All but two golfers in the OWGR top 10 are in the field for the annual tournament in Dublin hosted by Ohio State legend Jack Nicklaus.
The 50th Memorial Tournament tees off today at Muirfield Village Golf Club. Even though there are no former Buckeyes in this year’s field, the action should still be hot up in Dublin at the tournament that Ohio State legend Jack Nicklaus hosts annually.
This year’s edition of the tournament will be a little more special for the Golden Bear since the tournament honoree will be Jack’s wife, Barbara Nicklaus. Along with Barbara, this year’s Journalism Award will go to Bob Baptist, who covered 37 Memorial Tournaments while he was a writer with the Columbus Dispatch.
The Golden Bear was born back in 1940 in Columbus, attending Upper Arlington High School before enrolling at Ohio State. While at Ohio State, Nicklaus won the U.S. Amateur in 1959 and 1961, as well as an NCAA Championship in 1961, before turning pro later that year. Nicklaus ranks third all-time with 73 PGA Tour wins, as well as 18 wins in major tournaments, which is a number that likely will never be passed. The last tournament of competitive golf that Nicklaus played in came on the Champions Tour in June 2005.
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Even before this year’s tournament began, there has been a memorable moment out at Muirfield. In Wednesday’s Golden Bear Pro-Am, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day and former Alabama head coach Nick Saban were paired with Justin Thomas and Corey Conners.
The mood in the group had to have been jovial since Day is coming off winning his first national championship, while Saban seems to be enjoying life now that he has retired from coaching. Thomas is coming off last month’s win at the RBC Heritage Classic, which was his first win on the PGA Tour since he won the PGA Championship in 2022.
The Memorial Tournament now has “invitational” status, meaning the field is a little smaller than regular PGA Tour events. This year’s field features 72 golfers, headlined by last year’s champion Scottie Scheffler, who won the PGA Championship earlier this month, which was held at Quail Hollow in Charlotte.
The win was Scheffler’s second of the 2025 season. After besting Collin Morikawa by a stroke at Muirfield last year, Scheffler became the first golfer since Tom Watson in 1980 to win five tournaments in a season before the U.S. Open.
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Only two golfers in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings will not be participating in this year’s Memorial Tournament. Reigning Masters champion Rory McIlroy will be skipping the tournament for the first time since 2017. Despite never winning the tournament, McIlroy has recorded five top 10 finishes since 2010.
The second-ranked golfer in the world will play at next week’s RBC Canadian Open before looking for his second major championship of the year when the U.S. Open is held in a couple of weeks at Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh. The other top 10 golfer who won’t be playing in Dublin this week is defending U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who is unable to play because he is a member of the LIV Golf Tour. DeChambeau won the Memorial in 2015 in a playoff.
Golfers in the top 10 who will be playing in this year’s Memorial are Xander Schauffele, Morikawa, Thomas, Ludvig Åberg, Hideki Matsuyama, Russell Henley, and Sepp Straka. Matsuyama is the only golfer aside from Scheffler in the OWGR top 10 who has won at Muirfield.
Back in 2014, Matsuyama defeated Kevin Na in a playoff, becoming the first Japanese golfer to win on the PGA Tour since 2008. Matsuyama also had one of the more embarrassing moments of his career at Muirfield, as in 2022, he was disqualified in the first round when it was found he had a white paint-like substance on the face of his fairway wood.
One golfer who will be looking to continue his strong recent play at Muirfield Village Golf Club is Patrick Cantlay, who has won the tournament twice, tying him with Jack Nicklaus, Hale Irwin, Greg Norman, and Tom Watson for the third-most all-time.
The only golfers to win Jack’s tournament more times are Tiger Woods, who has won at Muirfield five times, followed by three-time winner Kenny Perry. Cantlay’s Memorial wins came in 2019 and 2021. The 2019 triumph was especially impressive since Cantlay tied for the second-lowest 72-hole score in tournament history, only trailing Tom Lehman’s 1994 mark of 20-under-par.
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Also in the field this week in Dublin is the winner of last week’s Charles Schwab Challenge, Ben Griffin. The victory was the second of the year for Griffin. Last month, Griffin and Andrew Novak won the Zurich Classic team event in New Orleans. Along with tying for eighth place in the PGA Championship a couple of weeks ago, Griffin has asserted himself as a golfer to keep an eye on this weekend and the rest of the season.
First and second round television coverage can be seen on the Golf Channel, while the third and fourth rounds will air on Saturday and Sunday on CBS. Like most years, there are rain concerns for the tournament, mainly on Friday.
Luckily, with dry conditions predicted for Thursday and Sunday, there shouldn’t be concerns about the tournament not being able to finish on time, especially with the smaller tournament field due to the invitational status.