US golf legend Jack Nicklaus said Sunday that he and his
wife Barbara tested positive for the coronavirus back in March and both
recovered.
The 80-year-old Nicklaus, winner of a record 18 major
titles, revealed the experience on the television broadcast of the US PGA
Tour’s Memorial tournament, which Nicklaus hosts at Muirfield Village in
Dublin, Ohio.
He said his wife had no virus symptoms, while he dealt with
a sore throat and cough from March 13 “until we were done with it”
more than a month later.
“It didn’t last very long, and we were very, very
fortunate, very lucky,” said Nicklaus, who noted that he and his wife,
both 80, are at an “at-risk age” for more serious COVID-19 symptoms.
“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 US PGA Tour shut down for three months amid the
coronavirus pandemic. The Memorial, the sixth event since the tour resumed, is
being played without spectators as coronavirus case numbers surge in many areas
of the United States.
Tiger Woods, a five-time winner of the Memorial, said he
had known that the Nicklauses 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.
