Jack: “I Don’t Like The New Major Schedule”

In early August Jack Nicklaus appeared on BBC’s Radio 5 Live and his criticism of the new condensed major schedule was noted by Golf Monthly.

The comments came after Justin Rose pointed out concerns about the shortened major season and before Rory McIlroy joined the fray last week.

“I don’t like the new Major schedule, from the stand point that if you have an injury, or if you’re struggling with one tournament, all of a sudden the other one follows too closely, to get it back,” 18-time Major winner Jack Nicklaus told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“I’m not sure that that’s really a good thing for the game of golf, to have all your tournaments in about three and a half months. And I don’t think it’s good for the other tournaments on the Tour.

“The guys have got to skip a lot of tournaments – you saw that this year – guys weren’t playing in between Majors. And I think that’s a shame for the Tour.”

As host of the Memorial, Nicklaus is clearly monitoring the impact and not liking what he sees.

“I know that the all-mighty dollar is important, but I don’t think it’s so important that you really lose out on the tradition of the great tournaments that have been played for years and years and years.”

Nicklaus worrying about those surrounding non-majors events is admirable and something that the PGA Tour will have to examine before locking in the schedule long term.

The interview is not available online but a BBC site posting about Nicklaus’s comments focused largely on Tiger Woods. And included this:

"I think it will work against Tiger - unless he's really healthy," Nicklaus said.