Jack Nicklaus Wonders if Money Makes Today's Golfers Soft

I suspect the irony wasn't lost on Jack, but arguably the world's best golfer (for the time being, anyway) arrived at the British Open on his private jet, and then proceeded to wax nostalgic about the days when golf was a way for the lucky few to make a hard-earned living.

In speaking of the impressive first-round performances of Greg Norman, Tom Watson and Tom Lehman, Nicklaus offered this:

"If they don't win, they still walk home with a big check ... They don't have to do some of the things the Watsons had to do, the Normans, the Lehmans, and that's to gut it out. It doesn't mean the young guys will be out of it. It just makes it appear as though the guys who have had that experience are coming to the top."

"When I started on tour, maybe one or two guys might have made enough money to make a living ... Now there's a couple of hundred guys who make a living playing golf. We had to really play well and scratch it out to be in a position to get endorsements. But we worked to try to build the tour so they didn't have to do that."

And the golfing world thanks you, Jack. But more than Nicklaus, Palmer and Player doing their parts to make the tour what it is, Jack is more concerned that today's player is, well, soft.

"Is that producing better golfers?" Nicklaus said, pausing and shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know. The question was asked because you see all the older guys, all guys who have had to gut it out in tough conditions. The kids today play perfect conditions every week. If they don't like what's going on, they're finishing 10th or 15th and still make a check.

"I don't think it makes them as tough."

Thing is, I can't disagree with Nicklaus. Sure, he might sound like a crotchety old guy stuck in the past, but it's hard to argue that today's players aren't soft when compared to the characters on tour 30 and 40 years ago.

Nicklaus is forever lamenting that Tiger Woods has no real challengers (unlike all the golfers that stepped up to challenge him -- which, of course, could be more a function of Jack being less dominant than Tiger, but whatever), but maybe that has something to do with players today being able to finish in the top-20 and still make a nice little payday. Or maybe Tiger's just that good. Definitely one or the other, though.