Nicklaus keen to see top two in Sunday shootout
GOLF legend Jack Nicklaus said yesterday he would like nothing better than to see Jordan Spieth battle Jason Day in Sunday’s Presidents Cup singles on the course that bears his name.
A match- up of the two best players in the world who have carried off three of the season’s majors is a mouth- watering and likely prospect, said Nicklaus, who himself won 18 majors and has captained the US side four times in Presidents Cups.
“Put it this way, if they want to play each other there’s ways it can be made to happen,” the 75- year- old said on the eve of the US versus International team match play event at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in Incheon, South Korea.
“When I first captained the team in 1998 Tiger Woods wanted to play Greg Norman and we made it happen,” Nick- laus said. “The second time Tiger wanted to play Ernie ( Els) and myself and Gary ( Player, the International captain) sorted that out.”
Unlike the Ryder Cup, where playing lists are submitted “blind” and then matched up in order, the Presidents Cup system sees each captain name a player in turn, making a Spieth- Day showdown a real possibility.
World No. 2 Day, however, was not so certain he would be facing his season- long foe and top- ranked Spieth again.
“I think it would be a lot of fun playing against Jordan,” Day said. “But, then again, I’m not too sure what their strategy is with that – if they are going to hold Jordan to wait for my name or if captain ( Nick) Price is going to hold my name for Jordan.
“He may want me to go out early, try to get a point up.”
Nicklaus said he was proud of being the designer of the course, which will host the prestigious team event on Asian soil for the first time when play begins today.
He has made a number of changes recently to the course with particular work done to ease the severity of undulations on the greens.
Nicklaus predicted it would result in a tough but fair challenge to the players.