Muirfield Village offering major-like conditions

By Dave Shedloski,
Courtesy of PGATOUR.COM

Long grass and long faces. Furrowed sand in the bunkers and furrowed brows. Fast greens and blue moods.

All they needed Friday for scoring conditions to become even more exacting at Muirfield Village Golf Club was a little bit of wind.

Whoops, they got that, too.

And what followed were some long-winded dissertations on major championship course setups, which Muirfield Village has unquestionably resembled for the first two rounds of the Memorial Tournament presented by Morgan Stanley.

Players have raved about the condition of the course designed by tournament founder and host Jack Nicklaus. The place is immaculate. But it also has plenty of teeth, and those teeth were sharpened Friday with gusting winds that made a treacherous track even trickier.

As the test has increased in difficulty, most of the PGA TOUR members have become more intimidated and impressed. A few have grumbled, but mostly those who were north of the first-round scoring average of 73.73, which is not far off the Memorial's historical first-round average of 73.479.

Scoring on Friday was ballooning over 75, but the wind was becoming a growing factor in scoring chances.

"Mr. Nicklaus is getting exactly what he's hoping for. He's got a major championship-type feel to this place," said 1996 Memorial winner Tom Lehman, who, with a 2-under-par 70, was among a handful of players in the morning wave to tie for the day's low round. "The place is like a U.S. Open. We were talking about that on the first tee. The greens, the pins, the rough, the speed of the fairways ... it's not over the top, but it's very tough."

"You've got Masters greens and U.S. Open rough," added former British Open champion Ben Curtis, who is a native of the central Ohio town of Ostrander. "It's a little bit of both and a lot of golf course there to handle."

Indeed, the highest cut score in relation to par heading into the Memorial was 4 over at The Honda Classic and Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya, but that changed with a season-high cut of 6-over-par 150 on Friday.

And, yet, though there was some grumbling about the exacting conditions, no one could say they didn't have room to play or a chance to score. Muirfield Village has some of the widest fairways on the PGA TOUR. There is room to maneuver, even in the wind.

The overseeded bluegrass rough of 5-6 inches isn't a factor if you aren't in it. The greens might be running 14 or more on the stimpmeter, but balls won't roll off the greens uphill.

"The rough is way up; it really might be some of the worst rough I've ever been in, just because all the seed heads are still on the grass," said Jerry Kelly, who considers Muirfield Village his favorite course outside of major layouts. "It's not like soft, long Kentucky Blue or Bent. It is thick, nasty stalks. But you do have the generous fairways. And then once you get it in the fairways, you've got very difficult pins. And you can play smart out here. You're going to have tougher putts, but you can play smart."

Likewise, Nick O'Hern was complimentary of the Memorial's host course.

"It's one of my favorite courses. You've really got to work the ball around the golf course," he said after his second-straight 70. "The fairways are generous, which kind of suits my game, and the greens are kind of like what we had back in Australia. So it's not surprising to see three of the Aussies up there."

O'Hern was referring to leader Matthew Goggin, who shot 72, to remain on top of the leaderboard at 7-under-par 137. Meanwhile, 2006 U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy had a 71 to place himself among those at 4-under-par 140.

Davis Love III, who on Monday will be playing in the U.S. Open sectional qualifier at two Columbus area courses, said the trend for the last few years has been to make setups more challenging. Memorial has moved to the top of the list of demanding tests.

"It's like Oakmont with wide fairways," he said. "You just can't miss it out there. You play good and you'll do OK. If you play badly, it looks impossible. But, you know, there is always scoring to be done. Someone always figures out a way to get it around."

This week, figuring it out is just taking more time and more effort.

"This week just staying out of trouble [is the key]," Matt Kuchar said after his 72 that kept him 4-under par for the tournament. "I haven't had to pitch out [of the rough] but a time or two. So I've been pretty lucky hitting a lot of greens, a lot of fairways. And then just making easy pars out there. It's not the most glorious thing to do, but easy pars are a good thing to have out here."

Just like a major championship.