Jack Nicklaus spouting off again, wants to make U.S. golf courses harder

You say golf’s too hard? You’re not alone. The difficulty of the game is often cited by those who give the game up for good.

There is a loud contingent that is calling on golf course architects to make courses easier. Jack Nicklaus is not among them. Nicklaus says golf courses in the U.S. are too easy.

“Most of the people in the United States want it as wide as they can get it and no trouble and want it easy as it can be,” Nicklaus said in a recent interview. “If you go to the rest of the world, you’ll fine most of the golf courses are very narrow, very demanding, very penal, and they don’t really cater on a daily basis to the average golfer. They cater to the game of golf.

“You’ve got to learn to adapt your golf game to what the challenges are. In the States, it’s a lot the other way. When these kids grow up in the States, most of these courses they grow up on are fairly user-friendly and they don’t challenge you.”

Nicklaus was talking mainly about why American golfers, mainly the pros, are so lousy at match play. The other reason, of course, is that young golfers in the U.S. are brought up mainly on medal play, and rarely go head-to-head.

Nicklaus is golf’s designated curmudgeon, and it’s a mantle he wears well. He’s right that young American golfers don’t play enough match play, but when he starts talking about making American courses more difficult, he comes off as a grouchy, old man.

I’ve played a ton of European courses, and they are indeed harder, from the big-name courses to the ones in the hinterlands set up for average Europeans. Conversely, I’ve played with a lot of Europeans on American courses, and I’ve never heard one complain they were too easy.

I don’t think the idea of making courses harder will be all that popular among U.S. golf course owners, or U.S. golfers for that matter. We aren’t all Jack Nicklaus. We don’t all play in the Ryder Cup. Most of us play the game for fun.