DUBLIN, Ohio — That beep, beep, beep you hear near the 16th hole at Muirfield Village Golf Club was course designer and Memorial Tournament host Jack Nicklaus backing up his design plan.
After watching scores balloon at the par 3, which was lengthened by 20 yards this year to measure 211 yards at the back tee, and after hearing multiple PGA Tour players criticize the change, Nicklaus said he likely would redesign the hole to make it more fair.
“My guess is I’ll change the hole,” Nicklaus said. “I don’t want guys walking around here saying, ‘What a great 17-hole golf course.’ There’s nothing wrong with that hole if we have the (normal wind) conditions, but if we have the wrong conditions the hole isn’t good.”
Jason Day called No. 16 a “stupid hole,” and Jordan Spieth said, “It’s not a great hole in pretty much everyone’s opinion that’s playing today.”
“I listen to that,” Nicklaus said, explaining that he sat down with Spieth and Rory McIlroy over lunch and discussed No. 16. “I said, ‘Guys, I want your feedback. I’m trying to make this golf tournament the best I can make it, and if that means making an adjustment, we’ll make an adjustment’. I have no issue with that at all.”
As Nicklaus sees it, the problem is that an already difficult hole is made more brutal if the wind comes out of the northeast, as it did for much of the first three days of the tournament. Typically, the prevailing winds blow from the southwest.
“We had a left-to-right wind, and as firm as the greens were you’re not going to stick the ball out over the water (left of) the green. If you do, and the wind started blowing it right, you’re coming across the green with the ball and it’s hard to keep the ball on the green.”
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