FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, May 5th, 2014
TRANSCRIPT: Johnny Miller, Nick Faldo and Brandel Chamblee Preview THE PLAYERS Championship
JOHNNY MILLER
SIR NICK FALDO
BRANDEL CHAMBLEE
THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon. We are here to preview and discuss THE PLAYERS Championship this week, contested Sunday at TPC Sawgrass.
Throughout this week, Golf Channel and NBC will give fans a lot of viewing options. We’ll have nearly 100 live hours of television devoted to the tournament; 33 of those hours will be live tournament action, which this will be one of the most technologically‑advanced tournament productions of the year, lots of neat ways to show viewers the tournament from all different angles. The tournament coverage will be complemented by more than 43 hours of news coverage on Golf Channel through our ‘Live From the Players’ show, and an additional 20 hours of Morning Drive. So that will start each day, Monday through Sunday, and spotlight coverage returns this weekend at THE PLAYERS.
So those that are not familiar with spotlight coverage while NBC is on the air with its traditional coverage on Saturday and Sunday, Golf Channel also will be on the air but we will focus that telecast solely on the finishing stretch of the three holes at TPC Sawgrass, 16, 17, 18. So that will be a different type, way and a good complement to NBC’s coverage.
All of this will be streamed on either Golf Live Extra or NBC Sports Live Extra; so you can catch that whenever you’re on the go.
Joining me are three of the most quoted golf analysts on television today: Johnny Miller, who with Dan Hicks will call the weekend for NBC; Sir Nick Faldo will cover the early rounds on Golf Channel with Terry Gannon; and Brandel Chamblee, who will break it down for us like only Brandel can, he’ll be seen each day on ‘Live From the Players’ on the Golf Channel.
We’ll let each of our guests provide a few thoughts before we open up for questions from our callers.
JOHNNY MILLER: Nice to kick off THE PLAYERS Championship, the 41st one, and for the players, it’s our home championship. We cover the U.S. Open, but it hops all over the place, and I guess same thing with The Ryder Cup.
So this is sort of the one that when I come here, I feel like this is sort of the one I’m most comfortable with, and I know the course the best, and of course played it; didn’t play too well, but I played it, and have had fun covering it.
It’s a very interesting course in that it’s a very short course, it’s 7,200 yards, basically, and playing in May in a lot of run‑out, it’s really not a long test, but boy, I’ll tell you, it’s one tricky Pete Dye test in that it doesn’t really favor the long hitter. You get a lot of different kind of winners. It’s pretty exciting, especially with the finish everybody that we have here, and really the prestige now that THE PLAYERS carries, definitely the most important tournament.
So I’m just happy to be a part of it. So I don’t want to say too much. I want to leave something to my cohorts to chat about; so you guys take it from there.
SIR NICK FALDO: Yeah, it’s a great Pete Dye golf course. Pretty demanding, very demanding, positional golf course, especially off the tee, and then depending on how blustery it gets or how firm the greens are; there’s very few bail‑out areas and you’re really forced to take a lot of shots on. That’s really the difficulty of it. You can’t just hit it out anywhere sideways for safety.
But it’s a great event. It’s the flagship of the PGA TOUR, and it’s a title I’m sure many of the players would really love to have on their resumé. Brandel?
BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Yes, you look at the field, it’s extraordinary.
I’ll echo the comments of Nick Faldo: It’s a special Pete Dye golf course. You go through over single hole, and you hear the term ‘shot value’ pop up a lot, but there is a lot of value to a properly executed shot down the first hole down the right side; down the second hole down the left side; the fourth hole down the right side and on and on and on. You get all of these advantages, if you properly execute and take on more risk off of the tee, you’re rewarded with a much easier second shot.
So watching a player work their way through this golf course is entertaining to me, because there’s so much potential damage and danger on every single shot.
So in my mind, this golf course and what it asks of the players, has sort of taken on, from a technical point of view, what the U.S. Open used to ask of players. The U.S. Open has gotten more democratic in its setup over the years. You’ve seen players win the U.S. Open hitting less than 50 percent of the fairways. You will not see that at THE PLAYERS. At THE PLAYERS, with only one exception in the last ten years, players have to average at least ten fairways a day.
