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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDE

June 4, 2017

Dublin, Ohio

DUSTIN ROBERTS: Good morning. I'm Dustin Roberts of the Golf Coaches Association of America. And welcome to the presentation of the 2017 Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year awards presented by Barbasol.

I'd like to begin by introducing our recipients. Our first recipient, from Division I, Sam Burns from LSU. A sophomore from Shreveport, Louisiana, Burns posted four victories this season, including the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional. He had two additional runner-up finishes and only placed outside the top nine once in 15 events. The SEC Player of the Year, Burns smashed LSU's single season scoring record with a 70.04 stroke average in 43 competitive rounds played this season. The PING First-Team All-America selection was previously named to represent the United States in the Arnold Palmer Cup. He is the first LSU Nicklaus award recipient of the LSU.

Now if Mr. Nicklaus and John Price from Perio could come forward and present Sam with his Nicklaus Award trophy. Joining Sam today are his father, Tom Burns and Brad Pullen.

Our next recipient is from Division II, Chandler Blanchet from west Florida. A junior from Gainesville, Florida, Blanchet produced seven tournament victories this season, including a final round come-from-behind victory at the NCAA Division II National Championships. He had three additional top 3 finishes in his 11 events. He was a unanimous selection as Gulf South Conference Golfer of the Year. The current leader in the divisions in the Golfstat Cup, which measures adjusted stroke average at 68.71, Blanchet has posed 20 of his 31 rounds in the 60s and 26 rounds at par or better. Blanchet is west Florida's first Nicklaus Award recipient.

Joining Chandler are his parents, Pierre Blanchet and his mother, and his coach Steve Fell.

Our Division III recipient is Logan Lanier of LaGrange, Georgia. Lanier was a PING First-Team All-America selection. He also earned Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America scholar honors. This season he finished in the top 5 in nine of ten tournaments. In addition to winning the USA South Tournament, Lanier tied for first at the Royal Lakes/Oglethorpe Fall Invitational. He graduated cum laude, receiving a bachelor of arts degree in entrepreneurship and a minor in mathematics. He received the school's Eagle Award which is given to the top male and female student-athlete. Lanier was a tutor in mathematics and a volunteer for the Our Daily Bread food program in LaGrange, Georgia. He is LaGrange's first Nicklaus Award recipient.

Joining Logan are his father, Benji, and his coach Lee Richter.

The next recipient is from NAIA, SM Lee from Dalton State. A native of Buford, Georgia, Lee won four tournaments this season, including his first career event and the Southern States Athletic Conference. His worst finish in ten events was tied for 6th. The Southern States Athletics Conference Player and Freshman of the Year, Lee was also recipient of the Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award for NAIA. He was the best ranked NAIA player in the Golfstat Cup rankings. He earned PING First-Team All-America honors.

SM is Dalton State's second Nicklaus Award recipient. Joining SM are his coach Ben Rickett, and the women's coach at Dalton State, Jim McGrew.

Our next recipient from NJCAA, Marco Maldonado. Maldonado has posted six victories this season, the Alabama Jones Memorial Invitational, Tyler JC Spring Invitational, Pinecrest Intercollegiate, Hal Sutton Intercollegiate, NJCAA Southwest Championship and the NJCAA District F Championship. He had three additional top 10 finishes. He placed in the top 20 in 11 of his 12 events. A PING First-Team All-America selection, he finished ranked first in the NJCAA Division II Golfstat Cup rankings. Maldonado is the first recipient of the Nicklaus Award from Tyler Junior College.

Joining Marco are his parents, Louise and Rosie Maldonado.

I'd like John Perio, the present of Perio, Incorporated, the parent company of Barbasol to the podium for comments and the presentation of the Barbasol Championship exemption.

JOHN PERIO: Thank you, Dustin. On behalf of Barbasol, I'd like to congratulate all five Jack Nicklaus Award winners, a group of exceptional athletes, representing the very best of collegiate golf. I'd also like to thank Mr. Nicklaus, H&S Sports, as well as the Golf Coaches of America Association.

Yesterday, all five Jack Nicklaus Award winners competed in the Barbasol Shootout, a competition in whence the winner receives an exemption into the Barbasol Championship, a PGA Tour event that occurs next month. I'd like to congratulate Sam Burns from LSU for winning the competition, and for earning the exemption.

Barbasol has a long history of supporting golf at the college at and the professional level. And we are very honored to present this prestigious award.

Dustin now will return and share some additional details from the Barbasol Shootout yesterday.

