certainly a fredeeky favorite...

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland, July 12 - As seagulls darted and chatted above, Jack Nicklaus walked around a short green fence to the first tee at the Old Course at St. Andrews.

These were steps that Nicklaus had taken hundreds of times, as a young man and as a grandfather, always believing that this tournament by the sea was made for him, the mounding, the grasses, even the gallery.

His forearms were tanned and thick. He stuck a tee into the ground and took a long glance down the fairway.

"That's why I'm here," Nicklaus said. "I'm here as a competitor. And we'll find out whether that competitor can play through to Sunday."

Nicklaus, beginning Thursday, will play in his final major championship at the golf course where he has won two of his three British Open titles. As he prepares for the bump-and-run shots and wind shots that define this tournament, he said his mind had sometimes drifted as people tried to honor him during a week where he wants to be a golfer.