What they said: Nicklaus on Tiger, Olympics, more

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Note: Jack Nicklaus designed the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea, site of this week's Songdo IBD Championship Presented by Korean Air. Before the event, he met with the media about a variety of topics, including course length, golf in the Olympics, and Tiger Woods' quest to break his all-time majors record.

1. What is the impression of the course this year's compared to last year?

Jack Nicklaus: I find the golf course is generous of the tee. Greens are very well-bunkered. There is a lot of movement in the greens which I think it is probably the difficulty in the golf course and the length is not an issue. We try to keep the course a reasonable length, not extreme length. Even a shorter hitter and longer hitter all play a fairly equal golf course.

2. Jack, I know Korea is one of the countries you've been involved in and the emergence of Korean players in LPGA and PGA TOUR, you designed courses in several other countries. Where do you see the where the game going now and last 10-15 years and looking in the future?

Jack Nicklaus: From a golf course designer's standpoint, It's very quiet except for this part of the world. Little bit in Korea, a lot in China, down through southern Asia, is quite a bit of work. A little bit of work in Russia. United States is very quiet. And South America is a little bit of work. The game is growing more in Asia than it is anywhere else. However, because of usually cyclical situations, I think the United States will come back, as in the other parts of the world. But I see the growth of the game over here is a tremendous asset for the game. Golf becoming an Olympic sport ... I think you see many countries who would not ever got into golf will get into golf very heavily because of the Olympics.

3. Yesterday, players mentioned that golf course is pretty tough and challenging. What strategy would you recommend?

Jack Nicklaus: Exactly what they have. I said earlier the golf course is very generous of the tee. It's important to hit each shot properly, its important to put it in the right place to be able to get the right angle to the green. And where the pins are put is how difficult the shots would be. So, If you are on this kind of golf course, if you are extremely sharp with your irons you will have a lot of birdie opportunities. If you are not very sharp with your irons, you have a lot of bogey opportunities. And that's certainly something that I'm trying to do.

4. Jack, this course carries your brand. Is this what you are focusing on in Asia now?

Jack Nicklaus: Yes, so we have three. What these clubs do, is there are founding members, in this case 35 members, they'll have the rights to go to any of the other Nicklaus Golf Clubs, as they travel around the world. So, it's a perk, for somebody who joins Songdo, who is one of the founders, as he travels, he has the opportunity to play in these other places, and hopefully, as time goes on, the maximum of 25, as the economy changes, I think we'll see that change clearly.

About branding, one is the golf club, secondly, we had just announced a couple of days ago in Beijing, a golf course, we're not only designing, but we're branding the real estate, managing the club, the facility, we're doing everything just as we do, for the Bears Club course.

5. What do you think Tiger Woods would need to get back in shape and when?

Jack Nicklaus: Nobody knows what I would have done with today's equipment, that's just a guess. When I go back and look at the champions of yesterday ... Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead ... they would have been champions in any era, as I would have been or Tiger would have been. How equipment is affecting the game, the game is totally different today with the equipment being used. I think I would have done well with the equipment today, I think so, who knows? Regarding Tiger, that's also who knows?

He's struggling with his health, and his ability to recover, and to get his game back in shape. He is very talented and very hardworking athlete. Do I think he will recover? Yes. When? I don't know.

6. What does it mean to you at this point of life, to have members of your family, especially your son, having involved in your in business and golf?

Jack Nicklaus: For having my family involved in my business, and being able to build the business for them, have a legacy coming behind you, that your family can follow is a very important thing to me, and fun. To have my son (Jack Jr.) with me on this trip, having Gary at home, working trying to involve things there, all of the kids are doing something, they all have their own something, it's great that they want to be part of what I do and that keeps me going knowing that they want to be a part of me, and I'm still building for the family.

7. Looking back, history, the player to replace you?

Jack Nicklaus: Well I think you've got a lot of them. If you asked me that question five years ago, the only one I knew was Tiger Woods. But today, I would say there's Rory McIlroy, Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, a number of players who are very talented, who have great potential, and would be great players.

We go through cycles, years of cycles of having a lot of well-playing players, and years not very many, and it just goes through. We have come through cycles of not having very many good players, Tiger pretty much having by himself, then Phil Mickelson was obviously his biggest challenge, who's obviously a very good player, today, I think the young kids are very aggressive, at young age, and will make good things for themselves.