BlogMemorial Preview and Picks

The Buzz:

Just two more weeks before the U.S. Open.  As I write this on Monday afternoon, Tiger Woods is at Chambers Bay right now playing a practice round.  Yesterday Phil Mickelson was at Chambers Bay and Rory McIlroy has said that he will arrive in Tacoma on Friday Night the week before the Open and play practice rounds over the weekend.  Amazing how much feedback Chambers Bay is getting, frankly it’s not positive as many are voicing their displeasure over the undulations in the greens and other little things.

I have to agree that some of the greens like 7 and 17 could go too far, but I guess we just have to see how Mike Davis does the course.  We saw how hard a links course could be as scores were high at the Irish Open.  Any course is tough in wind and wet weather, Royal County Down was that way last week.  So that could be what decides how players feel toward the course, on if the weather is nice and winless.

Things you need to know about the Memorial:

This is the 40th 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 is 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 2015 honorees for the Memorial Tournament will be Nick Faldo, while  Dorothy Campbell, Jerome Travers and Walter Travice are posthumous honorees. As for the journalism award, Doc Giffin is the honoree.

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 2014 Muirfield Village was the 29th hardest course on the PGA Tour playing to a 71.898 average.  Because of the course being soft with a lot of rain the week before and perfect conditions during the tournament, it was the first time since 2007 that the average score was under par.  For comparision, 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.
• 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:

Normally Muirfield Village is a course that will get you ready for a U.S. Open, except for this year. 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, except for this year.  Chambers Bay is nothing like Muirfield Village so it won’t be a place to think of the U.S. Open, still the course which has had very little rain the last two weeks will be dry and play fast and could play as tough as a venue holding the U.S. Open.

Another key:

Those that do well in majors, do well at Muirfield Village.  Of the 29 different champions of the Memorial they have accounted for 476 wins on the PGA Tour while 16 have won a total of 66 major championships. What’s more, 14 of the last 22 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
• 27 – 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 seven 54-hole leaders have failed to win (2001, 2002, 2007,  2008, 2009, 2010 & 2014).  Last year Hideki Matsuyama was T-21st after the first round then was 3rd after the second round and led after the third round.
• Ten of the last 18 winners were in the top four in greens hit. In 2009 Tiger Woods was T3rd in greens hit while Justin Rose was T-13th in 2010, Steve Stricker was T30th in 2011, Tiger Woods was T-1st in 2012, Matt Kuchar was also 1st in 2013 while Matsuyama was T-22nd last year.
• Overpowering the par fives is crucial. Matsuyama was a rarity as he only played the par 5s in six under, but before last year between 2000 and 2013 the 13 winners played the par 5s in a average of 9-under, in 2010 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 in 2013.
• In past years hitting greens has been important, as Muirfield Village has some of the hardest set of greens to hit from the fairway.  Once you miss the greens it’s hard to get it up and down, in 2014 of the 2,631 greens missed only 1,375 par or better was made, it was the fourth hardest course in scrambling at 52.26%.
• Accuracy is key to winning at Memorial, eight of the last 12 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 T-10th.  In 2011 Steve Stricker kept the tradition up as he was T-3rd but in 2012 Tiger Woods broke the tradition when he was T-14th 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 T-37th in driving accurany, but in 2014 Matsuyama was T-11th.
• In its 39-year history there have only been four playoffs, the last coming in 2014 when Matsuyama beat Kevin Na with par on the first extra hole.  Previous to that 1992 was the last playoff year as David Edwards beat Rick Fehr on the second hole.  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:

• 4 – Memorial
• 5 – Players championship
• 6 – Justin Tiberlake
• 6 – Arnold Palmer Invitational
• 7 – Honda Classic
• 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.
• Last we have to talk about weather.  Frankly with all of the rain in Texas the last two weeks, the PGA Tour has been very lucky to get the Colonial and Nelson completed on time.  Seems that no matter what week the Memorial is played, rain like to pay a visit and this year each of the four days will have a 50% of afternoon thurderstorms.