Jack on Tiger 10 years ago
June 20th, 2007 | Written by Editor | Category: Golf News |
by Tom Callahan
An interview with Jack Nicklaus after Tiger won the Masters in 1996
Q: Jack, what were your impressions of Tiger Woods today, especially in light of what Greg Norman said the other day, that he might hit the ball as far as Daly?
A: I don’t know what Norman said, but this is the first time I played with Tiger. I’ve wanted to play with him for a while, but we never hooked up. Arnold and I both agreed that you could take his Masters, and my Masters, and add them together, and this kid should win more than that.
More than 10 Masters? To do it, Woods would have to win this year and every even year until 2016, by which time he’d be 40. The reporters hearing Jack Nicklaus in the Masters pressroom are reasonably certain he has lost his mind.
This kid is the most fundamentally sound golfer I’ve ever seen at almost any age. And he’s a nice kid. He’s got great composure. You know, he handles himself very, very well. Hits the ball nine million miles, and without a swing that looks like he’s trying to. Does he hit it as far as Daly? I think, if he tried, he would.
Arnold and I were laughing at 13 today. I drove it around the corner. Tiger hit a 3-wood out to the right, at least 40 or 45 yards behind me. He took out an iron, and Arnold said, “He’s laying up,” and I said, “Nnnnno, he’s not.”
Could this be some kind of overcompensation for the Al Campanis-style scrape Jack got himself into in ‘95? A cunning newsperson had tossed out the subject of race and golf, and by a selective construction of Carnak’s spitballs, led Nicklaus almost to the edge of the Jimmy the Greek abyss.
He’s got a great set of golf clubs in his bag. He doesn’t have the “waffle irons” a lot of kids have today. He’s got good forges-they look like golf clubs-and I think a kid learns to play better golf if he has that kind of club.
He doesn’t use the graphite and the other stuff to hit the ball long. He’s got an X100 steel shaft in his clubs. He could hit the ball farther if he used something else.
Oh, maybe Jack is hoping the kid will play his equipment.
I don’t know whether he’s ready to win or not, but he will be your favorite for the next 20 years. If he isn’t, then there’s something wrong.
Wasn’t Jack our favorite for the last 20 years?
I’ve said all along if this young man can handle you guys and go through all of that-a pressure I didn’t have when I was growing up, because we just didn’t have that kind of media coverage-if he’s strong enough to get through that and progress with it, then he’ll be as good as anyone who ever played the game, or better.
Better?
Q: Jack, when you were 20 years old, you finished second in the U.S. Open, and a lot of people, like Hogan, thought you should have won. Is Tiger capable of doing that well in a major?
A: Absolutely. He may be capable of doing better.
There’s that word again.
And, you know, that is a very tall order for him. But at this point in time, he seems to be handling that part of the issue very well.
Of all the wonderfully wise things about Nicklaus, maybe the most wonderful and the most wise is that he never exalted himself at the expense of ghosts. He never said he was better than Bobby Jones. He never said he was better than Ben Hogan. On the record, he had a right to feel he was the best golfer who ever lived. In his heart, he must have felt it. But he never said so.
Just as he didn’t have to knock down the past, he doesn’t have to knock down the future. He doesn’t say he hit the ball as far as Tiger Woods, or he would have hit it as far, if he’d had the benefit of titanium, if he’d been playing with moon rocks. In fact, he goes out of his way to say he didn’t hit it as far, and he makes a point of mentioning Tiger’s forged clubs.
Nicklaus was once the youngest Masters champion at 23 and remains the oldest at 46. He was the best teenage golfer, the best 20-year-old golfer, the best 30-year-old golfer, the best 40-year-old golfer and the best 50-year-old golfer of his time, which is a heck of a long time.
Considering his accomplishments, Nicklaus avoided arrogance remarkably well. Not entirely, but remarkably well. If Tiger’s benchmark is Jack, if Woods means to play, think, compete, win, lose, dare, dream, live, love, laugh and be happy at the level of Nicklaus, then it’s a wonder he isn’t bent over at the waist from the incalculable weight of all the years ahead.
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