U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 25, 1998

Jack Nicklaus

JACK NICKLAUS: I made a 7, just a short putt for a 6. Just made 7. Drove it in the rough and Kay and I were just talking about it coming up here, I don't think I ever had that bad a lie in the rough; took a full swing with a pitching wedge couldn't get it back to the fairway. Hit it about ten feet. Hit a pretty decent next shot out of the rough, left of the green and had a horrible lie for pitching, just pitched it on the green, 3-putted it. Very simple. Missed a short putt for 6.

JACK NICKLAUS: It is all right. I don't know.

JACK NICKLAUS: You have got to understand what you are playing, Jerry. Shoal Creek was all bermuda and the ball goes straight to the bottom of it. It was all uniform and consistent. It was caught at a higher height. This is cut shorter than that. But kikuyu gets very inconsistent. In patches, it will get very thick and sometimes the ball will go down and sometimes the ball will stay on top of it. It is a variety of things. But, the rough -- if this same rough, if they were trying to grow it high, would be really tough. But probably about half the shots you get it in it, you can play it out pretty much close to the green. But, if -- the Shoal Creek, you couldn't move it out of the rough. The same as Congressional, the same as Winged Foot, you couldn't move it out of those roughs. If they had grown this that height, certainly won't either.

JACK NICKLAUS: Yeah, obviously, I shot myself out of the tournament in the first six holes. So, yeah, it's disappointing. Of course, it is. I felt like I warmed up decently today and I just didn't do much. Never could -- played the first two holes decently. Then didn't do anything after that. I suppose it does knock the wind out of your sails to make a 7 at the third hole. Then knock it on the back fringe of the next hole with a pretty nice shot. And I had -- I was putting the ball off the fringe. I had the sprinkler head between me and the ball and I hit the ball and the sprinkler head and the sprinkler head threw it a little bit left. I 3-putted that. Then I started trying to do some things I probably shouldn't have done, which tried to make it up and make more mistakes.

JACK NICKLAUS: I am not going to play anymore tournaments as of now. I don't know what I am going to play as far as anything else. I am scheduled to play the Shell Match. And scheduled to open up a few golf courses. I have got a few obligations that I have to take care of this fall. 3 Tour. The 3 Tour Challenge, I am scheduled to play, but I just don't know what I can play.

JACK NICKLAUS: I have talked with Pete. I am going to -- my first objective is to try to exercise. I don't have anything to lose by exercising. And try to get -- need to get weight off. I need to get stronger. And that is the first option any time. And even if that doesn't do what I need to do, at least put me in better shape for what I might have to do. That isn't going to hurt me, no matter what. That is my first thing to do. That is why I am not going to schedule anymore golf.

JACK NICKLAUS: Not necessarily. I worked with Pete last night and work again today and we didn't work on anything as relates to what I was going to do for strengthening. He says: Jack, if you are going to do what you have to do, we have got to -- he says we can't just functionally stretch you, we have got to get you stronger. So I have got to go back and get stronger and stronger means better condition, better shape. I mean, I have put on -- oh, I put on a pound or two for the last seven or eight years and just bump, bump, bump, bump and I am carrying too much around. But I haven't been able to do the cardio and the things that I need to do to get rid of it. Part of -- I need to do that. I need to get -- I need to get in better shape. If I do that and get functional, then we will see what happens.

JACK NICKLAUS: It won't be strenuous all that much because the one thing that -- last thing I want to do, he says, you have got some damage in there now, don't want to destroy the head of the femur because if you do that by impacting things, then you don't have a choice. So we will try to do it with a good program, but it will be a fairly conservative program.

JACK NICKLAUS: What?

JACK NICKLAUS: I know just that much. That is only thing I know. He had to have the ability to qualify. If he had the ability to qualify, you have -- usually get about one for what, 50 spots or something like that? So he had to shoot pretty good round to qualify. Usually those guys can play pretty good golf.

JACK NICKLAUS: I don't know. I am not too worried about it.

JACK NICKLAUS:

JACK NICKLAUS: You don't like to put yourself in that position. You don't like to put yourself in the position to have to play shots that you really don't want to play. I tried to throw the ball -- rather than taking -- like -- after 3 and 4, the pin was sitting in the top right at No. 5. Only one way to get the ball into the pin; that was to play a little cut-shot. So instead of taking 5-, 6-iron, put it in the middle of the greens, I tried to take a 5-iron and cut it. I pulled it and put it left and made 5. Next hole I -- pin was back in back, I tried to jam it in there with a 5-iron, rather than being conservative and playing underneath the hole. I pulled it and made another bogey. Those are the kind of things you do when you are trying to make up. You don't generally -- you don't play -- you have to leave your game plan to some degree to try to make up for something you lost, if you want to get back into the golf tournament. I forced myself to do that. I didn't really have much choice. Then I just -- I couldn't drive the ball in the fairway, so -- made a big difference.

JACK NICKLAUS: I hit a bunch of fringes today where I putted the ball from the fringe five times. Then how many greens did I actually hit? I said I actually hit 8 greens but actually hit 13 greens from where I putted. That is not terrible when you are putting the ball 13 times. But I 3-putted a couple of times and I screwed up the holes that I missed. So, I put myself in a bad position year.