Nicklaus at the Summit
Jack Nicklaus has been providing golf fans with special moments for more than 50 years. From pulling off thrilling finishes in majors to creating memorable golf course designs, special moments seem to follow in his wake. The moment that likely resonates strongest in the annals of Golden Bear history, though, was his historic Sunday charge at The Masters 25 years ago.
At the age of 46, Nicklaus electrified the golf world at the 1986 Masters with a closing-round 65 (with a 30 on the final nine) to secure a one-shot win over Tom Kite and Greg Norman and a record sixth green jacket. Nicklaus says some fans tell him they still get goose bumps thinking about that tournament. “It was special, obviously because I had my son Jackie on the bag caddying, and of all may major wins, it’s one nobody saw coming—including me,”
Now 71, Nicklaus is still immersed in golf through his course design business, as well as his family life which includes five children and 21 grandchildren. “The golf construction business is interesting now,” he says. “We have 14 golf course projects under contruction in China, four in Russia and a handful of projects in various parts of the world, including Australia, Korea and South America. With golf coming to the Olympics (in 2016), we hope to see the game continue to go global.
“Obviously,” he says, “I wish there were more projects in the U.S. right now. If I had my way, I wouldn’t have to travel 12,000 miles to do my work.”
Nicklaus has been visiting the Texas Hill Country regularly for the past two years, working on his newest Nicklaus Signature Golf Course, the private Summit Rock course at Horseshoe Bay Resort (50 minutes outside of bustling Austin), part of a luxury residential community.
Native stone, rambling creeks and stellar elevation changes beautify this 7,205-yard layout, while numerous hilltop holes offer staggering views of the nearby lakes and Hill Country. “The property has a lot of ravines and arroyos that create beautiful natural areas,” Nicklaus says. “The golf course has a clear upper section, with more rugged terrain and striking views, and a lower section with terrific oak trees and native plant growth. It’s been fun and challenging to make the course enjoyable for everyone.”
Summit Rock is scheduled to open for member play June 1. Nicklaus plans to return not long after that to celebrate the opening with members.
Nicklaus recently sat down with Texas Golfer’s Carl Mickelson to discuss the project, his career and the state of the game:
TEXAS GOLFER: Will Summit Rock be similar in any ways to other courses you’ve designed and built in the Texas Hill Country?
JACK NICKLAUS: There’s more elevation change here that the other courses I’ve done in this area. This course may have more variety of terrain—great views, oak tree growth, native stone and ravines running through the property—than any other I’ve done around here.
What’s different about a Nicklaus Signature course versus what we see Tour players doing when they “consult” on a course and attach their name to it?
“Signature” means I’m involved in the design and the routing and I’m on site during construction. What finishes up on top of the ground is the product I’m happy with and I worked with my team to finish. I’ve never been one to just stamp my name on a golf course. If it has my name on it, I’ve done the design and gotten out in the field.
You did some work early in your golf course design career with Pete Dye and Desmond Muirhead. Are there techniques or philosophies you learned from them that you still use today?
Pete taught me that golf is a more enjoyable game downhill. You can see where you’re going when you’re going downhill. So, in all my designs I try to give the golfer as much visual context as I can on every hole. Desmond taught me how to create views and make sure that the golf course fits well with the surrounding property. Those were important lessons.
You’ve said publicly many times lately, “I don’t play golf anymore.” Since we’ve see you play from time to time on TV, should we just take that to mean you don’t play up to the Golden Bear standards you’re accustomed to?
What I play now I wouldn’t call golf. If I go out and shoot 74 or 75—I know some people would give their eye teeth to shoot that—as far as I’m concerned, that and five bucks will get you a cup a coffee. I played really decently at the Honda Classic Pro-Am last year. I shot 74 (finishing birdie-birdie) on a really windy, hard day. I played pretty well, but Drew Brees and Dan Marino outhit me by 100 yards and we were playing the same tees. They’re still young enough to have some clubhead speed and I just don’t have it any more.
You have been vocal at times about the changes to the golf course at Augusta National. If you were in charge of the tournament conditions for The Masters, would you consider bringing the course back to the way it played 10 years ago?
Bringing the ball back can control a lot of what we’re seeing with courses getting longer today. If you put a ball in play that would only fly so far, it would control it all, because if the ball wouldn’t fly, they would have to adjust the clubs to fit the ball. The ball is the cheapest and easiest thing to fix.
For my birthday, Pete Dye sent me a quote from Donald Ross. It was a letter Ross wrote around 1933 to the USGA. He said the game of golf was progressing in such a way that they really, really need to watch what’s happening with the golf ball. He basically said, “The golf ball is going so far that it’s changing and ruining the game!” This was over 70 years ago! The game is still great today. It’s just a different game.
Some say they have taken some of the fun out of The Masters by lengthening the golf course as much as it’s been lengthened.
What do you think?
No, I think The Masters is still every bit as great as it’s been through the years. As someone who played the course during my playing era, I may not like what they’ve done to the golf course, but did they do the right thing? They did absolutely the right thing.
I do think they changed the nature of what the golf course is. It’s Bobby Jones’ golf course. It’s Bobby Jones’ tournament and, to me, it should be Bobby Jones’ philosophy forever. And Jones’ philosophy was very much a St. Andrews philosophy—open fairways, put it on the correct side of the fairway to get the proper angle, which is all St. Andrews is, and Mr. Jones loved St. Andrews.
