Jack

Nicklaus

When asked about the changes that he made to Muirfield Village, Nicklaus went hole-by-hole and responded, “The key elements of what we did is...moving first green back about 30 yards... Two, didn’t do much. Three, we had a bunker that flooded on the right side of the green, so decided to get rid of that...The 4th green...went from the smallest green on the golf course to the largest green on the golf course. The 5th hole, totally new concept... Six, we didn’t do much except to soften the green...Seven, we got about eight yards... Eight is basically the same. Nine, I added a pin placement on the right...10’s a totally new green...11, moved the green about five yards left...12, we didn’t change. 13, we didn’t change...Did not change 14 at all...15, pretty big change there...tried to bring the fairway back, knock it down, took it down about 20 feet...Up around the green I felt like we had water coming by the green, but it wasn’t really utilized, so we had a mound to the right of the bunkers right of the green, we took the mound out and so the bunkers are right, if you miss the bunkers right, you’re going to go to water...16, we put it back exactly as it was...17, we just narrowed the fairway a little bit...18, we only had one cup in the back of the green. So now I think we probably -- we can get three back there...Outside of that I didn’t do anything, guys.”

Nicklaus flighted an 8-iron past the flag stick and watched it spin and roll back toward the cup for the ace. Afterward, he told ESPN that it’s his first hole-in-one on the property. To provide some perspective on the rarity of the achievement, from 1959-2005, he went 37-for-45 in the Masters with six wins, four seconds, two thirds and another 10 top 10s. Yet, it wasn’t until today, April 8, 2015, that he penciled in his first 1. (You can watch The Golden Bear’s shot at the link below. GolfChannel.com lists the hole at 130 yards, but Nicklaus said that he measured it at, “120something.”)

He missed the cut at the Memorial last week and will probably not play any more competitive golf in the states. The final tournament of his career will likely be the British Open at St. Andrews in August. He’s leaving the door open that he could play the Memorial again, or some tournaments with his sons, but it’s unlikely that would happen.

He’s over the cut line at St. Andrews, and will need to play a great round today to make it to the weekend. The cut line is currently around even par, and Jack is +4 after four holes.

He’s likely played his final round of competitive golf, and today’s events were very emotional for everyone involved.

The way he waved to the crowd after missing the cut, and the uncontrollable tears that followed means we have sadly seen the end of Jack at Augusta.

Jack will battle just to make the cut this week.