Nicklaus doesn’t get a charge out of playing golf?
Since Jack Nicklaus hung up the proverbial spikes, his focus has been on golf course design. But here’s an interesting quote from Nicklaus.
“Competition,” Nicklaus said, “is what I like more than golf. I love golf, but competition’s what I really like. Just to go out and play golf, I don’t get a big charge out of. Never did. But going to a tournament, I always got a big charge out of playing a tournament because that was competition, that was a chance to win a golf tournament and a chance to compete against the guys and show your mettle.”
I think this may explain a lot about Jack and why his early courses he did with architects - Harbor Town with Pete Dye and Muirfield Village with Desmond Muirhead - are probably his two best. Jack’s focus has been on what’s best for him - in competition - rather than what’s best for the land or the golfers who would eventually play his course. And that plays in so many aspects of a Nicklaus course - from the fees associated with playing one of his courses, to the conditioning, to the construction costs, to the design fee.
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I can see where he’s coming from. He’s played golf as his job for decades, and most of the rest of us can only play occasionally. And I wouldn’t think it would be too much fun to know that you’re only going to get worse as you get older.
Bill