When you hear people talk about how deep this field is; it is min terms of talent, but in terms of potential winners, there’s few players that can win this golf tournament, very few. You have to find a player that can hit at least ten fairways a day, over 70 percent of the fairways, and then you have to find a great iron player.
That’s why we have a little different winner and a little different makeup of the champions here in the last ten years, but in terms of asking a lot of the players, there’s no golf course on TOUR that they play that asks more of the players than this one.
THE MODERATOR: Brandel, you can probably answer this, but all three of you can chime in: About Jordan Spieth, he seems to have the it factor which has put him on a fast track. Can you talk about his career trajectory to this point and what’s in front of him?
BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: He certainly does have the “It” factor. I was having dinner with the editor of Sports Illustrated at the Masters and I was asking him about who could win and end up on the cover, and he said only one player, Jordan Spieth. Not Miguel Ángel Jimenez, not Freddie Couples. He said it just like that (snapping fingers) Jordan Spieth.
Jordan Spieth, what he’s doing, trumps what Tiger Woods was doing at 20 years of age. You see these players that come out that as send to all these great things, they are doing extraordinary things at 21, 22, 23; Jordan Spieth is doing things that make Nick Faldo and Johnny Miller speechless when they are on the air almost, and that’s a tall compliment to that kid.
SIR NICK FALDO: I like the way he focuses. I think that’s key. In his own words, he plays ‑‑ he plays old‑timer golf, as he calls it. He likes to play some strategy golf. Doesn’t have to go for everything; kind of sense when you should go for it, when you should bail out to give yourself a bit more room, a bit more safety.
But he’s pulling off a lot of good shots. That’s the key, a lot of shots are landing in the right spot, and he’s able to ‑‑ he’s got a pretty cool ability right now to hone in on that flagstick. You know, he speaks well, he carries himself well, he’s obviously confident. And, yeah, we’ll see, the next five years are going to be fascinating to see how he develops.
JOHNNY MILLER: Yeah, he’s a player that he reminds me a lot of Curtis Strange’s swing. It’s not a very rhythmic swing as far as hand action or real fluid, but it’s a very efficient action, and he doesn’t really hit a lot of fairways and greens, Brandel.
BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: No, he doesn’t.
JOHNNY MILLER: Not contradicting you, but the bottom line is, he’s an unbelievable scorer. I think he’s by far the best bunker player in the world; it’s not even close. Every time he hits a bunker shot, it looks like it’s going in the hole. I’ve never seen a guy that just, you know, looks like it’s going to go in. He’s a good chipper, a great putter and makes a lot of longer putts. He’s just a great scorer of the ball, in the same mode as Tiger and Phil and Kuchar.
You’ve got to have a good week tee‑to‑green, though. Like you said, Brandel, it’s pretty hard to sort of hit it all over, if you do hit it all over, and get away with it. Occasionally that will happen, but there’s a lot of luck in this course; you know, where you hit it, where your misses go. Sometimes you can just miss three or four shots and they can all be dead or you can get away with them. So there’s a little luck in this course.
I like his chances if he gets off to a good start the first round. If not, this course will make you pull out your hair. Even Rory McIlroy missed the cut the first three times he played here, and that was when his game ‑‑ he had more of am A Game.
So this course is not for everybody, it takes ‑‑ even Phil Mickelson did win here, but he most of the time really struggled. You know, scramble game doesn’t work that great, and so you need a pretty darned good week of ball‑striking.
Q. We’re only a few weeks into this Tiger‑less tour so to speak, but defending champion not at TPC this week, but how you see things going without him? Do you feel less of a buzz at all, and how you see the state of the TOUR while he’s not around.
SIR NICK FALDO: Obviously we went through the Masters without the Tiger, and you have to say, it wasn’t the same buzz. Tiger takes all the focus; what he’s doing and how he’s doing it and where he is on the golf course, everything.
So not having Tiger, the No. 1 player, the one that attracts the most attention, that’s the bottom line. So I’m sure that Tiger is not around will have an effect, doesn’t have the Tiger buzz. But we don’t know how long it’s going to go on for, and the rest of the guys are playing some great golf, and it will still be a great event.
BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: I personally miss watching him play golf. He’s irreplaceable.
