StrackaLine offers a hole-by-hole course guide for Muirfield Village in Ohio, site of the Memorial Tournament on the PGA Tour.
Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio – site of the 2023 Memorial Tournament on the PGA Tour – was founded and designed by Jack Nicklaus, opening in 1974. The course has been the site of the Memorial since 1976.
The course, which completed a large renovation in 2020, will play to 7,533 yards with a par of 72 for this week’s Memorial Tournament.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week at Muirfield Village.
Jack’s Place traditionally attracts a star-studded field but being elevated to a designated event hasn’t hurt.
DUBLIN, Ohio – Jack Nicklaus called the field at this week’s Memorial Tournament “probably as good a field as we’ve ever had.”
“They’re all here,” he said on Tuesday in a press conference ahead of the tournament he hosts at Muirfield Village Golf Club, the club he built and that has played host to an annual PGA Tour stop since 1976.
Jack’s Place traditionally attracts a star-studded field regardless of status but being elevated to a designated event with a $20 million purse hasn’t hurt the 120-man field. Indeed, seven of the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking and 38 of the top 50 are in the field as well as 25 of the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings and 22 of the 27 players that have won on Tour this season.
He added, “For all intents and purposes all the top players in the world are here.”
But those impressive figures don’t include two of the four reigning major champions — British Open winner Cameron Smith and PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka — and regular participants such as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and 2018 winner Bryson DeChambeau.
Nicklaus said he sent a congratulatory note to Koepka after he won the PGA two weeks ago at Oak Hill, where he won the Wanamaker Trophy in 1980. Nicklaus has tried his best to stay out of the confrontation between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, but he has an opinion on most every subject and never has been too shy to tell anyone what he really thinks.
“There were certain players that it was probably the right thing for,” Nicklaus said of joining LIV. “It probably spurred the PGA Tour, I don’t think there’s any question about that, either, to move it to greater heights. But it wasn’t for me, it wasn’t for what my legacy was. Obviously, I pretty much started what the Tour is out here.”
Golfers wait to tee off during a practice round for the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club. (Photo: Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch)
Asked if he was disappointed not to have the reigning major winners in the field this week, he said, “I don’t even consider those guys part of the game anymore. I don’t mean that in a nasty way. This is a PGA Tour event and we have the best field we can possibly have for a PGA Tour event for those who are eligible to be here. The other guys made a choice of what they did and where they’ve gone and we don’t even talk about it.”
Nicklaus added that six or seven LIV players are members of the Bears Club, the private club he built in South Florida, and that all of the players have had their membership renewed and remain active at the club.
“It’s just where they chose to play golf,” Nicklaus said. “I wish them all well.”
Asked if he would permit LIV players to return to compete in the Memorial in future years, he said, “It’s not up to me.” He continued: “I don’t know if I’d let them back or not. They made a choice about what they want to do and that’s what the rules are.”
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Nicklaus played in an era where professional golf for most of the players was a subsistence living. He still remembers earning $33.33 for his first check at the 1962 Los Angeles Open for finishing 50th.
“The first year I played you made the cut — 70 players made the cut, but they only paid 50. And I made money in every tournament I played in my first year. And I had a lot of ’em that I just made the cut,” he recalled. “I shot 64 in the last round in Pensacola to make last money. I think I shot 65 last round in Palm Springs to make maybe last money or close to it. You know, in those days to pick up $250, which is what we were making when we would just make the cut, you know, you wanted that $250. That took care of another week or two of playing golf.”
Was there ever a point where he looked at the money the pros are making today and thought it was staggering?
“I look at it every day, are you kidding me?” he said. “It is staggering.”
But for Nicklaus, winning was the ultimate prize.
“I was all about how good I could be in a sport and money just took care of itself,” he explained. “Some guys, they might not even care about playing golf, they’re just good at it. It’s a means to an end for them. If that’s what it is, that’s fine. Guys who have stayed for the most part are guys that play the game of golf for the game of golf and for the sport of it and the competition. To me, that’s what the thing is all about. Are they getting rewarded for that? Absolutely, they are, I think that’s great. We never made any money playing golf. What’s my lifetime earnings on the regular tour, $5 million?”
