Tournament preview: Close out or crack up?

Jack Nicklaus had one thing in mind when he began pushing the NCAA to adopt a portion of match play for this year's men's golf championships. "I was tired of seeing young players, particularly young American players, having trouble finishing golf tournaments," Nicklaus said in June during a break in his hosting duties at the Memorial in Dublin, Ohio. "In match play, you are on your own and nothing matters but winning. You have to be able to close the deal under pressure to win. You see guys on the tour today come down to the end, they have a terrible time closing out golf tournaments.

"Obviously, Tiger Woods does it. Tiger closes great because he knows the other guys are going to struggle. All he needs to do is play good, solid golf. I did the same thing."

Nicklaus won a record 18 majors being able to close the deal. Woods is second with 14 major titles heading into this week's 91st PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska. He's also 14-0 in majors and 36-1 overall when leading a PGA Tour event through 54 holes.

"I think some people like Tiger are naturally predisposed to closing out deals," said 2006 U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy. "It's something they're born with."

Like Nicklaus, Woods grew up on amateur match-play golf. That's something Nicklaus wants to see more of from today's young talent.

"I felt our high school and college golf are all team stroke-play golf," Nicklaus said. "So if you're an American player and you're in the top 20 or 30, you're pretty good. You get your PGA Tour card, you make a lot of money finishing top 25 or so. You never really have to actually win anything. We have to teach these kids how to close the deal."

If "closing the deal" was easy, 2009 would have been the year 48-year-old Kenny Perry won the Masters and 59-year-old Tom Watson won the British Open. It also might have been the year Phil Mickelson won the U.S. Open instead of bogeying two of the last four holes and finishing second for a record fifth time.

"It's on me to win the golf tournament," Perry said. "No one else can hit the shots for me. It's not a team sport."

Thursday, 156 individuals will begin navigating Hazeltine, a straightforward par-72 brute that's been stretched to a major championship-record 7,674 yards.

Whoever closes the deal on Sunday evening will have to overcome more than the pressure of a major and a field that includes a record 99 of the world's top 100 players. The winner also will need to stand up to the daunting home stretch that includes the intimidating water-everywhere par-4 16th hole, the tiny landing area at the well-guarded par-3 17th hole and the 490-yard uphill par-4 18th hole.

Hazeltine needed an early fix

Renowned golf course architect Rees Jones, the son of Hazeltine builder Robert Trent Jones, has spent about 20 years helping Hazeltine maintain its status among major championship venues. Since the 2002 PGA Championship was held there, Rees has added 314 yards and brought more fairway bunkers into play.

That's relatively minor stuff when compared to the changes that followed the 1970 U.S. Open when Tony Jacklin's victory was overshadowed by players criticizing the eight-year-old course. The most memorable came from journeyman Dave Hill, who finished second that year. Hill had complained about the course earlier in the week. After shooting 69 in the second round, he was asked if he liked it any better considering 40 percent of the field couldn't break 80 that day. Hill, who later admitted to having a few drinks before his news conference, didn't back down.

When asked what the course lacked, Hill fired back: "Eighty acres of corn and a few cows. They ruined a good farm when they built this course." Asked what Hazeltine should do to make it better, Hill said, "Plow it up and start over again."

Hazeltine wasn't plowed under, but it did undergo a major overhaul in the 1980s. Fairways were graded to remove blind spots. Some doglegs were straightened. But the biggest change came on the closing stretch, where the easy par-3 16th hole and the short, quirky dogleg par-4 17th were completely changed.

The changes debuted in the 1983 U.S. Senior Open and were successful enough that Hazeltine was awarded the 1991 U.S. Open.

A lot can happen at 16, 17, 18

Nicklaus had also criticized Hazeltine in a Sports Illustrated article before the 1970 U.S. Open.

"I had a terrible time with that golf course," Nicklaus said in June. "Hill was right to some degree in that it was a pretty awkward golf course. There was a lot of awkward aiming out there at this bit of sky or that cloud. All the things Dave was talking about, only he probably shouldn't have been so vocal about it."

Nicklaus remembers the leaderboards keeping track of the scores for him, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player. "They had all the leaders at the top, and across the bottom it was, 'Palmer, Player, Nicklaus,' " Nicklaus said. "The three of us didn't have a prayer that year."

Together, they finished a combined 44 over par. Nicklaus opened with an 81, while Player shot 80 and Palmer 79.

Before the 1991 U.S. Open, Hill took a tour of the new Hazeltine. "Totally different," he said. "It has grown into a lovely course."

Nicklaus played in the 1991 U.S. Open. He was 51 and finished tied for 46th. The changes? Thumbs up. "It was a pretty darn good golf course the next time we played it," Nicklaus said. "It was a monstrous change from 1970. I remember those last three holes being good."

The next major champion to come out of Hazeltine on Sunday will need to close the deal on those three holes. "You can bogey all three of them, but they're also holes that you can birdie two of the last three with great shots to win the tournament," said Ian Baker-Finch, the 1991 British Open champion and current TNT and CBS golf analyst. "A lot can happen on those three holes, good and bad. I like that about closing holes."

At times, even the best can't close

Closing majors has been a problem for decades. Those who have collapsed late stretch from Hall of Fame players such as Sam Snead and Palmer to seemingly snakebit stars such as Greg Norman to relatively unknown players such as Jean Van de Velde, whose name has been synonymous with choking since he infamously blew the 1999 British Open on the 72nd hole.

Sixty years earlier, Snead went to the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open needing a par to win. He tripled. Eight years later, he lost a two-shot lead with three to play. Snead won a record 82 times, but never in a U.S. Open.

In 1970, Doug Sanders had a 3-foot putt to win the British Open. He missed. In 1989, Scott Hoch had a 2-foot putt to win the Masters on the first playoff hole. He missed, too.

In April, Perry bogeyed the last two holes and lost the Masters to Angel Cabrera in a playoff. Thirty years ago, Ed Snead bogeyed the last three holes and lost the Masters to Fuzzy Zoeller in a playoff.

In 1983, Hale Irwin was disgusted when he left a 20-foot putt just inches short early in the back nine of his final round of the British Open. He took a swipe at the ball and whiffed. It ended up costing him a playoff with Watson.

The list could go on and on. Even Nicklaus, a man who finished second in 19 majors, said he blew his share. In 1963, he thought he was tied going into the last hole of the British Open. But he actually trailed by one. He played cautiously and missed out on a playoff that Bob Charles won.

Woods, of course, has yet to go in reverse when leading a major. Or as six-time major champion and CBS analyst Nick Faldo put it, "Tiger has no rear-view mirrors in his game. Other guys do."

Woods has never come from behind to win a major. The first of his five second-place major finishes came in 2002 at Hazeltine. But he birdied the last four holes and was simply beaten when journeyman Rich Beem was able to finish off the last three holes in even par for a one-shot victory.

"I think a lot of talented players are capable of winning," said Jerry Kelly, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour. "But if you're not a born closer, like Tiger is, I don't think you can win to the point where you're going to get to that magical 20-win plateau and become a lifetime exempt member. You can maybe get to 10 or 12 wins with exceptional skills. But it takes a lot more than just talent to consistently close the deal."