Jack Nicklaus transcript at the Del Webb Father/Son Challenge at ChampionsGate

QUESTION: When was the last time you played 18 holes?

JACK NICKLAUS: I played last Saturday. Me and my tennis buddies came up and we played.... I play on average about once a month is about what I've played since the British Open a year ago. A couple weeks ago, I played five times in eight days.... I'm over-golfed right now. I'm doing fine."

QUESTION: How did the dotting of the "I' at the Ohio State game transpire?

NICKLAUS: They called me sometime last summer and asked me if I would do it. I said, of course I'll do it. I had no idea when they asked me that so few people had done it. I thought it was an awful nice honor. When they asked me, I said I didn't want to intrude on anybody. They said only Bob Hope, Woody Hayes and a former Ohio State president had done it. It was fun. My wife made me take off my glasses when I walked out on the field, so I couldn't see if there was anybody in the stands or not.

QUESTION: Inaudible

NICKLAUS: I withdrew a long time ago from tournament play. I haven't played any golf at all. What I've played is decent. I shoot my 72 to 76 or 77, and that's about what I shoot, and it's from the members tees. I went to August a couple of weeks ago, and took about six fellas and I think I shot 72, 73 the two days, and I looked back at the 80 yards behind the members tees to where I used to play from. I said, 'I used to play back there.'

NICKLAUS: I always enjoy playing with Jackie or Michael or Gary or whomever I play with. It's kind of fun. We'll have a good time.

QUESTION: What about playing with Palmer?

NICKLAUS: He'll do all right. We'll have a good time. We always have a good time together.

QUESTION: He's one up on you in the great grandchildren...

NICKLAUS: He's one up to speak of.

QUESTION: What role did your dad play when you were younger?

NICKLAUS: My dad was around a lot, and he and I talked about a lot of things, but it was getting to be it was in the middle of a golf tournament, and I had one two or three matches, and my dad would say, 'You remember out there on whatever hole it was and so forth and so on,' and I said, 'Wait a minute, Dad. Time-out. I've got to go and do this my way.' Had I done something that was really stupid I would have listened, but as a 19-year-old kid, you're pretty cock-sure of what you're doing. I suppose at that point in time, I was pretty confident the way in what I was doing, and I didn't want to be adding extra things that I didn't need....

He wanted me to do it the way I wanted to do it and do my thing the way I thought it should be done. Had I done something wrong, I would expect him as a father to climb down my throat....

My dad introduced me to everything, and he did it with me. In other words, he taught me how to play tennis, and we played tennis. He was the state tennis champion at one time. He was a pretty good tennis player. He taught me four or five different serves, but I didn't play much tennis for another 10 or 15 years. Then I started playing again, and tennis became fairly easy for me. Not that I'm a great tennis player, but I'm a decent tennis player....

He taught me how to kick a football. I'm amazed. A couple of my grandkids, I watch them punt, and I saw, 'How can you punt that way?' And I'll go out and teach them how to punt a football, since my dad taught me properly how to punt a football and how to throw a ball properly and how to catch a ball properly. Fundamentally, he taught me everything in every sport the way he did it. And that's what I try to do with my kids - teach them fundamentals, then get away from them, let them do their own thing, let the coaches coach them. But I try to give them the fundamental, basic stuff....

That's what my dad taught me, was the proper fundamentals on how to do different things, then he left me alone to do what I wanted to and nurture it to whatever degree I wanted to take it....

We'd go out in the backyard, and where we used to live, there were two trees, and the trees were all about 20 feet tall, and they were about a goalpost apart, so I practiced for hours kicking the ball. That's what my dad did....

I kick straight on. I cannot kick soccer style to save my life. I'll go up there now and try to do it, and I can't do it to save my soul....

I think spending time with your kids is what you should try to do. Jackie's 45 years old, and I still spend a ton of time with him: We play golf together - not very often; we play occasionally - we play tennis together, we go fishing together, we go shooting together. He's not an Ohio State guy, but he's been to three of four Ohio State football games this year, as have I.

QUESTION: How has Jackie dealt with being Jack Nicklaus, Junior?

NICKLAUS: He's done it very well. People always ask, 'How does it feel to be Jack Nicklaus, Jr.?' And he'd say, 'Well, I've never been anything else. What difference would it make? That's what I am.' And that's what his answer used to be when he was a kid, so he never really had a big issue with it. It is what it is.

QUESTION: Any reaction to how the American Ryder Cup team did?

NICKLAUS: I don't really have an answer. People seem to think that American golf is so much stronger than the rest of the world, and I don't think it is. We're only one country - 300 million people, I guess. Europe is 600 million people? We probably have more golfers, but each of those countries, for those kids to get out on the European Tour, those kids have to be the best in their country just to get out there where you don't have to be the best at anything here. You can be in the top 20, you can get a TOUR card. You don't even have to win a tournament to get on the Ryder Cup team. You just have to play well enough in enough tournaments...

I just feel like kids from the other parts of the world have a tougher way to get to their team than our kids did and down through the depths, it might be tougher. I'm not saying they have more good players than we do, but they might have more winning bred into them than our guys. If you look at our guys, you've got Tiger, Phil and Furyk, and the other guys are good players below them, but there are not many winners below them. They haven't won a lot of tournaments. Brett Wetterich, I've played a lot of golf with Brett, Brett has never played a match play event. He's never played a match period until the Ryder Cup. I'm flabbergasted by that. He's never had that kind of experience. You certainly don't experience it in high school; you certainly don't experience it in college anymore, so the first time you experience it is Ryder Cup. You may play some junior tournaments, but if you're not really one of the top junior players, you're not really getting there into that kind of situation.

Jackie was a very good college player. He won a couple of college tournaments, finished high in a couple of other tournaments, won the North/South. He never quite got there. He was just the level below playing on the TOUR. I think, 10 years later, he could have played, but he got sick when he was about 30 or 31, and he was out for about a year and a half, doing nothing. He just decided that his life as a golfer is probably over after that.

QUESTION: What do you think about the FedEx Cup?

NICKLAUS: I know it's a year-end tournament. What their idea is, I assume, is to get the guys to play at the end of the year, and the only way to get them to play is to play for enough money.... I think that the idea is fine. What they have to do to do that is to put enough money so the guys say, I can't skip that. It lengthens their seasons, but it shortens the total season, and it ends at the season final, right? That's good. That's all good....

On playing when he found out Kennedy was shot: I was on the 9th fairway in the first round. I was told the president had been shot. We finished the round, but nobody had any idea that he was dead. He had just been shot. It took several hours before anybody said what was happening after that. Then, we did not play the next day, and I think we finished the tournament on Monday.

On Arnold wanting to play the Del Webb Father/Son Challenge with the great grandchild he learned today that his granddaughter Katie will be having: He changes his mind, doesn't he? That's all right. As long as he's played, as much as he's done for the game, he's entitled to do whatever he wants. If he wants to play until he's 95, it's fine with me. I'm sure it will be fine with everybody else too.

QUESTION: How did your golf course at Reunion turn out?

NICKLAUS: We haven't officially opened it yet, but it turned out very nice. I've had quite a few people play it, and I've had nothing but complements on it.... The last hole's a nice hole.