Highlights from Jack Nicklaus' Tuesday press conference at the Memorial

Nobody holds court quite like Jack Nicklaus.

Get the 18-time major champion talking and expect to receive a dose of the insightful, in-depth and entertaining that only the Golden Bear can offer.

It’s never more true than during his annual pre-tournament press conference at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. Nicklaus spoke with the media for more than 45 minutes about all aspects of the game, from his thoughts on architecture and swing theory to reminiscing about his days on the PGA TOUR and prognosticating from some of the sport’s biggest stars.

Here are the best moments from the Golden Bear’s press conference ahead of this week’s tournament.

Nicklaus excited about anomalous at Muirfield Village

Nicklaus likes to joke that Columbus weathermen are “about 97 percent correct three percent of the time.” In other words, he takes their forecasts with a grain of salt. Though he’s hoping this will be the week they deliver a spot-on prediction. Currently, there is no rain in the forecast this week and the area hasn’t had rain for “about a week or 10 days,” which has left the course quite firm. Just how Nicklaus wants it.

“We have never had that in Columbus,” he said. “… I like dry golf courses. I think they bring the best in golfers. It forces them to think about how they play, just not rear back and hit it. When I played I didn't like particularly long golf courses when I played. I preferred golf courses where you had to think about what you wanted to play off the tee and think about if you ran through fairways and think about if I put the ball in the rough on this hole, what am I going to have left and can I stop it on the green and what kind of shot am I going to play. I like that. That's basically what we've got this week, and that's good.”

Nicklaus has learned not to get his hopes up, but if the course stays dry it may play quite differently than in past years.

Changes to the course

Muirfield Village will look different regardless of the weather conditions. Nicklaus is famous for making constant improvements ahead of the Memorial and this year is no different. The biggest changes come to holes 16 and 17, where new tee boxes have been installed. The par-3 16th tee was shifted further to the right, adding a few yards of distance and improving the angle into the green complex. Twenty yards were added to the 17th hole as well to make the fairway bunkers much more in play off the tee.

“I kept saying, how in the world can they keep knocking the ball by those two bunkers that are out at about 320 yards. And they did. They just kept knocking it over 'em,” Nicklaus said. “… So we went back as far as we could go back, back into that area. That makes it a little bit more difficult in carrying those bunkers. Guys will play more to the area where we really want 'em to play, which is short of those two bunkers and into the space at about 100 – probably 155, 160 yards, I suppose is what it is from there into the green.”

When Nicklaus got ‘complacent’

Need a reminder of how impressive Nicklaus’ career was? Three years was the longest span Nicklaus went without winning a major championship during the first 18 years of his career.

He won the 1967 U.S. Open at Baltusrol Golf Club, his seventh major championship, and didn’t win again until the 1970 Open Championship at the Old Course in St Andrews. What went wrong during that stretch?

“I would say I was having too much fun,” Nicklaus said. “We had three kids by then and fun with my kids. And I practiced a little bit, but I didn't practice like I probably should have practiced.”

Family always came first," Nicklaus said. It’s what caused him to take golf less seriously, but it’s also what reinvested him in the game. Nicklaus’ father passed away in February of 1970 at age 56.

“And I sort of thought about it, I says, You know, my dad sort of lived through me. And that's what he, that's what he did, that's what he loved is going to golf and watching me win. And I said says, I don't think I gave him a fair shake the last couple of years. So I sort of focused myself to go back to work and try to work a little harder at it. And I got – and as a result I ended up winning the British Open that year and then I won, you know, a lot of tournaments after that,” he said.

Ten more majors, to be exact.

Nicklaus not worried about McIlroy’s major drought

Consider then the drought that Rory McIlroy is facing, now nine years since his last major championship victory: the 2014 PGA Championship.

“I don't know really know what to make of it,” Nicklaus said. “Because he's very confident. He works very hard at it. He's a good student of the game. He practices a lot.”

That’s left him confident McIlroy will return as a major champion again.

“We all go through periods. Rory may be going through a little bit of that period of the -- he's going to wake up one morning and say – what's he, Rory, about 33 or 34 now, 34 – wake up one morning and he says, ‘Hey, I better, you know, get on the stick here and start winning some more majors,’ because he's certainly going to win some more. I can't believe that he's not. And sometimes we all have to focus, focus on what we have to do and so forth and to get there.”

Nicklaus recalled speaking to McIlroy after the 2011 Masters when the young Irishman shot a final-round 80 to fall out of contention. He asked McIlroy if he had learned anything from the Sunday at Augusta.

“I think so, but I’m not sure,” Nicklaus remembered McIlroy telling him.
McIlroy won the next major championship, the 2011 U.S. Open a Congressional by eight shots. Nicklaus again talked to him after.

“You obviously learned something from Augusta,” Nicklaus told him, “but more important, did you learn anything from why you won? It's one thing to learning of why you lose, but it's also important to learn why you won. You put the two, those two things together and if you understand 'em both firmly then you're going to win a lot of golf tournaments. So Rory was really good about that, that time in his life. And so you know, he'll, he's still going to win a lot of tournaments.”

Learning from Snead, Hogan and Palmer

Nicklaus was given an important tip on the golf swing early in his career. It came from his coach Jack Grout, who said, “there are many, many different ways to play the game of golf and I think you ought to understand what they are,” Nicklaus recalls Grout telling him. “And how you, whether you want to accept any of 'em or not doesn't make any difference, it's just you should know.”

That left an impression on Nicklaus, who spoke Tuesday about all the swings he admired over the years and the elements he tried to take for his own game.

“As far as swings go, Sam Snead, rhythm and position and everything was just, it was, he was the best. Hogan, learning how to control the ball, how he learned how to eliminate hitting a hook and how he, the grip that he put himself in, the position he put himself in at the top of the swing and the way he moved through the ball was phenomenal.”

He couldn’t help but name Gary Player and Arnold Palmer, too. As for the swings of current players he admires…

“I mean, Justin Thomas has got a gorgeous action,” he said. “Rory McIlroy's got a beautiful, beautiful natural action. Uses all parts of his body. Rory's not a big guy, but he knows how to use every part of his body. And, you know, some guys don't have to, some guys do. And as I say, as Jack Grout said, there's many different ways to play the game.”