BlogMemorial Preview and Picks

The Buzz:

What a great week of golf last week

Nice to see two marquee players finally winning in Adam Scott and Rory McIlroy.  After a year of faceless champions having these two win shows that things have not completely changed in golf.  As I have said all year, these guys have to give themselves more chances to win.  Since January, Scott has played 8 times while McIlroy has played 10 times but with this new wrap-around schedule both are way down the money and FedEx Cup lists.  It’s too bad that the schedule is so overwhelmed in the coming months, over the course of the next 18 weeks we have three majors, a WGC event, four playoff events and a Ryder Cup.  So that is nine weeks of really great golf and I haven’t included this weeks Memorial, Tiger’s Quick Loans National and the Canadian Open.  The big question will be if this develops into a trend of marquee winners from now on.

What about Rory and not getting married

Amazing how you can annouce breaking off your engagement on Wednesday and win the biggest event on the European Tour on Sunday.  Have to think that this breakup will benefit McIlroy’s golf game which has been very inconsistent since his engagement to Caroline Wozniacki.  For McIlroy the new found freedom turned into a victory but for Wozniacki she was a first round loser being bounced out of the French Open by Yanina Wickmayer.  On the other end of the spectrum Adam Scott gets married on April 17th and four weeks later is in the winners circle.  After years of being know as the most eligible bachelor in golf, to rumors that he was negotiating to be in the next “Bachelor” in ABC’s reality series it’s time for him to settle down as he and Swedish architect Marie Kojzar tied the knot in the Bahamas.  It will be interesting to see the paths both of these guys will take with and without marriage.

Things you need to know about the Memorial

This is the 39th annual Memorial Tournament. The first one was played in 1976 and it has always been played at Muirfield Village.  There are close ties between the Memorial Tournament and Jack Nicklaus. The tournament was a long-time vision of Nicklaus, who grew up playing the famous Scioto Country Club, which hosted the 1926 U.S. Open.  But the course wasn’t large enough to hold a major championship so Nicklaus built Muirfield Village with that in mind.  In some ways the Memorial mirrors the Masters beacuse it’s the tournament that Nicklaus always thought was the best run on a great course.

The tournament got its name because every year a different golfer was supposed to be recognized for their contribution to the game of golf. The first Memorial Tournament honoree was Bobby Jones in 1976. Beginning in 2002, two honorees were selected annually, a male and female golfer. The 2014 honorees for the Memorial Tournament will be Annika Sorenstam and for the journalism award Jaime Diaz.

Course information:

• Muirfield Village Golf Club
• Dublin, Ohio
• 7,392 yards     Par 36-36–72

Muirfield Village has a 76.9 rating and slope rating of 153 from the championship tees. The course is very private. The tees and Fairways are Bentgrass Poa Annua while the rough is Kentucky Buegrass with ryegrass and fescue. The greens are bentgrass.

In 2013, Muirfield Village was the 6th hardest course on the PGA Tour playing to a 73.256 average which is a shot and a quarter over par.

During the 1966 Masters, Jack Nicklaus told some of his closet friends that he wanted to bring a major championship to the Columbus area.  Unfortunately,the best course in town, Scioto Country Club, was not big enough to hold a tournament that Nicklaus envisioned.  At the time he was just getting into course designing so he knew just enough to be dangerous on the subject.  He also envisioned that his course would have some of the same characteristics that Augusta National had, plus Nicklaus wanted the event to mirror Augusta.

After the Masters, Nicklaus and his trusted friends made secert site surveys around the Columbus area and found the site he thought was perfect, on the Northwestern part of town.  In 1967 with his own money, Nicklaus started buying the land that would be Muirfield Village.

By 1970, Nicklaus realized that he had a future in building golf courses. He started his own company and in 1972, under the supervision of Golden Bear Inc., construction began in Dublin, Ohio. The project encountered many delays, including exorbitant amounts of rain that ultimately postponed the completion of the project until late 1973. Jack Nicklaus played the inaugural round of golf at Muirfield in October of 1973. Fittingly, his round was marred by heavy rain storms. The course officially opened on May 24, 1974 with an exhibition match between Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf. Nicklaus shot a 66, which stood as the course record until 1979.

Over the years, Muirfield Village has racked up numerous prestigious awards, but the most important accolade that Muirfield Village gets every year is when it is voted one of the five best sites by PGA Tour players, not only because the course is great, but because how well the players are pampered here.  It goes beyond even the PGA Tour rules.  It’s the only tournament on Tour that bans equipment manufacturers, tournament representatives and the media from the practice facilities and locker rooms.

