Is This A Bad Time To Remind Everyone Muirfield Village Was Built On Sacred Indian Burial Grounds?

As the soggy Presidents Cup shifts to unfortunate boondoggle status with a rainforest vibe, check out Cam Cole's recounting of various legends, including purported attempts by Jack and Barbara Nicklaus to get Chief Leatherlips, executed in 1810 for liking white people too much, to stop raining on Muirfield Village.

From the story:

It has been 37 years since the first Memorial Tournament was played on the course Jack built, and the supposed curse of the Wyandot chief who was executed in 1810 by his own tribe for being too friendly with the whites continues to pour torrents of rain on seemingly every golf tournament held here.

The legend is a hardy annual at the Memorial, where Nicklaus’s wife Barbara once tried to bribe the deceased Chief (at the suggestion of Arnold Palmer’s first wife, Winnie) by making two trips to his burial site in 1993, each time placing a glass of gin on his grave, which is situated just beyond the far end of the practice area.

How she knew he wasn’t a bourbon guy is anyone’s guess. At any rate, the gift didn’t work.

An Associated Press story in 1997 said the Golden Bear himself even drove Barbara over there on the second visit, though he feigned ignorance when quizzed about it by reporters.

The Dublin Historical Society offers this for those wanting to read up on the death of Chief Leatherlips.