Tournament: the Memorial Tournament, Muirfield Village Golf Club, Dublin, OH
Hole: 14th – Par 4, 363 Yards
Architect(s): Jack Nicklaus and Desmond Muirhead – 1974

Architectural Summary:

The 14th hole at Muirfield Village is a 363 yard par 4 that will stress accuracy from tee to green. From the tee, competitors will be faced with a downhill tee shot to the generous, tree-lined fairway. While a few daring souls may hit driver to try to get close to the green, most competitors will opt to hit a hybrid or long iron off the tee and look to find the left portion of the fairway for the best angle into the green. Two groupings of trees crowd the tee shot on the left side encouraging a right to left ball flight off the tee to a fairway that slopes from right to left towards the creek. At 230 yards from the back tee, the creek emerges from the left trees and runs parallel to the line of play before turning to bisect the fairway at 275 yards and then turning again to follow the angle of the green along the entire right side. Missing the fairway will be detrimental as approach shots from the typically thick rough will be difficult to control both distance and accuracy. Competitors finding the fairway will be left with a flip to full wedge shot into the long, narrow green. Two deep greenside bunkers guard the green to the left, while the creek will collect any balls straying to the right. The kidney-shaped green is severely sloped from left to right, creating very fast putts and chips from above the hole back towards the creek.

Statistical Analysis:

The 14th at Muirfield Village has traditionally played slightly over par. In 2015, the 14th hole was the tenth most difficult hole of the tournament as it played to a scoring average of 4.01 (1 Eagle, 90 Birdies, 217 Pars, 57 Bogeys, 14 Doubles, and 3 “Others”). The hole’s historic scoring average is 4.13.

Fun Facts:

• 2015 tournament champion, David Lingmerth prevailed over Justin Rose in the longest playoff in the Memorial’s history for his first PGA Tour victory. Lingmerth played the 14th +1 for the tournament and finished at -15.
• Tiger Woods is the only Memorial champion to win back-to-back titles. Woods claimed three straight from 1999-2001 and has five Memorial victories in total.
• Muirfield Village was dedicated with an exhibition match between course designer Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf on May 27, 1974. Nicklaus won the match after shooting 66, which stood as the course record for five years.