DUBLIN, Ohio — Sara Blatnik is the marketing director for the Dublin Convention and Visitors Bureau. It’s hard for her to imagine the Memorial without the crowds and the foot traffic they bring to the city. Still, she said local shopkeepers are eager and ready for business.

What You Need To Know


  • No spectators are permitted at this year's Memorial Golf Tournament in Dublin

  • Kilwin's Ice Cream manager said the environment is different because of the pandemic

  • Coast Wine House offering carry-out and next day delivery after having to close its bar due to COVID-19 concerns

“They’re still doing a lot of things to make sure they’re celebrating the tournament themselves,” said Blatnik.

Kilwin’s ice cream is one of the businesses getting into the swing of the golf tournament.

“Right now, we have our Muirfield mud flavor we carry it year round, but it’s more prominent this time of year,” said Manager Jeff Coad.

But, he anticipates this year will be different.

“The week of the memorial we would see a big uptick in customers it would be a lot of people staying at the hotels at bridge park and they’re were also lots down here where people could park and take shuttles so we’ll see.”

Coast Wine House Owner Dustin Snow doesn't know what to expect. His business is relatively new and it's his first round of the memorial tournament.

“We weren’t relying on it probably in the way that some of the other businesses in the area are relying on it just because they are pumping year after year business like that. For us it’s something new so we didn’t really know what to expect I can tell you that we had almost all of our reservations booked for the weekend.”

That changed suddenly just a few days ago, out of concerns over COVID-19.

“We made the decision on Tuesday to close the bar portion of the business so unfortunately we had to cancel those reservations.”

It may not be par for the course for the year we've seen, but businesses like Kilwin’s and Coast Wine House hope new options like carry-out and next-day delivery will help fans gets a taste of Dublin, even if they can't be on the grounds of Muirfield.