It’s Army, silly, not Arnie

RICHARD DUNN

The question of whether Jack Nicklaus would return to the Toshiba

Senior Classic at Newport Beach Country Club if he won the tournament

was answered before he teed off in the first round Friday. Yes, he

would.

The question as to whether he reads, or is even remotely

interested, in the Daily Pilot was answered Saturday morning over

breakfast.

As Nicklaus sipped his orange juice and tasted his warm toast with

coffee nearby, he almost choked and “just about fell over in my

chair” when he read the infamous quote that he “played Arnie golf” in

the first round, when it should have read, “army golf.”

“You know, as in left, right, left, right,” the Golden Bear said

to me Saturday afternoon, with his left hand on my right shoulder, as

I apologized to him about Saturday’s misquote in the Pilot.

Yes, a misquote. Nobody likes to admit mistakes. Here I go and

assign myself the Nicklaus beat this week for the Toshiba Classic and

end up with one of the biggest pieces of humble pie in the history of

Daily Pilot sports journalism.

“Don’t worry about it. We all make mistakes,” Nicklaus said with a

gleam in his eye and a heart of forgiveness as we stood at the edge

of the scoring tent, while hundreds of fans were waiting behind the

ropes to get the Golden Bear’s autograph.

Yes, we could, as a newspaper, do nothing with the mistake, as one

Toshiba media official suggested. My feelings, however, were quite

the contrary. I wanted to face this head-on. Even write about it.

Hey, why not. I’m on the Nicklaus beat. But saying you’re sorry is

never easy, especially to the greatest golfer of all time.

“Did the Bear swipe at you or growl at you?” my wife asked when I

explained part of what my Saturday duties entailed.

Oh, sure, Saturday was just the usual -- prepare the next day’s

paper, edit sportswriters’ copy, go apologize to Jack Nicklaus. That

type of thing.

After Friday’s first round, you see, there was some confusion

among tournament media officials as to whether Nicklaus would be

brought into the interview room at the Toshiba Senior Classic media

center. I was told he was going to be brought there, so I waited

until he arrived. A few moments later, Nicklaus appears on the

television screens on The Golf Channel. The sound was down.

On the other side of the room, reporters began talking notes as

Nicklaus spoke on television (Nicklaus was actually sitting on a

couch near the 18th hole, a chip shot to the media center, during the

interview.)

Myself and Daily Pilot golf writer Bryce Alderton, along with

international media members at a table in front of us, could see the

television on our side of the media center, but there was no sound. I

raced over to turn the volume up. It seemed like an eternity before I

actually heard anything as I placed an index finger on the volume

button.

Just then, Nicklaus was talking about his round and how

disappointed he was after shooting even-par 71, and that he played

army golf. Unfortunately, I heard Arnie golf and thought it was a

clever angle, considering how adamant Nicklaus has been throughout

his career about not addressing his relationship with Arnold Palmer

as a rivalry. Nicklaus “plays the golf course, not Palmer or Lee

Trevino or Gary Player or Tom Watson,” he said earlier this week.

Even after waiting for Nicklaus to finish hitting balls at the

practice range Friday and talking to him for a brief moment, I walked

away feeling intrigued by the (phantom) Arnie quote and decided to go

with that angle.

It would be nice to be remembered by Nicklaus in other ways, but

the conversation we had in the scoring tent I’ll never forget, nor

will I forget the long, heart-pounding moments leading up to the big

admission of guilt. He smiled and treated me like a friend.

And, no, I told my wife. He didn’t growl at me.