The buzz, I remember as a player, I could definitely tell just driving to an event when Tiger was in the field. I can remember playing Western Open one year, and I forgot Tiger was playing and it took me 30 more minutes to get into the parking lot. Halfway there, I was berating myself, like, “You buffoon, Tiger is playing this week, you have to allow for that.” He affects the buzz of the tournament in every conceivable way.
And it’s a lot more fun to play against the best player of your generation. I’m sure the players that are playing well today, wish he was playing. It’s a bigger stage. The event feels bigger and the tournament is more special if you beat Tiger Woods or if you have a chance ‑‑ you just wasn’t replace him, at all, and you know, I read everything like everybody else here about when he’s likely to return, it’s still up in the air.
But the TOUR ‑‑ I’m not going to say they need him, but they want him, for sure, and I do, as well. He’s a lot more fun to talk about, isn’t he, Johnny.
JOHNNY MILLER: No doubt about it.
You know, a big telling point right now is young players, how good they are going to get, the Rorys, and Patrick Reed who has got the confidence, and Harris English who is really good, Jonas Blixt and Jordan Spieth, of course, these guys. There’s other ones, too.
I see this year as really good golf but not great golf. Guys are not breaking tournament records. They are not breaking course records. It’s just really good play but not scintillating play.
So I’m a little harder to maybe impress, but you know, I’m waiting for that run where a guy, a young player just maybe dominates or wins by four, five or six shots or some stand out play. So far it’s pretty ‑‑ real good play but not great play.
Q. Johnny, you played in the first PLAYERS, and forgive me if you addressed this on the first part of the call, I missed it. But I’m curious what you think of the evolution of the look of the golf course compared to that first time you saw it in ’82, and to where it is now where it’s a little more cleaned up.
JOHNNY MILLER: Well, it’s not nearly as hard as it used to be, especially playing in May. It used to be in the rough, it was just full of branchs and pine cones and nasty things out there, and you know, there’s a lot of brush. They have sort of Augusta‑tized it where you can scramble a little bit more. It used to be, man, if you hit it out of play a little bit, you were in stuff that you couldn’t even play.
And the greens originally were basically mounds in the middle, and no matter where you hit the ball, repelled away, sort of like Pinehurst, but even worse, even tougher than Pinehurst.
So the original design ‑‑ there have been so many re‑dos on this golf course, and it’s basically matured with a lot of changes. So it’s not quite as penal and it’s not as tough, but it’s really a good test, a terrific test. But it’s not ‑‑ it used to be just crazy tough. I don’t care, equipment, balls, whatever, it was crazy tough.
So, I mean, I like it now better. I wish I could have played actually this course. I would have enjoyed this course a lot more than the other one. I never was a big fan of water. It’s not really bad for most players who grew up with water. I grew up on courses that didn’t have any water hazards.
Q. If you had the opportunity to sit down with one of the first‑time players in this year’s tournament, obviously you hear about how it’s your first time at a U.S. Open, first time at Augusta, first time at a British Open, etc., etc., what would you convey to this individual? How would you tell them to work their way around the course?
JOHNNY MILLER: Well, the big thing is it’s nice to be on, like Brandel said, the proper side of the fairway, but the bottom line is just to get in the fairway. You can figure it out from there. You’re just not going to hit very many drivers.
If you’re a longer driver, like Tiger, you might hit two drivers a day. I would just really urge, if I was caddying for one of these great young players, I would basically say, hey, you don’t have to hit it very far, it’s only 7,200 yards. Just get it in play off the tee and according to what kind of shot is your shot shape, take advantage of the hole locations that are good for you.
And then, also, don’t miss it in the spots you just can’t get it up and in; and that would be left on No. 3, the par 3, those kind of things. Obviously don’t come up short on 4. You have to work your way around the course. It isn’t all green light specials. You have to use your head and you have to use your strength. One thing Jordan Spieth is pretty good at, we’ll see how he does, but he seems to have a pretty wise head on his shoulders.
It’s just a course full of land mines, it really is. You’ve just got to really be careful on certain holes.
Q. And this past weekend you were part of a three‑man scramble at the Insperity on Saturday morning, you sank some clutch putts; what were you thinking as you were over the ball?
