Examining The Muirfield Village Redesign One Year Later

The iconic Muirfield Village Golf Club sported a much different look in 2021 following course renovations

Muirfield Village GC is one of the more well-known courses on the PGA Tour schedule, thanks in part to the “elevated” status of the Memorial Tournament which brings the top players in the world to Dublin, Ohio every June.

Muirfield Village GC has hosted the Memorial Tournament since 1976 with course founder Jack Nicklaus serving as the prestigious host.

As equipment updates continued to progress the advancement of the professional game, Muirfield Village decided to update their course with a major renovation scheduled to finish after the end of the 2020 Memorial Tournament.

The Memorial Tournament has been known for its fair but challenging conditions that have created some spectacular finishes down the stretch on Sunday.

The course has deep unforgiving rough that makes driving accuracy a priority, and also showcases tough greens that have been compared to those of Augusta National which usually allow the top iron players in the world to rise above the rest of the field.

However, with distance rising and equipment always evolving Nicklaus and his team decided it was time for some changes.

The 18-time major champion made it clear that the changes weren’t an attempt to just make the course tougher, but to make Muirfield Village a better course overall for all who play it.

"“I don’t think when we’re done here it’s going to be a tougher golf course, I think it’s going to be a better golf course,” Nicklaus said. “That’s what I want here. I want a better course for our membership. Make sure the members can play the golf course, that I haven’t added anything stupid for them. But also that I have the ability to move the tees back, hide the pins and have the Memorial Tournament.”"

As soon as Jon Rahm made the turn in the final round of the 2020 Memorial Tournament the Muirfield Village Golf Club staff got to work.

With a tight deadline in place, they had no time to waste. Chris Cochran, a senior design associate at Nicklaus Design, revealed in an interview with golf.com that the renovations were completed in an astonishing amount of time.

"“How quickly we had to do it was the tough deal,” Cochran said. “The last sod on the last green went down 59 days after we started. That is crazy fast.”"

The results were pretty staggering, with the finished product boasting some significant visual changes as well as lengthening the course by around 100 yards (around 7500 yards). The finalized renovations were revealed in a summary created by the PGA Tour/Memorial Tournament for the caddies and players to analyze.

All eighteen greens were completely reconstructed with new bentgrass and advanced irrigation systems were added. The only green complexes that resemble the pre-renovation look are holes 12, 13, 14, and 17.

Another noticeable change was how the fairway bunkers on 1, 5, and 17 were moved around to change the player strategy for taking on the prospective holes.

It will be interesting to see how players attack the course this week as we see year two of the post-renovation era at Muirfield Village GC.

Key Holes That Will Determine The 2022 Memorial Tournament Champion

No. 4 – 210 yd Par 3

One of the holes with a significantly different look after the renovation is No. 4. The green is around 3 paces wider and the back bunker was removed so the green was lengthened farther back which makes the hole play significantly longer than before.

There are a couple of bunkers to the left of the green a few feet below the putting surface, and a couple bunkers on the right that will be tough to get up and down from depending on the hole location. This will be a difficult tee shot for the leaders on Sunday as the pressure rises.

No. 14 – 360 yd Par 4

The driveable par four could create some fireworks on Sunday if a player needs to take the riskier approach in an attempt to catch the leader(s).

There are severe penalties facing anyone who goes for the green off the tee and misses, with water on the right and several bunkers on the left. Keep an eye out for this hole as the leaders come down the stretch on Sunday afternoon.

No. 18 – 480 yd Par 4

The closing hole plays the toughest of any on the course with an average score of 4.243 (1976-2019). The dogleg right has a creek on the left and bunkers on the right of the fairway, with a relatively tight landing zone between the two.

The elevated green is surrounded by bunkers. There will certainly be some entertainment at 18 this week as the leaders fight to the finish.

To take a look at a complete hole-by-hole overview of Muirfield Village GC you can go here.

2022 Memorial Tournament Outright Pick at Muirfield Village

While it’s tough to not go with the favorite Jon Rahm this week at Muirfield Village, I am going to go with Will Zalatoris to break through this week.

Zalatoris is top ten on tour in both SG: off the tee and SG: approach. I think his elite iron play will put him in contention on Sunday, and if the Wake Forest alum can get a few putts to drop it might just be enough to grab his first PGA Tour win.

Mike Randleman of Pro Golf Now put Zalatoris at No. 10 in his Memorial Tournament Power Rankings this week.