How Jack built his place

The genesis of Jack Nicklaus’ second career as a golf course designer and of his seminal masterpiece, Muirfield Village Golf Club, occurred almost simultaneously a little more than 50 years ago.

It was just before the 1966 Masters that Nicklaus put into action the first stage of an idea he had been contemplating for nearly two years – namely, to build his own golf course in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio, and host an invitational tournament that emulated Bobby Jones’ event at Augusta National Golf Club. Five days later, in the wake of his third Masters victory, Nicklaus declared the change in direction his career was about to take.

“I’m interested in building new courses and remodeling old ones,” Nicklaus said after beating Gay Brewer and Tommy Jacobs in an 18-hole playoff to become the first man in Masters history to repeat. “I don’t expect to get so involved that it interferes with my playing golf. Naturally, if I hope to spend some time as a golf course architect, I’ll have to cut down a bit on my tournament schedule.”

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As if on cue, fellow Ohioan Pete Dye phoned Nicklaus a month later. Still a budding golf course architect himself, Dye was designing a layout east of Columbus simply called The Golf Club. An outstanding amateur golfer who, like Nicklaus, had won an Ohio High School state championship, Dye sought Nicklaus’ honest critique of what was a radical design – at least in America – one infused with railroad ties and planks bordering and accenting bunkers and used as bulkheads at some greens. Nicklaus offered several ideas for changes, some of which Dye incorporated.

That was Jack’s introduction to design, and it spawned a partnership between him and Dye that resulted in several co-designs, none more iconic and celebrated than Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Meanwhile, as Nicklaus was meeting with Dye for the first time, one of the Golden Bear’s close friends from his junior golf days at Scioto Country Club, attorney Ivor Young, had commenced a search for property in and around the Columbus area. After seeing his hometown support the 1964 PGA Championship at Columbus Country Club – where Bobby Nichols held off Nicklaus, the defending champion, and Arnold Palmer – the Columbus hero became certain that the time was right for central Ohio to have an annual PGA TOUR event. Other than Ohio State University football, there weren’t any major sports attractions, and a regular TOUR event hadn’t been held since the Columbus Invitational in 1948.

On the eve of his defending his Masters title in ’66, Nicklaus spoke to Young about perhaps starting an event in Columbus that would be as exceptional as the Masters. Inspired by his friend’s vision, Young undertook the task of getting Nicklaus’ dream off the ground by finding the right ground.

By studying courthouse records, topographical maps and other resource materials, Young was able to identify 11 prospective sites. With Dye accompanying him, Nicklaus settled on the current location, in what was then largely rural Dublin, after seeing only two other tracts. Nicklaus recognized it as an area where he once hiked with his father. It was densely wooded, rolling, and possessed a natural water source in the form of two creeks. Dye validated Nicklaus’ hunch that he’d hit, um, pay dirt by remarking, “this is the best site I’ve ever seen that doesn’t have mountains or the ocean – the best inland site I’ve ever seen.”

By September, Nicklaus had finalized the purchase of 180 acres. Eventually he would acquire 1,580 acres, though the golf club sits on 240, the rest being transformed into the surrounding residential community (in which Nicklaus has a home tucked into a secluded corner near the course). The acquisition of so much land so quickly – and at increasing expense as word spread of his ground game – exerted significant stress on his financial portfolio. This also delayed the development of his enterprise for a couple of years.

“Muirfield did cost me a little. It nearly cost me a lot. But I didn’t care. It’s what I wanted to do,” Nicklaus said. “I wanted to provide a great tournament to the people of Columbus who supported me, and I wanted to give something back to the game of golf.

“There was a time when it almost didn’t happen, but I managed to get through it, thanks to good people around me and my own stubbornness.”

Construction finally began on July 28, 1972. By that time, Nicklaus had been involved in nine design projects with Dye. The two collaborated on an initial schematic, and later Nicklaus brought in land planner Desmond Muirhead for further assistance. But mostly the actual details were being developed as Nicklaus went along, an approach he called, “by-the-seat-of-my-pants design.”

If the stress of the project was weighing on him, he didn’t let it show on the golf course. In 1972, he won a career-high seven times, including his fourth Masters title and third U.S. Open, and the following year he captured the PGA Championship as part of another seven-win campaign. Construction of Muirfield Village was slowed in ’73 by poor weather, but it was eventually completed in September.

“I really don’t know how he did that,” Barbara, his wife of nearly 56 years, says. “But ever since I met him, Jack always did things to 110 percent. I don’t think he ever gave it a second thought. He wanted so much to give back something to his hometown.” 

