Mike Aitken: Half a century on, Nicklaus relives first golden moment

IT WAS on 16 May, 1959, when a fair-haired bear of a boy from Columbus, Ohio, first strode on to Muirfield in East Lothian and mauled the veteran Scottish Amateur champion Dick Smith by 5&4.

While he remembers the honour of representing the USA in that 9-3 Walker Cup win over Great Britain and Ireland well enough, it still rankles with the gentleman in Jack Nicklaus how his younger self, the 19-year-old prodigy with the crew-cut and a cocky attitude, introduced himself to the home of golf with an unthinking touch of swagger.

If the teenage American had a few rough edges, the polished sixty-something is a role model for every professional in the game. Generous in victory, of which there were many, and gracious in defeat, of which there were even more, one of the factors which shaped Nicklaus's career was his lifelong affinity with Scotland and the Scots. It was no coincidence his career at the highest level began and ended here.

Half a century after first setting foot on the Scottish linksland, serendipity did play a part in bringing the winner of 18 majors back here in this week of all weeks. More of an elder statesman, less blinkered by ambition than he was all those years ago, the cygnet who became a swan cherishes his career in this part of the world with an understandable mixture of pride and satisfaction.

For it was here, exactly 50 years ago today, that a lifelong bond was struck between the folk who know the game best and the man who played it better than anyone. From the beginning, the Scots were able to look past the superficial when it came to Jack William Nicklaus. In his autobiography, he recalls his teenage self as a junior version of the ugly American. Whether or not that judgement was apposite, what the cognoscenti recognised at Muirfield in 1959 was the first sighting in these parts of the best golfer of the 20th century.

In conversation this week at one of the lodges owned by Turnberry hotel – he'd spent the morning giving a golf clinic for awestruck Ayrshire schoolchildren – Nicklaus was glad to look back on his Scottish adventures which stretch from that first visit to Gullane as an emerging amateur to an emotional farewell 46 years later in St Andrews. In between, there was also a Ryder Cup at Muirfield and 23 Open appearances on Scottish links when his name was engraved on the Claret Jug three times.

"I remember coming here (in 1959] to play, sure, because it was my first experience of playing Scottish golf and my first chance to play a great course like Muirfield," Nicklaus recalled. "The US had a great Walker Cup side that year, a good mix of veterans and younger players. I played a Scot, Dick Smith, in the singles, in the anchor role. Maybe they didn't think much of me and that's why they sent me out last…

"I played a lot of golf in Scotland over my career and winning was what I came for. I won the Open three times but I was also close a lot. It's a good question to ask about what brought out the best in me when I played links golf. I'm not sure I know the answer.

"People talk about links golf and imagination is important. But I think it's mostly about discipline. You have to discipline yourself to play the shot that needs to be played. Take what the course will give you. If you try to take more, you'll get in trouble.

"I suppose I've always been the kind of person who likes history. I wanted to know about the grassroots of where the game came from. I was always partial to those kinds of things. The Scots always treated me well – in fact, I couldn't have asked for any more. Every time I came here to play, they treated me as if I was one of them. And for me that was special.

"There's no doubt, in the beginning, I was far more accepted here than I was at home, probably. I had Arnold (Palmer] to fight with there, and that was all right. People here looked at me and, I guess, they saw my values were very similar to their values.

"I think they liked someone who liked to compete, who worked hard and who tried. I wasn't a flamboyant golfer. I just wasn't a flag-waving kind of person. That wasn't me. Because of that, I was able to fit in well here."

Nicklaus, who was billed at the time by American newspapermen as "the kid who can beat the pros", enjoyed the more urbane approach of the British golf writers. Bernard Darwin, the golf correspondent of the Times, for one, made an impression on an all-American boy from Ohio relishing his first trip abroad.

"He called me a kicking mule, or something like that," grinned Nicklaus. "One of my favourite lines came from Darwin at Muirfield. Do you remember Harvey Ward (the US Amateur champion of 1939 and 1941]? He came out one day wearing very bold stripes and a burgundy sweater.

"Darwin looked at him and said, 'Harvey, old boy, perchance are those your old school colours or your own unfortunate choice?' I never forgot that line and have used it forever. Even though I'm still not sure if I know what perchance means."

I asked Nicklaus if he remembered Hamlet's line from the 'To be, or not to be' soliloquy about 'To sleep, perchance to dream'. "Truthfully, I was never much for Shakespeare," he replied, "and I'd never heard that word before Darwin used it. That Walker Cup was a lot of fun for me as a kid and an experience I've never forgotten."

