The Memorial Tournament is considered a second-tier tournament to the four major golf championships, and so is its course at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.

But not by much.

The course ranks 19th on Golf Digest magazine’s most recent edition of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses and was ranked sixth in difficulty on the PGA tour in 2009.

All of that is by design.

“If you don’t do a golf course for the sake of challenge, there’s no fun,” said Jack Nicklaus, the original architect and PGA-tour record holder for most career major championships.
Nicklaus designed the course in 1974 and proceeded to win the tournament he founded twice during his career.

“I thank him every time I see him for building Muirfield,” said Kenny Perry, three-time Memorial champion.

Though he enjoys the course, Perry was quick to identify what separates it from the majors.

“The difference here is the fairways are very generous. You know the fairways are big here so you don’t feel claustrophobic off the tee,” Perry said. “If he (Nicklaus) grew the rough in a little bit here, this place would be tough, it’d be just like a U.S. Open.”

Robert Allenby, who is in his 19th year on tour, spotted the same difference.

“These fairways are probably some of the widest on tour on some of the holes,” he said.

Despite the wide fairways, the course is far from easy.

Based on average score, the course boasts the third-toughest 18th hole on the PGA tour as well as the third-worst putting percentage from inside 10 feet.

“The speed of the greens are unbelievable here,” Perry said.

Ben Curtis gave even higher praise. As a 10-year pro and native of Stow, Ohio, Curtis has played the course countless times, he said.

“You know the greens are going to be really good, they’ll be Augusta-like,” he said, referencing the course that hosts the Masters, one of the four majors.

Whether the course is up to par with the major tournaments or not, Nicklaus has eliminated any problems he has seen with it.

“It’s perfect, basically,” he said. “I found a little bit of material that had come up slightly on a bridge, so we fixed that.”

That was the only fault he could find when playing the course twice during the past weekend, Nicklaus said.

Nicklaus does not look at the difficulty of the course as a fault, but rather as a point of pride.

“You have to have a little something, excitement and spirit in the golf course,” he said. “We’re all guilty of that.”