Nicklaus guessed his retirement fund from the PGA Tour was $237,000 and that Tiger Woods’s would be $100 million.
“We had to play golf to make a name to go make a living. If I had been playing today would I be doing golf course design, would I be doing other things?” Nicklaus mused. “These guys are really making a fantastic living and setting up their families for a lifetime by really playing the game well.”
Everything you need to know for the first round from Muirfield Village.
One of the greatest players to ever swing a club has welcomed a loaded field full of the world’s best to his home club.
Jack Nicklaus and Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, play host to the 2023 Memorial Tournament this week, where defending champion Billy Horschel and the top five players in the world are on hand to compete for the $20 million purse. Muirfield Village will play as a par 72 at a whopping 7,533 yards.
From tee times to TV and streaming info, here’s everything you need to know for the first round of the 2023 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
Thursday tee times
1st tee
Time
Players
7 a.m.
Danny Willett, Peter Malnati, Robby Shelton
7:12 a.m.
Dylan Frittelli, Adam Hadwin, Taylor Montgomery
7:24 a.m.
Troy Merritt, Brandon Wu, Ben Taylor
7:36 a.m.
Harris English, Garrick Higgo, Brendon Todd
7:48 a.m.
Matt Wallace, Seamus Power, Cam Davis
8 a.m.
Russell Henley, Lanto Griffin, Matt Kuchar
8:12 a.m.
Kevin Kisner, Lucas Glover, Brian Harman
8:24 a.m.
J.J. Spaun, Luke List, Stewart Cink
8:36 a.m.
Jason Dufner, Mark Hubbard, Hayden Buckley
8:48 a.m.
Austin Eckroat, Bo Hoag, Chris Gotterup
12 p.m.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Lee Hodges, Sam Stevens
12:12 p.m.
David Lipsky, Ben Griffin, S.H. Kim
12:24 p.m.
Adam Long, William McGirt, K.J. Choi
12:36 p.m.
Mackenzie Hughes, Chad Ramey, Joel Dahmen
12:48 p.m.
Nico Echavarria, Trey Mullinax, Francesco Molinari
1 p.m.
Chez Reavie, J.T. Poston, Sepp Straka
1:12 p.m.
Davis Riley, Lucas Herbert, Brandt Snedeker
1:24 p.m.
Chris Kirk, Tom Hoge, Scott Stallings
1:36 p.m.
Kevin Streelman, Adam Schenk, Sam Ryder
1:48 p.m.
Kazuki Higa, Thriston Lawrence, David Micheluzzi
10th tee
Time
Players
7:05 a.m.
Beau Hossler, Taylor Pendrith, Davis Thompson
7:17 a.m.
Patrick Rodgers, Ben An, Denny McCarthy
7:29 a.m.
Keith Mitchell, Joseph Bramlett, Justin Suh
7:41 a.m.
Wyndham Clark, Kurt Kitayama, Tom Kim
7:53 a.m.
Emiliano Grillo, Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland
8:05 a.m.
Jason Day, Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa
8:17 a.m.
Sam Burns, Si Woo Kim, Rickie Fowler
8:29 a.m.
Adam Scott, Zach Johnson, Cameron Young
8:41 a.m.
Nick Hardy, Sungjae Im, Shane Lowry
8:53 a.m.
Aaron Rai, Akshay Bhatia, Sam Bennett
12:05 p.m.
Will Gordon, Eric Cole, Ryan Fox
12:17 p.m.
David Lingmerth, Alex Noren, Matt NeSmith
12:29 p.m.
Luke Donald, Stephan Jaeger, Thomas Detry
12:41 p.m.
Patrick Cantlay, Billy Horschel, Hideki Matsuyama
12:53 p.m.
Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Tyrrell Hatton
1:05 p.m.
Matt Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas
“Frankly, I hit the ball poorly all week,” Nicklaus said. “But my putter was fantastic. I ran the tables with my putter.”
When Jack Nicklaus came to Oak Hill Country Club’s East Course in 1980 for the 62nd playing of the PGA Championship, he had already reclaimed his spot on a pedestal atop the golf world.
