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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDEJune 5, 2016Jack NicklausDublin, Ohio THE MODERATOR: Good morning and welcome to the presentation of the 2016 Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Awards presented by Barbasol. I'd like to start out by recognizing our recipients. Our first recipient from Division I, Jon Rahm of Arizona State, a senior from Barrika, Spain. Rahm won four times this season. He became the second player in Arizona State history, and the first since 1997, to record a top 10 finish in every outing, doing so in all 13 tournaments. Rahm's nation's best 69.41 stroke average is seventh best in state history. He posted nine top 5 finishes, and in 41 rounds shot par or better 35 times, including 22 rounds in the 60s. Not only did he lead the nation in scoring average, but he is also the nation's leading scorer in versus par, par 4 scoring, and birdies. Rahm was previously named the recipient of the Ben Hogan Award, becoming the honor's first two-time recipient. Although not a criteria for this award, in 2014 for the Eisenhower Trophy, Jon also broke Mr. Nicklaus' scoring record in that event. JACK NICKLAUS: What? JON RAHM: I'm sure you knew that. THE MODERATOR: From Arizona State, Jon Rahm. (Applause) THE MODERATOR: Joining Jon today is his coach Tim Mickelson. Our next recipient is John Coultas from Florida Southern. John is named PING First Team All-American for the second consecutive season and was also tabbed the Sunshine State Conference Golfer of the Year. On the season, he won two tournaments and six additional top 5 showings. He also finished inside the top 14 in all but one of his 11 events and posted a team best 23 rounds of par or better, including 12 rounds in the 60s. He's ranked No. 2 among all Division II players with an adjusted stroke average of 70.95. He helped lead the Mocs to a national semifinals finish at this year's Division II National Championships. He was a winner of Florida Southern's Hal Smeltzly Award, which is given annually to Florida Southern's top male and female student-athletes. From Florida Southern, John Coultas. (Applause) JACK NICKLAUS: You know, your coach started this thing, do you know that? The young man back here, Doug Gordin. He was -- I don't know how many years ago that was, Doug, what was it? DOUG GORDIN: About 30. JACK NICKLAUS: About 30 we started this? Anyway, Doug started and designed the trophy. Doug was our first junior champion here at Muirfield. A lot of years have passed. He's here. Glad to have you here, and his father, Dick. (Applause) THE MODERATOR: Joining John here today are his parents Doug and Lisa Coultas, his grandfather Don Kedrowski, his brother Ryan Coultas and Kristen Morrell, his coach Doug Gordin, as Mr. Nicklaus had mentioned, and also Hall of Fame coach from Ohio Wesleyan University and one of the founders of the Golf Coaches Association of American, and in our inaugural hall of fame class, Dr. Richard Gordin. (Applause) From Division III, Addison Lambeth from Huntington. A native of Greensboro, North Carolina, Lambeth was a PING First Team All-American All Region and All Conference selection. The junior averaged 72.37 per round this season. He shot par or better 14 times in 27 rounds, including nine straight rounds of par or better. In 11 tournaments, Lambeth had two wins and five additional top 5 finishes. Away from the course, Lambeth had a 4.0 GPA this spring. He was named to the Huntingdon College dean's list and was named a Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-American Scholar. Between his sophomore season at Appalachian State and his junior season at Huntingdon, Lambeth spent five years in the United States Marine Corps before being honorably discharged in July 2015. During part of his time in the Marine Corps, he served as part of the President's security detail. He continued to play golf, winning the All Marine Championship in 2012, 2013, and 2014. From Huntingdon College, Addison Lambeth. (Applause). THE MODERATOR: Joining Addison are his parents Luke and Debra Lambeth and his coach Dave Schreyer. Our next honoree from NAIA, Peter French from Johnson & Wales University. A senior from Franklin, Massachusetts, French won three events on the season, including the Sun Conference Championship. Additionally, he recorded three additional top 5 finishes and placed in the top 10 on 11 occasions. French closed the season with a 72.17 scoring average. The PING First Team All American selection set Johnson & Wales scoring records for 18 and 54 holes at the ACU Spring Invitational. French was named the Sun Conference Player of the Year and the Johnson & Wales Athlete of the Year. From Johnson & Wales, Peter French. (Applause) Joining Peter are his mother Deana French, his coach A.J. Broderick, and Christina Donegan. Our final recipient from NJCAA, Kerry Sweeney. Hailing from Melbourne, Florida, Sweeney became the first NJCAA player to win the Nicklaus Award back to back. Additionally, he is one of six college golfers to win multiple Nicklaus Awards. Sweeney posted two victories on the season, including the NJCAA Division I Championship. He carded a bogey-free 7 under, 65 in the final round of the NJCAA Championship for a come-from-behind victory. Sweeney also posted three runner-up finishes. He finished outside the top 10 only twice in ten tournaments. From Eastern Florida, Kerry