How to give Muirfield Village a second identity

DUBLIN, Ohio – The iconic TV comedy “I Love Lucy” had recently ended; the iconic musical show “American Bandstand” was just beginning. The Soviet Union would soon launch Sputnik, the earth’s first artificial satellite. And locally, a blond teenaged golfer named Jack Nicklaus had just graduated from Upper Arlington High School and spent that June in nearby Toledo, where he shot two rounds of 80 and missed the cut in his first U.S. Open appearance.

He would do better in future years.

It was August of 1957. It was also the last time two different PGA TOUR events were contested at the same course in consecutive weeks. World Golf Hall of Famer Roberto De Vicenzo won the All-America Open at the Tam O’Shanter Golf Club in Niles, Illinois. A week later, Dick Mayer captured the World Championship of Golf on the same course.

Now, 63 years later, one course will again host TOUR events in consecutive weeks, this time at Nicklaus’ famed Muirfield Village Golf Club. The brand-new Workday Charity Open is making a one-time appearance this week, while Nicklaus’ annual Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide takes center stage next week as soon as the final putt drops this Sunday.

The quirk in the schedule came after the John Deere Classic was a last-minute, COVID-19 cancelation and the week prior to the Memorial became available. Workday stepped up and with Nicklaus’ blessing, there are consecutive events at the same course for just the 12th time in TOUR history.

One of the goals, of course, is to provide the players in both fields distinctive challenges each week. Steve Rintoul is among the TOUR rules officials charged with setting up Muirfield Village so that the playing experience at the Workday Charity Open isn’t exactly the same as at the Memorial. Slower green speeds and shorter rough will help differentiate the course from the one that morphs into one of the TOUR’s most demanding layouts next week.

“If we didn't make the changes that we've made, especially with the green speeds, it'd be very challenging,” Rintoul said. “And I think everybody realizes that no one wants to come here and play eight days of extremely, extremely high green speeds and having holes be in the same places for eight days straight of competition.

“I just don't think anyone would really enjoy that. I think people are used to seeing that for the Memorial. That's what Mr. Nicklaus wants, and that's what we're going to choose for Memorial. So, you know, the fun part of it, he said, OK, given that, what can we do for Workday?”

The TOUR and the staff at Muirfield Village only had a month to prepare for the consecutive events. Tournament Director Gary Young said the Memorial never left anyone’s mind as the plan for delivering a very competitive Workday Charity Open was put into place.

And he was most grateful for the buy-in from Nicklaus.

“In the meeting, he just listened to what we were looking at doing,” Young said. “He listened to a group that pitched the idea to him, and he just said, if it's good for golf, let's do it. ... And I was really impressed with that because one way or another, it will have an impact on the Memorial week -- whether it's more divots in the landing areas; it’s a 156-player field right before 120 player field.

“It’s bound to have a little wear and tear on the golf course, and he was willing to do it. So it just speaks volumes about him.”

The greens this week will run between 11-1/2 and 12 in the Stimpmeter as compared to 13 or 14 during the Memorial. Slower speeds on Muirfield Village’s slopey greens produce more potential pin placements – and with the possible exception of holes Nos. 4, 9 and 11.

The variety might surprise the fans.

“When we maintain the greens around at 11-1/2, it now allows us to go to some areas that we don't traditionally go to for the Memorial,” Young said. “The Memorial, when the greens get 13-plus, we have to be very careful about where we put the hole location and we are somewhat limited in the amount of hole locations we have when the greens get that fast.

“We have to really seek those level areas where a ball will settle to.”

Using a wider variety of pin placements this week will help eliminate wear and tear – ball marks, foot traffic, hole plugs – around those tender greens where scoring is paramount. The field for the Workday Charity Open is a full-field 156 players while the Memorial invites 120.

“I think we have a really good plan,” Rintoul said. “And I think having the green speeds be subtly 2 to 2-1/2 feet slower on a Stimpmeter is really going to open up a lot of opportunities for us to give the guys a different look.

“And I think that's what our guys want. I don't think I want to feel like they're playing the same place every day. Everything's going to be a little bit newer to them than the old memory bank of ‘I remember how this putt used to break.’ Well, that's going to kind of go out the window with Workday because maybe the hole is going to go somewhere where they've never seen it before.”

Justin Thomas, who has two top-10s in six starts at the Memorial, fully expects pin positions and tees this week he’s never seen at Muirfield Village. But he doesn’t plan to “overpractice or overdo” his preparation for the Workday Charity Open

“At the end of the day, I would hope that myself -- and I'm sure the other guys feel the same way -- can adjust, and that's what these preparation days are for, to get used to the speed of the greens and try to use that a little bit once we get on the course,” he said.

