Jack Nicklaus on Erin Hills: 'I'm not sure if I felt that that's what a U.S. Open should look like'
Jack Nicklaus, who won his first major at the 1962 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, is weighing in on the 117th edition at Erin Hills.
While the reviews were mostly positive during an interview with Fox's Bret Baier, the four-time U.S. Open champion echoed what many older title holders, including Johnny Miller, who also won at Oakmont, have said about the 2017 championship.
"I thought it was different...interesting," Nicklaus said. "I'm used to seeing fast greens, it had a lot of fast greens. I'm used to seeing slope, it had a lot of slope. But I'm not used to seeing no rough around the green. Or wide fairways with extreme rough if you hit a real bad tee shot. I'm not sure if I felt that that's what a U.S. Open should look like."
Nicklaus commended the USGA for a well-run championship, though, acknowledging that times have changed with equipment advances and unique course design movements.
"I don't want to be an old fogey about it and say that everything we did was the right way," Nicklaus said. "There's other ways to do it and they did it a different way, and I think they had a great tournament."
The 18-time major champion touched on other topics like his charities and president Donald Trump, saying: "Trump's a good man. He's trying hard…I think you need to give him a chance to do it, and nobody's given him a chance."
