Jason Day, left, and Jon Rahm on Friday on the sixteenth gap at Muirfield Village.
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Jason Day complained concerning the restaurant.
Only chef Jack Nicklaus was listening.
It was awkward. It was humorous. It was instructional. It was all good theater on Friday throughout Golf Channel’s broadcast of the Memorial Tournament’s second spherical, after Jason Day dumped his tee shot on the 211-yard, par-3 sixteenth at Muirfield Village Golf Club into a proper greenside bunker.
From there, Day grabbed his tee. He began to stroll again to his bag.
He stated to nobody particularly: “Stupid hole.”
Which Nicklaus designed, together with the opposite 17 holes at Muirfield Village.
Where the Memorial is performed, and Nicklaus is the host.
And as the host, he often sits within the broadcast sales space throughout play.
Which he was doing Friday, when Golf Channel mics grabbed Day’s emotions.
“Did he say silly gap? Nicklaus requested, figuring out full nicely the reply.
There was a quick pause.
Then Nicklaus laughed.
“Can we kill the volume?” announcer Terry Gannon requested.
There was extra laughter.
“No, I think he might be right,” Nicklaus stated.
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Well achieved, all people. Let’s give some background right here, although. Notably, Day is a member at Muirfield Village. And 16 is laborious. Water protects the left aspect of the inexperienced. Two bunkers defend the correct. The inexperienced slopes, although forward of the 2021 Memorial, Nicklaus softened it some. Actually, chances are you’ll be higher off listening to an authority on the topic.
“Well, 16’s just not a great hole in pretty much everyone’s opinion that’s playing today,” Jordan Spieth stated Thursday. “So you’re just trying to get a ball, get a putter in your hand for two. It’s just — it’s 203 yards adjusted into the wind with a firm green that runs away from you on both sides and has one shelf that you can land it into.”
Turns out the chef heard that, too.
So on Friday, Nicklaus ate (literal) lunch with Spieth and Rory McIlroy. He took notes, too.
“These guys will all talk about the 16th hole,” Nicklaus stated on the published. “They speak about different locations. I hearken to that. When I’ve issues on the golf course that I see guys wrestle with, and I say, I don’t need them to wrestle. I would like them to play nicely. And I don’t need them to get damage. So I hearken to that stuff.
“I sat down today at lunch with Spieth and Rory. Jordan says, what a horrible hole — he said yesterday. Well, I listen to that. You know, maybe it is a horrible hole. So how am I going to make it better? My whole goal here is to have 18 of the best holes I could have that will be, as I said earlier, firm, fast and fair. Nobody will complain with that. But if it’s not fair and it’s too difficult, then they have a problem. As I say, I listen to that, I react to it, and no golf course is perfect. I mean, how many changes at Augusta National has it been? I mean, continual changes to make the golf course better. And we’ll continue to make changes to make the golf course better. I’m very open-minded about all that stuff. I’m trying not to hurt somebody. I want them to enjoy it, I want them to play well, but I want them to be rewarded for good golf.”
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“Is there anything in particular you’re thinking about?” Gannon requested.
“Sixteen,” Nicklaus stated, earlier than laughing. “That horrible hole.”
Well achieved once more.
And Day?
He dropped his bunker shot on 16 to 4 ft and parred the outlet.
“Hey, look, he parred that stupid hole,” Nicklaus stated on the published, earlier than laughing once more.
“You have a good memory, haven’t you?” analyst Frank Nobilo stated — which earned this response from Nicklaus:
“I don’t forget.”
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