Jack Nicklaus Gives Advice on Preparation for Majors and on Merion GC

Jack Nicklaus, the man who has won more major championships than anyone, provided an insight to his preparation for those events at the end of The Memorial Tournament.  While every player has his own routine—Woods not playing the week before a major, Mickelson playing the week prior—Nicklaus had special reasons for doing what he did, particularly before the U.S. Open.   

"When you go to a major, you know that you're going to be more nervous because you feel like you have more pressure on you," Nicklaus said.  "And that's the biggest reason why I went a week ahead of time to a major scene, major venue.  I would go there to get rid of my nervousness, worrying about the rough or about the narrowness of fairways, worrying about the speed of the greens, firmness of the greens and just being the U.S. Open."

Nicklaus said whether it was Merion or any other course, he would spend enough time at the property to become comfortable with every aspect of the golf course and his game.  He would develop his own thoughts about how to play the course, then he would return home and take a couple days off before heading to the major venue. He said the only thing he had to worry about after all the practice was playing the event.

However, he did not follow that pattern with regular events.

"If I would go to another tournament—let's just say another tournament (rather than naming one by name)—if I would go early, I'd get bored because there wasn't enough there, enough meat in the tournament to prepare for," he explained.  "I would prepare at home; [a] practice round or two was enough to play that golf tournament."

Majors were sufficiently harder that he wanted to take a different approach.

"A U.S. Open or British or Masters, I always want to play three or four, five practice rounds beforehand to make sure everything else was out of the way and all I had to do was concentrate on golf," he said.

He said he made the mistake of inviting Gary Player to go to Bellerive CC prior to the U.S. Open in 1965.

"We played for a week, and he won the tournament," Nicklaus said.  "I shouldn't have taken him, but that's—but there's a reason why you go early.  Not just—not just to go play golf.  It's getting that out of your mind." 

However, it was just not Nicklaus' year in 1965.  He finished in a tie for 31st.

In terms of previewing courses, Nicklaus admitted he was intimidated by the U.S. Open at Baltusrol in 1967.

"I remember going back at '80, and I got so nervous on my practice round," he explained, and he recalled what he had shot in 1967 and wondered how.  "I said, 'This thing is a lot longer than I remember.  This thing is a lot tougher than I remember.'  And I played three or four days.  When I got done with it, I shot 63 the first round in '80.  So I got that all out of my way." 

Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf both opened with 63s.   

When it comes to tackling Merion, Nicklaus recalled the course as having six or seven really short golf holes, from the seventh through the 13th.

"And you're going to say how can I make myself be ready to abuse those holes, because you need to play them well," he advised. "And then you look at one is not too bad, but two through six, and then you look at 14 through 18, you've got some tough golf holes.  They've made them much tougher.  What am I going to do there?"

Reigning Masters champ Adam Scott, like Woods,  did some preliminary scouting on Merion and feels it will be important.

"It turns out that coming up a few weeks ago was really quite valuable for me," Scott said. "I've had three full rounds and that's taken my time trying to figure everything out.  I think I've got a pretty good idea where I'm going to try to go."

We are about to find out if Tiger Woods' preparation playing in the rain last week, or Phil Mickelson's preparation with Dave Pelz, or Adam Scott's trip weeks ago to Merion is the key to a victory at one of the least well-known tournament sites of the modern era.   

Kathy Bissell is a Golf Writer for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand or from official interview materials from the USGA, PGA Tour or PGA of America.