JOHNNY MILLER: I just tried a new putting tip where right at impact, I used my hips a little bit, just like you would hit a little pitch shot, and I think I made seven putts over nine feet and I was putting last. So usually when you putt last is when you ‑ only reason why I putted last is so ugly I didn’t want to screw the other two guys up (laughter) missing all these danged putts.
Q. Obviously the 17th hole gets so much attention, is such a scary, intimidating shot for the players, but wondering from your perspectives what other holes in particular you would worry about if you were playing the course this week?
SIR NICK FALDO: Well, a couple of the tee shots, Pete Dye has a great way of even though you’re going to have it near the tree, center ‑‑ sorry, putting the fairway left of center or right of center, mounding or hazards or whatever is down the other side, that is a Pete Dye trademark. So there’s some good tee shots out there.
I think 5, 5 really stands out, because the easy bail‑out is left and ends up getting caught in really thick rough on that hill usually. 7, you’ve got the water down the left. Then 14 always gets the guys’ attention if you block it right onto the mound. Of course 17 ‑‑ 15 we have to turn around ‑‑ then you come to 18, the real nerves, because the water is just staring you right in the face right down that left‑hand side. Hit a fade off it, but if you are able to do that, you block yourself in the trees and you’re brave enough to hit some kind of draw.
You have to move it both ways and you’ve got to know your land ‑‑ you’ve got to know your aiming points where you’re going to start it, and you’ve got to know where your finishing points are. You don’t have to move them a lot, just enough, just kind of, just turn them. But you’ve got to hit your right shot at the right time, simple as that.
BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Yeah, there’s so many key tee shots out here, but I think the hardest tee shot probably hit where you would have the best angle into a green is the 18th. I’m not sure anybody in their right mind would take on the risk of putting it down the left side of the 18th to gain the angle. I think anybody that ends up there probably was there by accident.
But in terms of actually being able to pull a tee shot off that you envisioned the tee shot on 14, which Nick was talking about, has that pine that runs down the middle of that fairway, and if you get anything going to the left of it, it will kick into that bunker. Anything if it’s cutting over to the right will kick over on that mound. So that is a very difficult tee shot. And I think probably one of the most if not the most difficult approach shot on the golf course is at 14, as well.
But an underrated tee shot is on the fourth hole. It looks simple enough and the hole is short enough, but if you fudge a little bit up the left side and try to play soft and you miss the left side and don’t get the kick down the right, you’re on that bank out of the rough coming in at a bad angle over the water; so your potential to compound that error is great and the potential for making double‑bogey certainly exists there.
On the whole, this is a very difficult golf course to work your way around from the tee.
JOHNNY MILLER: If you count tee shots, I think the last three par 3s are really dangerous: 18 is a long hole, 237, all kinds of trouble, you hit into the left bunkers or left of the left bunkers and the pin is not sur (ph) ‑‑ and then 13, obviously the water really comes into play, 181 yards; and then 17, you know about that tee shot, you can make a huge number.
You have got to be really careful on those three par 3s. The third hole is not a gimmee, but at least you can bail right a little bit. But the bottom line is that those par 3s can really get you if you make a mistake.
Q. I have a quick question regarding what Pete Dye has done at French Lick making that course playable of up to 8,000 yards, and there’s been talk of lengthening TPC Sawgrass. Can you throw out your opinion of what effect that would have on this tournament and the players’ view of it?
JOHNNY MILLER: If it really needs it. I definitely ‑‑ if I owned the golf course, I would definitely have a back tee on 17 and another 20 yards, anyway, if there’s no wind, no projected wind.
Otherwise, it’s just too short of a hole if you ask me. If there’s no wind, I would like to see the guys at least hit an 8‑iron, maybe even a 7‑iron. I just think it would be just a more exciting hole than throwing up a 9‑iron or wedge up there. That would be one change I would make without really lengthening that much.
I would definitely put a back left tee on 18 over where our TV tower is and that I can make that diagonal tee shot that felt like No. 6 at Bay Hill, I think that would be a lot better hole. Those are two changes that would make the course even stronger.
