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Posted by: David Bunch

The golf world continues to pay tribute to Jack Nicklaus as he makes the tourney rounds for the last time.

This has been a year of farewells for Nicklaus, who played his final Masters in
April and ended his incomparable major championship career at the British Open.
His final act this year is to lead the U.S. team at the Presidents Cup.

Several players share their memories of Nicklaus in the article.

In the weeks leading up to the Sept. 22-25 matches, his 12 players shared
their favorite memories of Nicklaus, which invariably involve his children, his
presence and a surprising ability to talk smack:

``The whole day, Jack was needling me. If I hit a bad shot, left a putt
short, whatever. He'd say, 'Yeah, my mother would have done it like that.'

This reminds me of a poem. Actually, it's a haiku and I just made it up so I guess I should say it reminds me of a poem that I'm about to write. How's this?

The gentleman called Jack talks smack;
Trembling opponents waive goodbye

This whole thing really strikes me as funny because I think of golf as a gentleman's sport. I mean, in golf lessons as a kid they spent quite a lot of time on golf etiquette. Of course, part of that was so that some hyper active kid (me) didn't give the golf pro a 9 iron to the knee, but the underlying message was that golf started as a high society rich man's game in Scotland, and for crying out loud a bunch of 13 year old American kids weren't going to ruin it for everyone.

So here's Nicklaus secretly muttering insults to his opponents under his breath! I guess this proves you can be a champ, a gentleman, and an intimidator all at once.

I'll be appearing in my first golf tournament next week, so I'll be sure to remember this. When the going get's tough, the tough shout insults!