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June 26th, 2015
I attended my first ever pro golf tournament recently in beautiful Dublin, Ohio. Dublin is a suburb of Columbus and this is where Jack Nicklaus—one of the greatest pro golfers ever—designed a very challenging golf course. Mr. Nicklaus is from and went to school in Columbus. He acquired this property 40 years ago and in 1974 the Muirfield Village Golf Club opened.
The first golf tournament was held in 1976—Roger Maltbie won the $40,000 purse. Since then, Jack Nicklaus won twice, Tiger Woods five times, Greg Norman twice and others like Watson, Irwin and Azinger all came to the Memorial and took home the trophy. Each year there is an honoree named for their contribution to the game of golf. This year’s honoree was Sir Nick Faldo, Jr. The honoree is chosen by members of the Captain’s Club—one member being a past president of the United States. One of my favorite players named honoree in 2001 was Payne Stewart, two years after his tragic death.
The Memorial benefits the community in many, many wonderful ways. The list is extensive. A longtime benefactor in honor of The Memorial’s continued support of it for many years, Nationwide Children's Hospital (Columbus), in 2006, hosted a ceremony dedicating its neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) as the Memorial Tournament NICU. The finest care is provided here for the smallest of the small.
The grounds of the golf course are beautiful, but surprisingly not all that flat. The pedometer clocked more than seven miles of walking as we zigzagged through about half the holes on the course. Tom, Ryan, Sam and I followed several players including Jordan Spieth, Phil Michelson, Dustin Johnson and, of course, Tiger Woods. Tiger was having a pretty rough day on Saturday—the absolute worst of his career. We were in the throng following Tiger and saw him on the eighth hole drive into one sand trap only to hit the ball over the green into another sand trap. On the 15th hole, he hit into the trap again, pitched out and 3-putted for another double bogey. Finally, on the 18th hole (a Par 4 and one that is considered extremely challenging), while we watched Tiger press through this debacle—it could only be termed this—he ended up with a quad, but the crowd continued to be encouraging and only wanted to see from Tiger the kind of play that was, at one time, considered absolutely remarkable. Before it was over though, my thought was, “Oh, my.” The hushed crowd was just shocked. I certainly hope he will get back into winning contention.
Long ago, Payne Stewart was my favorite pro golfer. I often dressed my son, Ryan, when he was a baby similar to what Payne wore on the course. My new favorite is Jordan Spieth, who is ranked in the top five and only 21 years old. We followed Jordan for several holes, but before he even teed off on Saturday, we had a ‘sort of’ close encounter with him. We were walking on the paved trail between the golf course on one side and houses on the other side (which were protected by a wrought iron fence) when all of sudden, someone right in front of us (in a bright orange shirt) came up to the fence from the other side and proceeded to climb over, jumped down, made eye contact, smiled, said, “Hello” and continued to run onto the course. My husband and I recognized him at the same time on his downward journey on this side of the fence. Tom spoke to him. But wow, you know, a seemingly nice young man, friendly, agile and didn’t appear to have a care in the world—but so immensely talented. I am looking forward to watching him throughout his career.
A few things that I gleaned from being in Dublin this past weekend is that Dublin has some of the most beautiful homes with landscaping that is extraordinary. I love the landscaping. It is nice to see that McDonalds, Wendy’s and even gas stations must have to adhere to a building code that includes a certain type building (façade) and this wonderful landscaping. The town is quaint and picturesque. I would recommend stopping by The Dublin Village Tavern.
I did not know, or had since forgotten, that Jack Nicklaus is from Columbus and the name of the golf course, the Muirfield Village Golf Club, came from Jack Nicklaus’ first British Open win at Muirfield, Scotland in 1966. The Memorial is at times considered the fifth major and the golf course is ranked in the top 20 in the country. The Pro Golf Association is very big into philanthropy and is considered the most charitable of all the pro sports associations. It would surprise me if Mr. Nicklaus is not at the top of that list.
I recommend this golf tournament to even the most casual golf fan. I definitely want to return to The Memorial next year.
