Muirfield Village Makes Golf Magazine's Top 50 Courses

Muirfield Village, OH, USA

During the time of its design and construction, the two highly motivated personalities of Jack Nicklaus and Desmond Muirhead disagreed on anything and everything when it came to the design of this golf course. After the opening of Muirfield Village in 1974, their partnership dissolved, Nicklaus began his solo design career, and Muirhead took a ten year sabbatical.

Considering this friction, Muirfield Village remarkably represents the sole bright spot in American design in the 1970s. It made for an important transition between Pete Dye�s early work that was beginning to have a sharp edge to it and the overdone courses of the early 1980s (an era that Nicklaus coincidentally also experienced while employing Bob Cupp).

In fact, it is surprising and disappointing that Muirfield Village did not have more of an architectural influence over other designers of the era. Regrettably, it mostly had a maintenance influence as others saw that it possible for courses to be in comparable condition to Augusta National. The superior conditioning (where else do they actually sod bad divot holes?!) seems almost to overshadow the merits of this first rate design.

With the 'traditional' look of his favorite courses in his mind, Nicklaus directed Muirhead and Jay Moorish (an associate at the time for Muirhead and Nicklaus) to find and design original holes across the rolling Ohio landscape. Muirhead's finesse as a land planner is the real highlight and his routing makes brilliant use of the creeks and terrain. No matter how much the two disagreed, Nicklaus and Muirhead ultimately produced a golf course that was fresh with ideas in a decade that was virtually void of originality.

The short 12th illustrates the differences between the emerging 'style' of Pete Dye and that of Jack Nicklaus. As he did at Crooked Stick, The Golf Club and Harbour Town, Dye would have shored up the edge of the water hazard with railroad ties, while Nicklaus opted for a grass slope. However, Nicklaus's approach is just as penal as there is a sharp slope down to the water, particularly to the right of the green, where a ball could hardly come to rest. The same result as Dye's, just different aesthetics.

In the authors� view, the biggest knock is the name. An original course deserves an original name. However, that can be forgiven given the abundance of fine holes.

Holes to Note:

8^th hole, 175 yards: This exceedingly narrow green that is 95% ringed by sand (a definite Muirhead feature) appears wonderful after the big courses of the 1960s. This hole is a give away that a good player was involved in the design of the course -- professionals miss greens left and right while amateurs miss them short and long.

11^th hole, 530 yards: This par five plays well as both a two-shotter and three-shotter. Note the helping rise at the rear the green that encourages players to go for the green in two.