But besides that, I like the way it is. I don’t know where you really need more distance to be honest with you. I would like to see 17 have more options; and 18, take that tee way over to the left and that would be a fantastic tee shot.
Q. Mickelson obviously has talked about the focal point of his year this year is going to be the U.S. Open but he has not got a Top‑10 yet, in I believe ten or 11 or 12 events or whatever it’s been. Short of winning, what would you like to see in his game this week that would let you know that he’s on track to really contend at The Open?
SIR NICK FALDO: I think he needs to keep grinding on his golf swing. His backswing is too flat and his downswing is too steep. I’ve said that all year. That’s in my view what’s producing inconsistency in his shots. And you know, the putting is running a little hot and cold, but I think ‑‑ and not bash the putts. When you hit those 5‑footers that hard, you know, he’s asking for lip‑outs. We now have the science to prove how hard you’re meant to hit the darned thing. Those are the three areas think that I if he just spent a little bit of time on those, I think could make a big difference.
BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: I think probably a lot of his inconsistency at the gaining of the year had to do with the injury that he sustained in the Middle East and compounded in San Diego.
I think once that abated, you know, he’s trending in the right direction. He’s 12th at Houston and he’s 11th last week. He still has not put together back‑to‑back rounds in the 60s, and I think his putting is far more inconsistent than it has been for the last two or three years.
You know, I think he needs to do a couple things. He’s gotten a little crouchy in his setup and he’s a little slaggy in his downswing and he gets over the ball a little bit. But all that aside, he did lead the field last week in greens in regulation.
So he had his best ball‑striking week all year last week. If he can put that together with some consistent putting, it wouldn’t surprise me ‑‑ I don’t know that he’s going to play that great here, because he’s still all over the place off of the tee. But come U.S. Open week, it wouldn’t surprise me if he was ‑‑ if he was amongst the favorites to win there.
JOHNNY MILLER: I’d just like to see him go back to that little sort of three‑quarter punch that he won THE PLAYERS several years ago when he was playing that little chip‑cutoff the tee and putting it in play. It wasn’t real exciting for him probably; he likes to rip it.
But he can win on a course that’s wide open, just like Tiger can. I mean, you give him a Torrey Pines or whatever, where he’s not playing the penalty for straying, but you’re going to pay the penalty at Pinehurst with all that broomgrass and lovegrass on the bunkers, and you’re going to pay the price here.
He won here because he was hitting a lot of the holes, that little cut‑down, a left‑to‑right cut, or I guess in his case right‑to‑left. And that’s the key for him is he just has to reign in the temptation to hit it high and hang back and flog it. He just loves to do it. He figures, if I’m going to miss the fairway, I might as well flog it. He’s never been a good driver of the ball; except for I like the week that he won here, he was just hitting an ugly little cut out there.
Q. I want to hear you guys talk about the community and what THE PLAYERS means in relation to the area. You guys have obviously played the tournament and of course being announcers and so on, analysts, probably get to enjoy it a little bit more. So I want to hear your perspective on that.
JOHNNY MILLER: Sounds like one of your rhapsodies there, Brandel.
BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: It’s a fun spot. I’ve spent a lot of time around here. I’ve played a fair bit of golf at Hammock Dunes. St. Augustine is one of my favorite towns. Jax Beach is one of my favorite places to go eat.
You know, it almost feels, at least when we used to stay up at Jax Beach, we don’t anymore, but it almost felt like a bit of a vacation. You could get away. You could get for a good run on the beach in the mornings before you come in work.
There’s a lot of things about this part of the world that I really enjoy, and as far as the golf tournament being here, I’m sure that the charities through the years have really benefited from just how big this golf championship has become.
SIR NICK FALDO: I think Deane Beman in past interviews was asked, if you’d been willing to accept mayorship of Ponte Vedra, because that’s the man that started it all 30‑plus years ago and today to the way it’s been developed, amazing story. I’m sure he’s got a couple lots of land that he’s done very nicely and, I hope he has because that was a great boon for that area and that community.
JOHNNY MILLER: Well said, you guys. There’s just a lot of pride in having THE PLAYERS here every single year. The volunteers almost fight for position to get their spot every year. It’s just a real community effort to show people the Jacksonville area and the people and the friendliness and the way they get behind the tournament and support it.
