DUBLIN, OHIO | Jack Nicklaus can still go chapter and verse about how and why Muirfield Village Golf Club was created more than 50 years ago on land where he once hunted with his father.
“Never shot anything,” Nicklaus said this week, smiling at the memory of walking the land that he chose out of 11 possible sites on what was then undeveloped property northwest of Columbus.
Inspired by Augusta National and the Masters Tournament and underpinned by the memory of his close friend Bob Barton, who perished before the project came to life, Nicklaus created a place and a purpose that helped redefine the PGA Tour.
This is the 50th anniversary of the Memorial Tournament and it matters beyond the ceremonial milestone. It matters because of what Nicklaus envisioned, what he cultivated and how, at 86 years old, he remains the spirit within what is one of the aspirational events in professional golf.
As the tour works toward a reimagined future, one stuffed with more than a dozen tournaments that can match the Memorial in purse size but not yet in enduring relevance, this week and this place are reminders of the goal.
Painted in the tournament’s forest green and gray color scheme and imbued with an understated elegance, the Memorial can be the model for what tour CEO Brian Rolapp wants to have more weeks than not by 2028.
What Nicklaus provides – he remains nimble sharing his thoughts and memories even if his body is showing his age – is the magic dust unique to Muirfield Village. He is the game’s greatest champion and this place has always been his passion project, though he would probably downplay such an emotion.
There are reasons every top tour player minus two – Collin Morikawa, whose wife is expecting a baby, and Viktor Hovland, who’s nursing a recent back injury – is at Muirfield Village. It starts, as most top-level tournaments do, with a classic golf course, it has an ideal date two weeks before the U.S. Open, it has a history of great champions and, to restate the obvious, it has Nicklaus.
As the discussions and deliberations continue about what the PGA Tour will look like in 2028 (next year’s schedule won’t be drastically different from this year), the Memorial feels like a foundational pillar to what is and whatever comes next.
His touch is everywhere, from his regular tinkering with the golf course, to calling it a tournament rather than a championship because that’s what Augusta National did, right down to the famous milkshakes.
Nicklaus bought the property for $155,000 and, 10 years later, sold it to the members for $155,000, intentionally taking no profit from what he created, he said. It has been a work in progress since before Roger Maltbie won the inaugural event wearing patchwork plaid pants in 1976 and it has been driven by a simple philosophy.
“One thing I tried to do is I knew how I would like to be treated as a player and where I went and what I did. And, you know, there’s some tournaments that did it pretty well. Some did it fair. I think we do it pretty well here,” Nicklaus said.
It isn’t lost on the players.
“Mr. Nicklaus is a part of the fabric of this tournament and his family is as well. It’s not just about him. This is a special place for us to be able to come and compete, not only from the challenge of the golf course, but being able to play in front of the fans and carrying on Mr. Nicklaus’ legacy. This is a really cool tournament for us,” said Scottie Scheffler, who is attempting to become the first player to win the Memorial three consecutive years.
As the discussions and deliberations continue about what the PGA Tour will look like in 2028 (next year’s schedule won’t be drastically different from this year), the Memorial feels like a foundational pillar to what is and whatever comes next.
Nicklaus initially brushed off a question about the looming changes coming to the tour before saying, “I’m not exactly in favor of what they’re doing now.” His opinion still matters but he acknowledges that the decisions are in the hands of others, another inevitability of time’s passage.
“I’m not really trying to impact the game any, I’m trying to make sure that just what we do here is right for the game,” Nicklaus said.
“Anything that, anything that the tour or anybody wants to sit down and ask me and talk about, I hope that I can, through the experience that I’ve had, be of some influence or what do you call it? Something to bounce off of, somebody to bounce off things. And I’m too old to worry about trying to create new stuff.”
While looking toward what’s next, the Memorial Tournament offers an aspirational model of how things can be.