Muirfield Village Golf Club officially opened on May 27, 1974, with an exhibition match between Nicklaus and fellow Ohio native and Ohio State University product Tom Weiskopf. The Golden Bear fired a ho-hum 6-under-par 66, which stood as the course record for nearly a decade.

Inspiring the name of Jack’s course is Muirfield, the course of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers in Gullane, Scotland, where Nicklaus first played in Great Britain in the 1959 Walker Cup, and where he won his first Open Championship in 1966 to complete the career Grand Slam. It made further sense since the property sat in a low valley, or moor.

Though Nicklaus would further glean inspiration from The Open Championship – for instance, the Claret Jug is incorporated into the Muirfield Village crest, though it appears backwards as a gesture of respect for the championship – there was no question where he took many of his cues in the conduct of his club as well as the overall design philosophy. Like Augusta National, Muirfield Village is a second-shot golf course. Nicklaus allows for ample room off the tee, but difficulty of each hole increases nearer the greens, which are strategically bunkered and feature sloping surfaces that are among the speediest on the PGA TOUR. 

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“It’s a pretty site. When I saw it, I liked the way it flowed through the valleys, and I knew I wanted to create a gallery golf course. The valleys were wide enough to accommodate that goal,” says Nicklaus, whose design philosophy came from many sources, but, in particular, from Scioto Country Club, his home course in Columbus designed by Donald Ross.

“I can’t say I was a golf course designer because I didn’t have much experience. I just liked the property. When it came to designing the course, it was about finding the best areas. There were two creeks that came together at one end of the property, which today is where the creeks come down at 11 and 15. We had another creek that came down where the second hole is now, coming down from the fifth hole. That creek goes out at the third hole, providing the drainage for the property. I just worked myself back through those valleys.”

On Wednesday, Nov. 13, 1974, the Columbus Dispatch reported that a major golf tournament would be held at Muirfield Village. Not surprisingly, the Dispatch referred to the tournament as “The Masters of the North,” after Nicklaus said his tournament would draw heavily in style and flavor from the Masters.

“If there is any place to copy, it’s Augusta,” he said.

Naturally, Nicklaus solicited advice from Clifford Roberts, the longtime chairman of Augusta National. Roberts also agreed to serve on the Captains Club (fashioned after a similar group from the Honourable Company), which is comprised of distinguished golfing individuals who advise on Memorial Tournament policy and select the honorees. 

The Memorial Tournament debuted on May 27, 1976, and from the start it was obvious that Nicklaus had created a truly unique PGA TOUR event that not only invited the game’s best players from the U.S. and abroad, but also sought to honor the memory of individuals living and deceased whom had distinguished themselves in the game. Bobby Jones was the first honoree. This year’s selection is two-time major winner Johnny Miller.

What professionals encountered when they arrived for the inaugural Memorial was a golf course in immaculate condition and with no detail overlooked.

“This was a tournament on another level entirely,” says CBS golf announcer Gary McCord, who was one of the 92 players who competed in ’76. “We had no idea what to expect, and we get there and we have never seen anything like it. The first time we step on the practice area, it was hard for me and for the other guys to even take a divot. It was perfect. It was in better shape than the golf courses we’d been playing.”

McCord’s experience would one day inspire a scene in the movie, “Tin Cup.” The film’s tortured hero, Roy McAvoy, played by Kevin Costner, is amazed when he finds new Titleist golf balls on the driving range at the U.S. Open. He tells his caddie, Romeo, played by Cheech Marin, to stuff a few in his golf bag when no one is looking. McCord was similarly guilty at Muirfield Village. For the first time range balls were free (they cost $5 per bag elsewhere), and McCord had his caddie slip a few new MacGregor balls in his bag. Actually, he ended up with about three dozen in the trunk of his Lincoln-Mercury courtesy car, which was another new perk for TOUR players.

“With the exception of Augusta, we’d never seen anything like Muirfield,” Lee Trevino gushed. “That son of a gun was one tough golf course, but it was also in such great condition. Typical Jack, everything was done first-class.”

The first Memorial Tournament had barely finished – with Roger Maltbie shocking Hale Irwin in a playoff – when Roberts made a point of telling Nicklaus, “Jack, you have an opportunity to do in 10 years what has taken us 40 at Augusta. Everything about this operation bespeaks quality.”

