Commentary : Why Seniors Tour? Nicklaus, 50, Ponders : Golf: ‘No matter what I am, I’m a golfer first. I love competition more than anything I do. I get really charged up. It’s the ego factor. . . .’

As golf legend Jack Nicklaus undergoes the transformation from Golden Bear to Golden Oldie, he is struck by a difficult question.

What does he gain by playing on the Seniors Tour, which is filled with players he regularly defeated but are now loaded for bear? Nicklaus, who turned 50 Sunday, will compete in his first seniors tournament this weekend, the $450,000 Seniors Skins Game in Hawaii. Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Gary Player are in the field.

“That’s a good question,” Nicklaus said. “I suppose there are two or three things that would fall into that category. No matter what I am, I’m a golfer first. I love competition more than anything I do. I get really charged up. It’s the ego factor that I’ll go out (on the tour). That’s what kept me out after I won the Masters (in 1986), figuring lightning might strike again.”

But lightning hasn’t struck since, though Nicklaus doggedly insists he still belongs on the regular PGA Tour. He will test that resolve extensively in the next few months. Commitments to 30 under-construction golf courses will take him back to the business world in June.

“Financially is certainly not the reason I’m playing,” said Nicklaus. His Golden Bear conglomerate reportedly makes up to $400 million a year.

“Golf has ceased to be my way of making my living for the last 15 years. I think the majority of golfing people are looking forward to me and Trevino and others coming out. I think I would be kicking them in the face if I didn’t do that.”

But he would be admitting defeat if he fled the regular tour. He isn’t ready to do that. He may never be. If he thought like that, he might have changed direction in 1980. He became 40, a more traumatic milestone than 50, he says. He was also coming off what he called a terrible year. At 39, he won a mere $59,434 after winning at least $244,000 the previous eight seasons.

He dealt with the disappointment and rallied boldly to win the 1980 U.S. Open and the PGA Championship.

For much of the 1980s, as business became so many sand traps and back problems hindered his backswing, his attention turned from golf. Playing an abbreviated schedule last year, he won $96,595. His best showings came where his best showings have always come--in majors. He has won 20 in his career.

This year, he says, is the first since he was 40 that he has set concrete golf goals--winning a tournament on each tour.

“I have not decided in my own mind that I can’t play on the regular tour. If you look at the majors (last year), which are the ones I really get ready for, only about five American golfers beat me.

“When I tee it up, I play it as a game. It doesn’t make any difference whether it’s for 10 cents or a million dollars. You go out, pull the club back and see if you can do it better than anyone else. But I just can’t do it as well as I used to. I want to be competitive. I don’t want to go out there and embarrass myself.”

Nicklaus has been characterized as someone who, when he reaches the top of a mountain, immediately starts looking for another mountain. He longs to regain that passion.

“I haven’t looked for many of those mountains for about 10 years. That’s been a problem for me. I suppose this year, the one thing that has happened is I’m physically better than I’ve been in the past few years. My back has been very good. I’ve been able to do some of the things I want to do, running, lifting weights. I’m in pretty darn good shape for someone my age, even for someone younger.

“Now I can go out and play and practice earlier. It’s exciting. It’s fun.”

Nicklaus may be learning that life begins at 50.

“Now that I’m 50, there is nothing I can do about it. And I’m happy to be there, incidentally.”