Six-time Masters champion Jack Nicklaus has been at Augusta National this week, taking part in various activities.
He was at Scottie Scheffler’s Champions Dinner on Tuesday and teed off alongside Gary Player and Tom Watson to start the tournament on Thursday morning.
‘The Golden Bear’ has also done plenty of media, and in one of his interviews, he was asked about the difference in golf between eras.
Nicklaus then named one thing which is much better today than ever before, including when Tiger Woods was in his prime around two decades ago.
Jack Nicklaus says what has changed in professional golf from Tiger Woods’ era until now
Nicklaus thinks that professional golf is in a great place at the moment because there are so many great players.
He explained that in Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods’ respective eras, there was not much competition at the top.
Whereas, he thinks that the “depth of quality” nowadays is better than it’s ever been in the history of the sport.
Nicklaus said, “Here’s the way I look at it. I think the era prior to my era was [Ben] Hogan, [Sam] Snead, [Byron] Nelson – those guys. That was a really good era of quality players. Arnold came along, and there was really a drop off. Arnold dominated that era.
“Then Gary and I came, and we competed with Arnold. And then [Billy] Casper, [Lee] Trevino and [Tom] Watson. We had a nice depth of players at the top.
“Then Tiger came along, and that depth dropped off again, a little bit like Arnold’s era to start with. Arnold dominated, but he intimidated. Tiger came long, and he dominated but also intimidated. He didn’t give anybody else a chance to win, so nobody else could learn.
“All of a sudden, Tiger got hurt, and the guys were going out and playing with an opportunity to win and learn how to win without Tiger’s presence. Tiger got healthy again, but they’d already learned how to win.
“The depth got greater and, as time has gone on, it’s gotten much greater. There are more good players today than ever in the game of golf, and that’s thanks to what’s happening around the world.”
Jack Nicklaus explains why there are so many great golfers at the moment
Nicklaus then suggested the reason why there are more great golfers now than in previous eras.
The 18-time major champion believes the world is “smaller,” with golf becoming more popular in other countries besides the United States and Great Britain.
“The world is becoming a lot smaller. There are a lot more good players coming out of Australia, South Africa, Japan, China, Germany, Italy or wherever.
“There are good players coming from all over the world, and the programs to develop these players are getting better. I think you will continue to see stronger and stringer fields as time goes on.”
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