DUSTIN ROBERTS: Thank you, John. As John mentioned, Sam Burns was the winner of the 2017 Barbasol Shootout earning the exemption for the championship held July 20th through 23rd at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail Grand National in Opelika, Alabama. Sam shot a 5-under, 65, which ties the Scioto Country Club record for competitive rounds. The Shootout also featured a stretch of five straight birdies from SM Lee on holes 6 through 10, and a three-way tie between SM, Sam and Chandler Blanchet through 12 holes.

I'd also like to take a moment to welcome a couple of special guests, Bill Stein and Joe Filardo from Scioto Country Club. I appreciate everything you guys do to make this a very special event from the players. The course is in perfect condition every year, and it really is a special event for these guys and we appreciate everything you guys do. Thank you.

I'd like to invite Mr. Nicklaus to the podium.

JACK NICKLAUS: What am I doing? Just some comments? Okay.

Every year we do this. I don't know how many years we've been doing this, but quite a few. And I'm delighted to have you all here. Delighted to welcome all these young players who I'm sure that we're going to see here at the Memorial Tournament in the very near future.

Sam, I know that, I believe -- I believe this carries an exemption to this tournament for you. So we've had quite a few guys that have come off this Award and done pretty well here, but they've also done pretty well elsewhere, too.

We wish all of you well. I know that some of you have got a little more college to go, right? How many -- do you have more to go now? Most all of -- one senior down there. The rest of you have a little bit more college.

We wish you well and it's nice to welcome the boys here. That's a pretty good round at Scioto, Bill. That's pretty good. 65. You have to either change Scioto or do something, I don't know what it is. But Scioto is where I grew up. I started playing golf in 1950. I was ten years old. And I was on the practice tee with about 60 other young kids, all about my age or a little younger, a little older.

And following Jack Grout, who was my teacher. I was on the practice tee and he got us started. He might have seen where I hit my first shot from. That probably wasn't exact, but not too far off. And Scioto at that time was an old Donald Ross golf course. And they had the PGA Championship there in 1950, my first year playing golf. And I'll never forget -- of course you guys are a little older than that now, but I was ten years old. Jack took me in the locker room and I met Sam Snead, and Bob Hamilton and Skip Alexander and Lloyd Mangrum. Mangrum was a Masters champion. And it was a big thrill for me to go out and play the golf course. It's changed a lot. It's still a very good golf course. It's a different golf course than I grew up on, but it's still a very good golf course. And every time somebody would shoot 65 or 68, either one of those scores, that's pretty darned good.

So congratulations, guys, and congratulations on your awards. I know that these awards will carry you through a little bit in your life. They can obviously never take that away from you. You'll always have it. And know that whatever you do in life you'll do well. So congratulations to you, and good luck.

DUSTIN ROBERTS: Thank you, Mr. Nicklaus, and now we'll open the floor for any questions.

Q. I was wondering if each one of you guys could take us through the most memorable shot you played during this past season and maybe kind of set up the situation and why it was memorable, all five of you. Thanks.
SAM BURNS: That's a tough question. But I would just have to say, I guess, at the Conference Tournament this year. I was fortunate enough to win that tournament. And I guess just putting the ball out on the last hole really is possibly my last tournament. We weren't sure if we were getting into finals yet. But just to walk off knowing that was my last tournament to walk off with a win, just to go out and just have fun.

My coach was there. My whole teammates were there. Everybody was there around the green. It was just a good experience. It wasn't a far putt. That was the nice part, I guess.

CHANDLER BLANCHET: I guess I would have to say this tournament. It was a lot of fun. Felt like a pro tournament experience. I did have five birdies in a row and that wasn't something I would expect. I was actually pretty nervous playing against four other Jack Nicklaus Award recipients, and we all know they're just outstanding players. So I think that was pretty memorable for this season.

I guess on my third birdie, which was on No. 8, it was a long par-4. It's 500 yards. I hit my second shot just over the green and it was a hard chip downhill, but for some reason I felt that I was going to make it. And it actually trickled in. And that was probably something I'll remember forever.

LOGAN LANIER: I think pretty recently at the National Championship on the final hole, I had a 1-shot lead going into and sitting in the fairway with my coach, 107 yards with a pretty stiff breeze, coming into, 23 mile per hour, hit just a little low cut 5-iron to probably ten feet. That sealed the deal. Won by one. That was my most memorable shot this season.

SM LEE: I would have to say the first victory this year. On the 18th, I made about a 10-footer to keep my lead by one. And I'd say that was probably the biggest putt I've had all year.

MARCO MALDONADO: We hosted a regional this year in Baton Rouge. The first round played pretty well. I had a good lead going. The second round, same thing. Made a turn the last round with a 7 shot lead.

