DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — Bay Hill was brutal one year. Shots into the firm greens looked as if they were bouncing off a trampoline, yet the grass was so lush in front of the green it was hard to get the ball close. No one shot better than 69.
One major champion unloaded in the parking lot that evening, calling the course a joke and wondering aloud if he would return. Just then, tournament host Arnold Palmer pulled up beside him in a golf cart and asked him what he thought.
He looked at the King, shrugged and slowly nodded his head.
"Not bad," he said.
Jack Nicklaus couldn't stop laughing when he heard this story Sunday morning at the Memorial.
There was no shortage of media complaints about Muirfield Village, where Kenny Perry won with the highest score in 23 years. Nicklaus might be colorblind, but he can read black-and-white print in a newspaper.
The source of players' aggravation was rough that might be as thick and long as they see all year. Combine that with the fastest, purest greens on tour and the results were predictable. There were more rounds in the 80s than the 60s. Players near the top of the leaderboard said it was tough but fair. Players near the bottom said it was ridiculous.
Nicklaus could relate to Palmer.
"Not one player said a word to me," he said.
Course setups get about as much attention as slow play these days, and solutions are equally difficult to find. Nicklaus made it clear that he wasn't in charge of the way Muirfield Village played - that ultimately falls to the PGA Tour staff - but it was no different from previous years, except for a wet spring that made the grass grow.
The rough, indeed, was troublesome. Mike Weir had a wedge to the fifth green in the final round and chipped out from the deep rough (he still made par). Phil Mickelson rifled a 3-wood some 290 yards to the par-5 11th green in the second round, and the ball rolled off the back into the rough. It was so deep he wound up scrambling for par.
"I think one of the greatest shots in golf is the recovery," Nicklaus said. "I hate it when you're hacking out, and they're doing that at my tournament. I hate that. But I have no control over that."
The lawn mowers weren't broken, but the grass was so thick it might not have mattered.
Some players felt as though they were at a U.S. Open, and maybe that's why Nicklaus was so amused to hear so much whining. He used to go to the U.S. Open, listen to players complain about the course, and figure those guys had no chance.
"You have to learn to adjust," Nicklaus said. "If I couldn't adjust my game to the conditions, I didn't deserve to do well."
