Nicklaus finished, featured an unexpected show of emotion from one of the last icons of his era still playing.

In his beige sweater, yellow shirt, tan cap and dark slacks, Nicklaus waved to the crowd and acknowledged the applause.

He wiped away tears and shrugged. Jay Haas, who was playing alongside, hugged Nicklaus and playfully advised him to “just stop it.”

After a great approach shot, Nicklaus had a four-foot putt for birdie, and he stooped over the ball in his familiar, hunched-over, knock-kneed putting style. However, his putt just missed. Haas would say later that he wanted Nicklaus to make that putt more than he wanted to make his own.

Nicklaus tapped in, dabbed at his eyes, hugged his son Jackie, who caddied for him, then strode uphill to the scoring area to sign his scorecard for his last round.

That was it. As far as final rounds by famous players at a major, this one was so subdued, it seemed ordinary. There was no fanfare, no grand exit, and no swell of public relations to mine the moment even more.

When Arnold Palmer played his last Masters a year ago, his exit was turned into an extended going-away party, a popular decision because it allowed Palmer and his legion of fans a chance to say goodbye on their own terms.

Nicklaus wanted to leave on his own terms, if that’s what he really intends on doing.

Just before he took his seat in the cart, Nicklaus carefully explained that he had just played his final round at the Masters, then took great pains to say that he’s leaving the door open to come back if he ever feels like it.

Next year is the 20th anniversary of Nicklaus’ sixth and last victory at the Masters, his 1986 triumph at the age of 46, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Jack’s coming back.

That’s not the way he sounded Saturday, though.

He said he had no intention of playing this year, but that Augusta National Chairman Hootie Johnson talked him into it.

There is no joy in hitting woods into greens, or struggling to shoot 80, or grinding to try to make the cut, Nicklaus said. He had made up his mind, it was just too tough, that he just can’t do this anymore.

As he pointed out, the Masters is not a “celebrity walk-around, this is a golf tournament.”

And it’s not a golf tournament he expects to play in again. That’s what he said was on his mind as he walked up the hill to the ninth green, that this was his last time. If it is indeed his last, it’s probably a shame he couldn’t have finished on the 18th hole instead, but that was the luck of the draw in this rain-marred Masters.

Besides, he really is coming back again, but for the par-three contests and the champions dinners, not to play in the tournaments -- unless, he said, his club head speed increases a bunch and they shorten the holes 30 yards.

That’s not going to happen either, Nicklaus said.

So that really might have been Jack’s last ride at the Masters, the one he took in that golf cart on a cloudy afternoon at Augusta National. When it’s over, it’s over, he said.

In fact, Nicklaus isn’t even going to watch the last round on television. He says he’s going fishing somewhere near his home in North Palm Beach, Fla. Maybe he will tell stories about the big ones that got away, something that didn’t happen very often at this place when Jack William Nicklaus teed it up.