New Year's Resolution

It annoys Jack Nicklaus mightily to think that anybody anywhere is still not convinced he is the best golfer the world has ever seen. So Nicklaus, 27, has decided to do a couple of things about it. First, he intends to complete a "grand slam" in 1967 by winning all four top tournaments--the Masters, P.G.A., U.S. and British Opens. He has won them all before, but not in one year. Next, he is out to regain the money-winning title he lost last year to Billy Casper: $121,945 to $111,419. Nicklaus insisted that the amount of money a golfer earns does not prove anything about how good he is--"but if the public thinks it does, well, that's the way it is."

If what happened at the Bing Crosby National in California last week is any indication, Jack has revised his goals somewhat. Now he just intends to win everything.

Pebble & Cypress. In five years of trying, Jack had never won the Crosby. When he stepped up to the first tee last week, he had not swung a golf club professionally for a month. So on the first tee at Pebble Beach he belted an iron shot 220 yds. straight down the center of the fairway. He hit every green in regulation figures (one stroke for parthrees, two for par-fours, three for parfives), fired a three-under-par 69 that he called "one of the best rounds I have ever shot in this tournament."

Of course, everybody on the pro tour concedes that Jack is "the longest accurate hitter in golf." But like all long hitters, Jack is also a high hitter, and it is a simple law of physics that the longer a golf ball stays airborne, the more it is affected by wind. The tournament draw put him at the ocean-side Cypress Point course next day-- and there the wind was howling in off the Pacific at 40 m.p.h., bending flag sticks over until the tips touched the ground. Nicklaus double-bogied three straight holes in the wind, and groaned: "I don't remember doing anything like that since I was ten years old." He still managed five birdies and a one-over-par 73 to hold the halfway lead by a comfortable two strokes. Every pro golfer has his own notions about what makes a good golf course --and few of them apparently agree with famed Architect Robert Trent Jones, who designed Spyglass Hill, the third course on which last week's Crosby was played. There were all sorts of complaints: Spyglass was "too long" (at 6,972 yds.); its greens were "too slick"; its fairways were "too heavy." For Jack, it was too frustrating. He might be able to reach Spyglass's par-five greens in two booming shots, but that involved a certain risk: all but one of the greens was protected by a tiny pond. For a while, he played it safe, laying up close to the green and pitching on. Then he got bored. On the 535-yd. eleventh hole, Jack swung mightily for the pin. The ball missed the pond all right--but wound up instead in a bunker off the green. That cost him a stroke and the tournament lead: one stroke behind Billy Casper, tied with Arnold Palmer. "Pure Fun." Back to Pebble Beach for the last round went Casper, Nicklaus and Palmer, the three top money winners of 1966--and for that matter of all time (total earnings: $1,875,759). Now was Jack's chance to show everybody who was really the world's best golfer. Driving? On the second hole, a 497-yd. par-five, he was hole high after two wood shots; although he cautiously used irons off some of the tees, four times he hit drives over 300 yds. Pitching? On the 18th, Jack's second shot left him 90 yds. short of the green, under a tall pine. He had to hit the ball low enough to miss the tree, hard enough to reach the green, high enough to clear a trap--and then stop. Whack--8 ft. from the pin. Putting? On the 12th hole, Nicklaus ran in a 25-footer, on the 16th a 40-footer, on the 17th a 15-footer. In one spectacular burst, starting at the 12th, Jack birdied five out of six holes, for a back-nine score of 31 and a total of 68--four under par. At the end, Casper was five strokes back, Palmer seven. "Head-to-head competition is pure fun," said Nicklaus, pocketing his winner's check for $16,000. "That's the kind of golf I like best."

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