Jack Nicklaus speaks about "no closers" except Tiger
Jaime Diaz has a timely interview with Jack Nicklaus in Golf Digest. There's so much to discuss, but we'll start today with Jack's insightful comments about the lack of closers on the PGA tour (except, of course, Tiger). Here's a flavor of what Jack said:
"Closers ..."
"It’s hard for me to watch golf on television and see guys falter coming down the stretch. It happens to too many players today. It’s the biggest difference between Tiger and his challengers. He comes down the stretch and knows how to finish a tournament.
"During my career there were many times on the final nine when I knew I just had to play safe golf because the guys in contention probably would make mistakes and not finish. But I had a lot of challengers like Watson and Trevino who I knew were going to finish and not give the tournament to me. I think I had more guys like that than Tiger does."
Allcarry's reaction: This interview occurred before yesterday's finish at Riviera, but the words could not have been more true about what happened to Phil Mickelson. How many true closers are there on tour? One. Back in Jack's day, you had Player, Palmer, Trevino, Watson, not to mention Miller and Weiskopf.
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6 Comments:
Charlie Howell did a pretty good job of closing last week (unlike earlier in the season in Hawaii). Perhaps Tiger's mentorship will be effective and allow him to become a fellow master of ABC (Always Be Closing).
Howell III was great, but I'm not sure you can describe his situation as a "closing" situation. He was behind nearly the entire final round, so he really was "chasing" Mickelson.
Mickelson had the lead the entire day. He's the one who had a chance to close, but faltered on the final hole.
This is no knock on Chuck, who appears to be back among the elite young golfers.
Lol...good point(s). In retrospect, he chased, then gutted it out for the most part in the playoff. While this isn't exactly closing, lately outside of Mr. Woods, it's what passes for it on the PGA Tour.
I think its a shame that the winners of the tournaments often get less press than the people who lost them. There is more pressure to close and thus less closers, because if you flop near the end you get more attention than the guy who rallied to win.
19 seconds in majors for Jack.
I love Jack, but Tiger could easily go down as the greatest ever. (Wonder if he'll win the Masters at 43, and finish in the top-10 at 54.)
PS -- for those counting, there have been 2 seconds for Tiger (Beem in the PGA, Campbell at U.S. Open).
As much as I dislike him, Vijay is pretty clutch.
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