Jack, Arnold, Gary: Vital To Slow Down The Ball!

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The honorary starters moment with Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer was as goose bump inducing in person as you'd expect (Dave Kindred's take here), and just as good was the 35-minute press session where the three legends took press questions. Among the spectators in the room were USGA Executive Committee members and PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem. Not that any of them will do anything!

Asked about the state of the game and growing golf...

First, a fun story and the rare bad word from The King...

JACK NICKLAUS:  We were going to be 35 and we weren't going to play anymore.  But you said, "No, that's not me.  I'm going to keep playing."

ARNOLD PALMER:  That's right.  You guys kept saying you were going to quit at 35.  I said, Bullshit  (Laughter).  No more thoughts of quitting at 35 than ‑‑

JACK NICKLAUS:  82.

ARNOLD PALMER:  Hey, if I could do it, I would be doing it right now.
   
JACK NICKLAUS:  I think we all would.
   
GARY PLAYER:  I'd like to enlarge on that, because both Jack and I said we were retiring at 35, we had won the Grand Slam and that was it, we had enough.
   
And Arnold said, "Well, I'm going on forever."
   
And Then we walked in there when we were both 60, and Arnold said, "Is this a mirage?  Both here at the age of 60?"  And now I'm 70 and more.

And about the golf ball...starting with Player.

ll they had to do was let the technology go with the average golfer, that's fantastic.  But with professional golfers we have not seen big men come into this game yet.  We are going to see the Michael Jordans and the likes come into golf, and they are already hitting drives 400 yards.  They're going to be hitting it so far, it's frightening.

What's going to happen to the golf course?  Are they going to make them longer?  We can't go back on the streets anymore here.  So they are going to have to slow the ball down for professional golf at some time or other in the future.

Otherwise, I don't know what's going to happen to all these golf courses.  Are we going to spend more money on it?  And that's where Jack and I agree; the expenses, the costs, we have to take that into consideration.

JACK NICKLAUS:  The equipment, the ball is one single factor that's caused a lot of what we have.

ARNOLD PALMER:  And I agree with that.  I think that's vital that we slow the ball down.

JACK NICKLAUS:  I think that we all know that you can't really change the game from what it is today.  That would be like asking the kids today to go back to wood clubs, and it would be like when we played, asking to go back to wood shafts.  And I know the game changes.

The game today is a wonderful game.  There's nothing wrong with the game today as it relates to tournament golf.  There's nothing wrong with it when we played.  But it's just a different game.  And the game that when we played, it was very relevant to the pro and the amateur had a game that they could play together.  They could go play a Pro‑Am, and we would be 20 yards behind them and we would end up in relatively the same area on the tee shots and you could have a conversation.

Today, you know, the average golfer cannot relate to the pro.  The pro is a hundred yards behind him.  And by the time the pro gets there, they've all hit off the tee.  It's a very different game.  It takes too long.

Obsolescence of the golf courses; we have, I don't know, 17,000 or 18,000 golf courses in the United States, which this is probably the only golf course in the country that is probably up‑to‑date as it relates to tournament golf.  And what have they spent here?  They have spent a fortune.  And can you ask everybody to spend a fortune?  No.  Golf ball is a very inexpensive thing to fix.

Player on today's youth:

GARY PLAYER:  I think that there should be, which I think is a vital ingredient in one's life, a sense of gratitude and we must never forget where we came from and how we started, and what this tournament has done for us in our lives.

I think one of the great difficulties that we are encountering in the world today with young people is entitlement.  There's no such damn thing as entitlement.  You have to work for what you get today. 

My question...

Q.  You talked about technology.  At the tournament level, do you believe today's technology makes it harder for a truly exceptional player to differentiate himself from a merely great player?

JACK NICKLAUS:  Not really.  I think the exceptional player always separates himself.  I think for the last ten, 12, 15 years, Tiger has separated himself pretty well with the same equipment.

It's all ‑‑ no matter how good the equipment is, you've still got to get it in the hole.  And the guy that gets it in the hole a little bit better usually ends up winning the golf tournament.  That's basically what it is.

GARY PLAYER:  And you can talk about all of the equipment and you hear so much about long hitting, but there are lots of long hitters that are not winning golf tournaments.

And I can tell you one thing, the reason that Tiger Woods has been the best player in the world for X amount of years, because he's the best putter.

JACK NICKLAUS:  I don't care what he tells you.  He's still the best putter.  (Laughter).

Mitt Romney: "If I could run Augusta...of course I'd have women."

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From the AP...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Obama's likely challenger in the fall, said "of course" he would allow women in "if I could run Augusta."

"Of course. I am not a member of Augusta. I don't know if I would qualify. My golf game is not that good," Romney told reporters as he chatted with supporters after a campaign stop in Pennsylvania. "If I could run Augusta, which isn't likely to happen, of course I'd have women."

Obama Believes Augusta National Should Admit Women, But Up To Club To Decide

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Shawna Thomas on today's White House press briefing where press secretary Jay Carney was asked about Augusta National's membership stance on women.

