The course Nicklaus built in Dublin, Ohio, will host the international golf event in three years.
Jack NicklausDUBLIN, Ohio - Jack Nicklaus will be 73 years old in the fall of 2013, and he's viewing the appearance of the Presidents Cup at Muirfield Village, the course he created, in three years as part of his farewell to golf. Those who awarded the biennial event to Nicklaus' golfing home view it as something of a thank you.
"Hopefully I'll be kicking pretty well then still," Nicklaus said during today's official announcement before Thursday's start of The Memorial Tournament, the PGA Tour event he hosts every year in Dublin. "[It will] probably be my last involvement in anything significant in the game of golf. So I'm looking forward to it and I hope that you all think it's something that's really going to be very, very special."
The Presidents Cup matches a team of 12 players from the United States against team of 12 players from the rest of the world, excluding Europe. An answer to the Ryder Cup, which pits the United States against Europe, the growth of the event has been tied to Nicklaus, according to PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem. The event was first played in 1994, and Nicklaus has served as the U.S. captain in 1998, 2003, 2005 and 20007, four of the eight times it has been played.
"After the first 16 years of the Presidents Cup, Jack Nicklaus has been instrumental in bringing it to the worldwide recognition that it enjoys today," Finchem said. "When you look back on the history of the Presidents Cup, you will be able to point to Jack's involvement early on as a real impetus to bringing it the world-class attention that it gets today."
The United States holds a 6-1-1 edge over the rest of the world, most recently winning in San Francisco in 2009 with Fred Couples as the U.S. captain. The other four times it has been held in the United States it has been contested in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
Muirfield Village will be become the first course to host all three major international golf competitions, after hosting the Ryder Cup in 1987 and the women's Solheim Cup in 1998. Nicklaus said he plans a renovation to the course before 2013 that will include rebuilding the entire 16th hole. Finchem also said the idea was to bring the event closer to other golf fans in the United States, and the upper Midwest holds more intense golf fans than any part of the country.
The matches are tentatively scheduled to be played Oct. 3-6, 2013. Ohio State is scheduled to host Illinois in football on Saturday, Oct. 5. Ohio State president Dr. E. Gordon Gee was at the news conference today and said the plan is for that game to be played at night to stay clear of the golf event.
"The event is already moved," Gee joked to Nicklaus. "It just happened."