Jack Nicklaus back at historic St. Andrews and has a ton of great memories

Golf icon Jack Nicklaus is returning to St. Andrew’s in Scotland for the 150th Open after not being there since 2005 and shared his thoughts with media members Monday about his return, the course and more.

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon. As you can see, we’re joined by one of golf’s great champions, 18-time major champion, three-time champion Golfer of the Year, Jack Nicklaus.
Jack, thank you for joining us today. It’s great to see you back in St Andrews. We’ve all got so many memories of so many of your achievements here. But can you sum up how you’re feeling to be back here to celebrate The 150th Open and to see the Celebration of Champions this afternoon.

JACK NICKLAUS: Well, as many of you might know, I declined to come back the last couple of times to St Andrews, I played at St Andrews, because it made my farewell in 2005, and I didn’t want to come back and dilute that for what it was. It was fantastic then.
But when I got the invitation this time to be an honorary citizen of St Andrews and to follow Bobby Jones and Benjamin Franklin, I’ve got to come back. So to be back is fantastic. We brought the weather with us, in case you didn’t notice that. But this is about the same weather we had in 2005 when we played. It was beautiful.
Anyway, it’s great to be back. We’re back actually at the same hotel room I was in, Barbara and I stayed in every time we’ve been at St Andrews. And we’re looking forward to a great couple days.

Q. It’s terrific to see you here. You’ve given us all so many wonderful memories over the years. For that, we’re all in this room eternally grateful for you. But what makes, to you, what makes St Andrews so special? What’s so magical about the place?
JACK NICKLAUS: Well, that’s part of my speech tomorrow. But when I came here in 1964, I couldn’t believe that St Andrews was a golf course that would still test golfers of that time. Now, that’s, what, 60 years ago? Close. Anyway, I didn’t think — it still tests the golfers at this time. It’s a magical golf course.
The conditions, the weather, where you actually choose to put the pins, whether the golf course gets dry, whether the golf course gets wet, all those things that make St Andrews a magical place.
And to believe the game of golf essentially started here, and it just absolutely is mind-boggling to me that it still stands up to the golfers of today. I tell you if you get a little bit of weather, anytime you get it, it will tell you real fast how fast it makes you stand up to it.

Q. Do you still get goosebumps when you come into here?
JACK NICKLAUS: I’m warm today. I’m kidding. I’m thrilled and so forth about coming. I drove into town, first time I’ve driven into town in about 17, 18 years, and it was interesting. Coming into town, I said we used to go that way. No, no, we go this way. Okay. But it was kind of fun just to come back to see where we were, see the gates, come into the little curves that we came into.
I always said St Andrews looked like an old grey town until the Open came around. All of a sudden it just lit up like a light, and it was beautiful.
And St Andrews always the week of the Open Championship is always beautiful. I imagine actually probably from anybody who makes a pilgrimage here to play this golf course feels that way.

JACK NICKLAUS: The only thing I knew about St Andrews before I got here was my father came over with a couple of friends in 1959 when I was at Muirfield.

And they came over. And of course they were saying how much trouble they had, and I couldn’t understand what was your trouble? But one of them had three-putted 13 times, the other one 14, the other one 15. Now I understood why they had trouble.

But then I came back in ’64, and that’s all I really knew about it other than it was the home. Arnold came here in ’60, lost by a shot to Kel Nagle. That’s what I knew about St Andrews. I knew St Andrews obviously from previous years, but that’s really what my knowledge was.

When I stepped on it in ’64, all of a sudden to step out of the clubhouse, step here, look at the first tee, look at the 1st tee, look at what was there, see the town, see everything, I fell in love with it immediately. And I’ve had a love affair with it ever since.

JACK NICKLAUS: Well, I think that’s pretty special. That’s why I’m back, obviously. There’s a lot of reasons to be back, 150th anniversary and a lot of other reasons in the tournament, the whole thing. But this is why I’m back because of that. I wouldn’t be back for any other reason.

But that’s pretty special. There’s only two Americans that have ever been honored. I think I’d have to think that’s something pretty special, very flattered by that. I thought that was very — I’m sure it will be a humbling experience tomorrow.

JACK NICKLAUS: The game has changed quite a bit but St Andrews hasn’t. And, sure, St Andrews has a little bit of length added to it, The Old Course has. But the length has been added to try to sort of compromise the golf ball of today. But you’ve still got to play golf.

