For Nicklaus, Canadian Open was one elusive title
By Dave Shedloski, PGATOUR.COM Senior Correspondent
When Jack Nicklaus was tapped to lead the U.S. Presidents Cup team for a fourth time in 2007 at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Quebec, Canada, few could argue that the legendary golfer didn't deserve the opportunity, especially after he calmly guided the Americans to an inspired victory in the '05 edition at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va.
Some, however, questioned whether or not Nicklaus was tempting fate. The Golden Bear wondered that himself, noting that America's win over the International Team by a count of 18.5 to 15.5 was the perfect exclamation point to his competitive career after he retired as a player at the British Open at St. Andrews, Scotland. The victory also evened his Presidents Cup record to 1-1-1 and his overall Captain's mark, counting two turns at the Ryder Cup helm, to 2-2-1.
Not only was he putting all that on the line, but also he was going to be leading his charges on a particular tract of foreign soil that throughout his career had been rather inhospitable to him.
Winner of a record 18 professional major championships, Nicklaus compiled a worldwide resume that included 73 PGA TOUR titles, 10 more on the Champions Tour, and assorted wins in Asia, Australia, South American and Europe.
He reserved particular respect for "national" championships, and he was able to collect four wins in the U.S. Open, three in the British Open and six in the Australian Open.
Amazingly, for all his successes, Nicklaus never won the Canadian Open, the third oldest national championship in golf behind the British and U.S. tournaments.
Not that he didn't have his chances.
Among his 58 career runner-up finishes, seven came north of the border. Add his seven seconds in the British Open, and you have nearly one-quarter of his silver medals.
Nicklaus competed in the Canadian Open 27 times. Fifteen of those appearances came at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario, site of this year's 99th edition. Not only did Nicklaus design Glen Abbey, but it also represents his first solo architectural creation.
Inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 1995, Nicklaus gained immediate recognition in the Canadian Open with consecutive fifth-place finishes in 1962 and '64 followed by his first runner-up in '65 to Gene Littler at Mississaugua Golf & Country Club in Ontario. Nicklaus, the reigning Masters champion, fired a closing 3-under-par 67, but Littler clipped him with a 66 and 7-under 273 total.
And so the tone was set.
In 1968, at St. George's Golf & Country Club, Nicklaus posted another 3-under 67 in the final round. Bob Charles shot 66 to win by two strokes with a 274 total.
In 1975, when he won the Masters and the PGA Championship, Nicklaus came up empty again, losing in a playoff to fellow Ohioan Tom Weiskopf at Royal Montreal. The following year at Essex Golf & Country Club in Windsor, Ontario, Jerry Pate beat him by four strokes.
Britain's Peter Oosterhuis, now a broadcaster for CBS Sports and GOLF CHANNEL, won only one PGA TOUR title; that was the 1981 Canadian Open at Glen Abbey where he nipped Nicklaus and Bruce Lietzke by one shot with a 4-under 280 aggregate score.
In 1983, Nicklaus collected the 10th of his 13 top-10 finishes in the Canadian Open by finishing one shot out of a playoff between John Cook and Johnny Miller that Cook eventually won. The Bear, who tied for the day's low round with a 67, missed an 18-foot birdie putt at the last that would have tied him for the lead.
A second-year TOUR member who would display a penchant for final-round scoring bursts relegated Nicklaus to bridesmaid for a sixth time in '84. With a 67 and 280 total at Glen Abbey, Greg Norman won his second title of the year by two shots over the Bear.
Norman and Nicklaus tied at 281 the following year at Glen Abbey. Unfortunately for them, Curtis Strange came in at 279. Nicklaus never got closer to the title again, though he managed, at age 49, to post one more top-10 finish in the 1989 edition. With four sub-par rounds, the Golden Bear tied for 10th at 276, an aggregate score that would have been good enough to win at Glen Abbey in 10 other years.
At the 2006 Memorial Tournament presented by Morgan Stanley, Nicklaus, the founder and host, was asked about the void in his stellar resume in a press conference announcing his return to the U.S. Presidents Cup helm. The line of questioning went like this:
Reporter: "The press always brings up the bad news, but you were 0-7 in Canada."
Nicklaus: "I'm not 0-7 in Canada."
Reporter: "Seven times a runner up. OK, 0 for 25.
Nicklaus: "I haven't won a tournament in Canada? I don't know. Well, I think that I beat 142 guys more than seven times."
Reporter: "A chance for you to finally get a trophy in Canada?"
Nicklaus. "That would be a nice way to do it, certainly."
Despite going into the event as a rare underdog, the American team defeated the Internationals, 19.5 to 14.5.
Nicklaus finally got his win in Canada.
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