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Jason Day complained about the restaurant.
Only Chef Jack Nicklaus was listening.
was embarrassed. It was funny. It was educational. It was all good play Friday during Golf Channel’s broadcast of the second round of the Memorial Tournament, after Jason Day shot to a 211-yard, par-3 16 at Muirfield Village Golf Club in the dugout of the right green.
From there, Dai grabbed his shirt. He started walking back to his bag.
He didn’t say to anyone in particular: “Stupid hole.”
which was designed by Nicklaus, along with 17 other holes in Muirfield Village.
where the memorial is played, and Niklaus is the host.
And as a host, he sometimes sits in the broadcast booth while playing.
which he was doing on Friday, when the Golf Channel’s mics caught Day’s emotions.
“Did he say stupid hole?” Nicklaus asked, knowing full well the answer.
There was a short pause.
Then Nicklaus laughed.
“Can we kill the scale?” asked announcer Terry Gannon.
There was more laughter.
“No, I think he might be right,” Nicklaus said.
Well done everyone. Let’s give some background here, though. Notably, Day is a member of Muirfield Village. and 16 He is difficult. Water protects the left side of the green. Two dugouts protect the right. Green slopes, though, ahead of the 2021 Memorial, Nicklaus has loosened up a bit. In fact, you might be better off listening to a reference on the subject.
“Well, 16 isn’t just a huge hole in the opinion of everyone playing today,” Jordan Spieth said Thursday. “So you’re just trying to get a ball, put a putter in your hand for two. It’s just that — 203 yards adjusted into the wind with a steady green coming away from you on both sides and has one rack you can land on.”
It turns out that the chef also heard it.
So on Friday, Nicklaus had lunch (literally) with Spieth and Rory McIlroy. He also took notes.
“These guys are all going to be talking about the 16th hole,” Nicklaus said on the broadcast. They talk about other places. I’m listening to that. When I have things on the golf course I see guys struggling with it, and I say, I don’t want them to struggle. I want them to play well. And I don’t want them to get hurt. So I listen to that stuff.
“Today I sat down at lunch with Spith and Rory. Jordan says, What an awful hole – he said yesterday. Well, I’m listening to that. You know, it’s probably a horrible hole. So how am I going to make it better? My whole goal here is to get 18 of the best holes Which I can have, as I said earlier, is steady, fast, and fair. No one’s going to complain about that. But if it’s not fair and too hard, they have a problem. Like I say, I listen to that, and I react to it. No golf course is perfect. I mean, How many changes have there been at Augusta National? I mean, constant changes to make the golf course better. And we’re going to keep making changes to make the golf course better. I’m very open to all that stuff. I try not to hurt somebody. I want them to enjoy that, I want them to play well, but I want them to be rewarded for good golf.”
“Is there something specific you’re thinking of?” Janon asked.
“Sixteen,” said Niklaus, before laughing. “That terrible hole.”
Well done again.
and on?
He dropped his bunker shot from 16 to 4 feet and slashed the hole.
“Hey, look, he likened that stupid hole,” Niklaus said on the broadcast before laughing again.
“You have a good memory, right?” Analyst Frank Nobilo – who got this response from Nicklaus – said:
“I do not forget.”