Memorial Tournament


The Memorial Tournament is a PGA Tour golf tournament founded in 1976 by Jack Nicklaus. It is played on a Nicklaus-designed course at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, a suburb north of Columbus. The golf course passes through a large neighborhood called Muirfield Village, which includes a 1999 bronze sculpture of Nicklaus mentoring a young golfer located in the wide median of Muirfield Drive.
One of the main features of the tournament is a yearly induction ceremony honoring past golfers. A plaque for each honoree is installed near the clubhouse at Muirfield; Nicklaus himself was the 2000 honoree.
The purse was increased over 37% for the 2016 edition, from $6.2 to $8.5 million.

Vision

The greater Columbus area is where Nicklaus was born, raised, learned the game of golf, went to college, and started his own family. It was his vision to create a golf club that embodied his personal and professional life and to create a golf tournament that would long represent his passion for tournament golf, and would give back to a community that has embraced him and the game. This was fulfilled in May 1976 with the first Memorial Tournament, two years to the day after the course opened at Muirfield Village. The par-72 course was set at, a considerable length for the mid-1970s.
Nicklaus signaled his intent to host his own tournament during Masters Week in 1966, when he spoke of his desire to create a tournament that, like The Masters, had a global interest, and was inspired by the history and traditions of the game of golf. He also wanted the tournament to give back in the form of charitable contributions to organizations benefiting needy adults and children throughout Columbus and Ohio. The primary charitable beneficiary of the tournament is Nationwide Children's Hospital.
The Memorial reached the height of its popularity in the 1990s having reached "sold-out" status, a first on the PGA Tour other than the major championships. For a variety of reasons, the event has started seeing ticket sales decrease during the last five years.

Invitational status

The Memorial Tournament is one of only five tournaments given "invitational" status by the PGA Tour, and consequently it has a reduced field of only 120 players. The other four tournaments with invitational status are the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the RBC Heritage, Charles Schwab Challenge, and the Tiger Woods Foundation tournament. Invitational tournaments have smaller fields, and have more freedom than full-field open tournaments in determining which players are eligible to participate in their event, as invitational tournaments are not required to fill their fields using the PGA Tour Priority Ranking System. Furthermore, unlike full-field open tournaments, invitational tournaments do not offer open qualifying.
In June 2014, the PGA Tour approved a resolution to grant the winner a three-year exemption, one more than other regular Tour events and on par with winners of the World Golf Championships, The Tour Championship and the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Field

The field consists of 120 players invited using the following criteria:
  1. Memorial winners in the last five years or prior to 1997
  2. The Players Championship and major championship winners in the last five years
  3. The Tour Championship, World Golf Championships, and Arnold Palmer Invitational winners in the past three years
  4. Tournament winners in the past year
  5. Playing member of last named U.S. Ryder Cup team, European Ryder Cup team, U.S. Presidents Cup team, and International Presidents Cup team
  6. Prior year U.S. Amateur winner
  7. Prior year British Amateur winner
  8. Up to four players selected by the tournament from among the money leaders from the other five Federation tours
  9. 14 sponsors exemptions – 2 from among graduates of the Web.com Tour Finals, 6 members not otherwise exempt, and 6 unrestricted
  10. Top 50 Official World Golf Ranking as of the Friday before the tournament
  11. Top 70 from prior year's FedEx Cup points list
  12. PGA Tour members whose non-member FedEx Cup points the previous season would have placed them in the top 70
  13. Top 70 from current year's FedEx Cup points list as of the Friday before the tournament
  14. Prior year college player of the year
  15. Remaining positions filled alternating from current year's and prior year's FedEx Cup point lists

    Tournament highlights

Golf Club in 2016
Hole123456789Out101112131415161718InTotal
Yards4704554012005274475631854123,6604715671844553635292014784843,7327,392
Par444354534364534453443672

Source:

Winners and Honorees

Note: Green highlight indicates scoring records.
Source:

Multiple winners

Six men have won the Memorial Tournament more than once through 2019.