Sweeney. (Applause) JACK NICKLAUS: Winner again, huh? KERRY SWEENEY: Déjàvu. JACK NICKLAUS: That's good. THE MODERATOR: Joining Kerry are his father, John Sweeney, his coach Jamie Howell, and Richard and Rachel Darnell. Now I'd like to invite John Price, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Perio, Incorporated, the parent company of Barbasol, for comments and presentation of the Barbasol Championship Exemption. John? JOHN PRICE: Thank you, Dustin. On behalf of Barbasol, I'd like to congratulate all the winners of the Jack Nicklaus Award. What a wonderful accomplishment. This award represents such exceptional athletes in a very prestigious award. So congratulations. I'd like to thank Mr. Nicklaus, as well as the Golf Coaches Association, and HNS Sports and Dan Sullivan. Yesterday all five winners of this award competed at the Scioto Country Club at the Barbasol Shootout, which is an 18-hole competition, with the winner being awarded an exemption into the Barbasol Championship PGA Tour event next month. I'd like to congratulate Jon Rahm on his exciting victory yesterday and for earning the exemption. (Applause) Barbasol has a long history of supporting collegiate and professional golf at all levels, and we are honored to partner with Mr. Nicklaus and the Golf Coaches Association to present this prestigious award. Thank you. (Applause) THE MODERATOR: Thank you, John. And now I'd like to invite Mr. Nicklaus to the podium for some comments. JACK NICKLAUS: Well, first of all, congratulations, guys. You know, collegiate golf was, to me, the way that I propelled myself into the TOUR and having a life of golf. Back in those days -- oh, I guess I can tell the story because it doesn't happen today, but my sophomore year, freshmen couldn't play back then. My sophomore year, I made the Walker Cup team, and I was -- I guess when I was selected, I was 18 years old and 19 when I was going to play. At that time, the Walker Cup team made the -- got an exemption from the Masters. So I went back, and my golf coach was Bob Kepler at Ohio State, and Kep said, congratulations. He says, great going. Boy, are you going to have a great year. And I said, yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. Kep says, boy, I can't wait to start playing collegiate golf. He said, oh, you're not playing collegiate golf. He said, you're not going to go to school this spring. I said, what are you talking about? He said, you're going to go play the Masters, you're going to play the North-South, you're going to play the Walker Cup matches, the British Amateur. You've got plenty of golf to play next year. How about you guys? Did you guys do that this year? I never heard of a collegiate golf coach that would have done that years ago. Anyway, what he did for me was he gave me the opportunity to learn, play, use the skills that I had at an early age and to develop. So when I came back, I came back the next year -- actually, I didn't win the Big Ten. I finished second. But the year after that, I won the Big Ten and the NCAA. Had a great collegiate career, had a golf coach that I loved forever, and he got me started in many ways towards my career in golf. So you guys have all got your coaches here. You've all got -- they all teach you different ways to do different things and give you guidance on how you go in life. Listen to them. One of them might send you out to the Walker Cup match. They might send you off to the NCAA too or whatever. It's great to have these young men here. Earlier, Doug had gotten things started, and he designed the trophy. Anyway, it's a real privilege for me to have the opportunity to be here at Muirfield and be part of these awards. Barbasol, thank you so much. Not Barbasol, but -- Barbasol, yes, thank you for supporting it. Thank you all for being here. We appreciate it very much. Thank you. (Applause) THE MODERATOR: Now we'll open up the floor for questions. Q. I'm just curious for Jon, (inaudible) the U.S. Open, by playing the Barbasol, which I think is the same week as the British (inaudible), did you get any consideration to waiting one extra year? JON RAHM: No, I did think about it, but I felt like waiting too long would give me, I think it was two or three less starts on the PGA Tour, and I wanted to get my pro start as early as possible. Just in case I can get all six and I happen to play great, maybe get the PGA Tour card or maybe be able to make it to the Web.com finals. Q. I wanted to ask Addison, I was curious about your career in the military and the detail with Mr. Obama, and how you were able to maintain somewhat of a good golf game while you're doing all that. ADDISON LAMBETH: Right. Well, I was on the helicopter squadron, Marine One, with President Obama. So I was just on the security detail for that and traveled around the world with him. As far as golf goes, we only played like a month out of the year. So I didn't have a lot of opportunity. It's just really, I guess, natural ability to where I was able to keep it up, I guess. But not a lot of time to practice and stuff, obviously, in the Marine Corps. The job is number one. Q. What did you do for that month? ADDISON LAMBETH: So that month you play All Marine competition, and then you move on to the All Armed Forces competition. And then from that, it's the CISM, which is all the armed forces in the world compete against each other. So each step takes about a week. That's what