How to make 1 golf course look like 2 different tournaments

Muirfield Village will look the same to those watching at home, minus the grandstands and thousands of spectators spread across the course Jack Nicklaus built.

The challenge for the PGA Tour is to make it feel different to the players who will be in Dublin, Ohio, the next two weeks.

For the first time in 63 years, two PGA Tour events are being held on the same golf course in consecutive weeks. First up is the Workday Charity Open, a tournament that didn’t even exist six weeks ago until the John Deere Classic chose to cancel this year without fans and the tour plugged the gap in the schedule with a big assist from San Francisco-based Workday.

Then it’s onto the Memorial.

It’s one thing to keep one of the elite courses on the PGA Tour from getting chewed up from 157 players this week and the 120-man field next week. It’s another to present a different test for two tournaments meant to be entirely different.

The plan is for one to be a little more gentle, the other to be a little tougher.

“I think this week we’re going to have to be a little bit cautious with the golf course, certainly out of respect to Mr. Nicklaus and the Memorial Tournament being next week,” said

Gary Young, the PGA Tour rules official overseeing the Workday Charity Open.

The rough that frames the generous fairways is to be topped off at 3 ½ inches, and then thicker and higher for the Memorial. The greens are to be running around 11 on the Stimpmeter this week before increasing to 13 and beyond for the Memorial, just the way Nicklaus likes it.

Tees will be moved around, especially on the par 3s, to keep the turf from being divot-filled. Slower greens should allow officials to use pin positions closer to some of the ridges, which would be impossible with faster green speeds.