But we don’t have that game today. Should we leave the course the same and let everyone just go shoot lights out? They’ve gotten the golf course to a point where guys who hit the ball long [30 to 40 yards longer than previous generations], are landing it in the same places I did when I played. So that’s why I say they absolutely did the right thing.
When you shot a smooth 64 in the third round of the 1965 Masters, you said it was the best tournament round you ever played. In retrospect, was the 65 in the final round to win in 1986 a better tournament round?
I don’t know that I’ve ever answered, ‘What’s the best round of my life?’ but that 64 was probably the easiest round I ever played. No matter what I did, I was hitting 9-irons and wedges into greens and making tap-in putts all day long. It just happened. The 65 I shot in 1986 was a terrific round. I can’t imagine I could play any 10 holes [he played holes nine through 18 in 33 strokes] any better than that last stretch that Sunday.
How many times a week does a stranger bring up 1986?
Every time (laughs). Everyone always tells me where they were—at least anyone who’s old enough does. But that win was special because nobody thought I had a chance to win it—including me. I don’t really know what my best round ever was, but those two certainly fall in that category.
When people compare you and Tiger Woods, they always point to the strong mental makeup you both have displayed at the highest levels of competition. Do you think they’re talking about focus, a quiet confidence and trust in your preparation or something else that sets you apart from your peers?
I think your strongest golfers have always been strong mentally. The difference between what most professional golfers physically do with the golf ball is probably very little. I think a lot of it boils down to what confidence you develop. Winning breeds winning. It’s how you believe in yourself, how smart you are to realize that the other fellow makes mistakes, too, and to understand the only person you can control is yourself. You can’t control what somebody else is doing coming down the stretch. All you can control is yourself.
The mentally strong discipline is a strength I had and it’s a strength Tiger has. It’s a strength that Ben Hogan had.
Hogan was an intimidating figure to his peers. Did you know that you were intimidating to other golfers? Was it an edge?
I didn’t really care. I didn’t care what other players thought or did because all I could do was be me and if that intimidates someone, then I guess it’s to my advantage.
We were talking about confidence…
did you happen to watch the Heat game last night with the Lakers? Can you imagine how well Kobe Bryant played coming down the stretch of that game? He won the game for them (Note: Bryant scored 39 points to lead the Lakers to a 114-111 win). He must have made seven or eight shots in a row. We’re talking about the mental toughness of being able to say, “Give me the ball. Let me do it,” and that’s what’s king in golf, the ability to say, “Give me my game. Let me go do it.”
It’s the same thing with Drew Brees. I asked him, “Are you an aggressive quarterback or you a conservative quarterback? How do you think you are when you’re back to pass?” And he said, “Oh, I’m very aggressive. I try to fit the ball in way too many places I shouldn’t.” But he said, “Pretty soon after you fit it in all those places you shouldn’t, you basically have learned that you can do it.” You don’t complete 32 out of 39 passes in the Super Bowl throwing it places you shouldn’t throw it. You may be aggressive, but you’re learning that your ability to do something really comes down to saying, “I can do it. I don't need a way out.” That applies to golf, too.
So, that’s where confidence comes from?
That’s where confidence comes from. Sure.
Did you ever go into a tournament, at any level, knowing you would win?
I wouldn’t say that, but my senior year at Ohio State, we didn’t have the best of teams heading into the Big Ten Championship and my coach, Bob Keppler, knew only the team that won the conference tournament would advance to the NCAA tournament. I had a really good chance to go as an individual, so Keppler came up to me and said, “Jack, I need a big favor from you. Only one team is going to the NCAAs and the only way we’re all going to get to go will be if you spread-eagle the field.” I said, “What are you talking about, Coach?” He said, “I want you to win by as many as you can win.” I won the tournament by 23 shots and the team won by one. I didn’t think about it at the time. I just did what he asked me to do. We needed every stroke!
Wow. Good coaching.
Right… Good coaching. (winks)
You’re often asked to compare your era to today’s game. Are there similarities?
I like my era. I also think it’s a great game today with a lot of really good players out there, but it’s a different game. I played in an era when power was about 20 percent of the game. In today’s era, it’s about 80 to 90 percent of the game. I was a power player, so maybe I would have even liked today’s game better than my own era. They used to call me Big Jack…I’m a little twerp, but I hit the ball a long way. Plus, I was also four inches taller than I am now (laughs).
Your era had a lot of players known for crafting shots and using a lot of imagination. Are some of today’s players too dependent on the long ball to become as great as some of the shot-makers of your day, like a Trevino or Ballesteros?
I may think that kind of shot-making is missing from today’s game, but, again, that’s my era. That’s what we had to do. Today, you don’t have to do that. You marvel at being able to hit the ball 350 yards and controlling it. That’s what they’re playing. It’s a different game. I don’t condemn it. It’s just different.
Do I think I would have been good today?
I think yes. Would I have been good in Bobby Jones’ day? Yes. Do I think Bobby Jones would have been good in my day? Yes. In other words, I think any of the champions would have been good in any era. They would adjust to whatever the conditions were.
How far would a 30-year-old Jack Nicklaus hit today’s ball with today’s equipment?
I don’t know. I would hit it the same as the longer hitters of the day.
Phil- and Tiger-type yardages?
Oh, I’d hit it way past those guys!
(big smile). n