The year was 1966, and after playing a round of golf during the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club, Nicklaus and a high school friend, Ivor Young, talked about holding a similar tournament in their hometown of Columbus.
"We wanted to bring back the game, bring back the professionals to the city of Columbus and do something special for the people and sports fans in that area. That’s what we wanted," says Nicklaus, reflecting on the origins of the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
So Young and Nicklaus set out to make that dream a reality. Nicklaus identified land in Dublin where he had hunted as a boy, and then-PGA Commissioner Joe Dey walked the property with him " … in the mud," says Nicklaus.
The tournament, dubbed the Memorial, was created around the theme of honoring players and others who contributed significantly to the game, says Nicklaus. In its first year, 1976, the Memorial broke new ground in more ways than one.
"We wanted to create a golf course that would allow spectators to better watch the golf action during a tournament," says Nicklaus. "It was actually the first golf course done, from inception, for tournament golf."
Because of this, the course was designed with galleries in mind.
"The Masters was accommodating for tournament golf, but we really built Muirfield from the start with an amphitheater setting in mind," Nicklaus says. "We wanted to make sure people were treated properly and the players were treated properly. We wanted to create something very special, and I think we did that. We created a place where the people love to come watch the game. The players love to come, because it’s a good golf course, and they are treated wonderfully."