When asked by a reporter during Thursday's White House briefing whether the all-male golf club should admit women, White House press secretary Jay Carney said, "Well the president's answer to this question is yes. He believes, his personal opinion is that women should be admitted."

"I happened to have a discussion with him about this, so I know that that's his answer," Carney added. "It's obviously up to the club to decide. But his personal opinion is that women should be admitted to the club."

Reminder: Your Masters.com And ESPN TV Schedule

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With all of the dreaded "platforms," it can get a little confusing. Here is ESPN's coverage

And the splendid Masters.com times, with featured groups, Amen Corner Live.

LIVE COVERAGE ON MASTERS.COM

10:45 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Amen Corner live video coverage

11:45 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Hole Nos. 15 and 16 live video coverage

12:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Featured Group 1 live video coverage
Featured Group 2 live video coverage

3:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Masters In-Depth live video coverage highlights

MASTERS RADIO

2:00 p.m.
Masters Radio live audio

Chairman Payne Earns Mixed Reviews...

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Chairman Billy Payne earned mixed reviews for his performance during Wednesday's State of the Masters press conference, which turned surprisingly tense at times and because of the club's stance, wiped out potentially huge news that the members want to play a part in discussions about the state of the game.

Eddie Pells' AP lede:

Jabbed, prodded and poked repeatedly about a topic that never really goes away, Billy Payne wouldn't budge.

Ron Sirak for GolfDigest.com:

Five consecutive queries were about female members, including how the club can justify being an advocate for the growth of the game while excluding women and what Payne would say to his granddaughters about the fact there are no women in the club.

While the question grew more pointed, Payne remained calm and polite and indicated the matter was closed -- at least for the day -- by saying "Thank you for your question, sir."

Alan Shipnuck for golf.com:

Payne gave him a Dirty Harry glare and talked over him until moderator Craig Heatley frantically called upon another scribe. If Payne thought he could will away such questions, he was badly mistaken, and he seemed taken aback by the intensity in the room. One veteran newspaperman who has had many dealings with Payne later said, "That was the first time I have ever seen Billy shaken."

That will surely be a relief to Payne. But even he must now understand that Augusta National's all-male membership will always be a cloud that darkens Masters week, for him and his proud club.

Steve Elling for CBSSports.com:

Augusta National chairman Billy Payne, having just proudly detailed the club's many attempts to "grow the game" internationally, had painted himself into a corner and there was no escaping. He teed himself up, handed a titanium driver to the critics and social progressives, and was sent flying into the trees.

Ron Kroichick for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Six times, by choosing to remain silent on the topic, Payne whiffed.

It wasn’t surprising, really, because Augusta National officials have long tried to sidestep this issue. That’s their prerogative, technically, as a private club — but it’s also relentlessly hypocritical as the host of one of golf’s most storied and prestigious events.

The Guardian's Marina Hyde:

Perhaps the best that can be said of his faux-discretion is that it was not as pathetic as his 2010 denunciation of Tiger Woods's cocktail waitress habit, in which Payne joined the throng of emotionally stunted dullards claiming to feel personally "let down" by someone who plays sport for a living. You could almost feel the relish. Although the word "uppity" mercifully failed to get a run-out, Payne's wholly uncharacteristic eagerness to tip buckets of ordure over a hugely successful star of the game – far from the first to stray from the righteous path – raised the most questionable spectres in a culture where black men are still stereotyped as feckless and sexually incontinent. Having moralised fatuously about how Tiger had not just let all of us down, but "our kids and grandkids", he concluded his homily by suggesting that Woods come to heel and "begin his new life here tomorrow".

But in reality, it wasn't Woods who owed Augusta – it was Augusta who owed Woods.

I really have no idea what she's saying, but it was fun to read!

Lawrence Donegan, who pressed the Chairman on the club's stance.

Payne's refusal to delve into "personal" matters was in stark contrast to his wholesale, and some argued unjustified, excoriation of Tiger Woods in 2010 over the way the golfer had conducted his private life.

Asked by the Guardian if the growth of golf would best be promoted by Augusta opening its doors to a woman, thereby sending a "wonderful message to young girls around the world … that one day they could join this very famous club", Payne said only: "Thank you for your question, sir."

Bob Harig for ESPN.com:

A shame, really.

A shame that a place that brings so much joy to the golf world, that is revered along the far reaches of the globe, that has every right to set its own membership policies, can't be above the nonsense, invite a woman and move on.

Augusta National might be private, but it is not this week. It makes millions from the tournament, sits at the big table when golf's biggest issues are discussed, is viewed almost as a public trust. It now sells a video game, reaping even more millions, with all of Augusta National's portion earmarked for a charitable grow-the-game initiative.

Aren't women part of that?

Golf Channel's Jason Sobel:

It doesn’t matter what I think. It doesn’t matter what you think.

When it comes to membership policies at Augusta National Golf Club, it only matters what the current members think. And they aren’t keen on sharing that information.

If there’s one thing we learned during Wednesday’s annual pre-tournament interview session with Masters chairman Billy Payne, it’s that any and all discourse about internal matters at the club will remain internal until the time when – or more likely, if – he decides to publicize them.