"JACK NICKLAUS: He should be here. (Laughter.)"

Jack Nicklaus's Q&A at Muirfield Village included a "What would Woody think" question about Jim Tressel and Jack serving as his own rally killer later on. But in this sequence he proved that he is absolutely not reading the Muirfield Village club newsetter.

Q. Jason Day has had to withdraw from the tournament needing to take a break before the U.S. Open. I know you've just recently granted him membership to Muirfield Village. What do you see in young Jason?

JACK NICKLAUS: We did?

Q. Just recently.

JACK NICKLAUS: Did what?

Q. He has playing privileges at Muirfield Village.

JACK NICKLAUS: He does, and he's not here? (Laughter.) We'll take that away. (Laughter.) I did not know that.

Does Jason live around here?

Q. Yes, he's married a girl from Ohio.

JACK NICKLAUS: Oh, he did?

Q. I just wanted to get your opinion on his play these days because he's a young star in the making for Australia.

JACK NICKLAUS: He's a good player, and if he's got a gal from -- has he married a gal from Ohio?

Q. Yeah.

JACK NICKLAUS: He should be here. (Laughter.)

Muirfield Village's New 16th To Debut

According to the GCSAA's preview, the hole is opening this week so I don't know if that means it actually has not seen any play yet, adding to the intrigue. In the photos I've seen it looks like a knock off of Augusta's 16th hole, but with more than one decent hole location.

Here's a YouTube video showing the destruction of the old hole, no great loss for golf architecture.



In this second video is it me or does it look like they added a back left bunker at the last minute?



"If the goal with this new format is to grow the game of golf, why was there no talk of how to stage such an event at your own club?"

I enjoyed the many suggestions from readers who watched the Power Play Golf event at Celtic Manor, and also thought this observation from Stina Sternberg, reviewing the event for GolfDigest.com, should be noted by the television folks.

 If the goal with this new format is to grow the game of golf, why was there no talk of how to stage such an event at your own club? The UK commentators, mainly from SkySports, seemed like they were making things up as they went along and obviously weren't very familiar with the PowerPlay movement.

I think that was most evident when Ian Poulter hit an incredible drive next to the last hole to set up an eagle putt and the on course commentator acted like he'd hit a nice wedge in there, only to be rescued by the play-by-play man who noted what an amazing shot it was.

Jay Townsend, you of course were spectacular.

Power Play Coming Up!

Kevin Garside reminds us that today is the debut of Power Play at a soggy ("pissing down rain" -Poulter) Celtic Manor.

The format, played out over nine holes, offers players two pins to aim at, one with a greater degree of difficulty yielding more points. The format has been trialled at more than 400 clubs over a period of three years. The made-for-TV event is designed to appeal to a new audience, attracting those who might not otherwise engage in golf.

Gary Player is PowerPlay's leading advocate:

“PowerPlay is not meant to take the place of tour golf but to augment it. And if golf is to grow and develop a grass-roots following in other parts of the world PowerPlay is a great idea. Just look at what Twenty20 has done for cricket. You would never have visualised anything like that.

The event appears to have some impressive organizational backing and television outlets across the globe. It's coming on Golf Channel live at 12 ET.

NCAA May Madness: Rough Obsession Returns

Northwestern coach and Luke Donald instructor Pat Goss posted this image from the NCAA Men's Golf Championship's today:

Well-informed sources say these signs were posted last year as well, which means the NCAA pulls these out of storage to ship to the NCAA's. All to preserve the integrity of the "rough."

Good to know the NCAA brings its point-missing ways to golf, too.

"The course set-up is making guys lash out."

Lawrence Donegan reports on the Paul Casey-Ernie Els pairing Saturday going off without a hitch despite Casey's criticism of Ernie Els's Wentworth redo 3.0. Seems the setup is now to blame for the lousy architecture, though I'm pretty sure the European Tour staff didn't redo the greens or import that pretty water hazard from Florida!
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