Wednesday, May 30, 2001
Memorial hopes for less rain
Nicklaus' tournament cursed by bad weather
The Associated Press
DUBLIN, Ohio — Each May, the world's best golfers come to Muirfield Village Golf Club for the Memorial Tournament. So, apparently, does the monsoon season.
Over the past 12 years, 16 of a possible 48 rounds have been suspended, delayed or canceled because of heavy rains, lightning or both.
The course has not been devoured by a plague of locusts — yet.
Jack Nicklaus, the designer of the course and the founder and host of the tournament, has heard all the cracks about what is called “Memorial weather” around here.
“Do I get tired of it? Of course I get tired of it,” Nicklaus said after last year's third and fourth rounds were both played in a wave pool. “The weather's terrible.”
It is a point of unending frustration to the winner of 18 major championships that he can't do anything about the weather.
“I never thought the weather was too bad as I grew up here,” said the native of Upper Arlington, a Columbus suburb. “A little bit of rain you can expect. But do we have to have 3 inches in one day? It makes it discouraging.”
The Memorial has bad luck. The National Weather Service measured 2.67 inches of rain fell on the scheduled final day of last year's tournament. The total for the other 30 days of the month was 2.75 inches.
“That's what usually happens at this tournament,” said Tiger Woods, who has won the last two Memorials, one in sunshine and last year's on Monday morning.
The Memorial also has bad timing. As the first “northern” tournament of the year, it bumps into weather extremes. In 1979, horizontal rain — and, yes, even snow — made the course look as if it were hosting the Arctic Open. Eventual winner Tom Watson shot a 3-under-par 69 while wearing a ski cap and long underwear. It's one of the greatest rounds in tournament history.
This year's tournament gets underway Thursday: Rain or shine?
Watson is one player who doesn't mind the rain and cold.
“When the weather gets real bad a lot of times, you feel like you've got about half the field beat,” Watson said.
There has long been talk that the tournament was cursed because Muirfield Village was supposedly built on an Indian burial ground.
Several years ago a frustrated Nicklaus and his wife Barbara offered up a “sacrifice” — a shot of whiskey — at the nearby memorial to a long-dead local Indian chief, Leather Lips.
It rained the next day.
As pained as he is by the jokes about the weather and his tournament, Nicklaus has retained a grudging sense of humor about the situation.
He had two bogeys and two double bogeys on the par-4 ninth last year. He was asked what he thought about the hole.
“I'm going to burn it,” he said. “The only trouble is, it won't burn in this weather.”
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Memorial hopes for less rain