After failing to capture a single PGA Tour win during the 1979 season, marking the first time that had happened since he joined the Tour in 1962, there were whispers that the game had passed the Golden Bear by. Many were looking to a corps of younger players that included Fuzzy Zoeller and Seve Ballesteros, both of whom captured majors during the ‘79 campaign, to dominate the game’s mantle.
But Nicklaus ended any premature talk about his demise when he posted an impressive victory at Baltusrol in the U.S. Open during the spring of 1980. And after securing his first major of a new decade, Nicklaus came to Oak Hill, a course he had long appreciated, with a chance to secure a fifth PGA Championship and a 17th major.
But to understand the origins of his passion and desire to win the Wanamaker Trophy, one needs to step back 30 years earlier, when the 1950 PGA Championship was held at Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio, where the Nicklaus family had a membership.
With the help of his teacher, Scioto’s head professional Jack Grout, a 10-year-old Nicklaus gained access to the locker room to meet many of the stars of the game, including acquiring autographs from Hall of Famer Sam Snead, eventual champion Chandler Harper, who had been assigned to father Charlie Nicklaus’s locker, and most memorably Lloyd Mangrum.
“I can still see that slim, dark figure sitting at a table with a fan of cards in one hand and a glass of hooch in the other and a cigarette dangling from his lips, and recall how intimidated I was when he turned to me and gave me that famous tough look of his and snarled, ‘Whaddya want, kid?’ ” Nicklaus wrote in My Story, his 1997 autobiography. “But he signed my autograph book, and I remember being extremely proud of my courage in standing up to such a fearsome character.”
Nicklaus often has credited that experience with shaping his desire to be a professional golfer when he grew up.
Jack Nicklaus poses with the PGA Championship trophy at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., Sunday, Aug. 10, 1980
By the time he came to Oak Hill, courage and Nicklaus were synonymous. Perhaps the most intriguing piece of perspective in what was a truly dominant performance during the 1980 event was Nicklaus’ inaccuracy off the tee. After looking sharp through the first few months that summer, the Ohio native sprayed the ball around a course that demands precision.
He had one secret weapon, however — a putter that was almost as hot as Western New York temperatures that climbed into the 90s.
“Prior to the PGA Championship at Oak Hill, I had played pretty well that year,” Nicklaus said. “Unfortunately, going into that tournament, I started hitting the ball poorly. And frankly, I hit the ball poorly all week. But my putter was fantastic. I ran the tables with my putter.”
Nicklaus opened the tournament with rounds of 70 and 69, and he first trailed leader Craig Stadler and then Dr. Gil Morgan, who took the lead at the tournament’s midpoint.
Jack Nicklaus, who led the PGA at the end of the third round, blasts out of the sand on the seventh hole of the Oak Hill Country Club during fourth round of the PGA Championship in Rochester, N.Y., Sunday, Aug. 10, 1980.
In the third round, however, Nicklaus was scintillating on the greens, making up for wayward shots by draining a multitude of important putts. By the end of the day, he’d gone from a stroke down to up three on Lon Hinkle.
“I hit the ball all over the place,” he later said. “And when you hit the ball all over the place and still shoot 66 that’s pretty good.”
On Sunday, with a commanding lead, the Golden Bear coasted home to a comfortable win over runner-up Andy Bean, who finished seven shots behind. His margin of victory was the best in PGA Championship history until surpassed by Rory McIlroy’s effort at the Ocean Course of the Kiawah Island Golf Resort.
With the win, Nicklaus earned his fifth and final Wanamaker trophy, locking him in a tie with hometown hero Walter Hagen for the all-time PGA Championship record. He would only go on to win one more major, the 1986 Masters.
Nicklaus has heaped praise on the course through the years, one that ranks 42nd on Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses list, just a single spot behind Southern Hills, which hosted the 2022 PGA Championship.
“Oak Hill is a beautiful, northern, tree‑lined, softly‑rolling piece of property that was very enjoyable to play. It’s a good test,” Nicklaus said. “Nobody has ever really chewed it apart, and it’s one you’ve got to play smart on, but you’ve got to control your golf ball, and you’ve also got to putt, because the greens are not easy greens.”
