At last year’s pro-am Ally Challenge at the Grand Blanc, Jack Nicklaus – playing alongside the Detroit rocker Kid Rock – entered to the delight of the fans.
Nicklaus said he has never tried since.
But he beat COVID-19. So it’s something.
“We did it,” Nicklaus said at a press conference on Wednesday, speaking of himself and his wife Barbara, who also contracted the coronavirus in March. Both have had the virus for several weeks. They are both 80. “I had a little sore throat for about four, five days, a cough that lasted about three weeks. Barbara had absolutely nothing. Actually I’m still tasteless. I can’t smell or the taste very much.
“I have some breathing problems, but I didn’t seem to think about it. I think I’m one of the lucky ones. They said there are about 150,000 who haven’t been so lucky in the United States. Hopefully, this thing will pass.
“I think they have to get – you have to go back to life.
“Protect only your elders and protect those who are vulnerable.”
More: Check out the first round tee times for this week’s Allly Challenge
As for Barbara?
“Her?” Nicklaus said. “She took care of me all the time. Don’t worry about Barbara. Barbara is like a rock.”
Speaking of the elderly, the 50-year-old Champions Tour returns to action this week at the Ally Challenge at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club. It’s the first tournament on the circuit since it closed in March.
Nicklaus is on the spot because of his collaboration with Ally, but he also has other ties. Her son Gary is in the field. Additionally, Dan Sullivan, who is executive director of the Nicklaus’ Memorial on the PGA Tour, also helps manage the challenge of the allies.
This means that a large part of the crew on site in the Grand Blanc has already had experience in organizing a tournament during the COVID-19 pandemic, with all the additional safety protocols.
Like at Memorial, there will be no fans at the Ally, but Nicklaus is thrilled with the return of golf – although other sports, particularly MLB, have major problems with coronavirus.
“Well, golf is outdoors. Kids aren’t really one on top of the other. It’s not a contact sport,” said Nicklaus. “Tell us everything when we finish that it’s not a contact sport, because our bodies think it’s a contact sport.
“But I think golf is – it lends itself to being played.”
During his ordeal with the virus, Nicklaus – who lives all year in Florida, where an increase in cases has occurred this month; MLB’s Miami Marlins also recently suspended the season, with over half of their tests positive – he said he wasn’t afraid throughout the process. He said he believes that if you keep a positive attitude, you are more likely to have a positive result.
More: ‘Itching to compete’: an hour north, south of Detroit, Champions League, LPGA tours resume filming
In addition to some problems, including a back pain, it has no significant underlying problems. He is not a drinker and has not been a smoker for many decades.
Nicklaus was on site at his memorial, wearing a mask with Barbara. Instead of his usual handshake for the winner who leaves the 18th green, he leaves it to the champion, Jon Rahm, who prefers a punch.
He doesn’t play golf much anymore – imagine he played less than 50-60 holes in 2020. “My clubhead speed is so slow, it seems like I have club coverage,” he said – but he still likes it. his appearances, the pandemic is damned.
“My motivation for coming is that I love the game of golf. I love promoting it and cultivating it wherever we go,” said Nicklaus. “You know, I don’t play golf anymore.
“So that’s the kind of thing I do now. I keep going to golf courses.”
Much has changed in golf since Nicklaus (OK, decades) in the sun. To begin with, the biggest check I ever won was at the 1986 Masters, a whopping $ 144,000; now, weekly PGA Tour winners win checks over $ 1 million. Courses have also changed a lot, in particular, they are much longer. Warwick, which Nicklaus said he first played in 1959, has also changed, including greens, and additional bunkers over the years. Now the course is also much narrower. Nicklaus said there is a tree on the field, the thirteenth hole, which is older than he is.
Nicklaus has won 73 times on the PGA Tour, including his 18 majors, and 10 times on the Champions Tour, including the 1990 Senior Players Championship at the Dearborn Country Club in 1990 and the US Senior Open at the Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Township in 1991.
Nicklaus spends far more time designing courses than playing them, with several properties in Michigan – including The Golf Club at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, where he went viral in 2010 during the inauguration when he emptied a putt of 102 feet. He recently oversaw the transformation of the Grand Haven Country Club into American Dunes, which will be a tribute to the military.
But he remains a face for golf, in the PGA Tour and his sister company, the Champions Tour. The PGA tour started again eight weeks ago, and now it’s the senior’s turn, as well as the LPGA tour, which starts again this week in Toledo.
“Well, this has been a very, very difficult year for the PGA Tour. They really stepped up,” Nicklaus said, adding that much credit goes to the tournament sponsors’ continued efforts – this week, are Ally Financial and McLaren Heatlh Systems – that do not come close to the full return they would normally get from their investment. “The PGA Tour, for the most part, has funded most of what’s going on. I think it’s mainly through TV packages and the money they’ve had in their boxes. They can’t keep up, no chance.
“The PGA Tour has had to step up and integrate a lot of what’s going on, and I give them many compliments for doing it. I think they knew the game had to come back, that golf is a safe game for most people to be out there. They have not yet felt safe for the spectators, but they are bringing live television to the public and it has been fantastic. “
Allied challenge
When: Friday-Sunday
Where is it: Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club, Grand Blanc
Bag: $ 2 million (winner: $ 300,000)
TV: Every day on Golf Channel. Friday – 11:30 am – 1:30 pm Saturday – 2:30 pm Sunday – 3:00 pm
Tickets: None; due to COVID-19, fans are banned.
Reigning champion: Jerry Kelly
Twitter: @ tonypaul1984
