Muirfield's 18th: Fewer bunkers, better hole

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The 18th hole at Muirfield Village Golf Club is no day at the beach. And now it's even less so.

Memorial Tournament host Jack Nicklaus last summer removed six of the nine bunkers lining the right side of the 18th fairway, deeming them irrelevant to the task of protecting the hole, which already is among the toughest, having ranked No. 1 in difficulty more often (18 of 39 times) than any other hole.

"Once we put the back tee in, I didn't need those other bunkers," Nicklaus said, explaining that since the tee was moved back nearly 30 yards two years ago, fewer PGA Tour players have been able to cut the dogleg to give themselves shorter approach shots to the green. Balls that do find sand almost always land in one of the three farthest bunkers. The other six located closer to the tee essentially were visual and maintenance headaches.

Nicklaus didn't like the aerial view of nine bunkers making the hole resemble the Florida coast.

"I always thought it looked terrible on television looking down and seeing (so many) bunkers," he said. "Now it looks better on television, looks better for spectators and is a lot easier to maintain, too."

Course superintendent Paul Latshaw joins Nicklaus in not being sorry to see the six bunkers go.

"It's hard to build bunkers on sides of hills," he said. "A lot of water got into them and they were always washing out. In trying to get the course open for play (after rain) and meet TV deadlines for golf, this is going to help us out."

Forecast foggy

When it comes to weather reports, Latshaw has learned that seeing is believing. Over the past 48 hours, the forecast has called for 60 percent chance of rain for much of the week, then dropped to 20 percent before jumping back to 60 percent.

"I can't remember a forecast changing so dramatically," he said. "There's a whole front coming through and we're on the boundary, so it could be wet or dry."

Course conditions were in line with where the Memorial wants it, until nearly an inch of rain fell on Saturday and Sunday, Latshaw said.

"Now we're wet," he said.

This article was written by Rob Oller from The Columbus Dispatch and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.