Golfweek’s Adam Schupak contributed to this report.
Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sorenstam dish on admiration for Tiger Woods’ attempts to recover from surgery, return to competition.
Can all the king’s horses and all the king’s men put golf’s Humpty Dumpty back together again?
Tiger Woods is sidelined for an indefinite amount of time after undergoing surgery on his right ankle to address post-traumatic arthritis caused by injuries suffered in his single-car crash in Los Angeles in February 2021. Woods withdrew during the rain-delayed third round of this year’s Masters in April after showing considerable discomfort walking the hills of Augusta National in bad weather.
Jack Nicklaus, whose record of 18 majors is looking more safe with every passing day and every injury Woods sustains, prefaced his comments about Woods during a press conference ahead of his appearance in the Greats of Golf exhibition Saturday during the Insperity Championship on the PGA Tour Champions.
“I don’t know a whole lot about what he’s been through,” Nicklaus began.
“He’s showed a lot of guts and courage to play and try to be part of what’s going on with the way he’s been,” he continued. “He’s actually swinging pretty well; he just can’t walk.”
Nicklaus recounted how he sat next to Woods at the Champions Dinner at the Masters, as he does most years.
“We talk quite a bit,” Nicklaus said. “He said, ‘I’m really playing well. I’m hitting the ball great. My short game’s great. My putting’s good.’ He said, ‘I just can’t walk.’ And he says, ‘If it helps where I can walk, I’m willing to do it.’ ”
That’s about as good an explanation for why Woods agreed to go under the knife yet again as we’ve heard to date.
“He wouldn’t be having the operations if he wasn’t interested in wanting to continue to play,” Nicklaus said. “He’s a very motivated and dedicated young man to continue to play the game of golf.”
Nicklaus added of the 47-year-old golfer, whose body has been through the ringer: “The dedicated young doesn’t last very long.”
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Annika Sorenstam, winner of 72 LPGA titles, walked away from the game on her own terms and has returned to play a handful of celebrity events, last year’s U.S. Women’s Open and the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, which she won in 2021. She has a keen eye for Woods’ plight.
“I can just see it from a fan’s standpoint,” Sorenstam said. “I think he’s in more pain than he lets everybody know. I think it’s a lot more serious. But he is so tough. And so courageous.”
How long Woods will be sidelined this time is anyone’s guess, but his participation in this year’s remaining three majors – the PGA Championship in May, U.S. Open in June and British Open in July – seems unlikely.
“I think we’d all like to see him play,” Sorenstam said. “He adds so much to the game every time he tees up. Whether he makes the cut or not, he adds to the tournament in so many ways.
“But you don’t want to see anybody in pain. You don’t want to see anybody, they’re hurting. Especially in his case. So hopefully this surgery will be the last of it. And will be good for him. Who knows.”
At this stage, not even Woods knows whether Humpty Dumpty can be put back together again.
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“It’s not very pleasant to watch somebody stand over the ball for half an hour,” said Jack Nicklaus.
When Jack Nicklaus says slow play is a problem, you know the topic has officially jumped the shark.
Nicklaus was asked to opine on the pace of play of professional golf during a press conference on Saturday at The Woodlands in Houston ahead of competing in the Greats of Golf, a nine-hole exhibition played during the Insperity Championship on PGA Tour Champions.
“They do have a problem on the Tour today,” Nicklaus said. “The golf ball is a part of the problem. The longer the golf ball goes, the longer the courses get, the more you have to walk, the longer it’s going to take. I don’t think it’s good for the game. (The USGA and R&A have proposed) bringing the golf ball back (and reducing the distance it can travel). I think it’s a good start. It’s the first time they’ve done that in forever. We’ll see where it goes with that.
Nicklaus has long been a proponent of rolling back the golf ball but acknowledged that slow-play penalties are also overdue to be handed out.
“It’s got to be equitable,” Nicklaus added, “but they need to make an example and stay with it. It’s not very pleasant to watch somebody stand over the ball for half an hour.”
