In a strict golf sense, Jack Nicklaus has always seemed a little more divine than human.

It's the family side of Nicklaus that always brought the greatest golfer who ever lived down to earth.

It's that family man - husband, father of five, grandfather of 17 - and not the six-time Masters winner we'll watch this week.

It's that family man who spoke Tuesday about the toughest thing he's ever had to deal with in 65 years. Losing majors ranks nowhere remotely close to losing a 17-month-old grandson.

"The hardest part is watching your children suffer," Nicklaus said of his son Steve and daughter-in-law Krista. "It's a double-whammy for a grandparent. That's just not supposed to happen."

Sitting at the podium where he's sat so many times before, Nicklaus talked about some of the same things he always does - the golf ball, the evolution of the game, his Masters memories.

And he talked about a little 17-month-old boy named Jake - "such a cute little kid" - who was just developing a personality, just starting to run around and always throwing open his arms every time his Pe-Pa walked in the room.

The smartest one of his 17 grandkids, he said.

"Mother and dad couldn't get him out of my arms," Nicklaus said. "I'd try to give him back and he would go, 'Uh-uh.' That was the only kid that does that. I said, 'Well, that kid is set for life.' "

Jake's life ended way too soon last month, and the Nicklauses are still dealing with it. Everybody copes with tragedy differently.

In the Nicklaus family, no matter what happens, there is always golf.

"I had canceled everything after Jake passed away to spend time with Steve, which I did," Nicklaus said. "And Steve wanted to play golf. I had no intention of playing golf whatsoever, but that's what he wanted to do."

And so they played, father and son. They played at home in North Palm Beach, Fla. They came up and played in Augusta. Before you know it, Nicklaus had played enough golf to consider teeing it up for the 45th time in the Masters.

"You know you want to play," Steve told him.

"I want to play, but I don't have much of a golf game," Jack replied.

"You'll have a golf game," Steve said.

"So I'm here," Nicklaus said. "That's why I'm playing."

Nicklaus ultimately made the decision to play a week ago, not at

the urging of his son but at the pressing of his executive secretary, Rose Garrido.

So what if Nicklaus' game isn't up to his standards? It'll come as naturally as it always has.

"I'll remember how to play golf if I get myself in a position to," he said. "I usually figure out a way to play somewhat reasonably. I may screw it up somehow, but usually I figure out a way how to play golf."

Figuring out how to comfort his son and cope with a loss far greater than anything he ever suffered on a golf course is entirely different. Steve and Krista cry themselves to sleep at night. Jack and Barbara and the rest of the family offer all they can - love and understanding.

"You know, you're never going to get over something like that - and you shouldn't," Nicklaus said. "That's always going to be a part of their life, and they have to live with that, and so do we.

"There's nothing anybody can say, and no matter what you say you always think it's the wrong thing to say because there's no right thing to say. You just move on to what you have to do and grieve as you would grieve and do as they do and say life will get better. But it's difficult."

Playing another Masters will not be. This is our chance to wrap our collective arms around Nicklaus and his family with one big Bear hug and show him the love that always seemed to be outwardly reserved for Arnold Palmer more than for Jack.

Nicklaus never seems to understand how much people care about him, how much he's grown in the public's heart.

"When I decide to quit, I can't think that that's any big deal, at least certainly not to me," he said Tuesday. "I don't know why it should be to anybody else."

But the piles of letters and e-mails and phone calls that poured in over the past month showed how much he means to everybody else.

"Every one of them is special," he said.

Precious. Just like Jake. Just like another Masters with Jack.

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.