DUBLIN, Ohio – As is an annual occurrence, Jack Nicklaus met with the media Tuesday ahead of the start of The Memorial he hosts at Muirfield Village Golf Club, which he built, and did what he always does – talk at length on a variety of subjects for over more than one hour.
One subject, however, he only touched on briefly – a complaint filed against him on May 13 by Nicklaus Companies which alleges tortious interference, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty.
Nicklaus, 82, said in a statement two weeks ago that the claims by Howard Milstein, executive chairman of the Nicklaus Companies who also oversees Golf Magazine and Golf.com., were untrue.
“I’m not worried about that,” Nicklaus said. “I feel very comfortable with where we are. And I’m here to talk about The Memorial Tournament and not that.”
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This is the 47th playing of The Memorial, which Nicklaus won in 1977 and 1984. This year, he welcomes another loaded field, topped by seven of the top-10 players in the world – world No. 2 Jon Rahm, No. 3 Cameron Smith, No. 4 Collin Morikawa, No. 6 and defending champion Patrick Cantlay, No. 7 Viktor Hovland, No. 8 Rory McIlroy and No. 10 Jordan Spieth.
After a major renovation of the course completed in 2021, Nicklaus feels the players will be challenged by a firm and fast track.
“This year now that we’ve had a year of maturity, the fairways are excellent,” Nicklaus said. “The guys were coming in today and telling me how firm they were. I like firm greens, but I don’t like ridiculous greens. I like them so that if you play a good shot, you’re rewarded and the ball will take it right out a little bit, but it won’t hit and go.
“The rough is not particularly thick this year. I don’t know why that is, but I think there’s plenty of it. Certainly, around the greens, there’s plenty of it.
“The golf course is excellent. I even played it. I played it for the first time. I played it Saturday and Sunday, and I hadn’t been playing. I didn’t play golf last year. Anyway, I cruised it around Sunday in 84. That was pretty good for me.”
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Here are some other subjects Nicklaus touched on.