Jack Nicklaus Reflects on Muirfield and More
By Dave Weissman, Columbus Wired

Jack Nicklaus held his annual pre-tournament press conference, describing changes to the course, answering comparisons to his glory days, his thoughts when he build Muirfield and more in a 50 minute session with the media.

He started out discussing the changes to the course, which he admits he is always tinkering. There were changes to hole #1, #8, and the most significant to #15. All of the changes and tweaks are meant to encourage playing the strategy of the course.

“We’ve been thinking about #15 for years,” he said. “With equipment (it) has become a very short par-5, actually almost par-4 length. I just didn’t think it fit to me to be a par-4 hole. We took the bleachers out behind the tee and moved them across the creek in an effort to more or less put the driver back in the golfer’s hands; right now most of the guys have been hitting 3-wood up to the top of the hill and playing an iron into the green.”

He defended his changes re-iterating that any change he does is to keep the players honest, especially with the driving lengths of many of today’s pros.

Jack also reflected on how he chose Dublin, Ohio as the site for his course and also how he was able to get his course on the PGA Tour schedule.

“Joe (Dye) and I developed the idea of what the tournament would be, how it could be, we developed the idea of the Captain’s Club, honoring players of the past.” All this even before the course was completed.

It was Dye who suggested he try to get a date on the Tour, but it was full. “We did two years down at the Ohio Kings Island Open before we transferred the event up here,” Nicklaus said. “That was the way he justified us having the ability to move into a prime date.”

Asked about Tiger Woods speaking today at an event he is setting up in Washington D.C. for the Tiger Woods Foundation, Nicklaus was asked if he considers The Memorial his namesake signature event. His answer was a simple no.

“The Children’s Hospital has been the recipient of our benefit from day one,” he said. “They saved my daughters life when she was less than a year old, and so we wanted them to be our recipient of what we did here.”

“I don’t think Tiger financially has any real reason to do something like that other than I think that Tiger wants to have the event,” he said.

Jack will be playing in the pro-am tomorrow, but admits his game is not up to par even if they fans love seeing him.

“I don’t play much golf anymore,” he said. “Actually, I came up here this weekend just because I wanted to play the golf course, and I played it. I shot 79, 83. That’s about my game.”

Even though he is not playing in the tournament, he knows that many friends and family will be out tomorrow to support him in the pro-am.

“I enjoy going around. It will be fun. There will be a lot of people here that have been friends of mine for a long time, and they’ll see my half a swing that I’ve got left and that will be about it. They’ll watch me for about two shots and say, ‘Geez, wasn’t it nice to see Jack out there. Then they’ll go watch somebody play golf,” he said with a chuckle.