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Players prepare without Jack and Tiger
by Dave Weissman, Columbus Wired

Today was the final practice round before the 2006 Memorial Tournament begins for real tomorrow. The tournament will be without both Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, who has not played in 10 weeks during his father’s illness and subsequent death.

The tournament will however, have 2006 Master Champion Phil Mickelson, who has not played here in a few years. “I know I haven’t been back, it’s just been scheduling”, he said. “I’m looking forward to (this year), it starts my stretch now, through the U.S. Open and what a great place to start at Muirfield Village.”

As part of the pre-ceremonies, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem paid a visit to Columbus to announce the Captains for the 2007.

He was accompanied on stage with tournament host Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player who will both return as Captains of the United States and International Teams, respectively for the 2007 President’s Cup Matches to be held in Montreal. It will mark the third time each have led their teams.

On the course, the players fine tuned their game while Nicklaus, last year’s champion Bart Bryant and others took part in the Pro-Am.

Jack as always has created a few new twists to the course this year to keep the players on their toes. “We’ve done a few things,” he said he was trying to bring the bunkers into play. “The first hole, the guys are now driving the ball over the bunkers, and they bunkers don’t have to be in play. We moved the tee back 21 yards to put the bunkers into play.”

The biggest change was in the treatment of the bunkers throughout the course. Nicklaus wanted a change and contacted the Tour office a few weeks ago to inquire about changing the way they raked the bunkers. “I asked them if we raked them the way we did when we started the tournament (in 1976) we’d have an uncertainty of what the lie was.”

So, for this tournament the Muirfield Golf Club created a special round rake with long teeth which allows the ball to sit in the bunker and create a more difficult shot. With a two-inch spread of the rake between teeth, it crates waffling ‘v” in the sand which may or not leave the player with a good lie.

Nicklaus has long stated that bunkers need to be a hazard, not a cushion. “Right now guys look at a par-5, if I don’t get it on the green, and put it in the bunker, I know I can get it up-and-down for the par and move on.”

The Tour agreed and has been telling the Tour players all year that the honeymoon is over and the bunkers are going to be a penalty. The Tour thought what better place to test it than the Memorial, Jack’s tournament.

As seems to be at the Memorial, weather has played a factor already with thunderstorms delaying the Honoree Ceremony for about an hour.

Additionally, officials have erected a set up planks above the ground which the players can use to not be besieged by fans for autographs. The players can easily walk from the clubhouse, over the fans, to and from the practice range and the scoring tent and along autograph alley, which the fans have long been very friendly with the players.

“The Tour has asked us for years and told us we have a very awkward situation. I’ve been trying to figure out for years how do we get the players across there. They finish their scorecard and then they have to fight their way to the driving range or clubhouse. Someone is eventually going to get hurt,” Nicklaus said.

The players will need some getting used to on the new bunkers. “If youget in bunkers, you’re not going to get up-and-down all the time,” said David Howell. It’s going to take it back more to accuracy off the tee. It’s going to make people play slightly differently.”