With the U.S. Open scheduled for the notoriously tough Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh in two weeks, PGA Tour players are getting a taste of what to expect during the Memorial Tournament.
That’s particularly true when players miss the fairway at Muirfield Village Golf Club. Even on the tournament’s first day on May 29, the course’s rough has been a topic of conversation. The recent rainy weather has made the rough thicker than players could recall seeing at Jack Nicklaus’ course.
“Terrible,” Collin Morikawa said when asked about the rough. “The rough is not great. You definitely want to stay out of the rough. It’s rough that’s penal enough to have to take wedge out and hopefully advance it 80-100 yards. You’re adding shots when you’re missing the fairways.”
Morikawa avoided the rough well enough to shoot a 5 under 67.
Shane Lowry shot a 69 that could have been considerably better if not for two tee shots into the rough on par-5s.
“I missed two fairways on the par-5s and made bogeys on both without hitting it in the water,” he said. “It’s just two horrendous lies and before you know it you’re making bogey on what you feel like is an easy hole.”
Rickie Fowler was atop the leaderboard early with five birdies in his first 11 holes. But he couldn’t sustain it. Fowler double-bogeyed the par-3 No. 16 hole after hitting his tee shot in the rough behind the green. On the 18th hole, his tee shot landed in the rough. He said he swung as hard as he could on his approach from 160 yards and left it 10 yards short of the green. He finished with a 72.
“It can be spotty in areas and based on footprints or if a cart’s driven there or the grass is laying with you, you may have a chance,” Fowler said. “But if it’s standing up or the grass is back into you, you don’t have a chance.
“You have to be in the fairway or pray for a good lie in the fairway bunker, not the rough,” Fowler said.
Even before the start of the tournament, players knew they’d be in trouble if they didn’t hit the fairway. Justin Thomas said May 28 that the rough was the toughest he’s seen at any PGA tournament this year.
“Definitely,” he said. “It’s very, very penal. The rough is always long, but I’ve never seen it this long, so that’s going to be quite a challenge. It’s just a tough golf course. I think it would be tough if it didn’t have firm greens and long rough, but it has both of those, so that makes it very tough.”
Denny McCarthy said he likes playing Muirfield Village. He believe it suits his game. Two years ago, he lost to Viktor Hovland in a playoff in what would have been his only PGA Tour win.
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But he acknowledged having some frustration with the treachery of the rough this week. He said that players can be better off missing the fairway by 20 yards rather than two. The farther from the fairway, the better the chance that the gallery has trampled the grass, making for an easier shot.
“You can miss it a couple steps steps off the fairway and you’re really screwed,” McCarthy said, “and your playing partner can blow it 20 yards off the fairway and somehow find a lie and hit it up on the green.”
McCarthy said he was on the other side of that equation on the first hole. His playing partner Austin Eckroat was in the rough left of the fairway and had to hit a wedge back onto the fairway that traveled only 101 yards. McCarthy was in the right rough and was able to hit an 8-iron onto the green.
A year ago, the Memorial was one week before the U.S. Open, and the Muirfield rough wasn’t as punitive.
“Maybe Jack was trying to be a little friendlier since it was the week before the U.S. Open,” McCarthy said. “It still played hard last year. It’s still a very difficult golf course. I just don’t remember it being as thick last year.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Having it rough: Miss the fairway and golfers pay at the Memorial Tournament
Reporting by Bill Rabinowitz, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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