Jack On Camera Phones: “What do you want to be, the Gestapo out there, with 30,000 or 40,000 people? I don't know the answer.”

Steve Elling shares Jack Nicklaus's comments Saturday about the cell phone brouhaha that broke out this week, largely from lax enforcement (and subsequently a none-issue now that there has been proper enforcement):

Nicklaus insisted that the PGA Tour needs to handle the policing, not the volunteer marshals at weekly events. Fans are allowed to have cameras, a two-year-old policy, but photos are forbidden during live play.

The level of enforcement varies wildly from town to town.

“Either guys have got to get used to it, or the tour needs to change its policy,” Nicklaus said. “What do you want to be, the Gestapo out there, with 30,000 or 40,000 people? I don't know the answer.”

Nicklaus said he was seldom bothered by outside noise during his career, though of course, every fan wasn't armed with a potentially noisy, disruptive cellphone camera then, either.