Ward's colourful ensemble, incidentally must have bewitched G B Wolstenholme, who lost 9&8 to the natty American in the singles.

Although his first visit as a professional to Troon in 1962 was overshadowed by Palmer's triumph – the 22-year-old struggled to cope with the baked fairways in Ayrshire that year and wasn't best pleased that the Royal and Ancient sent out the US Open champion in the final pairing at 3.45pm – almost unbelievably, in the ten Opens he subsequently entered in Scotland between 1964 and 1980, Nicklaus never finished lower than fourth.

Indeed, at seven of those championships held on the great links at Carnoustie, St Andrews, Muirfield, Troon and Turnberry during that 16-year period, he was either first or second. Every time he visited Scotland in his heyday, Nicklaus expected to win.

"Why did I do well? Because I liked the challenge and all the courses," he explained. "The Open was always my favourite week to play. The Masters may have been my favourite of the four majors, but this was my favourite tournament because it was so different. The weather conditions attached to being at the seaside and the historic values of the home of golf had a greater impact on me than a lot of the other stuff.

"My most special moments in Scotland were the championships when I won – Muirfield in 1966, St Andrews in 1970 and 1978. For me, winning was always special and those are the ones you remember best.

"My biggest disappointment was at Muirfield in 1972. I already had the PGA, the Masters and the US Open at home. There was a chance to win the Grand Slam. I hurt my neck, didn't have a great start, but still almost won it in the end.

"That's the one which sticks for me, that one and this one in 1977. People want to talk about Turnberry (the Duel in the Sun with Tom Watson]. Yes, I played very well that week. But I didn't win. I don't mind talking about it. But it's not my favourite subject. If someone wants to talk to me about coming to Scotland to play golf, I'm going to speak about Muirfield and St Andrews.

"It was Bobby Jones who said your golfing career isn't complete unless you win in St Andrews. That was how I felt too. I understood Jones' record as well as what Arnold did when he came over in the early Sixties and brought the American players back. All of those things were part of my golfing education. "

Having said all that, Nicklaus knows there's renewed interest because of the Open's return to the Ailsa in July about the most dramatic staging of golf's oldest major in 1977.

It was the first time in 23 years a links new to the rota had staged the championship. Watson liked the lack of guesswork required to figure out the Ailsa, a strength the course has in common with Muirfield. Nicklaus also appreciated the most scenically beautiful links on the rota. There again, all of the links which stage the oldest major appeal to him, even Royal St George's, the one where he was least successful.

Watson and Nicklaus both carded identical scores over the opening 54 holes at Turnberry of 68, 70 and 65. Like Tiger Woods today, Nicklaus mastered the black art of playing badly well. His errant driver might have been more of an issue that week under different circumstances. As it was, the dry and dusty weather meant there were plenty of opportunities to recover from the wispy rough. After four holes of the final round, Nicklaus was three strokes in front of Watson. By the eighth, Watson had reeled off three birdies and the pair were level. Nicklaus was a shot to the good when the men came to the par 3 15th, one of the best short holes in Scotland.

Nicklaus found the green while Watson's ball missed the short grass and lay 50 feet from the pin. A betting man might have tipped Nicklaus to increase his lead. Instead, Watson holed out for two and Nicklaus needed two putts for par from 20 feet.

When Watson birdied the par 5 17th, the outcome of the duel was effectively settled after Nicklaus misread a five-foot putt. Although Nicklaus holed from 35 feet for birdie on the last, Watson only had to tap in from two and a half feet for 65 and glory.

"Was it a good tournament ?" Nicklaus recalled. "Absolutely. Do I have much to say about it? Well, Tom won and I lost. Did I play well? Yes, but Tom played better than I did. I missed a short putt near the end and that was it."

Any sense of disappointment was dispelled before Nicklaus and his wife Barbara went to dinner that night in Turnberry's grand dining room. A year later, he won again at the Old Course. If many expected Nicklaus to bow out of major golf with a last appearance at Augusta, where he won six green jackets, the Golden Bear chose St Andrews to wave an emotional farewell from the Swilken Bridge four years ago.

"For me, after 46 years of competing in Scotland, it was a no-brainer," he reflected. "I thought about what St Andrews has meant to me and to the game of golf. This was where it all started. I couldn't have picked a more significant place to play my final round."