The American Spectator

Heavens, having two editors fight over one of my reviews. I blush.

I vastly admire Jack Nicklaus. Either my comparison of his book with Jones’s was an interesting contrast, as I think it was, or it was a gratuitous aside. Considering I devoted an entire paragraph to the comparison, I don’t think it’s gratuitous.

The original description of Jack as a kind of stuffed shirt — along with the “Karnack” nickname from Tom Watson — you can find in John Feinstein’s “A Good Walk Spoiled,” 1996. It’s an established story. Of course, the least criticism of Nicklaus will irritate some people; has for a long time.

Watson himself can stick his nose in the air, too. It was he who wrote the letter to the Masters Tournament Committee that got CBS’s Gary McCord kicked off the broadcast for remarks Watson saw as unbefitting the dignity of the tournament.

It all gets to be a little bit much, and makes me remember fondly such players as Brian Barnes, who once marked a putt with a beer bottle.