Next thing I know, I got to 18 and had a 1-shot lead. It wasn't exactly how I planned it out in my mind. But I stood there on the 18th fairway, 215, pretty tough shot. Knew I had to make par to win, hit it to 30 feet and two-putted. 5-iron.

JACK NICKLAUS: Never hit a 215 yard 5-iron in my life.

Q. Logan, what will you do next, and how will golf be a part of your life going forward?
LOGAN LANIER: Right now I just have planned moving back home and going to play a few amateur tournaments this summer and work a little part-time, as well. But hopefully, if golf doesn't work out in the business world, golf can certainly be used as an asset. So I just plan to continue to play and practice. I love the game. So it's definitely something that I'll hold on to for a long time.

I consider it the toughest game. Any given day somebody can beat somebody. And just the conditions. You can play the same golf course one million times and it can play different every single time. So it's just something that you can never perfect. Myself, I consider myself a little bit of a perfectionist, and this is just one thing that no matter how good you get, you're still not perfect.

Q. This is for anybody who's got a story to tell. I'm sure you got a good luck inside the Scioto clubhouse yesterday with all the historic pictures up there. I was wondering if there was any photo or any artifact that you saw that gave you a chill or a thrill, anybody that's got a story.
SPEAKER: Standing there -- your first junior camp, standing there with Mr. Grout was pretty neat. That kind of stood out.

JACK NICKLAUS: Where did you see that, here?

SPEAKER: It was in Scioto, in the clubhouse.

JACK NICKLAUS: I don't think you guys got in this clubhouse yesterday, did you? No, they were down in Scioto. We may have a few things down there. First trophy I won in 1950. Didn't tell you what I shot, did they? I was 10 years old and I shot 121, how about that? And that was for 18 holes. (Laughter.) But I had gotten to 91 that year, but I choked a little bit in the tournament.

Q. Anybody else notice anything cool at Scioto?
SPEAKER: I think the Ryder Cup trophy, which was nice to see. I've always wanted to see that.

SPEAKER: Is it the ball that Bobby Jones won with? They had the same golf ball -- 1926 -- that Mr. Jones won with. That was pretty neat.

Q. Sam, I just ask you, because you're a Division I guy, but when you do decide to turn, last year at this time Jon Rahm was sitting in your seat, I think he's No. 9 now. Can you anticipate after a year of playing professional golf that you can get that far that fast?
SAM BURNS: I think any of these guys -- you know, I watched him yesterday. That's the first time I got to see him play. It was pretty impressive. So I think any five of these, four of these guys can do the same thing. Hopefully it works out for us. You never really know what the future holds. It would be great if it did.

JACK NICKLAUS: How many of you want to play golf? Okay. That's not bad.

For these guys, you asked the question, the shot for me that probably changed my career more than anything else was 19 years old in the U.S. Amateur at the Broadmoor and I was playing Charlie Coe, who was the defending champion, in the finals, 36 holes. We got to the last hole. We were even. We both hit 3-wood off the tee at the Broadmoor. Charlie hit an 8-iron, and it turned out to be a fraction too big of a club, just snuck over the back edge of the green. So I hit 9-iron. I put it in about eight feet in front of the hole. And Charlie chipped it down about like that. And I made the 8-footer to win the National Amateur.

To me what it did is it told me that I could make the right putt and the right shot at the right time. And that probably carried further for me than any shot that I've ever hit.

Understand there's a key shot in your life or something that propels you forward or gives you an opportunity to say "I can do this" or "I can do it" when I have. And that was sort of the shot for me. We were a little bit downwind and so Charlie tried to take alternatives to an 8 in there and it just snuck over the back fringe.

Q. As a segue for that, I'd be curious for whoever wants to answer, if you look back at the best learning moment in golf, did it come from something you did good or bad? From a victory or failure?
SPEAKER: My biggest learning experience, as a freshman last year, I played in the National Championship. Going to the first round, I set the collegiate low score record with round of 64, shooting even on the front nine. I played the next three rounds pretty solid.

The last day coming down 18, 72nd hole. Get on to the tee box. Hit a good tee shot. It was a par 5. I hit 6-iron on to the green. I had about 40-foot for eagle. Had a 1-shot lead. Walked off that green 1-down, 4 putted the last hole to lose by one, which was a big learning experience for me.

I'm happy it happened as a freshman, not as a sophomore or junior or senior. I've learned a lot, where not to miss it, where to hit it, but definitely the last hole at the National Championship my freshman year was a big learning experience for me. As a freshman I've never been on a stage like that. Biggest tournament I've ever played in. The adrenaline rush was unreal. It's something all of us golfers look for, every round you tee it up. It was unreal. I just couldn't control myself.

