Golf / Randy Harvey : Nicklaus, Clarifying His Status, Says He May Play in 12 Events This Year

Clarifying his status last week before starting play in the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Jack Nicklaus said he has retired from the PGA Tour--yet he hasn’t.

“I call it semi-retirement,” he said.

He said he has committed to eight tournaments, including the four majors, probably will play 10 but may play 12 depending on his position in the Ryder Cup and Nabisco standings.

“I’m not going to consider myself a serious, year-around tour player anymore,” he said.

“If I play 15, 16, 17 tournaments, it will be a deteriorating golf game that runs me off the tour. I want to go out on a high note. At my age (47), there’s not going to be many more high notes.”

The latest, and perhaps the last, was his victory last April in the Masters, his 20th major tournament victory.

“I don’t know if I can be competitive on this schedule,” he said. “But who would have said I was going to be competitive in the Masters last year after having won only $4,000 and missed several cuts?

“There’s nothing I like to do more than play golf and win. I’m sorely going to miss that. But there’s nothing I hate worse than playing the way I did before the Masters last year.

“I’m trying to be realistic about what’s ahead for the rest of my life. I’m not the player I used to be. I never will be. I don’t hit the ball as far as I used to. I can’t hit the shots I used to.

“But occasionally, I will play like I used to. I just hope that comes in the Masters or at Olympic (in San Francisco) this year for the U.S. Open.”

Nicklaus will be eligible for the Senior Tour in 1990, but he said he won’t decide on that until his youngest son, Michael, 12, graduates from high school.

If there were a torch to pass, Nicklaus would pass it to Australian Greg Norman.

“There was a lull in the game until Arnold (Palmer) came along,” Nicklaus said. “Since then, there’s been Gary Player, Tom Watson and Lee Trevino.”

And Nicklaus.

“But for the last few years, we’ve been struggling to find someone to take the bull by the horns,” he said. “Seve Ballesteros has a lot of talent, but Greg has come to the forefront.

“He won the Saturday Grand Slam (leading each of the majors last year after three rounds), and I think he’s capable of winning the Sunday Grand Slam, too. He can dominate the game as long as he wants.”

Norman finished second in the Masters by a stroke last year after bogeying the final hole.

“He had been in control in several majors and hadn’t won,” Nicklaus said. “I figured he’d be devastated.

“But an hour and 10 minutes later, after all the presentations, one guy was waiting for me in the locker room to say congratulations. That was Greg Norman.

“When a guy handles losing that way, he’ll handle winning well, too.”

Trivia question: Who won the first Bing Crosby Pro-Am in 1937? (Answer to follow).

Nicklaus said he will never forget his most embarrassing moment at the Crosby.

“A friend of mine called me in the clubhouse on my birthday and said somebody wanted to talk to me,” Nicklaus said. “The guy got on the phone and started singing ‘Happy Birthday.’

“In my usual, tactful way, I interrupted and asked, ‘To whom am I speaking, please?’

“He said, ‘This is Bing Crosby.’ ”

Clint Eastwood remembers his first Crosby in 1951. Not only did he not qualify for the celebrity field, he couldn’t afford to buy a ticket.

“I was a 20 or 21-year-old GI at Fort Ord with the shaved head and all that stuff,” Eastwood said.

“A friend of mine and I told the guard at the gate that we were Art Rosenbaum’s assistants.”

Rosenbaum is a San Francisco Chronicle sports columnist.

“The guard knew we were GIs, but he let us in anyway,” Eastwood said.

Eastwood, Carmel’s mayor, had Norman as a pro partner last week. Rank has its privilege.

Trivia answer: Sam Snead, who declined a $500 check for winning. “If you don’t mind, Mr. Crosby, I’d rather have the cash,” he said.

There have been reports that Mark McCumber circulated a petition among pros to have the notorious PGA West course eliminated from the course rotation for the Bob Hope-Chrysler Classic. But Fuzzy Zoeller said last week he wasn’t aware of a petition.

“I told the guys the best thing to do is not talk about PGA West,” he said. “If we don’t talk about it, the press won’t write about it, and they (PGA West officials) won’t get any ink. That’s all they want, publicity for their course.”

Having said that, Zoeller talked about the course.

“The big bugaboo about PGA West is that it’s not fun for the amateurs,” he said. “It’s depressing to see guys leaving the course crying.”

Golf Notes

Jack Nicklaus said that besides the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and the four majors, his schedule includes the Doral Ryder Open, the Memorial tournament and the Manufacturers Hanover Westchester tournament. He said other possibilities are the Honda tournament and the Tournament Players Championship if he feels he needs more competitive rounds to prepare for the Masters. . . . The early commitment list for the L.A. Open at Riviera, Feb. 19-22, includes two players who finished in the top 10 last year, Bob Tway and Ben Crenshaw. Emerging stars entered include Corey Pavin, Mark Calcavecchia, Brian Claar and Rick Fehr.

Three of the top 12 money winners from last year’s LPGA tour, Juli Inkster, Patty Sheehan and Val Skinner, have joined the field for the GNA-Glendale Federal Classic, March 5-8, at Oakmont Country Club. On March 3, a skins game will be featured at the club involving Pat Bradley, Nancy Lopez, Amy Alcott and Chris Johnson. . . . Alcott and Ralph Guldahl were inducted into the California Golf Hall of Fame last week by the California Golf Writers Assn. Other awards went to Greg Norman as player of the year, Kay Cockerill as amateur of the year and Clint Eastwood as ambassador of golf. Cockerill won the U.S. Amateur championship last year after completing her senior year at UCLA and now is an assistant coach for the Bruin women’s team. . . . Centinela Hospital Medical Center also is sponsoring a Senior Tour skins game March 24 at Wood Ranch Golf Club in Simi Valley. The only player announced so far is Dale Douglass. . . . It is a prelude to the senior tournament there, March 27-29.

There are still a few berths open in the Feb. 9 Michelob Major League Baseball Players Alumni Assn. tournament at Mission Viejo Country Club. More than 50 former and current major league baseball players have entered. Profits will be donated to the Orange County Burn Assn. and the UC Irvine Burn Center. . . . Formerly known as the Crosby Southern, the Newport Pro-Am will be played Feb. 7-8 at the Newport Beach Country Club. More than 50 pros have entered. Proceeds will go toward construction of Hoag Memorial Hospital’s Cancer Center.

In the resorts category, Greg Abadie of the La Quinta Hotel Golf Club has been named the 1986 PGA merchandiser of the year. . . . Applications are being accepted for the PPG Grand Prix charity tournament March 31 at Recreation Park in Long Beach. . . . The Western American Golf Assn. elected Penny Halstead of LaVerne as its president.