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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

June 3, 2009

Jack Nicklaus

DUBLIN, OHIO

JACK NICKLAUS: I had a good time. I particularly enjoyed 11. That was good fun. I was telling the guys, you know, after I made the birdie at 11, "You know, guys, these par 5s are my meat," you know. But 10, I hit a driver 3 wood, and it was 70 yards short. I couldn't get anywhere near 17. So I hit up to the right because it was the only place I could get across the creek.
What was the other par 5? I couldn't reach 13 either. I had three par 4s I couldn't reach today.
But that's okay. I know what I am now. That's why I don't play golf anymore. But I really had a blast today.
That was fun. When we made the appearance for the event, I had me going off one side and Tiger off to the other. I said, oh, come on, let's put Tiger and me together. We haven't played together for nine years.
I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the conversation. I like to be with him. I like his company. Had him on four Presidents Cup teams as a player but never got an opportunity to play.
It was fun today. Stewart was great. Kenny was great. I'm sure the guys making fun of us had a good time.
It was a good day. We had a lousy day of weather. We probably made the best of a lousy day. We probably made the best of a lousy day. You know, tomorrow it's supposed to be good. Weather is supposed to be good the rest of the week.
To get this out of the way today and have as much fun as we did, that's pretty good.

Q. You had a couple skins, Jack, and you had your chances here on 18.
JACK NICKLAUS: I had my chances on 18. That bunker shot, I though that it might go in. The ball came out a little faster than I thought it would. When you have wet sand, you don't know what's going to happen.

Q. Jack, how much did the competitive juices sort of flash with you today?
JACK NICKLAUS: I don't care if I'm playing against my wife, my competitive juices flow. That's just me.
But I know what my game is. There's no way I can compete with these guys. Put me on the front tees, and I can compete, but not back where we played.
But I had a good time. I played a few decent holes. That's it.

Q. Jack, you were you were talking about earlier how much more drainage it is on the course.
JACK NICKLAUS: We haven't had much rain, just sort of a drizzle. If it gets through here this afternoon or this evening when it's supposed to, tomorrow the golfers will be fast. The drainage is unbelievable.
We saw what they did at Augusta. They put drainage all through Augusta, and they dried that golf course up pretty fast. It used to get pretty sloppy. It doesn't get sloppy at all anymore. This course doesn't get sloppy anymore. This is really good. Paul Latshaw and his crew have done a great job.

Q. You had a pretty good chip on 18, but kind of hard when the guy chips it in.
JACK NICKLAUS: Well, yeah. It was a pretty tough chip shot. Tiger's holed a few chip shots around here, as you know. He played a beautiful pitch there. Took one check and just released, and it went right on in.

Q. Didn't surprise you at all.
JACK NICKLAUS: Didn't surprise me. Didn't surprise him. When you look at it, he just said, "Oh, okay."

Q. Was there a lot of needling out there?
JACK NICKLAUS: Not too much. We had a little bit of kidding. I always enjoy a Skins game. Each hole, you get a fair start, play for another prize.
When we got done, every single person donated the purse back to First Tee, which was really nice. That was really nice. The First Tee ended up with $50,000 for today. Kids had the opportunity to utilize that. It's really great.

Q. What do you think of the crowd out there?
JACK NICKLAUS: There were a lot of people out there today. On a day like today, I promise you, I wouldn't have been out there. Not even to watch Nicklaus and Tiger.

Q. Do they appreciate the fact they're watching the two greatest golfers ever play together?
JACK NICKLAUS: I think we had a crowd a little bit because of that. I think we had more of a crowd because Tiger was here. Don't include me too much in that. Tiger's here, and he's back, and we're enjoying having him back. Glad he's healthy and well on the way.
I talked to him a little bit about his leg on the way, and he said he's just now feeling like the leg is coming around. It's been a while, and he said, I feel like I can now use it and start to do things I want to. He's going to be a force.

Q. What did his swing look like to you when you were playing with him?
JACK NICKLAUS: I thought his swing was a lot more aggressive today than I've seen it in previous tournaments on television. I thought he's been babying his leg a little bit previously. I think that's rightly so. I think that's probably what you would expect. I didn't see much babying today. I thought he went at it pretty good.
I hope he has a good week. I think he's a great player, great competitor. People in Columbus would like to see him play well.

Q. Is he your pick to win?
JACK NICKLAUS: Isn't he everybody's pick always to win? We've got a great field. There's a lot of good players here. This golf course takes some playing. He's played it well three times, as you know, won here three times.
But other guys play well. Kenny Perry's won here three times. We'll see. I think we're going to have a great event, a great tournament.

End of FastScripts

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