SPEAKER: I think you learn a lot from yourself by winning, but it's the times you lose, seeing how you react, especially if you're in contention, coming down the stretch. Learning how your body works under contention, how your mind works, especially. That's helped me gain perspective on golf and everything, how you react coming down the stretch, especially when you lose. I think I learn definitely more when I lose than when I win.

SPEAKER: Last year I played a junior tournament called Junior Invitational at Sage Valley, and it was probably the biggest tournament I've played. I think it's considered the biggest junior boys tournament in the world currently. But that year or maybe even two years before that I have never shot in the 80s in a competitive tournament. And that was the first time I shot in the 80s and shot 81. But it wasn't that I played bad it was -- I was nervous. There were probably hundreds of spectators there.

But then the next day got a little better. Shot in like the mid-70s. But I guess I learned that golf can do this to you, especially when you're nervous, new environment. But after that -- it was a three-day tournament, after that the scores got a little better. I got used to the environment and after that playing other big tournaments, like I played in the U.S. Am last year, which was even a bigger tournament, I thought to myself. I thought of Sage Valley when I played, of the environment, and it was very similar. And when I thought of that made me more -- a little more confident in my game.

And like Mr. Nicklaus said, that tournament was probably the change of my career. It definitely helped me to improve as a better golfer.

SPEAKER: I would definitely say you learn a lot from your failures. Obviously there can only be one winner every week. It's tough. But it's something you have to get used to. We've all been in these situations. We've all had close finishes, second place finishes. I've certainly had my fair share. But just learning to deal with that and being, I guess, mentally okay, because I think that's definitely what separates the good from the great. Yeah, you can learn a lot from winning, but definitely how you lose and the way you lose, if you lose graciously, definitely shows a lot in your character.

SPEAKER: These words are great. But a lot of people don't see the bad tournaments or the bad years you have or you get in a slump for three or four months. So it kind of teaches you about yourself. There are going to be rough times, as well. So I think that kind of motivates you and teaches you how to win.

Q. Gary, whenever he's here, has referred to you about a billion times as golf's greatest loser. But there is some truth to that. How did you learn to lose?
JACK NICKLAUS: It's pretty easy. Somebody else beat me (laughter).

No, I think that -- I agree, I think you learn from your mistakes. I gave one quick of mine, and I'm going to give you one more. I think you heard me say that I felt like I sort of gave away the U.S. Open at Cherry Hills when I was 29 years old. I think that Hogan made a statement when he was done. He said I played with a young man today, if he had known how to win would have won by several shots.

Well, I didn't know how to win. And I think that's the key phrase. And I was obviously a decent player at the time. But it just -- you really don't know how to win. Coming down the stretch, you have different situations where you 4-putt the last green. He didn't know how to win, and he was thinking, How do I do this? And you have to learn that. I think it was the best thing that ever happened to me, because I had been scratching my ears out here.

But I had another little story. You all know that Rory came to me about -- oh, gosh, I don't know, five years ago or so. And we sat down and we had lunch and I talked to Rory about him winning. And he was having trouble winning. The next year he led the Masters after 54 holes. He shot, what, 80 or 81. What did he shoot? He shot 80 the last round and he came here. And I went to Rory and I said -- of course I'd been talking to him a little bit. And I said, Did you learn anything? Did you learn why that happened? Did you learn how to not make that mistake again?

And he said, I think so. He said, I think I learned something from it.

And he went on to Congressional next week and he won by eight the next week at Congressional. So I wrote him a letter, I said, It appeared to me that you must have learned something from what happened at Augusta. But more importantly is now you've won, did you learn anything from that?

In other words, it's the combination of what happened to you at Augusta and what you did at the U.S. Open. You lost, you won. Pretty close together. I think you've got to put two and two together and try to figure out what you come up with.

And I think that was a pretty good experience for him. And I've had similar type experiences. And I think we have to go through those experiences. If you don't go through the experience of learning how to lose, all of a sudden you get in a really, really important situation and if you don't know how to handle adversity or handle what might be thrown in front of you, you're more than likely going to lose and be destroyed. You've got to learn to go both ways and learn from everything that happens to you I think is really important.

Q. Question for any or all of you guys. Jack played his last competitive tournament in The Open Championship in 2005. You would be young kids, five, six, seven, eight. When you hear the name Jack Nicklaus, what is the first thing that comes to mind or memory, if you have one?
SPEAKER: Greatest golfer of all time is the first thing I think of.