If I lived here, that would be the thing I looked forward to probably as much as anything all year long, and I think the people that live here know that and they are proud to have THE PLAYERS be here at their home.
Q. I think there are three guys that could take over No. 1 in the world this week, Bubba, Adam Scott, Henrik. But I guess what I want to ask is, do you see anyone who is capable of taking over the top spot and keeping it these days, or are we going to see ‑‑ and given Tiger’s injury situation, are we going to see kind of a constant rotation of people in and out of there for maybe the first time in quite some time?
SIR NICK FALDO: Yeah, I think you will see a rotation. Jack Nicklaus because special, and 25 years later Tiger comes along and he’s very special, 20 years now really. So we are looking to the next Jack and Tiger.
So I’ve been saying that for a couple years; the talent behind, there’s so many good guys in their 20s getting close to 30, ranging obviously Rory to teenagers and Adam almost at the older end in the mid 30s, Masters Champion.
And all these guys in between must be looking at each other and thinking, I’m planning on playing really great for the next five or ten years, so who is going to be running the majors up. I mean, that’s really it. You look at the talent of players that’s all going to move forward in the next five years, 20 majors. So you almost think, well, if I’m good enough to beat them in tournament play or they have already won one major; you sense it’s there, because you’re staring every week in the face the guys you’ve got to beat.
And if you’re feeling determined, it’s a great time, because Tiger’s dominance is eight years old now. So I don’t know if we are going to get another guy; unlikely we are going to get another Jack and Tiger really popping up in the next couple years.
Between those age groups, there’s so many guys you would have thought, a couple majors, maybe something like four (ph) would be a pretty darned good career for the next five or ten years.
JOHNNY MILLER: To be No. 1 for a duration requires a person that’s almost insatiable. They have to be like a Gary Player‑type mentality. Of course Tiger and Phil and Nicklaus, that they can handle being No. 1, they want to be up there and they are super Alpha males. They just can’t win enough; Arnold Palmer.
Most guys, what they do, and I’m a good example, I had my little run where I played really top golf but it took a lot out of me and I wasn’t sure I wanted to have that mantle, that heavy mantle of being up there. I wanted to be a good family guy and other things were more important to me, and you almost have to place your family second and almost everything a distant second and I wasn’t willing to do that.
You had that from a Duval who really played in Tiger’s era phenomenal golf for a little while and took a lot out of him. There’s just not that many guys I see. McIlroy is a very nice guy, I think he’s a very balanced guy and he really likes being in love, and I just don’t see him putting golf way out in front of the second‑most important thing, and unfortunately that’s sort of what it takes.
It takes a real unusual ‑‑ a Nick Faldo, to be honest with you, that basically wants to practice six, seven, eight hours a day and basically everything is sort of behind that. And that’s just a very rare cat that will do that.
Most of the guys now, they are good family men, they go to church. They are more rounded, I guess. I don’t really see guys that are willing to basically kick you in the chin just to say hi, guys that are tough guys, Curtis Strange, people like that, Raymond Floyd; Trevino, who would ‑‑ jump off a cliff, and it’s all about them and them winning and being No. 1. I don’t see many guys that way anymore.
I’m not saying that’s bad. It’s just very rare to see a guy that will do everything they can be to the best in the world, and you know, it’s a lot of sacrifice. I don’t know if you feel that, Brandel, but it’s rare.
BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: It is rare. Besides having an insatiable desire to be the best day‑in and day‑out, you’re talking about Tiger Woods who was No. 1 in the world for, you know, forever, and I think Greg Norman had 331 weeks and Nick Faldo here for 97 weeks.
Beyond that, there has not been a long run, a long duration amongst any of the players, really, that have been No. 1 in the world. It’s so difficult to maintain that consistency; Greg, Nick, Tiger, they all had all the way through the bag, every aspect of the game. They were marvelous around the greens, they marvelous on the greens, they could hit every shot.
When you start to look at the way golf is played now, the best golfers in the world a decade ago and all the way back since it started had the most control. The best golfers now are the best scramblers, for the most part, and there are very few golfers that you look at in the Top‑10 in the world that have the sort of consistency and ability to dominate with control.
