There is poetry in hearing a great sportsman talk. An hour’s chance meeting with Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger in an airport lounge can be worth first sight of a hundred football matches. Millions watched Tom Watson’s excruciating failure to deliver his sixth Open Championship at the age of 59 last July (he would have been the oldest major winner by 11 years). Yet none can relive that episode with the insight of Nicklaus, a major winner at the Masters at the age of 46.

I got to Tom about a half-hour after that last round,’ Nicklaus recalled. ‘He said he felt bad. I said, “Tom, how many 59-year-olds have shot 65 the first round at the British Open? I can’t think of any. How many have led after two rounds, after three rounds, after four rounds? I can’t think of any”.’

“But I didn’t finish.”

‘I said, “Tom, you played a great tee shot on 18 and you played what appeared to be a great second shot, too. It just happened to be that much too long”.’ Nicklaus gestured a distance of about two feet. ‘I said, “You picked the right club for your third shot.” “I’m glad to hear you say that, Jack. I’m getting a lot of flak on that.”

‘I said, “I know you’re a good chipper, but the putter is the only club in your bag where you’re not going to lose the tournament, because you’re going to knock it on the green.”

“Yeah, but I goosed it.”

‘I said, “Yeah, but so what, so did everybody else. You got the ball on the green. And then, I told him, you hit the putt like the rest of us would”.’

The pay-off brought the house down, as Nicklaus intended. He was on less assured ground when asked about the personal frailties of the man it was presumed would
succeed him at golf’s pinnacle. On Tiger Woods the player, however, he offered insight, and a rare prediction.

‘The chances are still pretty good that Tiger will beat my record,’ Nicklaus said. ‘If he doesn’t, I’ll be very surprised. It would be more difficult for him if he didn’t play this year because three of the courses, Augusta (Masters), Pebble Beach (US Open) and St Andrews (Open), are courses he likes very much and has done pretty well on. So I didn’t think there would be any way he was going to miss those tournaments. I expect him to focus on playing, and he’s pretty good when he’s focused.

‘I still believe he wants those 18 majors. Why do you think he’s here? Not for his health. He’s here to play golf. It’s the first major of the year, he’s taking large steps to get his life back in order, and he wants to play.

‘I never expected him to pass this up. I expected to see him here. I don’t see any change. I don’t see him as diminished; I don’t see him as tarnished. What happened had nothing to do with his golf. All that affects him as a golfer is he hasn’t played for five months.

Just as Nicklaus talking is still pretty good. Almost as good as watching him play, in fact. Almost.

Meanwhile, Oliver Brown in The Telegraph believes Ian Poulter has the potential to lead the English challenge in Augusta.

This most exacting of golf clubs may be ruthless in their dress code, mandating that the caddies wear all-white, but Poulter, the clothes horse from Stevenage who so happens to be England's pre-eminent hope of a first Masters champion since Nick Faldo, makes sartorial concessions to no one.

It appeared apt that Poulter set off for the par-three competition in the company of Faldo, whose mastery of these greens has been so formidable. The younger man boasted a pair of tartan trousers to make your eyes water, but what he would have given for his elder companion's choice of three green jackets with which to set them off.

Poulter cannot afford to entertain any bad omens when he mounts the first tee this afternoon. For the next 18 holes his threeball will be followed around by the Tiger Woods show. He will hear cheers, roars and maybe even some mischievous wolf-whistles, but all of them will be echoing a hole behind him.

He requires fearsome concentration to invest himself in his own game, and if he was seeking inspiration he needed not have looked far beyond the exploits of his old friend Graeme McDowell, who rounded off his warm-up day with a hole-in-one at the ninth.

This year, though, there is a well-founded feeling in Augusta that the British are coming. Lee Westwood exaggerated not at all when he said: "The world rankings show we have a lot of good players at the moment, and it'll be no surprise to see a couple of Englishmen up there. We've had proven major winners before in Faldo and Tony Jacklin, but they've been on their own. This time we're going a little more mob-handed."

Westwood, technically, is the head of the mob with his status as fourth best player in the world, three places ahead of Poulter.

He has shrugged off accusations of buckling under pressure with his nerveless procession to victory in last season's Race to Dubai, even if a three-putt on the final green at Turnberry to miss an Open play-off by one shot forms an unhappy reminder of his dubious record on the major stage.

Poulter must trust that he has the resolve to avoid a similar moment this week if he is not to be branded as all mouth and trousers.