Nicklaus’ Major Streak To End

Golfers never really retire. They always feel they have one more good one left in them.

Even the greatest - and Jack Nicklaus falls into that category - walk away from competition with great reluctance. Monday, however, the most successful player ever to pick up a golf club revealed he will all but end his consecutive major championship streak at 138 with this year’s U.S. Open.

“I’m very proud of that 40th straight Open,” Nicklaus said about his special exemption this year at Oakland Hills in June that will keep the streak going after the Masters.

“I remember my first one in 1957, making a 35-foot birdie putt on my first hole as a 17-year-old kid,” he said in a conference call from his North Palm Beach, Fla. offices.

“A lot has changed since then,” Nicklaus, 56, said. “That probably will end my streak of consecutive major championships,” he said about the U.S. Open in June.

Nicklaus is entered in the British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes in England in July, but said he’d go only if his were playing competitively.

“If I play well in the Masters and in the U.S. Open you’re wondering if I’ll play in the British Open?” Nicklaus asked. “Yeah, I probably will.”

Nicklaus wasn’t specific about what playing well meant, but it’s a safe guess he would need a top-20 finish in both to convince himself he should go to England.

And he hasn’t finished better than 27th in a major championship since the 1990 Masters - 24 majors ago - and has missed the cut in a major 10 times since then.

Nicklaus, who will play in the PGA Championship this year, said he would “probably play in (another) PGA Championship along the way.”

But he indicated he would likely not return to the U.S. Open unless he played his way into the tournament.

“The USGA has been very kind in granting me an exemption,” Nicklaus said. “I certainly don’t expect them to offer me another. I would honor it, but I’d rather play my way in,” he said, indicating he’d rather not be offered another special exemption.

“I still consider myself a golfer,” Nicklaus said. “But I think I can do this (run his equipment and design company, Jack Nicklaus-Golden Bear International) better than I play golf. That’s probably why I haven’t played as much golf.”

Nicklaus has said he will return to the British Open in the year 2000 when it is played once again at St. Andrews.

“My appearance will be like Arnold Palmer’s visit was this time, more ceremonial than golf,” Nicklaus said after finishing the Open at St. Andrews last July.

By skipping the British Open this year, Nicklaus will end an incredible streak in the four professional major championships that began with the 1962 Masters. He has 136 straight going into the Masters in April and it will reach 138 with the U.S. Open.

Nicklaus has played in the four professional majors - the U.S. and British opens, Masters and PGA Championship - 143 times, beginning with the 1957 U.S. Open. He has won a record 18 major championships, taking the Masters six times, the PGA five, four U.S. Opens and the British Open three times. He also won the U.S. Amateur twice.

Nicklaus won his last major championship at the Masters in 1986 and last made the cut in all four majors in the same year in 1991.

Nicklaus called his victory in the 1986 Masters “my greatest moment” in golf.

“It was my last win on the tour and my first win in two years,” he said. “It was at a point in my career when nobody expected me to win, including myself. It was very special.”

Just like the man who could stake a claim to being the greatest ever to play the game.