“But I'm sure there will be times many guys and myself maybe from time to time -- hopefully not too often -- where you're looking at past putts.”

Ken Tackett will set the pins on the back nine for each of the two tournaments. Rintoul, who has worked the Memorial for the past two decades, says having Tackett perform double duty is a smart decision.

“When he puts a hole in the ground Thursday at Workday, he's going to be thinking about what he's going to do the following week during the Memorial,” Rintoul said. “So, he's kind of managing his own space, let's say, with those greens back there on the back nine.”

Another way to vary the look and feel of the Workday Charity Open is to use a variety of teeing areas. There are a collection of strong par 4s on the course – Nos. 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 13, 17 and 18 – along with the 527-yard par-5 fifth that likely will see no changes in that regard.

Look for the par-4 14th hole to be drivable at least once, though, and probably twice, during the Workday Charity Open, just as it was during a Four-Ball session at the 2013 Presidents Cup.

The par 3s – Nos. 4, 8, 12 and 16 – offer possibilities for variety, as well. The forward tees likely will be used at least once at No. 4, while the back two tees at No. 16 will be utilized. (Young also noted an intriguing hole location at the fourth. “We have struggled to get a hole location on the right side of that green at all in the past,” he said. “There's a hole location that's about 10 paces on to the green, six from the right, that would be a very interesting hole location. I think we'll be able to achieve that during week one.”)

Meanwhile, the eighth hole has a new tee that is 20 yards longer for the TOUR to use at both tournaments.

The signature 12th hole is a picturesque par 3 over water that conjures up thoughts of the 12th at Augusta National. The teeing ground is a kidney-shaped area and the usual championship tee for the Memorial is to the right, making the hole play to its full length.

“We've made a commitment to Mr. Nicklaus about creating some different angles using some of the tees that we haven't used during the Memorial,” Young said. “... So that will give us different angles on par 3s.

“We'll have a lot of variety both weeks, but we feel like we can really protect and maintain the championship conditions that the Memorial has always provided -- the deeper rough, the faster greens. The Workday Charity Open, you’re just going to see the rough be a little bit less. So, we'll slowly grow the rough into the Memorial week.”

The par-5 seventh could be an exciting one, as well. Look for tournament officials to move up the tee on the 563-yarder to make it reachable at least one day on the weekend.

The 15th, a 529-yard par 5, features a dramatic new tee that Nicklaus is still tinkering with, according to Rintoul. Both the traditional championship tee and the new one will be utilized over the course of both tournaments.

“When they come back next year, the fairway is actually going to be lowered about eight feet,” Rintoul said. “Right now, the players are driving the ball into a pretty steep up-slope, which may generate some talk in itself this week. Next year, you will come back and that up-slope is going to be softened quite a bit.

“We're going to have the opportunity to play both of these. So, we'll probably bounce back and forward on that hole quite a bit. I would say out of eight days, you may see four or five days on the new tee; the rest on the other tee. It's very reachable from the old Memorial tee (but) from the new championship tee, it's a lot less likely.”

Complicating the task of the rules officials and greenskeepers is the oppressive heat that has blanketed central Ohio the last few days and sent heat indexes into the triple digits. The temperatures won’t moderate until the weekend -- and then the 90s return again the middle of next week.

“We have to kind of babysit things a little bit with the heat, stress and drought and the amount of traffic that the golf course is going to see this week with 156 players,” Rintoul said.

To aid in the course’s recovery, Muirfield Village was closed on Monday and will be closed again next Monday. Since there are no pro-ams either week – the Memorial announced this week that it will be played without spectators, reversing the original plan – players should have ample time for practice rounds after the grounds crew does its work.

“(It lets) them get out inside the ropes and do what they need to do with divot repair, ball-mark repair, watering, chemical applications to prevent disease and fungus,” Rintoul said.

The rough was topped out Monday for the Workday Charity Open at 3-1/2 inches. While the heat has tempered its growth – and required water – Rintoul said the rough likely will be cut only once more before the end of the Memorial on July 19.

“We still like to have the weekend of Memorial play with some pretty beefy rough,” he said.

Young said he expects the scoring to be several strokes lower the week of the Workday Charity Open. He’s grateful for the way Muirfield Village’s course superintendent, Chad Mark, has embraced the two-week marathon.

“He understands what the expectations are for week two and how do we slowly push the golf course week one, without it peaking and starting to maybe go a little bit backwards,” Young said. “We've got to control that. We have to make sure that we have those championship conditions.

“So the agronomy team has their own challenges ahead of them, but we've got the best in the business working on it.”