Muirfield was the site of Jack Nicklaus’ first career Open Championship, and became the name of his pride and joy in Dublin, Ohio, a small suburb of Columbus. Muirfield Village Golf Club was built in 1976 and designed by the Columbus native, and has played host to one of the best stops on tour annually since then; the Memorial Tournament. Growing up in Dublin, Memorial Tournament week was a testament to how cool your parents were, as you spent most of the week begging for a note to get out of school to go seek autographs and golf balls from guys most of us had never heard of. To this day, I use it as a get-out-of work excuse and make the eastward trek “home” from Chicago for a week of playing golf, drinking beers with old friends, and watching the world’s elite in the Masters of the Midwest. To say that this tournament hits home to me would be understatement. This tournament is the defining event for my hometown, and has been a memory maker for me for two decades.
Course
Muirfield Village Golf Club
It may be blasphemous to say, but Muirfield Village may be the closest thing on The Tour to Augusta National. Nicklaus admits that Augusta was a huge influence on the design, and to this day, the tournament is run in a similar fashion to the Masters. Like Augusta, the course is known as a second shot golf course, it’s defined by its tall trees, elegant water hazards, and underrated elevation changes that just can’t be appreciated until you see them in person. The similarities on the back nine get a little bit creepy to the point where it almost feels as if Jack used Muirfield Village as an excuse to remind you of his six Masters titles.
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Here are the 12th holes at Muirfield and Augusta, respectively: And the 16th holes at Muirfield and Augusta, respectively (it should be noted that the 16th at Muirfield was reconfigured a few years ago and featured one of the deepest bunkers on tour in the place of where the pond currently sits – Jack moved a massive amount of earth to create the semblance below):
Those two examples are the easiest to illustrate visually, but that is not where they end. At both courses, the first hole is a long, difficult, dogleg right par 4 that is protected by fairway hazards to the right. The third holes are each short par-4’s that don’t require a driver. The fourth holes are long par-3’s that serve as one of the most non-descript holes at both courses. The 17th is a long, straight away par-4 on both courses, and the 18th is a long, dogleg right par-4 that chutes straight up the hill toward the clubhouse. The par-5’s are all reachable, and the course is ALWAYS being tinkered with, be it lengthening to keep up with the technology pace, adding/moving bunkers, or resurfacing the greens. Muirfield is Jack’s lego set.
A new tee went in on 18 last summer after the Memorial that was used for the Presidents Cup in October, and initial reviews from players are mixed at best. Jack grew tired of seeing guys hit 2-iron down the fairway from 440 yards, then a 9-iron into the green, so he stretched it to 480 yards to a spot I wasn’t sure it was possible to put a tee box. The problem isn’t the added length necessarily. It’s that it now brings the tree that guards the right side of the fairway squarely into play for a well struck tee shot, as seen here:
Here's your angle to 18 green after a 285 yd drive in fw. Pin is behind the trunk. Not sure I agree w new tee box pic.twitter.com/iwBDlPkqcC
— Mark Urbanek (@UrbanekMark) May 26, 2014
The 18th usually plays downwind, but if the wind shifts this week, you could see some ugly numbers on this beast.
Vibe
When the course was built in the 1970’s, Dublin was nothing but corn fields, and was home to less than 3,000 people. Today, over 40,000 people call Dublin home. The city sits to the north of downtown Columbus, and is less than 20 minutes from the Horseshoe where Ohio State fans have gathered for a century. Columbus prides itself on being a huge sports town, and anyone who has come in contact with Ohio State fans over the last decade-plus can likely attest to that (be prepared to hear some “O-H” chants, followed by “I-O” on the broadcast).
When Columbus finally got its first professional franchise in 2000 with the expansion Blue Jackets, the passion the Buckeye community had for their city was evident from day one. A Jackets game at Nationwide Arena was rated as the number 2 experience in all of sports by ESPN the magazine. Every game was seemingly sold out, and that area rocked every night despite the team’s lack of success.
What does that have to do with the Memorial Tournament? Well, for nearly a quarter of a century, the Memorial was the only professional event in town, and this week still remains as the second biggest sports week of the year in Dublin, outside of the OSU/Michigan game. The natives come out in droves to watch Tiger dominate this course year after year, and is truly the place to see and be seen in Dublin. The weather has traditionally been awful, and it looks questionable again early in the week, but the people will trudge through with their umbrellas and golf shoes to watch the world’s best.
And an equal-opportunity bit from our resident SEC-homer, Tron Carter:
I’d imagine that the galleries at this event are a great sideshow for the majority of pros on a tour so predominated by SEC and Big-12 alums as it is. Hot, homegrown, wholesome midwestern women roam the premises, and in tow are bros of all-ages pimping Buck Tech shirts and lids, with some outdated Abercombie gear sprinkled in (corporate hq just east of here). Surely they’ll ramble on into eternity about how overrated the SEC is as they congregate on the 12th and (especially) 14th holes, causing headaches for the marshals patrolling those holes. Overall, it’s a hell of an entertaining scene and one that I appreciate more and more now that I’ve moved back to Georgia after my four-plus years at Miami of Ohio with Soly and Fil (and yes, I know, there are a legion of stereotypes in play there). This is my favorite course on tour outside of the majors, and the scene is there to match.
After the tournament, the fun moves over to the Bogey Inn, a local gin-joint turned once-a-year speakeasy/temporary John Daly bus-side merch-tent/beach-volleyball haven. Basically, imagine an off-site version of the Bird’s Nest. And while I’ll probably get a bit of flack for my anti-OSU diatribe above, I can take solace in two things: 1) with the new playoff format OSU football will never again be allowed to skate untested into a national championship game, and 2) my friends and relatives who reside in Columbus know that it’s one of my favorite cities in the country – a veritable golf mecca, a surprisingly progressive cultural oasis in the middle of Ohio, and home to a bunch of salt of the earth people prone to some good-natured ribbing.
The scene at the Bogey Inn:
Last Year
Kuchar was unflappable on Sunday (making Tron’s oft-repeated assertion from our podcast that he “lacks pop and can’t play” that much more outrageous), and he outlasted Kevin Chappell and NLU favorite Kyle Stanley. The smiling Georgian didn’t miss a shot, and Stanley’s furious front nine run stalled out on the back nine when his drive on the par-5 11th plugged in the face of a fairway bunker, leading to a momentum killing bogey. Here’s Kuchar’s clinching putt on 18: (GIF courtesy of Adam Sarson. See his 2013 Memorial Tournament GIF’s here.)
Fantasy/Gambling Insights
(all lines courtesy Ladbrokes.com, the Official Bookmaker of NoLayingUp.com)
Horses for Courses
Justin Rose (16/1) – Hard not pick him right now. Former champ here who has been his normal self as of late. He’s in contention almost everytime he tees it up – at this point he just needs a hot putter.
Jim Furyk (20/1) – A weak showing last week at Colonial with a T51, but was coming off back to back runner ups in his previous two events. Outside of a missed cut in 2011 at Muirfield, he’s finished in the top 21 four of the last five years, including a runner up finish in 2009. He’s not a sexy pick, but he’s a saf
Source: https://nolayingup.com/blog/the-memorial-tournament-preview