Nicklaus withdraws from tournament

Jack Nicklaus, the most dominant player at Augusta National with six green jackets won over 23 years, withdrew Tuesday from the Masters because of lingering back problems.\nIt will be only the second time since 1959 that Nicklaus has missed the Masters. He also skipped in 1999 when he was recovering from hip replacement surgery.\nWhile the 62-year-old Golden Bear has expressed concerns about competing against players half his age on an Augusta National course that has added nearly 300 yards, it was a back injury that has plagued him for nearly a year that forced him to withdraw.\nNicklaus also withdrew from this week's Legends of Golf on the Senior PGA Tour.\n"I have tried over the last couple of months to get my body and my golf game in shape to play at the Legends and possibly the Masters," Nicklaus said. "And while encouraged, I made a decision today that neither is at the point I hoped they'd be at this stage.\n"I do not think my golf game is suitable right now for the competition."\nNicklaus has not played an official tournament since July 29 last year, when he tied for third in the Senior British Open.\n"We are disappointed that due to his health, Jack will not be competing in this year's Masters," Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson said. "Jack has made numerous contributions to this tournament, and we hope physically he is able to play golf again soon."\nNicklaus said he will continue a fitness program designed to help his back. He hopes to play in The Tradition, the first major on the senior tour to be played the last week in April in Arizona on a course he designed.\n"My back is better, and hopefully it will come around to the point where it will allow me to play golf in the not-so-distant future," he said. "I really miss competitive golf. It's in my blood, and I very much look forward to playing again soon."\nHe first suggested he might skip the Masters in January, when his lower back caused problems swinging the club.\nNicklaus joined Augusta National last year and played in a members' tournament in November. He said he couldn't reach the fairway bunker on No. 1 from the members' tees and routinely hit his drives only about 210 yards.\nGolf World magazine recently checked the scores Nicklaus was posting at his home course, The Bear's Club in Jupiter, Fla., and found his handicap index was 2.