Jack Nicklaus appeared on “Golf Central” Wednesday evening to discuss a variety of topics in the sport of golf.
Part of the discussion, naturally, centered on Tiger Woods. Nicklaus said he still believes that Woods, even at age 48 and after all the injuries, is capable of “doing anything he wants to do.” He is delighted to see him back competing and called Woods a “great addition” to the PGA Tour’s policy board. He just doesn’t see Woods passing, or even getting to, 18 majors.
“If he remained healthy I think he would’ve gotten it, but he didn’t remain healthy,” Nicklaus said. "... I feel bad for him.”
Nicklaus then added of his major record: “Oh, I think it will probably stand for a while.”
He also said this of Woods, whom he expects to add another competitive chapter in a couple years: “I think Tiger will play the senior tour. He’d be able to get in a cart, and he’ll absolutely kill everybody.”
Here are a few more snippets from Nicklaus’ segment:
The golf ball rollback: “It’s about time they rolled it back...”
The ongoing PGA Tour-LIV Golf talks: “I talked to Jay [Monahan] about three weeks ago. We were talking, and I said, ‘Jay, don’t tell me what you’re doing. I don’t want to know because Rich Lerner is going to ask me a question about it, and if I don’t know, then I don’t have to answer the question.’ So, I don’t really know where they’re going. I hope that they get this thing together all in the best interest of the game of golf. The LIV thing has been a powerful addition to the game, probably impacted a lot more than we thought it was going to, but it has, and it probably will continue to do so.”
On Monahan specifically: “I know Jay’s taken a beating, but I’ve always been in full support of Jay. Everything Jay’s done has been in the best interest of golf and the Tour.”
On his best shots: All 1-irons. (He lists three during his interview.)
On his toughest rival: Not Trevino, not Watson, not Player, not Palmer. Who then? You’ll have to watch the clip above.