Slow play has made headlines recently after weather delays forced the Masters to go to threesomes and split tees in the final round and the glacial pace was exposed on TV. Brooks Koepka, who played in the final group, called out Patrick Cantlay, who also took his time on multiple occasions at the RBC Heritage the following week but pointed out that he was never put on the clock in either instances. Slow play has been a chronic problem in the game and rarely gets addressed in any meaningful way. But that wasn’t the case in Nicklaus’s rookie year.
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The Golden Bear always was a deliberate player but he learned early in his career that his pace of play was too slow. He was penalized two strokes during the second round at the 1962 Portland Open by PGA official Joe Black. Nicklaus still rolled to a six-stroke victory but he learned an important lesson that day.
“It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Nicklaus said, noting that Black told him, “Jack, you can take as long as you want over the golf ball to play but be ready when it’s your turn.”
“I always tried to stay out of everybody’s way,” Nicklaus continued. “I didn’t want to bother anybody lining up my putt while they were lining up their putt so I stayed back. I didn’t want to start walking my yardages off. I took a while over the golf ball but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was being ready to play. I realized after playing on the Tour for a while that it’s also a courtesy to the field. It’s not fair to do that.”
Nicklaus also blamed caddies for being part of the problem.
“By the time they get through talking, I couldn’t hit a shot anyway,” he said. “It’s a problem.”
The Greats of Golf gathered on Saturday, April 29, 2023, at the Insperity Invitational and played a nine-hole exhibition. (Courtesy Insperity Invitational)
Gary Player echoed that sentiment. “It’s just not fair to the others to be taking the amount of time,” he said. “You are allocated a certain amount of time and you have to adhere to that or you should be penalized.”
Player noted that golfers have three practice rounds and then they spend too much time around the green doing Aim Point and studying their yardage books. “You didn’t see Bobby Locke, Ben Crenshaw or Tiger Woods doing that,” Player said.
“I read the green from 50 yards,” Lee Trevino added. “Keep staring at it while you’re walking you can see every curve on that green. Before you ever get there to read that putt you know exactly the direction it’s going.”
Annika Sorenstam said the problem with pace of play starts at the junior level.
“The juniors watch the pros and they see the Masters and see how much time the pros take and do the same thing,” she said. “I know the AJGA does a good job, but then they get to college and it all goes away and then they turn pro. I think it is a root problem from the beginning.
“Nobody enjoys it and it’s not fair. We’re running out of time, time is a precious commodity, right, so I think start at the very beginning and teach them to hit when you’re ready and go. The more we think, the more complicated it gets, right, so just hit and go.”
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“I’m absolutely shocked. I had no idea and I am so honored” — Jim Nantz
Jim Nantz had no idea he was the recipient of the 2023 Dave Marr Award.
In each of the last 13 years, among his other duties at the network, the golf voice of CBS Sports has also been a part of the Insperity Invitational’s Players Dinner – an annual tradition that began in 2005 to celebrate golf legends on the PGA Tour Champions.
On Thursday evening, tournament officials surprised Nantz with the prestigious award given annually for contributions and passion to the game of golf.
“I’m absolutely shocked. I had no idea and I am so honored,” said Nantz, whose first appearance at the Masters was in 1986. “Dave Marr was my first-ever guest on a local radio station here in Houston. Since that day, I have lived and died telling the stories of all these great golfers. I idolize all of them. I love this award and I love the Marr family.”
Several of Nantz’s idols, including Jack Nicklaus, played a hand in the surprise announcement. Nicklaus was joined by Gary Player and Lee Trevino, who each spoke about what Nantz has meant to the game of golf.
“I first met Jim in 1985 and then obviously at Augusta in 1986. Jim has been a friend for a long time. He has received many honors but it is long overdue for him to be honored here tonight and I know this is a special one for him,” said Nicklaus.
The Dave Marr Award, created in 1999 to honor individuals who exemplify the traits Marr lived by – sportsmanship, honesty, integrity and a passion for the game of golf – Nantz joins a prestigious list of winners who have done remarkable things both on the golf course and in their communities. The recipients of the Dave Marr Award include Arnold Palmer, Miller Barber, Don January, Ben Crenshaw, Larry Nelson, Tom Watson, Fuzzy Zoeller, Lee Trevino, Curtis Strange, Barbara Nicklaus, Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman and Johnny Miller.
