Nicklaus Laments About Golf and Technology
I’ve said before that Jack Nicklaus was my golf idol when I was learning the game. He had that same presence Tiger does when he walked onto a golf course. I saw him play at an event in the early 80s and I was sitting in the bleachers early one morning before any of the pros had teed off watching them at the range hitting balls. There must have been 20 or so guys on the range that day, with their caddies and others hanging round them. All of a sudden you started hearing, “here comes Jack, here comes Jack”. I watched him leave the area near the clubhouse and make his way towards the range and as he got to the range (and I’ll never forget this), the mass of people on the range literally parted like the red sea, in deference to Nicklaus. All of a sudden it was, “morning Jack, how are you Jack, do you want to hit balls here Jack?”. It was like a king had walked onto the range. He respectfully said he’d go to the end of the range so as not to bother anyone.
I followed him that day for most of the holes and it was an education that I never forgot. He concentrated, and planned each shot with more focus than anyone else I had ever seen play. His caddie would walk off a yardage, then Jack would, then they’d talk about it and only when he was ready would he pull the club out and hit. He left nothing to chance and was the ultimate strategist on the golf course.
So where am I going with all of this? Nicklaus wants to make Valhalla (site of the ‘08 Ryder Cup) more difficult to compensate for the technology that is golf today. He made somewhat of a backhanded comment about Tiger saying, “I can’t imagine beating all the players in the world hitting irons and leaving all the woods in the bag like he did at the British Open.” Quite frankly, I really don’t think technology had much to do with Tiger’s win, and it’s because he played irons off the tee and mid to long irons into the greens. It’s funny that Jack forgot to mention that the British Open was played with a smaller golf ball than was used in America and the American players absolutely loved the extra distance it went, not to mention the hole looked much bigger. So give Tiger a British 1972-era golf ball and see how far he hits it. End of story.
Sadly, Nicklaus is sounding more and more bitter about the fact that Tiger is probably going to break his major wins record. And by making the courses longer and longer, they’re just playing right into the hands of the big hitters. Only guys like Tiger, Phil, Vigay, Ernie, Retief, and Sergio will be able to compete, and I don’t think that’s what they ultimately want.