Written by Staff Writer at CNN Hong Kong, by You Sungah
Tiger Woods recalled the moment Nicklaus made him laugh when he was a young pup in the 1985 World Match Play Championship.
“After I had a hole in one I came out and practiced, turned to a local pro named Lloyd Burnside, who was watching, and said, ‘Do you think the champion will be here in two years?'”
Tiger Woods is credited with kick-starting a new generation of youth golfers. Credit: John Seiler/The New York Times via Getty Images
Nicklaus, Woods recalled in an interview in 2013, then “looked at me and said, ‘Just give me two years and I’m going to nail it.'”
Which might explain why he’s a golf enthusiast who spends so much time watching the game. Speaking on the “Pardon The Interruption” podcast on ESPN in 2017, he described it as “a great story. “Just because I’ve been doing it,” he said. “It’s truly a part of me. It’s who I am. I like to come to places and see what they have, what the people have. I always take photos with everybody because you never know when you’re going to be introduced to some players someday and maybe get to see their families.”
Like countless other golf fans around the world, particularly in Asia, I marveled at the time-honored veteran as he played in the event he loves — the China Open — in October 2007.
How he hit it and how he putted, and how he might have managed to kill Tiger with one shot had he known what would happen next.
In a meeting the following year, he told the president of PGA Tour Sports, Steve McWhorter, he wanted to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
He and his wife Barbara had seen a video of the prestigious golf tournament while on holiday, he said, and heard the Stars and Stripes being played above the backdrop.
“The next morning we are sitting on our first-floor balcony overlooking Fisherman’s Wharf (in Hong Kong) and I decided, we’re going to play golf today,” he said.
Tiger Woods poses with a Chinese fan during the China Open in October 2007. Credit: Anthony Harvey/Getty Images AsiaPac/Getty Images
Nicklaus arrives at the China Open, the first of five Asian events on his schedule, in a private jet. He’s cordial with everyone he encounters and eager to walk the fairways.
In conversation, he draws heavily on his own experiences in Hong Kong, which he visited regularly on business during his playing days, and which he now considers a special place in his own life.
“Going to the airport in Hong Kong is nothing like coming from the airport in Miami to Miami, so in a way I feel like a kid coming home to my roots,” he said.
A beer and a fish dinner afterward, next to a lovely wrought-iron pagoda, made things even more emotional. The two men even shared a beer and a fish dinner, prompting Henry Oliver, a filmmaker who’d met Nicklaus before the tournament, to ask him to autograph a grey bass for his grandfather.
The whole episode was surreal, Nicklaus said. Like what had happened with Martin Lewis, the announcer who’d asked him, who became one of the most memorable figures of the tournament.
“I got a phone call from Marty. He told me they were going to retire his name on the trophy, and he said he would drive there from here — me, the players and some officials — and put it in a cool position, and when I got to the clubhouse, they would all look at it and he would say, ‘Some people won’t leave.’
“And I got this dark-eyed couple from Australia, this guy and his wife, who had three children and four grandkids, and they looked at the trophy, put it on the coffee table and they said, ‘What are we going to do with it?’ And the wife said, ‘We’re going to take it down to the lake and swim in it.’ So that’s really how I got my first plaque from the Hall of Fame.
“It just kind of moved me. And in ’28 the President was sitting in the back of the tournament and he looked out and said, ‘I saw what happened to the Tom Broadcaster!'”
Whether Nicklaus has now earned his place in the Hall of Fame is one thing — the announcement isn’t likely to be made anytime soon. But he has already earned a place in golf history, and in the hearts of millions of admirers around the world.
Nicklaus’ iconic putt