There is a good article in this weekend's WSJ (page A14, I think) re: golf in Nebraska's sand hills that, among other things, gives Tom Doak some well-deserved kudo's.
One of the comments in the piece was dismissive of a Jack Nicklaus course nearby, which got me thinking about GCA and Muirfield Village Golf Club.
First, JN is not the most revered architect on GCA, and I haven't played enough of his courses to have an informed opinion.
However, I did play Muirfield Village twice in the early 1980's. While this was prior to GCA and my introduction to Tom Paul (and others), by that (pre-marriage, pre-parenthood) time I had already played at least two rounds - and many more in a couple of cases - at Merion, PVGC, ANGC (pre-bent grass greens), Shinnecock, Maidstone, Harbor Town, Seminole, Oakmont, NGLA, Pebble Beach, Cypress Point, San Francisco GC, Scioto, The Golf Club, The Scarlet Course at OSU, The Country Club (including the Composite Course), The Olympic Club, Inverness, Aronimink, Winged Foot (both), Quaker Ridge, Baltusrol (both) Wilmington CC (both), Bidermann, Pinehurst #2 (pre-knowledgeable ownership), Pasatiempo (pre-restoration), Peachtree, Garden City Golf Club, Fishers Island, Piping Rock, The Creek and The Links Golf Club (NLE).
For those of you who think I'm bragging, since marriage and parenthood starting in the late 1980's, I have played almost none of them since (three exceptions). Also, the only really good one I can add to my list since 1992 is Friar's Head. That's just the way it has worked out.
The point is that, whether or not I knew what I was really looking at when I played MVGC, I had seen enough "great" golf courses, talked to enough people and read most of what little golf architecture had been written back then to have an opinion (hopefully, an informed one) on what was a good golf course when I played one.
I was very impressed with Muirfield Village Golf Club and I'm not sure that many people inside and outside GCA agree with me on that. My question is "why not?"
Now, I am the guy who is on record with GCA that Bay Hill is underrated, so my opinions may already be dismissed.
Also, I know there have been changes to MVGC over the years, but I haven't read anywhere that they were especially controversial.
Does Muirfield Village deserve higher marks, or am I just unworthy of any credibility on GCA?