The tournament that Jack built has stacked field once again this year, as nine of the top 10 players in the world are set to compete in the 2024 Memorial at Jack Nicklaus’ Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. That includes Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, Wyndham Clark, Viktor Hovland, Ludvig Åberg, Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay and Max Homa. The only one missing? Robert MacIntyre, last week’s winner at the RBC Canadian Open, who returned to Scotland to celebrate his maiden PGA Tour win with friends and family ahead of next week’s U.S. Open. We’ll called it an excused absence.
Players have long made the Memorial a regular stop on their tour schedules, often out of respect for Nicklaus, but tournament’s designation as a PGA Tour signature event has made the tournament even more of a must-make affair. This week’s winner will earn $4 million from the $20 million overall prize money payout, as well as 700 FedEx Cup points. This is also the last chance for anyone not in the field at next week’s U.S. Open to move inside the top 60 in the Official World Golf Ranking and secure an 11th-hour exemption for Pinehurst No. 2, plus one more opportunity to tune-up your game if your already have travel plans to North Carolina.
Hovland, last year’s Memorial victor, made a 30-foot birdie putt on the penultimate hole to force a playoff with Denny McCarthy. A par on the first extra hole was just enough to best McCarthy. It also sparked an impressive summer run that saw Hovland win the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship to claim the 2023 FedEx Cup title. The last player to successful defend his title at the Memorial was Tiger Woods in 2001-02.
Golf Channel will carry live coverage on Thursday and Friday from 2-6 p.m. EDT. On Saturday and Sunday, Golf Channel will start the coverage from 12:30-2:30 p.m. with CBS taking over with afternoon coverage from 2:30-6 p.m.
PGA Tour Live streaming coverage takes place on ESPN+ from 7:15 a.m.-6 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. There will be four streaming channels offered, including a main feed, marquee groups, featured groups and featured holes.
This is the course that Jack built, and rebuilt, and rebuilt again and again. Since its opening in 1974, Jack Nicklaus has remodeled every hole at Muirfield Village, some more than once, using play at the PGA Tour’s annual Memorial Tournament for some guidance. The most recent renovation in 2020 was one of the most extensive and included the rebuilding of every hole, the shifting of greens and tees, strategic changes to the iconic par 5s and a new, more player-friendly par3 16th. That’s how a championship course remains competitive. But with every change, Nicklaus always made sure the general membership could still play and enjoy the course as well. The latest word is that Nicklaus is still not happy with the 16th hole and has plans for yet another version.