Jack Nicklaus, On A Little Bit Of Everything

/

The old media vets didn't get the new story they hankered for, but us first-time Memorial guests were happy to lap up Jack Nicklaus' pre-tournament sitdown with the media.

The transcript is here, Jason Sobel's account is here, Steve DiMeglio's story on the slow play remarks vindicating the PGA Tour, Steve Elling's career retrospective (pre-presser), Doug Ferguson's notes column leading off with Jack, and finally, the highlights from today:

On Bubba Watson:

He's got‑‑ to put it mildly, a rather unique golf swing, and I think that's‑‑ to his credit, which is to me what the game is all about, is learning who you are and what you are and what you do.  You know, people criticize Furyk for his golf swing, but Jim knows what he does and how he does it.  You look at some other golf swings and you see what you think is a perfect golf swing, but sometimes they don't know what they're doing with it.

On Bubba's recovery shot at Augusta:

I'm trying to visualize how much he hooked the ball at 10 at Augusta.  I don't know how much he hooked it, but he obviously hooked it a lot.  But what amazed me was when the ball came down on the green with a hook as hard as he hit it, it backed up.  It backed up the hill, and I said, How do you make a golf ball do that?  That was kind of interesting I thought.

On Tiger "owning his swing":

I sat next to Tiger at the‑‑ I sat with Arnold over here and I had Tiger over here at the Masters dinner this year, and Arnold and I, I can't remember what we were talking about because Arnold couldn't hear me, I guess (laughter), but we had a great time.  We kid each other constantly, so we have a good time.

And then Tiger over here, we were talking about‑‑ I was asking him, Why do you need somebody to watch you all the time?  He said, I really don't.  He said, I really have‑‑ I go to Sean and I get some ideas, but then I really go work on it myself and try to learn what I want to do and how I want to do it, which I think is the right way.  I said, If you're doing that, you're on the right track, but all I read in the papers is how Sean is making a swing change on you.  He said, That's not what I'm doing.  I said, Okay, that's fine then, because he's trying to be responsible for himself, which I think is what the question you're asking me, if that's a long answer to a short question.

On the blissful ignorance of youth:

Going to Oakmont‑‑ it sounds funny, may sound ridiculous to all of you, but I didn't know who Arnold Palmer was for all intents and purposes.  I didn't mean it that way, but what I mean is that all I had to do was worry about myself.  I wasn't worried about Arnold or Gary or whoever might be there.

I was interested because I felt like I really had the chance to win those two previous wins, and I had just finished second the week before to Littler at Thunderbird and I was really playing well and I was charged up to play, and that was my sole thought was that this was my week.

All of a sudden I found out I was in Arnold Palmer's backyard, but I found that out a couple weeks later after the tournament was over because I didn't pay attention to it while I was there.

I don't know if you understand that, but that's what a 22‑year‑old kid thinks like.  Maybe even a 16‑year‑old kid.

On the good 'ole days before private jets and PGA Tour Day Care:

Well, I was 22 with a family.  Jackie was about eight months old when I played the Open at Oakmont.  But we used to travel.  We used to travel.  We talked about traveling in the car, back in the day when we didn't have disposable diapers and we had a diaper pail in the backseat with a port‑a‑crib and off we went.  Let me tell you, you'd better keep the windows open.  I'll tell you what, it didn't smell very good.

And all the players, we'd all try to figure out and go to the same motel so we could have cookouts, and then the wives would have‑‑ they'd take turns watching other people's kids.  If one of the guys was in contention, the other wives would take care of their kids and they'd go watch their husband play golf.  We did a lot of that kind of stuff in the days when we were playing.

On scheduling, easy golf courses and why he didn't play much senior golf:

I laugh at this because it's a different golf course now I can tell the story, but I never wanted to go to Hartford.  It had nothing to do with Hartford, it was just an easy golf course and I never played easy golf courses well.  Finally one year, Wethersfield, I thought, Okay, I'll go play.  Went up and shot 68 the first round, and I think I was in 25th place after shooting a 68.  Well, I shot 67 the second round and I was in 32nd place, and I shot 67 the third round and I went to 42nd place, then I shot 67 the fourth round and finished about 37th or 38th.  I thought, there's a reason why I haven't come here.

I always wanted to play golf courses that were a challenge and difficult.  I thought it would create interest to me and would challenge me and make me‑‑ stimulate me to want to play.  So that's basically how I made my schedule.

And then I went back‑‑ when I turned 50 and went to the Senior Tour, we went right back to those golf courses, those same type of golf courses, and that's why I never played much on the Senior Tour.

On slow play:

I got a two‑stroke penalty at Portland and I got a two‑stroke penalty at Houston playing with Cary Middlecoff, and he didn't get a penalty, so then I knew I was really slow.  You don't know Cary Middlecoff, but he was the slowest.

So it's a matter of learning how to do it.

Now, as it relates to the everyday game, I think the everyday game, they try to imitate what happens on the TOUR, and the kids try to copy the players.  Well, the players, these guys are not only taking 65 shots, and there's not a lot of time between their shots.  They take their time over their shot, but they play a 7,500‑yard golf course and they play it in four and a half hours and they play it in a threesome that moves along pretty good.  It's not that bad.  Should it be faster?  Yeah, it could be a little bit faster, but I don't think that's a major problem.

But the major problem is becoming for the average recreational golfer because they can't‑‑ today is not a four and a half, four‑hour time to play golf.  This is in the computer age, kids want to do things in two and a half, three hours at dead max.  No other sport is played in any more than that except a five‑set tennis match maybe might get there, and how much of that do you watch?  You watch the fourth and fifth set maybe by the time they get to it.

But the game for the average golfer needs to be faster, take less time, needs to be cheaper, and needs to be easier.