Muirfield Village Golf Club – Past Player Quotes

Patrick Cantlay: With the new length on all these par-5s, it’s a lot of laying up. I’ve never laid up as much this week around this golf course on the par-5s by a long ways. So the par-5s are playing a lot more difficult and I think that’s why scoring’s worse this year compared to previous years. Especially considering how this golf course in the past has played. But that’s just the way it is now. — I like this golf course a lot. It puts a serious premium on driving the ball in the fairway, which is one of my strengths. I feel comfortable around here. I feel like I know the lines and what to expect. The golf course suits my game. There’s a huge premium on driving the golf ball long in the fairway. And if you can control your distance coming into the greens, you can have a lot of looks. The greens are really slopey, and there’s a lot of hole locations where the ball gathers to the hole. And being able to know your distance and knowing where to leave it so it will feed to the hole is important. — The golf course is really big, but the greens actually aren’t. They’re some of the smallest ones we play. It’s such a small area that the mistakes are magnified. If you’re not extremely precise, you can miss the green in a heartbeat.

Collin Morikawa: I love it. I’ve had success here and I really love the course. The first time I showed up last year I just fell in love with the place. I knew this was a place I was going to love for the rest of my life. It’s a course that really has suited my eye. It fits my eye off the tee a lot. There’s only a couple tee shots where I might not be able to hit my cut as well as I want to. But other than that if I keep it in the fairway, I feel like I’m hitting kind of a lot of 9-irons, 8-irons and 7-irons and that’s kind of what I’ve based my game on the past couple years and when I’m able to put those irons in my hands I feel like I can attack pins, I can be smart and give myself maybe some closer birdies than other guys can.

Rory McIlroy: No, it’s the redesign of the holes. Especially the par-5 5th green. I think people are just realizing you’re probably more likely to make birdie just by laying up, which is a shame, because it’s sort of exciting to get to go for par-5s and it’s sort of taken that a little bit out of play. As it dries out, it will make people even more wary of going for the par-5s in two. Like I went for one par-5 today and made 6 and laid up on the others and had birdie chances. I’ve made more birdies this week by laying up than I have going for the green. I think what’s happened here is everyone is just now playing from the same spot with their second shot. It’s not an easy driving golf course by any means, but everyone is hitting to the same spot. So I guess there’s no different strategies off the tee.

Bubba Watson: The golf course is just very tough, very difficult. It’s like you’re playing a major championship. The rough is thick as I’ve ever seen it. You hit it in the rough, it’s definitely going to cost you a little bit. You have wide targets, you have wide fairways, greens are a little bit smaller. You can hold any kind of major you wanted to here and he’s got the rough up. So I mean it’s just it’s a challenge in your head to know that sometimes missing the green might be the right play, but who wants to try to miss a green? So there’s certain areas you’re trying to hit the ball and it’s just mentally grueling and you got to somehow stay focused and stay committed on each shot at every second.

Jon Rahm: It’s a test out there. It’s more how golf should be. I’m glad for once we’re not having a week where it becomes a putting contest and see who shoots 20-plus under par. I do think the redesign has made it a better golf course, but more difficult. I do think par-5s, 5 and 7 are way more difficult now than they were last year. 8 plays harder, a couple other holes are also playing a little bit harder simply because they’re a little bit longer.

Bryson DeChambeau: I love the grass. It’s super familiar. I’m just comfortable with this type of grass. For whatever reason it seems to be that, out of this grass relative to Bermuda, it’s just way easier to kind of control the ball out of those types of lies.

