Jack Nicklaus has turned down the opportunity of an emotional return to St Andrews for this year's Open celebrations.

The 18-time major winner had been invited to the Champions Challenge, a four-hole event on the eve of the tournament for all the past winners. However, he has declined the offer and will not even be attending the event.

Nicklaus bade a tear-stained farewell to golf on the famous Old Course - where he won two of his three Claret Jugs - five years ago and he wants the memory of those final two rounds to remain undiminished.

"I'm not coming over," the 70-year-old told reporters.

"I called Peter Dawson (chief executive of the R&A) last week and said 'I don't know whether you will understand but 2005 was so good, I said goodbye to the game of golf at the place I wanted to.

"This is a personal thing on my part. The people were wonderful, the game was great. The Open was a very special event, especially at St Andrews where I won twice.

"For me to come again and go back out on the course, I just don't want to do that because it was so good before."

Life skills

Nicklaus, a global ambassador for the Royal Bank of Scotland, was speaking at a coaching clinic for The First Tee of Manchester - an initiative that uses golf to teach life skills to disadvantaged youngsters.

He said he felt he had made the perfect exit from the sport he graced for more than four decades.

"I don't go to any of the majors in the States apart from the Masters and that is because of the Masters dinner and it is very close to where I live," he added.

"But I didn't say goodbye at the Masters, I said goodbye at St Andrews and that is the way I feel."