Dye recently visited Muirfield Village while in Columbus to renovate The Golf Club. It had been decades since he last saw it. “It’s his golf course entirely,” Dye says. “I was there at the very beginning, but it’s unbelievable what he has done, how he has modified it, made it stronger with the kinds of shots you have to hit. He’s made it into one of the best dang golf courses you’ll find anywhere.”

Indeed, as the years have peeled away, Nicklaus has remained occupied with managing the evolution of the golf course. There have been nips and tucks everywhere, and there have been significant changes, like the wholesale redesign of the 17th hole in 2002 and the 16th hole in 2011 in preparation for the 2013 Presidents Cup.

The course yardage at the outset was 6,969 yards, but only two years later it was stretched to 7,027 yards, with most of that additional length tacked onto the sixth hole, thanks to a suggestion from Weiskopf. It cracked 7,200 yards (7,221) in 2001 when Tiger Woods won his record third in a row, but only four years later it had grown to 7,300 yards. This week, the Tournament course can play up to 7,392 yards, with the latest changes coming at 18, including a back tee that added 40 yards (also completed in 2013) and new fairway bunkering.

While nature has made incessant and unexpected alterations, including the loss of significant but aging trees at Nos. 2, 6 and 18, Nicklaus hasn’t been shy about infusing his signature design with stronger shot values, as he has done at holes 16, 17 and 18, giving Muirfield Village one of the strongest trios of closing holes in golf.

The short par-4 14th is another example of putting more spice into a hole. After the first Memorial, the bunkers to left of the green were deepened, and Nicklaus added the lake that now guards the right side. Conversely, Nicklaus at times has made the course more conducive to scoring, such as when he removed a pond in front of the 11th green that wasn’t visible from the fairway because he disliked hidden hazards. And in 1984, on the same hole, he added a front apron to the green and removed excess foliage to make it easier for players to reach the putting surface in two.

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“Through the years I have made a lot of changes, some for the sake of the members, some to improve the spectator experience, and some simply to make the golf course a better and stronger test,” Nicklaus said. “I’ve spent a ton of time here, but I haven’t changed the course radically. Like any designer, I want the course to show well, and be able to hold up against the game’s best players, so I have tried to find ways to preserve shot values.

"Muirfield Village, basically, is the same course that opened in 1974, although overall it’s just a better design. It’s still a course where placing the ball in the proper areas is more important than power. I think that makes for more exciting golf, and we’ve had our fair share of fantastic finishes through the years, not to mention a darn good roll call of champions.”

Which is something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by golf’s governing bodies. Muirfield Village Golf Club is the only venue in history to host the Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup and The Presidents Cup. The U.S. Golf Association also has found its way there for a number of its national championships, including the 1992 U.S. Amateur. Justin Leonard was the winner, but another youngster in the field would come to have more success at Jack’s venue – Woods, who has won the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide five times.

Many other greats of golf have gotten a congratulatory handshake from Jack. That list includes Irwin, Tom Watson, Raymond Floyd, Curtis Strange, Greg Norman, Fred Couples, Vijay Singh, and Ernie Els – all of them in the Hall of Fame. Oh, and Nicklaus captured the crown twice, in 1977 and ’84.

Prior to the first Memorial, he was nervous about winning it, worried how that might look or be received by his peers. But when he captured the prize the following year, he called it one of the most difficult and most rewarding wins in a Hall of Fame career that features a record 18 major titles among 73 PGA TOUR victories.

In December, Nicklaus’ invitational, always considered one of the most prestigious in the game, was elevated further when the PGA TOUR and Nationwide announced a new six-year presenting sponsorship of the Memorial that, among other things, increases the purse for this week’s tournament to $8.5 million.

Furthermore, the winner will receive a three-year exemption instead of the two years awarded at most stops. Meanwhile, the tournament has continued its healthy support of Central Ohio charities, including, primarily, Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Last year more than $2 million was raised, with $1.6 million going to Nationwide Children’s.

“I’ve poured most of my life for the last 40-odd years into what’s happened here … the golf course and everything else,” Nicklaus says. “It’s been a fairly emotional thing for me. I can’t think of anything else that I’ve been more involved in more completely other than my family and my playing golf than Muirfield Village.”

Nicklaus always has been adamant that the only real legacy important to him is the one he leaves with his family. But if there is one aspect of his career that matters most, it’s not that major championship record or the nearly 300 golf course designs around the world; it’s Muirfield Village Golf Club and the Memorial Tournament.

In his speech at the first Memorial Tournament, Nicklaus affirmed his feelings, saying, “I don’t like the word monument. I would rather say this is my mark. You might call it a showplace of what the game of golf should be. It means more to me than my career.”