DUBLIN, Ohio – Jack Nicklaus spent about 15 minutes answering questions virtually on Tuesday, which was about 15 minutes shorter than the live news conference he hosts every year at the Memorial.
And that does not include the extra 15 to 30 minutes he spends gabbing with the media after the official presser ends. As usual, Nicklaus addressed a variety of topics two days before the 45th Memorial begins at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
Nicklaus insisted the relative last-minute decision not to allow spectators at the Memorial was not made by the tournament but by the PGA Tour, with heavy input from players who were uncomfortable being around fans in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We didn’t make it, you did,” he corrected the tour media official who asked him how hard of a decision it was to keep fans out. “The Tour made the decision. We didn’t have anything to do with it. We were approved by the state; Governor DeWine actually liked our proposal. He thought that we had really set out every safety issue that we could, and we were going to give it a shot.”
The Memorial’s original plan to allow spectators would have made it the first event to do so since the tour restart on June 11 at Colonial Country Club for the Charles Schwab Challenge, but the plan changed on July 6 as COVID-19 cases spiked both in Ohio and nationally.
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“I don’t want to put it on the Tour’s back, but I think you really have to look back to the players, and the players I think had objections,” he said. “If they happened to contract COVID-19, they’ve got two to three weeks mandatory that they have to leave. They’re trying to make a living, and that makes it very difficult for them.”
Ultimately, Nicklaus thinks the Tour made the right call on not allowing spectators, even if it means central Ohio golf fans miss out on attending the tournament for the first time since the first Memorial in 1976.
“Maybe we are a little too early for the galleries,” he said. “We would have loved to have – my goal putting on the golf tournament is to bring major championship-type golf back to Columbus, Ohio, where I grew up. That’s why this whole event is being played. It’s not being played for the players, it’s being played for central Ohio. But I understand it, and I actually think it was the right decision.”
Fans? What fans?
As a player, Nicklaus knew galleries were watching him, but he was so focused on his game that he was able to tune out crowd noise when needed.
“As evidenced at Oakmont when I played against Arnold (Palmer) in ‘62, I didn’t know anything that was going on,” he said. “I always had my mind so focused on what I was trying to do that I didn’t really hear a gallery. I was really more interested in what I was doing, my game, concentration, playing the golf course and shooting a score.”
Not to say he was oblivious to golf crowds or did not appreciate them.
“Did I enjoy having people out there and applauding and admiring what you’re doing and congratulating you? Absolutely, everybody has got an ego towards that,” he said. “But did it make any difference to my game? Not really.”
Except when it did.
“When I get a little bit nervous coming down the stretch, 15th, 16th hole I would just stop and look around and look at the excitement that was there,” he recalled. “There I did play to a gallery because there I could stand around and say, ‘Gosh, look at this, this is what I’m here for, this is what I play for, this is what I got myself into this position to do.’ I’d look around and sort of feed off of that and say, ‘OK, this is why I’m here. This is what I’m trying to do, (so) have fun, go enjoy it, go win this thing. That would sort of get me pumped up, and actually it was looking and feeding off a gallery at that particular time.”
Will Tiger Woods be rusty?
Nicklaus thinks so but would not bet on it.
“I don’t think Tiger will be as sharp or as ready as he normally is, but Tiger is Tiger,” he said. “He’s a pretty darned good player, and my guess is he played quite a bit of golf at home, and he doesn’t want to come here and not play well and not do his best.”
What about Bryson?
Nicklaus is a curious as anyone to see how the bulked up Bryson DeChambeau will continue to fare.
“I want to watch a little bit, watch him play a little bit. I’d like to see what he does and how he’s actually doing that because he’s obviously doing something right,” Nicklaus said. “The ball is going a long way. And he’s playing well with it.”
Shaking hands
Nicklaus shakes the hand of the Memorial winner every year, and plans to do so again, despite tour recommendations to refrain from hand-to-hand touching as a safety precaution against COVID-19.
“I’m going to shake their hand. I’m going to walk right out there and shake your hand,” Nicklaus said. “If they don’t want to shake my hand, that’s fine, I’ll give them a fist bump or an elbow bump, but I’m not going to give them COVID-19. I wouldn’t put anybody in that position. I wouldn’t do that, and if I was in any danger of doing that, I wouldn’t shake their hands.”
