Jack gives a nod to golf’s oldest course
Jack Nicklaus named his new golf course community after Muirfield, the course in Scotland that is home to the “Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers” and is considered the oldest golf club in the world.
Open Golf Championship at Muirfield golf course in Gullane, East Lothian, 1929
Muirfield is the site of Nicklaus’ first Walker Cup appearance in 1959, when he made his first trip abroad. Right away, he loved the challenges of links golf. He visited Muirfield again in 1966, this time for the Open Championship. His win that week completed the career Grand Slam.
Not only did Nicklaus name his course Muirfield Village, he put a silhouette of the Claret Jug in the club logo — another nod to his success there. Given that the parcel of land Nicklaus selected for his course sat in a low valley, it also seems fitting that it has the flavor of a Scottish moor.
the Memorial Tournament
Nicklaus wanted his tournament to honor the greats of the game. “No tournament had ever done that,” he said, “so that was the inspiration of it.” Each year, the tournament celebrates a different person or persons who made significant contributions to the game as Memorial Honorees.
Nicklaus also wanted to tie that into Memorial Day, so the name of the tournament was fairly easy to figure out. The inaugural event in 1976 finished on May 30 — the Sunday before Memorial Day. The next 25 Memorials also were scheduled the week before Memorial Day, before the tournament shifted to a post-Memorial Day schedule.