Adam Scott is the only one that I would look at and say, he has the ability to be No. 1 for an extended period of time, but that comes with the caveat of what happens beginning in 2016 when he gets the weapon that put him where he’s at taken away from him.
So beyond that, Rory McIlroy doesn’t drive it straight enough and he doesn’t putt well enough to do what Tiger or Norman or Nick Faldo did, sustain that No. 1 ranking for, you know, upwards of two, three, four, five, six years. Maybe there’s a player on the horizon that will come along and have a complete game, and then beyond that, the hurdles of contracts and obligations and equipment, the tendency of so many players these days to change equipment.
All of those are huge hurdles they have to get over and not many people can be that singularly focused with that complete a game.
Q. When the season started, it was one of the first tournaments in Hawai’i, Rich Lerner basically said straight out to you, is Tiger going to win four majors, and you emphatically just said no, and then gave your reasoning. Tiger today went on his blog post and basically said, my progress is slow. That’s the main thing you can take from what he wrote today. Hearing that, does that re‑emphasize the point that you made that, no, he’s not going to win; he’s not going to surpass Jack.
JOHNNY MILLER: Well, I just went on a hunch as anything else. It’s just, you know, I just feel like Tiger is at that point in his career where in the majors, he’s treading a little bit more like a normal human being, having a lot of lipouts. He used to putt just Godly, with a capital G, and he was just so amazing, chipping and scrambling, and he hit a lot of great shots, also.
But I just don’t ‑‑ my gut or my hunch is that to win five to beat Jack’s record, is just ‑‑ I don’t know. I just don’t see that happening. He could go on a little run. Say next April he wins the Masters, he could win another one in a year and a half of that and get a little momentum.
But the hardest one might the n ext one; where is the next one going to come. In ’08, that was almost a bit of a fluke by Rocco that he got that one. And his weekends especially on Sunday, since then, he’s had chances of winning and basically he has not put up the scores on the weekend which has got to be freaking him out; because he was a great weekend player, and that’s been taken away from him and he’s lost that ability. And I don’t know, I’m not sure when that’s going to come back. That’s the thing about Tiger Woods, making those putts on Saturday and Sunday, so, I don’t know.
Actually, I hope he gets to 17; it would be so good for everybody and the game of golf. I hope he can do it but it’s really hard at a certain age to do it.
Q. Brandel touched on this in the opening but just wanted to get thoughts from Nick and Johnny, as well, just why maybe there have been so many different winners of THE PLAYERS Championship through the years, and secondly, do you ever see a time when that could change and if so, why.
JOHNNY MILLER: I just think it’s the nature of this golf course. This golf course does not love anybody, okay. You go to Firestone, you go to Torrey Pines, you go to Doral, you go to those courses, Phil and Tiger, it loves those guys.
But this course will just chew you up and spit you out from year‑to‑year. You never know. You’ve got to hit it good, you’ve got to be lucky and you’ve got to miss it in the right spots. I just think it’s a course that no one ever gets feeling really comfy out there. It’s just my opinion. I know it’s gotten softer over the years and they have taken out a lot of the craziness as far as jumping in the rough and all that stuff which I can check they have made it more Augusta‑tized, which is pine needles, but it’s still a very unfriendly golf course.
SIR NICK FALDO: And it’s a serious mental test. I’m a commentator; after a round, you don’t see too many guys heading to the range after they have their five‑hour head bashing around there. So it’s mentally very, very demanding.
Q. An interesting point earlier that there’s been some good golf this year but not really great golf. I wonder if you can tackle why you think it is that we’ve seen so many big guns like Adam and Phil, maybe Kuchar, and Keegan Bradley to a lesser extent who were right there to win and really take it on Sunday.
JOHNNY MILLER: Sports runs in little streaks, you know. I just think that it’s just been an unusual year. I’m not saying that it’s not been entertaining, but like I said, it’s not like guys are shooting 59 and some guys breaking the tournament scoring record or knocking the pin down like David Duval did.
It’s just really good golf but, you know, a lot of it, like Brandel said, a lot of scrambling‑type golf. I don’t see anybody ball‑striking it so wonderfully that everybody just sort of is bowing down to what they are seeing.
