U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 29, 2001

Jack Nicklaus

JACK NICKLAUS: I made a lot of bogeys. It was a day that I should have shot a pretty good score. I wasn't real sharp through the whole game, a lot like yesterday. I just missed a lot of the little putts that I chipped up. I went birdie, bogey, birdie, bogey, par, par, bogey, bogey, par, birdie, birdie. You know, that kind of stuff. All kinds of silly, crazy things. Birdie, birdie, par, birdie, bogey, bogey, bogey. That's not me. But I did. I don't like it. I could have been one more if I missed the putt at 18. So I guess you walk off with a decent note.

JACK NICKLAUS: I birdied 10. I made about a -- no, wait a minute. Did I birdie 10? 11, 13, 14. I missed a good chance at 10. 11, I hit it in about -- I don't try to hit it into that pin. The pin is on top. You try to hit it into the base of the hill, it bounces up fine. It bounced up perfect about six feet. I made that. Then I hit it six feet at the next hole, miss it. Then I hit about five feet at the next hole, made it. About four feet at the next hole, made it. Then I decided to even that up and try to make some bogeys. The next hole, I was worrying about it being too much club, I was worried about leaving it out to the right. I played the putt to break and it didn't break. The next hole my ball just didn't cut, the tee shot. It stayed in the rough. I hit a really good second. I chipped it back about three feet. Missed that. 17, I didn't hit a very good tee shot at all. Ended up having to struggle to make 5. So I made three bogeys in a row. Played a nice tee shot at 18. It ends up in the rough. Trying to cut a second shot and the ball drew on me. I had a very hard up and down, but got it up and down.

JACK NICKLAUS: The greens are very slow.

JACK NICKLAUS: Well, I think that the USGA probably used good common sense with what they did. Do I like faster greens, yes. Do I object to what they did here, no. Because I think that they used good common sense. If they'd have gotten the greens real fast, which they would normally do, they would be limited to maybe just one or two placements every green. So I think they wanted to use all the pin placements on the greens, and as a result they needed to slow the greens a little bit to do that. My guess is that's their judgment call. I wouldn't be dead accurate on that, but I felt like it was probably difficult enough, without any rain, to be firm. I certainly wouldn't criticize it. I think they probably made the right call. It's obviously tough enough.

JACK NICKLAUS: You're going to be uphill, sure. You're going to be slow going uphill. You get the ball past the hole, you can still run the ball 8, 10 feet past the hole on a downhill putt pretty easy.

JACK NICKLAUS: I felt like I was really going to start doing some good things, and I didn't hit a very good 2-iron at the par-3. I hit a really good iron at 16. I didn't think I could carry it that far. I was trying to carry it short, right of the hole and trying to get it on the green. The ball carried on the top, which is a downslope and shot it over the green. There was not much chance at 17. Any more questions?

JACK NICKLAUS: Let's put it this way. That string is over. I made par at the last hole, and that sets me back in the other direction. That's the way you have to look at it. I made three bogeys, I made three bogeys. There's not much I can do about it. But I did made three birdies before it, so I did something about it. If you let that get you down, then you may as well go home. Okay? Is that enough?

JACK NICKLAUS: It's a par 5. It is a par-5. It's a converted par 5. It's uphill. The first round played into the wind. So I hit a driver and 3-wood the first round to get to it. Today I hit a driver and 2-iron. It landed in front of the green. The green was like a rock and it went over the green. I made 4 yesterday. Made 5 today. Because of the length is why it plays difficult.

JACK NICKLAUS: Jim Thorpe had by far the best tournament round, didn't he? Maybe not by far, I don't know. Is anything else close?

JACK NICKLAUS: That's 70.

JACK NICKLAUS: I can shoot a good score on the golf course. It shouldn't be that hard to shoot a good score. It's hard to -- it's a golf course that's difficult to manage your game. If you try to manage your game and the ball is bouncing in a bunch of different directions, you've got all slopes and humps and repelling situations around the green, which is very difficult to score. And you've just got to be -- you've got to be aware of it. You've got to hit good, solid shots to put it in the right place. If you do, you can shoot a good score. But if you also get it in the wrong places and get the wrong bounces, you shoot a high score. It's a golf course where I don't think that you try to play classic golf shots. I think it's a golf course that you try to maneuver the ball and play shots that will result in good results, not necessarily good golf shots. You're taking shots and bouncing them in from off the green down short and bouncing them in, playing a slope. Not the classic, go throw it in 12 feet left of the hole, let the ball feed to the hole, because it's not going to do that. One time it's going to hit and bounce, next time it's going to hit just short and stop. You've got to be careful with it.

JACK NICKLAUS: You'd have better scoring conditions if the greens are soft. Hard and fast are the most difficult scoring conditions. If you get a little bit of wind with it, which we didn't have.

JACK NICKLAUS: I would say it was harder this afternoon than it was yesterday morning. Even though we had wind yesterday afternoon.

JACK NICKLAUS: The greens were harder. The greens yesterday morning were a little bit more forgiving, but they weren't this afternoon. You've got to be really careful with what you're doing. Okay, guys? Thank you.