Jason Dufner: This is a difficult golf course. Just being underneath the hole is a big thing out here. When I play good rounds, I seem to be putting uphill all week. I’m struggling from above the hole. So position into the greens is important. These are by far probably the best greens that we play on all year, from the standpoint of consistency on speed from green to green. When I step on the 7th green I feel like it’s the same speed as the 14th green or the 17th green. And then also just the consistency of the roll, like you said. You feel like you get a really pure roll. If you start in on your line and your read is right you’re probably going to be holing a lot of putts. And I think they get as fast as any that we play. There’s a lot of pitch, a lot of undulation out there on these greens. You get above the hole you’re just breathing on them when they’re moving pretty good. – I think distance can play a factor because it brings shorter clubs in. But I think it’s mostly a second-shot golf course, so I think you need to be on your irons, being able to hit the different shots, you got a lot of different angles that Mr. Nicklaus has presented to you on the golf course. A little bit of positioning off the tee because the better you can be in position to some hole locations the better the angle is, so the easier the shot may play. You got to be able to control your ball with a little bit of a fade. A lot of the hole locations, a lot of the second shots play to kind of a fade bias, where if you can move the ball a little bit left-to-right it will make it a little bit easier for you. The greens are fast and they have a good bit of natural slope. I don’t want to say they’re real slopey, but they have tilt, so you get a lot of putts inside of that 10-foot range that kind of have a good amount of speed but also a good amount of break. So being able to control your speed and match your lines is pretty important.

Jordan Spieth: The greens are arguably tied for first or second only to Augusta National as far as speed and how pure they are consistently each year. I love putting on greens where you have to have imagination, you have to play these ridges, speed control is so vital. And then I enjoy the ball striking part of this course where these pins are located normally three times. They’re located pretty close to each other, and if you hit a really good tee shot, you’re set up to feed into these holes. You can have really short birdie putts and you’ll see some eagles out here, given that the greens are so fast, they’ll just speed off the side and roll down. But if you get yourself out of position off the tee, and all of a sudden you’re left you can’t really take much of a chance because then you get above the hole and you’re out of it. So premium on positioning off the tee, and then imagination putting. And I enjoy those aspects of Muirfield. — It plays pretty similar to Augusta. It’s a second shot golf course where it’s not the toughest off the tee, but playing to certain sides of the fairways have big advantages on angles to the pins. It’s tough to get the ball below the hole. Same as Augusta, unless you’re in the right spot where you’re attacking, and take your medicine if you’re not.

William McGirt: The one thing that I’ve learned, I think this was my fourth time playing here, I think. The biggest thing I’ve learned is where you can and cannot miss it. Most of the week, I missed it in the proper spot and left myself a chance to get it up and down. I mean, that’s the whole key around here is you can’t go attacking pins.

Rickie Fowler: Yeah, most of the driving areas are generous in a way. There are some tight holes where you do have to be careful. But for the most part, it’s a second shot golf course. You have to have control of your golf ball coming to these greens, and you have to be able to put yourself on the right side of the hole on the right section of the green, which can definitely make a difference. It’s a three putt when you’re in the wrong spot. You’re rewarded with good shots, but it will pick you apart if you’re off your numbers or missing your lines.

Carlos Ortiz: It’s high. It’s tough. Thick. I guess it’s a good practice for the U.S. Open, right? It’s tough rough.

Justin Thomas: I’m pretty sure Jack’s courses are second-shot courses. I would say that was a strength of his game, and I do like that aspect of it. You have to hit it well. The fairways are pretty generous out here. The greens are also pretty generous but they have some severity to them, so you need to have control of your ball, putting them in the correct spots.

Adam Scott: I like the fact it’s fairly generous off the tees here. That’s nice for me. I don’t hit the most fairways on the PGA Tour, so I get a little bit more room. There is a premium hitting into the greens then, and that is one of my strong suits. So when you’re on and you can put it in under the hole, and that’s important, because the greens are so fast.

Jamie Lovemark:  You have to be conservative off the tee. The fairways are pretty wide. But the greens are so fast and slippery that if you short side yourself you have no chance. 25-footer is not bad, though.

Jason Day: It’s awkward because it’s a second shot golf course. The greens are quick. If you get yourself out of position on the golf course then you struggle to make par. And you have to hit a lot of fairways here. And to me you have a lot of 3-woods in your hands. You get more drivers in your hands, you miss a few more fairways. The rough is up at least three inches, so you can’t get anything going. – It’s a course where I think if you hit it like 280, it sets up perfect for you. You can hit it to the corners, you don’t have to try to take over the bunkers.

Grayson Murray: You can hit a lot of fades off the tee, which is good for me. Pretty generous fairways. When you’re coming out of the fairway you have a lot of scoring clubs.

Tiger Woods: So over the course of my career I’ve done well on Nicklaus courses. And I’ve always felt maybe just the high fade or just high shots in general, because I’ve always hit the ball high has always been advantageous.

Featured Image: Golf Digest