Last week, Jack Nicklaus stopped at Muirfield Village, on his way to a hunting trip in Canada, to discuss with his design team some major changes to the course he built and has continued to tweak almost every year since its opening in 1974.
Discussed on the practice green that day and in a 4-hour ride around the course with his team was the dramatic lengthening of two par 5s (Nos. 11 and 15) and changing the par-5 fifth hole into a long par 4. They also discussed re-grassing the greens and installing a new underground drainage system that was dramatically needed in June when 3 inches of rain fell on the course when Patrick Cantlay won the Memorial Tournament by shooting 19 under.