Gary trying to cast off the Nicklaus shadow

IT WAS yet another day in the shadows for Gary Nicklaus yesterday. Playing out his last round just behind the tour's Order of Merit leader, Colin Montgomerie, and immediately before British Open champion Tom Lehman, the 27 year old American was always going to have a greater battle with the elements than with the crowds. But then, when your father is the legendary Golden Bear, a man with 18 major titles to his name, you kind of get used to being edged out of the limelight.

The fourth of Jack's five sons, golf has always been pretty central to Gary's life but, since deciding to try his hand at the professional game in 1991, he has experienced a side of the sport which his father, to whom he bears a startling resemblance, never became embroiled in.

Having turned professional back in 1961, Jack Nicklaus won three tournaments, including his first US Open during the following summer. In his first three years as a pro, after following his father and a long list of other stars through a college apprenticeship at Ohio State Gary picked up just 55,427 in prize money and, while things have improved over the past couple of seasons, he is under no illusions about the growing urgency for him to start establishing a reputation of his own.

"At the moment I have to rely on invitations and while it's nice of them to give me them and it's great to have them, they're not going to be there for ever if I don't start performing in my own right," he says as he sits in the clubhouse of the K Club after completing his fourth round for a 286 total and a share of 29th place.

The £6,637 he picked up yesterday, along with the £5,000 he got for 14th place at the Turespana Master back in April - as well as a sprinkling of other decent results on the European, Asian and American tours - have made this his best season so far. However, without a solid base on one of the regular circuits, he feels it is particularly difficult for him to make any long term progress.

"It's tough to really get a feel for it because I'm playing here and then I'm in Asia and then it's back to the States. I never seem to be in one place long enough to have anyone to compare myself against."

His sixth attempt to earn his US tour card will start in the middle of next month when he travels from his base in Florida to Indiana for the first phase of this year's American school. He is still considering another attempt in Europe around the same time.

The memory of two seasons ago, though, when he missed out on a place in the final phase of the process in the US (and with it the guarantee of at least a place on the Nike Tour) by just one shot and then saw a card itself slip away by the same margin the following week on this side of the Atlantic, still lingers and he is reluctant to commit himself to that sort of schedule again.

In fact while anxious to put the days of profiting from his name behind him, the soft spoken Nicklaus is patient about his prospects, pointing out that the average age for winning a card in the US is close to 30 years - Tom Lehman struggled for nine years before really establishing himself at the start of the 1990s.

For the moment, however, there is only the burden of expectations that comes with having such an enormous star for your father, although Gary hopes to avoid the comparison even if it is just about impossible.

"It's a little unfair because nobody compares to my dad. I mean you can't compare Greg Norman and no disrespect to him because he's a great player to him because there is nobody with his sort of record. So for the moment I just think about playing well and if somebody thinks I should have won a tournament because my second name is Nicklaus, well, then that's their problem."