Excerpts from Conference Call today with CBS Sports Golf Anchor
Jim Nantz and Jack Nicklaus

CBS Sports golf anchor Jim Nantz hosts a memorable special with golf legends Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer in their first-ever sit down television interview together. CBS SPORTS SPECTACULAR: RBS PRESENTS JACK AND ARNIE: TALKIN’ GOLF will be shown in two half-hour specials as the first leads into the final round of the MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT Presented by Morgan Stanley – a Jack Nicklaus-hosted PGA TOUR event – Sunday, June 4 (2:00-6:00 PM, ET). Part Two of the special will air on Sunday, July 2 (2:30-3:00 PM, ET), on the CBS Television Network. Chris Svendsen produced the CBS Sports Spectacular: RBS PRESENTS JACK AND ARNIE: TALKIN’ GOLF. Lance Barrow is Coordinating Producer, CBS Sports, Golf. Tony Petitti is Executive Vice President and Executive Producer CBS Sports.

Following are excerpts from a conference call held earlier today in which Nantz, along with Nicklaus and Barrow spoke about the historic special.

► Nicklaus on first meeting Arnold Palmer

Nicklaus: I’m not sure we have determined the first time we played on Dow Finsterwald Day in Athens, Ohio. I’m not sure if it was 1956 or 1958, but obviously I knew of Arnold then but Arnold didn’t know much of me. Since that time, obviously, we followed each other and I remember the first time that I saw Arnold hit it. I was 14-years-old and he didn’t know me from a load of coal. But I sure knew him and I certainly enjoyed watching him. So we talk about all that in the show and it's kind of interesting how we have come up through the years and known each other and we’ve competed and how we still compete frankly. We are both competitive guys and we’ve always enjoyed…beating each other’s brains out but that’s the way we do it.

► Jack Nicklaus on his rivalry with Arnold Palmer through the years

Nicklaus: Well, I think like most things that are intense, I think that frankly that usually comes from the press. I don’t think that the press ever really worries many times about what the facts are. And never let the facts interfere with a good story. Arnold and I have been friends. Sure we’ve had differences, absolutely. I mean two guys don’t walk around in euphoria all day long. I mean we were obviously competing and when you compete you have issues. But as it relates to if I ever needed anything I knew Arnold would be there for me and I think Arnold knows that if anything ever happened, I am there for him. …I go back a long time, there were a lot of the nice things that Arnold did for me when I first started the TOUR that he certainly didn’t have any reason to do. But he did them because it was him. And I think it’s, you get competition blown out of proportion a lot of times. I mean it’s like all that I heard when I was Captain of the President’s Cup was the bad blood between Phil and Tiger. The first day I get there Tiger and Phil say hey come on lets go play some ping pong. Two guys are playing ping pong back and forth having a good time, laughing, kidding each other so forth and so on. Now you know, is that bad blood? Well, I’m sure they are competitors. Absolutely, they want to beat each other but you know they still spend time together and enjoy each other’s company. So you know, I’m sitting there, I said, well you know that’s not bad. That’s not what I read in the paper… And I think its not good press to say two guys are really good buddies.

Nantz: Phil and Tiger were both practicing at Winged Foot this past weekend and I was by the club on Memorial Day Monday. And according to eyewitnesses, I can’t attest to this, but they were practicing about 30 minutes apart. I can’t say which one finished first but when they both were in after their practice round they sat down and had a soda together.

Nicklaus: They’re both competitors. They’re both civil guys. I mean on the golf course they’re going to try to beat each other’s brains out, same as Arnold and I tried to do. I wouldn’t have it any other way and Arnold wouldn’t have it any other way. But we spent a ton of time together with our wives and traveling. We’re two people that like, we have no interest in having bad blood.

► Nicklaus on getting together with Palmer for this special and the historical significance

Nicklaus: Well, for Arnold and me that was just reminiscing about old times. We had a lot of stories that had never been told. Anytime I get together with Arnie we have a good time. We kid each other a lot. We needle each other. We always talk about things that will almost semi- embarrass each other, which is kind of fun…but we have been great friends for a long time and great competitors for a long time. We had this opportunity to sit down and talk and put something actually on camera.

Nicklaus: I thought it was a great opportunity. I think that to have that opportunity, both for Arnold and for myself, is something that obviously has never been recorded and years from now, and hopefully years from now when we look back on it, we look back and get a good laugh and say that was fun.

Nicklaus: Arnold and I have been together lots of times and obviously we’ve talked lots of times but never recorded and put together any kind of a show for posterity. I think it’s kind of neat that we did it. I don’t know why it hadn’t been done before. But by gosh it hadn’t been, so it was time to do it.

► Nantz and Barrow on the show

Nantz: I just think that this is going to be a really special show and I am just excited it has come together. I hope the word gets out because the golf fan needs to see this and I think that the stories there are fresh. Their memories of each other are very sharp, and it is really neat to see the two of them side by side and sharing a lot of laughs and a lot of warm memories.

Barrow: It is an exciting show. Any time you get these two legends together, especially in the same room, talking about their memories of golf and their memories of their friendship, it is a tremendous opportunity.