You still have those pesky little bunkers out there that grab your ball every time you hit an errant shot. You hit one out there, you play it out sideways, you say why did I hit it here? Somebody hit it here 60 years ago or 100 years ago and they had the same problem. They hit it right here sideways. And they haven’t really — I don’t know whether they changed locations. I think they changed a few locations but not a dramatic number.

But I think the Beardies were changed a little bit back about midway when I was playing, but you’ve still got to play golf. If you really play well, play smart at St Andrews, you’re playing like most of the seaside golf course, you’re playing by where the bunkers are.

If you play smart, really play smart, you’re probably going to take a couple of chances during the week, but most of the time you don’t. In other words, like when I won at Muirfield, I planned myself out. I hit four drivers a day. And the last day I had a little wind in my face at 14, and I elected instead of hitting 3-wood, I hit driver and I knocked it right in the frickin’ bunker, and it almost cost me the tournament. Discipline is such an important part of playing over here. You get frustrated.

Once you get frustrated, then say bye-bye, we’ll see you next time, because that’s what happens. You’ve got to be patient and you’ve got the ability to just sort of play to what the golf course gives you. You can’t try to take anymore.

JACK NICKLAUS: The one shot I would love to have back? I don’t think I have any here. I wasn’t going to win in ’64. I think Sanders would like to have his putt back in ’70. I don’t want to give that back to him.

I felt bad for him. But it’s golf. Gotta finish the last hole. And ’78, I didn’t really have — I won by a couple of shots. Stayed in front of the field. I don’t think I was ever in contention again.

I don’t really have anything I’d like to have back. I suppose I do. I try to avoid hell whenever I can. I think I took about four shots to get out of that one in ’95.

JACK NICKLAUS: Probably ’78, I suppose. ’70 came back because I won at St Andrews, and Jones always said that a golfer’s resumé is not complete unless he’s won at St Andrews.

So that was ’70. But ’78, the people were just unbelievable. They were hanging off rooftops, out the windows. Walking up the 18th fairway, the last hole was dangerous. People were running all over you. I don’t know how many security guys I had tried to keep the people off of us.

And of course me, it’s my typical, I’m sitting there, had tears rolling down my eyes as I’m walking up because I get pretty sentimental about that kind of stuff. I remember my caddie Jimmy hit me on the back, and he said, we’ve got another hole to finish. Get with it.

JACK NICKLAUS: I have never put anything in the Claret Jug. I know it’s the Claret Jug, but I always thought it was disrespectful to be drinking out of it. I’ve seen guys that have done it in the future, in the past, but I always respected it. They cleaned it out before I got there, and I didn’t want to dirty it up.

JACK NICKLAUS: My kids’ reaction? They just looked to see if there was any wine in it. If there wasn’t any wine in it, they didn’t care about it. Is that about right?

No, I never used the Claret Jug for anything other than what it symbolized. Champion golfer of the year and delighted to have been able to retain that twice, here. Three times with Muirfield.

JACK NICKLAUS: I think it’s very special that they wanted to come. They were here when I finished in 2005.

And they’re here again today. And that’s very special to me. And to think that they want to come watch the old man say a few words, I think, is very nice. Very honored by that.

JACK NICKLAUS: Well, I think golf has gone through a variety of periods. I think Arnold — golf is golf, prior to Palmer. And you knew a little bit about Hogan and Snead. But you never really watched it. Then Arnold came along, and they had television. Arnold sort of popularized the game from a television standpoint.

But more media and more awareness of the game, I think. I think that the era that we played in was a good era.

We had a lot of very good players. I think then came along Tiger’s era. And Tiger had it pretty much by himself for a while. When Tiger got hurt, the other guys actually got a chance to win a golf tournament.

And they learned how to win. So when Tiger came back he had some competition. Those guys had learned how to play during that period of time, I think have become a great number of players.

There are more good players in the game today than we’ve ever had. I think the game, from a television standpoint, good gracious. Popularity standpoint. COVID has really, people flocked to the game of golf with COVID.

But we’ve also seen the game grow and television — you can watch any golf tournament in the world almost today on television. And you turn it on and you say I’m going to watch something in Africa or want to watch something in Europe, want to watch something in Asia. No matter where you are, you’re going to be able to watch it. And it will continue to popularize the game of golf. And so I think golf probably in as good a state as it’s ever been as far as the growth of the game and seeing the number of good players that there are today, I think it’s really fantastic.