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Bahamas resort offers opulence via three hotels and a scenic Jack Nicklaus golf course with separate but spectacular nines.
NASSAU, The Bahamas – From the 16th tee at Royal Blue, perched high above the green on the spectacular Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course at the uber-elegant Baha Mar Resort, there’s a sense you’re taking in the best the course offers.
The green isn’t on an island, rather a peninsula that juts into Lake Cunningham, taunting those above with a come-hither look but a difficult-to-hold putting surface. Although turquoise waves lap at Cable Beach close by, the lake water along the picturesque 16th is typically calm and dark, an unfortunate grave for far too many mis-hit shots.
Nerves are certain to be tested by this point in the round, as the course has wound through an irregular diet of holes, some that appear to be former swamp and others that look as if they could have been carved through the limestone-laden Queen’s Staircase, a popular tourist attraction in nearby Nassau.
Baha Mar in Nassau, the Bahamas, features three hotels: the Grand Hyatt, the SLS and the Rosewood. (Courtesy of Baha Mar)
Either elated or infuriated, players making their way out to the 16th green often have an epiphany of sorts — the look back toward the tee is even more striking as it reveals a series of rockscapes that look as if they could have been traversed by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. As odd as it may sound, it might be more interesting to look back on the 16th hole than to look forward. And considering how magnificent the view is looking forward, that’s an accomplishment.
But it’s also a perfect encapsulation of the entire resort, one that has risen from the ashes after once flaming out. Looking back at Baha Mar’s history might be just as interesting as looking ahead to its certain-to-be-brilliant future.
Because Baha Mar isn’t just a story of opulence and indulgence, but perseverance and persistence.
Before Royal Blue came to pass, another golf course sat on this property just west of the Bahamian capital, an additional chunk of bait used to lure potential travelers to this remote paradise. The course, then known as Cable Beach Golf Club, was loosely associated with the British Colonial Hotel nearly four miles to its east, and offered Floridians (and others from the nearby Southeast United States) a slice of home — a flat, tricky run of holes with a constant threat of water.
Jack Nicklaus designed the Royal Blue course at Baha Mar. (Courtesy of Baha Mar)
When Nicklaus’ group came in to revamp and add to what is now Royal Blue, designers stuck to the game plan, and smartly so. Although the front feels familiar, it’s an interesting run with just enough places to bail out and avoid the wet stuff.
As long as you can stay dry, the first few holes at Royal Blue ease you into the round. Views of the resort are ever-present in the opening stretch. Aside from the lengthy second hole, which is lined by a lake, it’s within reason for even average players to post a good number at the turn. Of course, staying dry isn’t exactly easy as considerable water hazards line eight of the first nine holes. Only the par-4 fifth is without water on the front, and that hole has so many bunkers it feels like an entire nearby beach must have been sacrificed.
And who’s to say any of this is easy? The resort itself has had trouble avoiding hazards, even those that seemed simple to navigate.
Originally a can’t-miss project in the hands of a billionaire native son – whose father had made his fortune through a monopoly of sorts in the peanut industry – the financial crisis of 2008 brought plans to a screeching halt. A Chinese conglomerate produced financing to pick the project back up, but then a steady flow of Chinese workers was imported, bypassing a largely unemployed island workforce. This wasn’t well-received by locals, who would often ridicule the project as a folly.
In 2016, before ever opening its doors and with work nearly complete, the resort declared bankruptcy, and it appeared this pristine combination of golf and surf would never get its day in the sun.
Fortunately a Hong Kong-based holdings company finally got the ball over the goal line, and guests have been coming ever since to three hotels — the aptly-named Grand Hyatt, which houses the vast majority of Baha Mar’s 2,300 rooms, the ritzy SLS and the super-swanky Rosewood.
As you’d expect, there’s more to do at Baha Mar than golf, as the largest casino in the Bahamas is surrounded by more than a dozen high-end restaurants, bars and lounges, including my favorite, Costa, offering upscale Mexican fare inside the elegant Rosewood. (I recommend lobster tacos and a side of brussels sprouts and mole.)
