Another Celebrity Reveals He Tested Positive

Golf legend Jack Nicklaus and his wife both recovered fairly quickly, he says
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jul 20, 2020 12:03 AM CDT
Jack Nicklaus: Wife and I Had Coronavirus
Jack Nicklaus watches during the final round of the Memorial golf tournament, Sunday, July 19, 2020, in Dublin, Ohio.   (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Jack Nicklaus revealed Sunday during the CBS telecast of the Memorial that he and his wife tested positive for the coronavirus at the onset of the pandemic, the AP reports. Nicklaus and his wife, Barbara, turned 80 a month apart at the start of the year. He said his wife had no COVID-19 symptoms, while Nicklaus had a sore throat and a cough. Nicklaus said they were home in North Palm Beach, Fla., from March 13 “until we were done with it” on about April 20. “It didn’t last very long, and we were very, very fortunate, very lucky,” Nicklaus said. “Barbara and I are both of the age, both of us 80 years old, that is an at-risk age. Our hearts go out to the people who did lose their lives and their families. We were just a couple of the lucky ones.”

The Memorial had no spectators, and Nicklaus sightings were rare because of protocols in the PGA Tour's return to golf amid the pandemic. The few times he was seen, he was wearing a mask and keeping his distance. Tiger Woods, a five-time winner of the Memorial, said he had known for some time Nicklaus had tested positive. “The fact that they got through it and they’re safe and here and healthy, it’s all good news for all of us who are a part of golf and who looked up to Jack and (have) been around Barbara all these years,” Woods said. John Rahm won the tournament, and shared a fist bump with Nicklaus rather than the traditional handshake. "I’ve been dreaming of that handshake many times,” Rahm said. “Well, it was a fist bump because of the situation, but still, how many people can say they got a congratulatory fist bump from Jack Nicklaus?”

(More Jack Nicklaus stories.)

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