that month consists of. Q. That's a good month. ADDISON LAMBETH: It's a pretty good month. Q. Addison, what was your plan when you first entered college at Appalachian State? When did your stint with the Marines come into view? How did that work out? ADDISON LAMBETH: Well, I had a good time in college, a little bit too much fun my first go-round. So I dropped out, and then I didn't really -- I was just kind of -- I didn't really know what I wanted to do or anything. I was kind of lost. So I just -- the Marine Corps was a good option. So I found myself and want to finish school now. Q. We tend to ask this every year, but I'd still be curious to do it again. The most meaningful shot they hit all season. We can go down the line. JOHN COULTAS: So my most memorable shot of the season was probably the second tournament I won, I was in a playoff, and I was hitting my driver into the fairway bunker. I did it in regulation as well. But in the playoff, hitting the fairway bunker, and had about 185 yards in, and I was able to hit a 6 iron to about 12 feet and ended up making the birdie putt to win the playoff. Probably the most meaningful shot. Q. Which course was that? JOHN COULTAS: That was at Kinderlou. THE MODERATOR: Anybody else ready? JON RAHM: I'll go ahead. I would say the most memorable one was kind of the one that got this year started for me. It was my first win this year at Isleworth. It's a pretty big hole. It was kind of windy. It's a big green, the slope is left to right, the ball is below your feet, and it was blowing wind really hard left to right. I think at that point I was only leading by one. I had no idea because there were groups behind me. And I was able to hit this like high cut 7 iron that landed about three feet from the pin and rolled to like ten feet. So I got the two-putt because that pin was not able to hit close to and being able to two-putt. So being able to hit it that close in that situation, I would say the driver, hitting it as close as I did, was just as important with that shot, but I would say being able to hit it close to win the tournament. PETER FRENCH: So my most memorable shot was at the 2016 Sun Conference Championship. It was just kind of one that stands out, me and my coach were walking up the 18th. It was only the second round, but I was playing solid. And we had a little bit of a weird lie, and he said to me -- I had to go up over this big tree and hit a high cut towards the green and pretty much just -- he's like, well, maybe it's 2 iron. I said, no, the thing is going to go right in the middle of that tree. So I ended up taking a little bit more of a risk, hit a 3 iron, I mean, just absolutely perfect, up over the tree, high cut, to about 20 feet and made eagle to shoot 68 second round, which was nice. So that one just kind of stuck out because it was a little bit of a banter between me and my coach. ADDISON LAMBETH: I don't really remember any good one that was very memorable for me. For me, my memorable shot was the 71st hole of the NCAA Tournament, hit it in the bunker, and I had a horrible drive. And then all I had to do was hit like a pitching wedge out of the bunker, and I hit it then, hit right in the lip, and it came right back to my feet. That lost me the NCAA Tournament pretty much. So got in the playoff because I bogeyed that par 5 and then lost in playoff. So that's my most memorable shot. KERRY SWEENEY: Well, I don't know how to approach that, but I think my most memorable shot was my final round of junior college. I was five shots off the lead, and going into my final round, it was in my hometown where the Nationals were, and I just -- I wanted to have just a really fun day and go out there because this was my last year as a junior college player under Coach Howell and for my university -- or state college. So going out and shooting the number I did and the score I did, that first tee ball was just really emotional and really -- a fuzzy feeling for me. That was, for me, the most special shot I probably hit all year. Q. Jack, what's the most emotional shot you've ever hit when you had a hard time seeing the ball? JACK NICKLAUS: In college? Q. Anywhere. JACK NICKLAUS: Don't ask me to go back there. The most what? Emotional shot? Q. What's the most emotional shot you ever hit? Where you had a hard time gathering yourself to hit. Let's make it a tee shot. JACK NICKLAUS: Well, let me think about it because you haven't asked me that question in any one of these years before. I've said many times probably the most important shot I made was probably 1959, and I had the 36th hole of a 36-hole match with Charlie Coe in The Finals for the U.S. Amateur at Broadmoor. I hit it about eight feet, and Coe almost chipped it in. Here I am with a chance to win my first U.S. national amateur, and I knocked it in. To me that was so important because that gave me the confidence and the belief that I could do that under the right circumstances and the pressure that was put on me. So from then on, all those eight-footers were easy, Doug (laughter). Easier, I should say. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, everyone, for attending this year's presentation, and congratulations again to the recipients of the 2016 Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Awards presented by Barbasol. (Applause) FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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