Muirfield Village Golf Club, also known as "Jack's Place" after its designer, 18-time major championship winner Jack Nicklaus, is a breathtaking venue for championship golf and a spectacular host of the Memorial Tournament.
Muirfield Village, which was named after The Open Championship venue where Nicklaus completed the career Grand Slam for the first time, is a challenging golf course, a long and difficult test with thick rough, severe greens, deep bunkers, and frequent water hazards.
When the course is dry, it can become the most difficult golf course on the PGA Tour schedule.
Muirfield Village always delivers entertaining and stressful golf
Memorable Holes: 9.5
There are a number of iconic holes at Muirfield Village with a wide variety of slopes, hazards, and doglegs.
The par-4 ninth is one of the most beautiful holes in the Midwest. Measuring 417 yards, it is lined by huge mature oaks and plunges down a majestic hill to a green that sits just beyond a creek.
The hole is short, but extreme care must be taken on the second shot, which is played from a downhill lie where short is wet and long leaves an impossible chip down the sloping green.
Interest: 8.5
Muirfield Village requires a variety of shotmaking skills in all aspects of the game, as well as sound decision-making about when to attempt the heroic shot.
The 588-yard 11th is an exquisite hole. The difficult tee shot on this par-5 bends slightly to the left with a creek lurking close to the left side.
Players who miss the fairway face a difficult pitch out with tree trouble in an attempt to advance their ball to the second section of fairway on the other side of the meandering creek.
Par-3s: 9.0
The par-3s at Muirfield Village are outstanding, highly varied, and extremely difficult.
The 210-yard fourth is defined by its incredibly long and narrow green set into a hillside; shots that miss right will leave a treacherous downhill chip.
The eighth measures 200 yards and also has a very narrow green, but this hole plays downhill, and the putting surface is surrounded by sand.
The 180-yard 12th is one of the course's signature holes and is built similarly to the 12th at Augusta National, with a small and extremely shallow, angled green surrounded by water, with bunkers also sitting both short and long.
Finally, the 218-yard 16th is the longest of the bunch and often the most difficult; the front of the green is protected tightly by a pond, and the putting surface itself has an upper back tier. Short shots will find the water, and long misses will be left with a lightning-fast chip back to the front of the green.
Difficulty: 9.5
Muirfield Village is a brute of a golf course. The greens are severely sloped and very fast, and the bunkers are deep and penalizing. Water is also highly prevalent throughout the entire layout.
There are many seriously challenging holes, and a couple of examples come at the start of both nines. The par-4 first hole plays long at 490 yards, and the fairway is difficult to hit, as it is guarded by deep bunkers and doglegs to the right while sloping left.
The 10th is another lengthy par-4, measuring 472 yards, but it plays even longer as it rises slightly uphill from tee to green. This is another tough fairway to find, as it pinches at the landing area with bunkers on either side.
Finish: 10.0
The awesome final three holes make up the defining stretch at Muirfield Village. This finish is also the toughest stretch on the course and one of the hardest conclusions on the PGA Tour.
The aforementioned 16th can be almost impossible to birdie, depending on the hole location, and dishes out many big numbers.
The 503-yard 17th is the longest par-4 on the course and poses one of the track's most demanding second shots. It plays uphill to an elevated green; the front is guarded by a steep drop off with a creek at the bottom, and there are bunkers on the front-right side and long.
This is yet another severe two-tiered green, so most misses in the back bunker are almost impossible to get up and down.
Finally, the 480-yard 18th is an iconic finishing hole. It's a dogleg right off the tee with bunkers to the right and a fairway that slopes toward a creek on the left.
Another uphill second shot awaits to a green that is shallow considering the length of the hole. It is surrounded by bunkers and deep rough, and it is pitched drastically from back to front.
Players putting from above the hole will pray to get down in two before they can finally exhale and head to the clubhouse.
Overall: 9.30
For the criteria used to determine these ratings, please click here.