Jack Nicklaus practices on Tuesday. (Getty Images) Compete to win is still Nicklaus' mindset July 12, 2005 By Dave Shedloski PGATOUR.COM Senior Correspondent ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- There is little doubt how he would like to go out. Jack Nicklaus plays in major championships to win them. So no words were needed Tuesday when the Golden Bear was asked what scenario would best satisfy him when he ends his competitive golf career this week at the 134th British Open. Nicklaus merely held up his hands, one with the palm turned up and the other palm facing out, as if he were cradling the Claret Jug. Three times in his 37 Open Championship appearances Nicklaus grasped the prized trophy -- and seven more times he was oh, so close as the runner-up. Sixty-five years old and making his third and final start on the PGA TOUR this year, Nicklaus is aware that he would have to catch lightning not in a bottle but in a thimble. However, striving to compete is the only way he knows how to go about approaching a tournament. He corrected Stewart McDougall, the Open Championship press officer, when he mentioned this being Nicklaus’ last Open appearance. “I don’t like the way you phrased that,” Nicklaus said with a grin. “If I win it wouldn’t be my last.” No matter how Nicklaus performs this week here at the Old Course, this championship is a milestone in golf. Over 163 starts in the majors Nicklaus has been the benchmark standard for all others to emulate. His record not only includes those 18 professional major titles plus two U.S. Amateur wins, but also 19 second-place finishes -- which might an even more unbeatable mark. He chose the Old Course because of what it has meant in his career; he won the Open here in 1970 and ’78. He also chose it because along with Augusta National Golf Club, where earlier this year he played in his last Masters Tournament, St. Andrews is his favorite place in the game. Just remembering his 1970 victory, which he claimed in a playoff over Doug Sanders five months after his father passed away, brought a welling of tears to his eyes Tuesday. But Nicklaus is intent to not carry such emotional baggage out with him when he tees off at 2:47 a.m. EDT Thursday with Tom Watson and Luke Donald. “I’m here as a competitor. And we’ll find out whether that competitor can play through to Sunday and try to do the best he can,” he said. “And once the competition is over for me -- obviously I still look at a scenario when I walk down (the home hole) late Sunday afternoon … maybe that’s not realistic -- at that point in time it will be something different; it will be looking at my last tournament.” Other players in the field, while trying to prepare their own games for the difficult test of the Old Course, can’t help but acknowledge the nostalgic undertones sweeping across the ancient landscape that this week doubles as museum as well as golf course. Nick Faldo made sure to get a photo with Nicklaus on the Swilcan Bridge Monday. Bart Bryant and Kenny Perry, who have won the last two editions of Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament, were quick on the draw to make sure they had reserved their spot in the Golden Bear’s practice round groups. “This is a very special week,” said Ernie Els, who played with Nicklaus at this year’s Memorial Tournament, where the tournament founder and host may also have played for the last time. “With Jack going out, it’s kind of a milestone in golf. We will remember this week for a long time. It’s a special occasion especially that it’s here at St. Andrews.” “We remember the Masters this year because it was Jack’s last,” says 2004 Masters champion Phil Mickelson. “We remember the Masters last year because it was Arnold’s (Palmer’s) last. To be able to be in the field is special.” Nicklaus, making his eighth Open Championship appearance at the Old Course, certainly thinks it’s special for him, especially when he thought he had played his last British Open in 2000 here. But the Royal & Ancient moved up St. Andrews by one year in the Open rota ostensibly to allow Nicklaus one more tour, and the Golden Bear gladly obliged, saying the gesture, “is an awfully nice compliment.” A Sunday tee time, perhaps late, would only make the occasion more meaningful. Nicklaus had made some slight adjustments to his posture and ball position and has been hitting the ball better than he has in quite a while, which has him eager to play. It doesn’t hurt that changes to the golf course and his body are nullified by equipment advances, meaning his strategy this week isn’t vastly different from what it was in his prime. “It’s the one golf course where I can go back and play pretty much the same clubs that I played all my life,” Nicklaus said. “It’s just a matter of execution and whether I can do that or not. That’s why I like it.” It’s no wonder that even as everyone else sees his appearance here as largely ceremonial, Nicklaus remains fixated on his tasks as they relate to competition and shooting a score. “Sure, it will have its moments for me,” Nicklaus said of his final rounds. “But it’s really hard to understand … I don’t understand sometimes what goes around in my head. But my head says, hey, I can play this golf course and I’m going to go play. And that to me is not ceremonial.” No, it’s just Nicklaus being Jack Nicklaus, true to himself to the end.