Nicklaus reverts to the old ways to bunker players

US Tour news: Jack Nicklaus will not be part of the Memorial tournament at Muirfield Village this week, but his influence will still be felt.

By anybody who strays into the bunkers, that is.

Two weeks ago Nicklaus called the US Tour and said he was ready to make life tougher for the stars of today's game at the event he hosts - not by lengthening the course or growing the rough, but by raking the bunkers the way it used to be done so that there are gouges in them.

"We spend money every year on them, to try and deepen them, do different things, and the bunker has ceased to become a penalty," stated Nicklaus.

"I said if we raked them the way we did when we started the tournament, we'd have an uncertainty of what the lie was.

"We were probably the cause of bunkers being perfect today. They used to rake them with a pretty good-sized rake and it was clumpy and the ball really never set very well in the bunker.

"We started working on how to make a bunker so it really is a nice lie and so that everything is consistent. We developed the round rake, and that's what everybody uses today.

"Now all the bunkers are so perfect, there's no penalty any more. Bunkers are really supposed to be a penalty. Right now guys look at a par five (and think), 'If I don't get it on the green and put it in the bunker, I know I can get it up and down and we move on'.

"I asked the tour, and they have been telling the guys all year, the honeymoon is over, the bunkers are going to be a penalty.

"I said, 'Okay, where have you done it?' And they said, 'We haven't done it yet'.

"That's quite a honeymoon and I asked if they objected to starting here. They said they couldn't think of a better place."

Nicklaus was pleased with the tour's reaction to his suggestions.

"We developed a rake that gives you a little bit of a waffling in the bunker. You can get a good lie or you might not get a good lie.

"Now I want them so when you hit the ball they say, 'I don't really want to be in that bunker'. The tour liked it, supported it 100 per cent, and that's what we're doing.

"When I was here Friday we went out and did a lot of bunker shots and fiddled around. I didn't find that it was that big a deal, but you had to alter the way you play your bunker shot.

"We went out and had 150 rakes made over the weekend and I found that once the bunker was raked the second time the rake was too narrow and it just went right back to a smooth bunker.

"I said, 'Okay, let's take every other tooth out'. It's an experiment."

Eight of the world's top 10 - bar Tiger Woods and David Toms - are competing in the event, including European Tour leader David Howell. The winner of the BMW Championship last Sunday, a victory which took him into the top 10 for the first time, is joined by English compatriots Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Greg Owen and Justin Rose.

Ernie Els will be trying for his first victory in America since this tournament two years ago, while Sergio Garcia and Vijay Singh are looking for their first win of this year.

"I look forward to this one every year and it was great to get that first win in 2004, one of my best performances of that entire season," Els said on his website. "I feel good every time I come back and I really like my chances here.

"This golf course is just one of those layouts that suits my eye," added the world number six, whose last PGA Tour success came at the 2004 WGC-American Express Championship at Mount Juliet.

"There are some golf courses you prefer to others, and they're the ones you tend to play well on. This golf course is like that for me."

US Masters champion Phil Mickelson also plays.