A lazy river flows at Baha Mar (Courtesy of Baha Mar)
But if you make it to Baha Mar, you do need to golf, mostly to be able to see a back nine that weaves its way through limestone and fun, starting with the short but interesting 10th hole, which drops from an elevated tee into what feels like a quarry.
Unlike the front, there’s almost no water on the back aside from the aforementioned 16th and the fairways aren’t quite as tight, but there’s still plenty of trouble to be found. On No. 14, for example, the second shot on the par 4 comes into a green that’s unprotected on the front. Pull the ball left, however, and you’re certain to find jail in a thick batch of Caribbean pine that will be tough to wriggle free from. Misjudge the distance and hit it long, which is easy to do with an uphill approach, and you’ll find a 15-foot-tall limestone embankment that has been known to rocket the ball back as fast (and almost as far) as it came in.
After the tricky shot on 16, a pair of holes climb to the finish with 18 again using a wall of limestone and some well-positioned bunkers to give players one last thrill ride.
With a series of free-flowing tee boxes, Royal Blue can play as long as 7,189 yards, but it’s best to see the course from the distance that suits you best. “They’re suggestions,” said Andy Deiro, the director of golf and resident Kansas City Chiefs fan, when asked about the tee placements on the massive staging areas. “Have fun with them.”
A pool at Baha Mar (Courtesy of Baha Mar)
After the history Baha Mar has survived and emerged from, that’s probably good advice.
The future looks bright at a resort that wound up costing more than $4 billion to complete. Royal Blue has triumphantly risen to No. 1 in Golfweek’s Best rankings in the Bahamas and top 20 overall on the 2022 list of top golf courses in Mexico, the Caribbean, the Atlantic islands and Central America.
But there have been many bleak moments in the not-too-distant past when it looked like this piece of paradise might never see players again come through.
With a lack of drawbacks — perhaps the only one I can even muster is a lack of genuine beachfront views — there’s plenty to look forward to, for certain. Looking back at the property’s history makes that view even more worth savoring.
If you’re looking to spend a day watching 16 legends of the game tee it up in the same event, you’re in luck.
This year’s Folds of Honor Greats of Golf exhibition at The Woodlands in Texas is loaded with some of the best players of all time. During the second round of the Insperity Invitational on the PGA Tour Champions, Jack Nicklaus, Annika Sorentam, Gary Player, Lee Trevino and 12 others will play in a nine-hole four-team scramble.
“We feel very privileged to have the opportunity to bring the greatest names in the game of golf back to the Houston area thanks to the support of our new partner, Folds of Honor, during this milestone celebration for our tournament. This collection of legends are true ambassadors and role models in our sport,” said Bryan Naugle, Executive Director, Insperity Invitational, in a press release. “Not only is this a great group of golfers, they are incredible people and special role models for all of us. Reuniting these extraordinary ambassadors of our game has become a staple of tournament week. They provide hours of entertainment and a lifetime of memories for our fans each year.”
Team 1: Sorenstam, Nicklaus, Player, Trevino Team 2: Pat Bradley, David Graham, Tony Jacklin, Tom Kite Team 3: Nancy Lopez, Dave Stockton, Larry Nelson, Hale Irwin Team 4: Juli Inkster, Ben Crenshaw, Bill Rodgers, Fuzzy Zoeller
In all, the group of 16 players accounts for 234 PGA Tour wins, 156 LPGA wins and 77 major championships. Thirteen of the participants are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
StrackaLine offers hole-by-hole maps for one of the most recognizable courses on the PGA Tour.
Harbour Town Golf Links – site of the 2023 RBC Heritage on the PGA Tour – was designed by Pete Dye with an assist from Jack Nicklaus and opened in 1969 on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Harbour Town will play to 7,191 yards with a par of 71 for the RBC Heritage. With tree branches frequently dangling into playing corridors, the layout tends to favor control over brute strength as players must navigate sometimes tight fairway lines on the interior holes before the course moves to Calibogue Sound for the final two holes. The par 3s are considered by many to be among the best sets of 1-shotters in the game.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week.
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