Maybe I’m missing it, but I’m seeing guys struggling on the weekend through Florida. It’s an interesting ‑‑ I don’t know if it’s just a fluke or just the way things are, but you know, like I said, maybe Nick and Brandel, maybe you think it’s great golf. But I’m not seeing golf that people are saying, like, wow, this is unbelievable, this is great, great ball‑striking.
BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Watching Patrick Reed play the first three rounds of the Humana this year, 63, 63, 63, I felt like that was Tiger‑esque, but he didn’t punch it through on the Sunday the way a Tiger would, and again, nobody can sustain that comparison.
But I think just in general looking at this year, you have a lot of different factors at play, and I can think of a couple instances where this has held players back.
In particular, I think it’s held Keegan Bradley back a couple times. It’s a Ryder Cup year. He had the quote saying that when he thinks about being on that team, it makes him crazy, or not being on that team.
I think the No. 1 World Ranking is up for grabs. Adam Scott in the press conference at the Arnold Palmer Invitational alluded to the fact that it would mean the world to him, and that to me seemed to be the obvious reason for his poor play on Sunday.
I think we have got some aging superstars in Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, all of those guys are getting long in the tooth. And then some established stars, for no obvious reason, again, go back to Keegan Bradley, along with Lee Westwood, all decided to change their golf swing. And I think even though they have come along and they have started to play well as of recent, I think that in the beginning part of the year, they were in a state of flux.
So it’s all those different factors at play that has sort of turned the World Rankings upside down. When you start to look at how many guys of the much higher‑ranked lost to much lower‑ranked players this year, I’m almost not surprised anymore at these upsets.
Q. I wanted to ask about Phil. After he won at Muirfield, it meant he was basically six second‑place finishes away in the U.S. Open away from a career Grand Slam. What do you feel his legacy is if he doesn’t win a U.S. Open, and of course if he goes on and wins one and completes it?
JOHNNY MILLER: Well, I don’t think it’s that big a deal to be honest with you. It’s great to win the Grand Slam ‑‑ if Tiger wasn’t around, Phil would be the king. So he just happened to hit Tiger in his era just like I hit Jack Nicklaus in his era. You’re just not going to beat those guys.
Phil’s had a career that Tiger has overshadowed him so one more major is not going to change much to be honest with you. It will change something in his mind, but in history, I don’t think it’s going to make much difference. He’s going to be look at as one of the possibly top‑ten best players ever, I think, at least Top‑12.
SIR NICK FALDO: I agree, he’s been a great champion, my goodness, but he has a very unique opportunity if he could win one U.S. Open to get the Grand Slam and that joins another very small, elite group of guys.
But personally, I think right now, if he’s playing the way he’s playing when he gets to Pinehurst, I mean, he’s struggling. I personally think he’s got himself an upright golf swing; and get that consistency, because Pinehurst, look, if it plays hard and fast, my goodness, it’s going to be a really tough golf course.
BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: I think Phil’s legacy is pretty secure as one of the best players of all‑time. I wouldn’t put him in the Top‑10 just yet, probably Top 15, along those lines. But besides Tiger Woods, amongst active players, Davis Love is the next with wins at 20; Ernie Els with 19; Phil Mickelson has 42 and five major championships.
When you start to look at what players have done recently in their 50s with Norman and Couples and Tom Watson all playing so well in major championships in their 50s, Phil at 43 years old, who knows, maybe he’s got another ten years to add to this legacy.
And if he were to win a U.S. Open and be one of six players to have won the career Grand Slam, it would be hard ‑‑ you start to look at the Top‑10 in the history of golf, the Top‑10 greatest players, and I mean, that is almost set in stone. And for him to move into that, well, once you are one of six people to have done something, well, it starts to be a real serious debate.
Phil still could change where he’s ranked in the history of golf, but his legacy I think is being a popular champion, a people’s champion, a gambler, creative golfer, a genius, all of that is pretty well said. It’s been tremendous to watch.
JOHNNY MILLER: Probably the best thing that I didn’t say is that in the modern era, it’s hard to say how good the guys were using hickory and that kind of stuff. I just sort of threw that out there as far as more the modern era, probably since Hogan.
BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: No, I think you’re right. You’re spot‑on.
