Pathfinder for the Golden Bear

NEWPORT COAST - After seven straight days of walking golf courses,

then taking Thursday off, Jack Nicklaus was glad to be riding in a golf

cart Friday during the Diners Club Matches Pro-Am at Pelican Hill Golf

Club.

The Golden Bear, who had left hip replacement surgery Jan. 27, is the

designer of about 185 golf courses around the world through Nicklaus

Design, a subsidiary of his own company, Golden Bear International.

But Pelican Hill is not one of the courses designed by Nicklaus, named

Golf World magazine’s Golf Course Architect of the Year 1993.

“The golf course is fine,” Nicklaus said of the Tom Fazio-designed

links at Pelican Hill, “but it’s awfully difficult to get people to walk

around it. I wouldn’t want to walk around it.”

Nicklaus, considered the game’s greatest player with 18 major

championships, walked onto the 14th green in the pro-am without having to

putt, because he made an eagle while playing with amateurs Bob Matthei,

Alex Wasilov, Dewey Edward and Michael Muatore.

From 158 yards, Nicklaus cut a six-iron into a cross wind and holed

out on 14 -- the last hole played on the Ocean North course in the event

(15 through 18 are played on the Ocean South).

“I didn’t see it go in, because of the glare off the ocean,” Nicklaus

said.

Sam McCamey, a volunteer marshal on 14, watched Nicklaus’ shot take

two bounces, then fall into the cup. “You could hear it hit the pin,”

McCamey said. “(Nicklaus) made it look so easy, but I guess that’s why

they call him The Great One.”

Nicklaus’ weekend playing partner in the made-for-television event,

Tom Watson, played in the group behind Nicklaus and almost duplicated the

eagle effort on 14.

“Yeah, but Jack’s shot was from the middle of the fairway, and I

played out of the left rough and was semi-shielded hitting into the glare

off the ocean,” Watson said. “I guess I play better blind.”

Watson, a longtime rival of Nicklaus who joined the Senior PGA Tour

this year, played Pelican Hill for the first time Friday.

“It’s a big golf course,” Watson said. “It reminds me of Kapalua (on

Maui) in Hawaii. It goes all over and around. The greens are big and

there are a lot of tough downhill shots. There is a lot of golf course,

and it’s a beautiful golf course, with a lot of slopes and arroyos --

like Hawaii.”

Nicklaus, named this month by Sports Illustrated as one of the

century’s greatest athletes, said his hip is “fine” and that he’ll

probably play in close to 20 tournaments next year, including postseason

events (like the Diners Club Matches, which moved from the desert at PGA

West in La Quinta to Pelican Hill).

“I’m about 50% to 60% healthy right now, but that’s better than 2%,

which is where I was,” said Nicklaus, by far the biggest draw Friday.

Since the U.S. Open, Nicklaus said he has been working out with

weights and performing cardiovascular workouts.

Nicklaus, during an informal interview after his round in the pro-am,

was asked about Tiger Woods and how he compares to himself from his

younger days.

“Tiger has tremendous belief in himself, and that’s an advantage I

had,” Nicklaus said. “Most of my career, I was able to hit the ball as

far as I wanted to, or needed to. I could find a way to play that nobody

else could, and he can do that.

“I saw Tiger at the Memorial Tournament (which Woods won June 6 at

Muirfield Country Club in Dublin, Ohio, a Nicklaus-designed course) and

he did well there. I was surprised how he came back (after struggling at

Muirfield as an amateur). I was impressed with how he controlled himself

and how he played it. He had good mental management, and he managed the

golf course real well.

“He’s learned how to win at a very young age, and has learned how to

handle himself with people, and deal with (the media). I was rough around

the edges, and he was rough around the edges.”

Nicklaus will play his first competitive round of golf in Newport

Beach today.