I was among a very small group of visiting writers who had the pleasure of the company of Jack Nicklaus during breakfast last Friday in the clubhouse at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio.
He touched on a variety of golf-related subjects during an hour-long meet-and-greet, but the one theme he returned to repeatedly was his opinion that Muirfield Village gets short shrift in terms of the magazine course ratings. He said more than once that on a shot-by-shot and hole-by-hole basis, he thinks the GC compares favorably with any classic venue in the USA--he mentioned Merion, Augusta National, Oakmont, Cypress Point and Pebble Beach, then admitting he hasn't been to Pine Valley in almost 50 years!
He theroizes that the club's location in greater Columbus skews the rankings negatively, and if the same GC was in California, Long Island or South Florida, it would be a Top 5 or Top 10 course, not down towards the middle 30s.
Having played the course twice last week, and four times overall, I'm thinking it is a superb venue--not just the GC, and it's superior conditioning, but the entire club experience---food, service, etc. Is the Golden Bear correct in his assessment? Is the perceived lack of ranking status due to the GC's relative youth? Lack of Major pedigree? OR--Is he overly biased towards his hometown labor of love? Curious as to the informed opinions of those who care to offer them.