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Tournament Stats:
Memorial Tournament
May 31 - June 3, 2007
Muirfield Village Golf Club
Dublin, OH
Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,265
Purse: $5.5 million with $990,000 going to the winner
Defending Champions: Carl Pettersson
Results & Scores 2006 Memorial Tournament
Box Score of 2006 Memorial Tournament
Tournament facts:
Tournament Record:268 (Tom Lehman in 1994)
54-Hole Record:
198 (Scott Hoch in 1987)
36-Hole Record:
131 (Scott Hoch in 1987)
Low round of tournament:
61 (John Huston in the second round of the 1996 Memorial Tournament)
Tournament information:
This is the 32nd annual Memorial Torunament. First one was played in 1976 and 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 mine, a championship. In a way the Memorial mirror's the Masters, the tournament that Nicklaus 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 2007 honorees for the Memorial Tournament will be Dow Finsterwald, who played at the University of Ohio before going on to star at the pro level, and Louise Suggs, who was a standout golfer in her own right on the LPGA Tour. Also being recognized is long time golf television producer Frank Chirkinian.
Course information:
During the 1996 Masters, Jack Nicklaus told told some of his closet friends that he wanted to bring a major championship to the Columbus area. Unfortunely with the best course in town, The Scioto Country Club, not big enough to hold a tournament Nicklaus envisioned building one. At the time he was just getting into course designing so in a way 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 the way Augusta was in scope. 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 Northeastern part of two. In 1967 with his own money, Nicklaus started buying the land that would be Muirfield Village.
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By 1970, Nicklaus realized that he had a future in building golf courses. Out of this realization, Golden Bear Inc. was born. Golden Bear Inc. was an amalgam of three separate entities, two of which were previously owned by Nicklaus. 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 none more noteworthy than a stellar 16th among "America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses," as ranked by Golf Digest. 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. Thats not only because the course is so great but how well players are pampered here. It goes beyond even the PGA Tour rules. Its the only tournament on tour which bans equipment manufacturers, tournament representatives and 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 which has been patterned a lot like the Masters. Along with the Memorial, which got started in 1976 they have 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 and the 1998 Soleim Cup.
The Par 72 course has 69 bunkers lining the course, with water coming into play on 11 holes. In general, Muirfield Village plays a long, challenging 7,265 yards. With a course rating of 76.3 and a slope rating of 149, it is one of the most difficult venues on the PGA 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 setup mirrors most traditional stadium-seating arrangements found at major sporting events.
The Buzz:
Check out our new twice a weekly GolfObserver "GolfBuzz" column.Hard to believe, but there is very little change to Muirfield Village from last year. Yes the 15th hole has been lengthen 26 yards to 529 yards, but with the tee lowered it's going to make it harder to hit the fairway. Other changes were to fairway bunkers at the 10th, 13th and 18th holes making them deeper and harder to get home.
The biggest thing this year is that he is bringing back the furrowed bunkers from last year. It wasn't a very popular move in an event that is as popular as the Memorial. Most of the players screamed bloody murder, with Jeff Maggert summing it up by calling it a "Mickey Mouse" move.
The thought that Nicklaus had in mind was to make the bunkers very penal, so that players would think twice about weather they wanted to hit a driver or possibly lay up. In a way it worked, during the week driving stats went up but the fact of the matter was that the furrowing of the bunkers made it harder. For 2007 49.2% of the players got it up and down on the PGA Tour while only 41.62% did it last year at the Memorial.
So with that as a backdrop, the tournament has decided to bring back the practice, with a change. The rakes won't be spread as far apart, this year will be 13/4 inches compared to 21/2 inches last year so in reality the furrows will be half as big as last year.
Other than that the other bad news to report is of course the rain. What is the Memorial without bad weather and the forecasters are calling for a nice day on Thursday, with thunderstorms building up on Friday and Saturday in the afternoon, with storms most of the day on Sunday. Still, these are long range plans but with rain interfering in 19 of 31 Memorial's we kind of expect it.
Again the field has most of the marquee names with the exception of crowd favorites John Daly, Justin Rose and Fred Couples who are on the DL for the week. But what everyone is looking for is a possible match up between Tiger and Phil.
Here are some things to look for this week:
Here are some of the secrets that it will take to play well this week at the Memorial Tournament:
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Key stat for the winner:
Those that do well in majors, do well at Muirfield Village. Of the 24 different champions of the Memorial, 16 have won a total of 62 major championships. Matter of fact eleven of the last 14 Memorial champions have been a winner of a major championship. - In the history of the Memorial only one leader after the first round has won (Ernie Els in 2004), 11 second round leaders have won and 15 third round leader have won. Since 1998 only two 54 holes have won, those being in 2001 & 2002.
- Seven of the last the winners were in the top four in greens hit.
- Those that overpower the par five, of the last ten winners they have played the par 5s in a average of 9 under.
- Seven of the last ten winners have been in the top-11 in driving distance, while only three of these ten winners have been in the top-10 in accuracy. So length is more important than accuracy.
- In its 31 year history there have only been three playoffs, the last coming in 1992. The next year 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 has been won by at least two shots or more.
- If last year was an indication of the penalty involved with furrowing the bunkers, Carl Pettersson was only in one fairway bunker, which decreased his odds of having a possible poor lie in which he couldn't get on the green.
- Only eight times in the history of the Memorial has a player shot four rounds in the 60s with six of them winning. The last time that happened was in 2005 with Bart Bryant winning.
