I can clarify it, since I had a pretty good seat for the golf, as Jack's caddie. And by the way, Doak's caddie was Damon Hack, golf writer of the NYTImes, and Doak played pretty well, hitting many fine drives and approaches but finding himself occasionally with tough greenside recoveries. I wonder who he blames for the awkward spots he found himself in, "the other designer?"
Jack was not at his best golf form. By the way, he played the course from 7,200 yards, Doak mainly played the 6,750 yards tees but a few times they both played the same back tees. It took Nicklaus a few holes to loosen up, esp. with an early (for him) tee time of 8:30 a.m., and he finally got going on holes 11-15. He made a serious go in reaching the 550-yard par-5 13th, just coming up short, hitting a great chip and finding himself a little confounded by the combination of slope and the speed. There are some big major breaks out there and lots of subtle stuff, too, and this was the first time he was playing those greens under full field conditions.
All told he hit ten greens in regulation, but didn't putt well at all, making nothing outside of 6-7 feet, and that includes missing seven biride putts in the 12-15 foot range. His lag putting was fine, but at the outset he declared "no three-putts" for anyone today, a rule invoked for the sake of speed so that some of those playing along (in the Pascucci family) with the group could finish by the allotted time of 1 p.m. -- no easy thing given the frequent interruptions for TV, interviews, voiceovers.
Simetimes Jack took the lead in explaining a hole, sometimes Doak did. I don't think Francesa was around for the entire time, certainly he saw the beginning and the end, but in between he was off doing things. If he was around it was at some distance. All that was clear is that Jack didn't make a birdie putt (nor did anyone else), nor, as far as I can remember, a putt of any consequence longer than about 10 feet.
It was a complicated day (see Doak's comments on another thread about this) with lots of stopping, talking, interviews. Nicklaus was also making some notes with his design associates, Jim Lipe and Chris Rule, who walked along, as well as talking with Doak and Pascucci quietly (off mike) about various tweaks and so on. As with any newly opened courses, there are some issues, and they discussed things like the fairway mowing lines. So it was not just a ceremonial round but a working one, and that included Nicklaus tinkering with his swing a little.
In all of his other openings, Jack was the only show. This time, a lot was going on, hardly a time to worry about how well or not so well he was playing or putting.