JACK NICKLAUS: These guys never saw me play. I basically didn't play -- played a couple of rounds after 2000. But they were barely born then.

Q. So I want to know what they know.
SPEAKER: For me, I was going to say the memories I have was watching the reruns from TV, on the Golf Channel, watching all the rounds, the greatest highlights. I wish, obviously, we could have seen that in person because that would have been awesome. But just watching it on TV, it gives me goosebumps, just watching the shots, seeing how competitive they were. It's really, really cool.

JACK NICKLAUS: We didn't have that when we grew up. We didn't get any of that stuff. I would have loved to watch Hogan or Snead or Nelson play when they were in their prime. I never saw Bobby Jones ever hit a shot. And Bobby Jones was who I obviously sort of followed at Scioto, because he won at Scioto.

But these guys today, they get all the technology from media. They get to see a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER: I guess if you watch anything about golf there's always Jack, Jack's name. He's literally everywhere. It's like you can't play golf without Jack.

JACK NICKLAUS: Glad to hear that (laughter).

Q. Did you learn about Bobby Jones from reading or story telling?
JACK NICKLAUS: I learned more from the members at Scioto who were there when they watched him play. My father watched Bobby Jones -- my dad was 12 years old when Bobby Jones won at Scioto. He told me a few stories. But I had a lot of things -- I'm sure Stanley Crooks had passed by the time you were there. Remember the name Stanley Crooks? But Stanley Crooks, he was 80-some when I was growing up. And he had story after story after story about Bobby Jones hit it here, Bobby Jones did this, Bobby Jones did that. I heard more about Jones at Scioto than I ever read or saw on film.

Q. Do you have one story about Jones that you can tell us?
JACK NICKLAUS: Not really, actually. I know that the 18th hole at Scioto was a par 5 in those days. He played it with a 4-iron one day. I remember that.

The 9th hole he never parred. There used to be a big elm tree on the right side of the green. And he played right-to-left and he kept hitting that tree. And they made four bogeys there when he won the tournament.

I don't really know many stories about Jones. Actually most of the stories I've heard came from him. Every year at Augusta he had a note on my locker the first time I played at Augusta. He followed me down to his cabin and we went down, and he would tell stories about how he learned how to play golf. And when he stopped running back to his teacher, then he started to learn to correct himself on the golf course and fix what he did. That's when I became a golfer. He was pretty crippled about that time. He couldn't move very well. But his mind was still good. And so he had a lot of good stories.

But you go back and watch some of the old films of some of the instructional things that he did back in the early '30s, and he had a very, very rhythmic, beautiful golf swing. These guys probably wouldn't know this, they never had swing weights back then, weights on clubs. And Jones had trouble with one club in his bag, his whole career, it was his 4-iron. He never understood why he would have trouble with that one club. Well, they didn't have swing weights back then or anything else, and when he got done playing, he found his 4-iron was way off balance with every other club in his bag, every other club matched. They didn't know how to fix that back in those days. Kind of interesting.

Q. To all of you, how were you introduced to golf and who has been or is your biggest influence to date?
MARCO MALDONADO: My dad introduced me to golf. He worked at a golf course for 20 years. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't be playing the sport I am today. I'd say Lewis Maldonado.

SPEAKER: My brother started playing golf. He was eight years older than me. When I was seven, I started picking up clubs just trying to beat him. That was my motivation, trying to beat him. Now I can finally say, now I've got you, dude. It took a little bit.

SPEAKER: I guess, yeah, my dad introduced me to the sport. He took me to -- he played golf, himself, a little, and he just took me to the range and just beat some balls. And he thought that I could be a good golfer. And so he let me play golf.

But my biggest influence to make me play better was -- sorry about this, Mr. Nicklaus, would be Tiger Woods.

JACK NICKLAUS: It's all right. He wasn't bad. (Laughter).

SPEAKER: There was this one point in his life where he was No. 1, then went to -- went into his little slump and returned back to No. 1. And I think that was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. So, yeah, Mr. Woods.

SPEAKER: For me, my dad definitely got me started in the game. I grew up playing golf and baseball. But kind of something just kept drawing me back to golf.

I like the fact you're able to control your own destiny. Most of the sports you're relying on teammates, somebody else. But golf you're the masters of your own destiny. And I just really enjoyed that challenge and having that kind of all on your shoulders.

SPEAKER: Probably say my dad and brother. I have a brother who is eight years older. Always picked on me when I was younger. I started chasing him around the yard, trying to hit him with a golf club. He introduced me, taught me how to swing to start. Then I have a swing coach who's had a big influence.

DUSTIN ROBERTS: Thank you and congratulations, again, guys.

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