When Nicklaus built the course in the ’70s he had championships in mind and of course, a yearly PGA Tour event.  Along with the Memorial, which got started in 1976, the course has held just about every other major tournament, except for a U.S. Open or a PGA Championship.  Other championships that have been held at Muirfield include the 1986 U.S. Junior Amateur, the 1987 Ryder Cup Matches, the 1992 U.S. Amateur, the 1995 Wendy’s Three-Tour Challenge, the 1998 Soleim Cup and last year the 2013 Presidents Cup

The par 72 course has 73 bunkers, with water coming into play on 11 holes. In general, Muirfield Village plays a long, challenging 7,392 yards. With a course rating of 76.9 and a slope rating of 153, it is one of the most difficult venues on Tour.<P>

Nicklaus didn’t just design this course with the golfer in mind; he was one of the first designers to account for the fan. The 220-acre venue strategically incorporates hills and mounds that allow fans to look downward upon most of the action. This set up mirrors most traditional stadium-seating arrangements found at major sporting events.

Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the Memorial:

Key stat for the winner:

This is one of those courses that will get you ready for a U.S. Open. As a matter of fact it would be a perfect Open venue. It has the length, tight fairways with three-inch plus rough, tree line and fast undulating greens. Just about everything that you would see at a U.S. Open is at Muirfield Village.  It always ranks as one of the toughest courses on Tour.  Last year it was played in perfect weather conditions and was 6th toughest course with a 73.677 average.  This week is a bit different as it’s raining on Tuesday and Wednesday with some rain on Thursday morning.  The course will be for the taking as it will be very soft.  For the rest of the week the weather will improve each day with Sunday being a perfect day with 85 degree temperatures.

Another key:

Those that do well in majors, do well at Muirfield Village.  Of the 28 different champions of the Memorial they have accounted for 472 wins on the PGA Tour while 16 have won a total of 65 major championships. What’s more, 14 of the last 20 Memorial champions have been a winner of a major championship.

Tournaments that can claim having the most major winners (Since 1976)

• 28 – Hyundai Tournament of Champions
• 26 – Players Championship
• 24 – Memorial Tournament
• 22 – Verizon Heritage
• 22 – Farmers Insurance
• In the history of the Memorial only two leaders after the first round has won (Ernie Els in 2004 and Justin Rose in 2010). 13 second-round leaders have won and 19 third-round leader have won.  Since 1994, only six 54-hole leaders have failed to win (2001, 2002, 2007,  2008, 2009 & 2010).  Last year Matt Kuchar was 7th after the first round then was 4th after the second round and led after the third round.
• Ten of the last 17 winners were in the top four in greens hit. In 2009 Tiger Woods was T3rd in greens hit while Justin Rose was T13th in 2010, Steve Stricker was T30th in 2011, Tiger Woods was T1st last year and Matt Kuchar was also 1st last year.
• Overpowering the par fives is crucial. The last 13 winners have played the par 5s in a average of 9-under, in 2011 Justin Rose was 8 under while Stricker was 6 under in 2011, Tiger Woods was 8 under in 2012 and Matt Kuchar was 7 under last year.
• Accuracy is key to winning at Memorial, eight of the last 11 winners have been in the top-10 in driving accuracy, which proves the point that you have to drive the ball well at Muirfield Village.  In 2009 Tiger Woods was 2nd while in 2010 Justin Rose was T10th.  In 2011 Steve Stricker kept the tradition up as he was T3rd but in 2012 Tiger Woods broke the tradition when he was T14th in driving making him the first player out of the top-ten in driving since Ernie Els won in 2004.  Even worst things got bad in 2013 as Matt Kuchar was T37th in driving accurany.
• In its 38-year history there have only been three playoffs, the last coming in 1992.  The next year (1993) was the last one that had a dramatic finish when Paul Azinger holed out of the bunker on the final hole to win by one.  Since then every Memorial except for three (2005, ’07 and ’11) has been won by at least two shots or more.
• Active tournaments that has the least amount of playoffs since 1976:
• 3 – Memorial
• 4 – Players championship
• 6 – Justin Tiberlake
• 6 – Honda Classic
• 6 – Arnold Palmer Invitational
• 7 – John Deere Classic
• Only nine times in the history of the Memorial has a player shot four rounds in the 60s with seven of them winning. Steve Stricker did it in 2011 but the the last time that happened before that was in 2005 when Bart Bryant prevailed.