Memorial field set, minus Masters champ
COVER PHOTO: World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler gives a fist pump as he sealed the deal last year winning his first Memorial Tournament. Picture by Sam Fahmi/Columbus Wired.
The field for the 50th annual Memorial Tournament presented by Workday is now officially set and pretty much every big-time name on the PGA Tour you can think of will be in attendance.
Eight of the top 10 in the Official Golf World Rankings, including reigning Memorial champion and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, will make up part of the 72-man field in the PGA Tour’s next-to-last Signature Event of the season.
However, one very noticeable name will be absent at the Muirfield Village Golf Course in Dublin, Ohio: World No. 2 and this year’s Masters Champion, Rory McIlroy, who opted out for the first time since 2017.
According to an interview he did with The Telegraph after last year’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in November, the 13-time Memorial participant said he was going to scale back his appearances for this season.
“At this point in my career, I’m 35 and have been out here for 17, 18 years, so I’m just going to go to the places that I enjoy and where I play well,” he said in the interview. “Look I’ve done the hard slog, I’ve done that sort of 25 to 30 events a year. And I’m not getting any younger.”
McIlroy's best finish at the Memorial was tied-for fourth in 2016. He finished tied-for seventh last year, which was his third-best finish.
This isn’t the first Signature Event he’s skipped this season, though. Actually, it’ll be the third.
Mac played hooky from the Tour’s first Sig Event in early January (The Sentry), as well as the fifth (RBC Heritage) in mid-April.
The PGA came up with Signature events two years ago in response to the LIV Tour, which snagged away several high-profile names from the PGA including Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson with the promise of less events as well as bushels of money.
Several PGA Tourists spoke out against the new golf league, one of the primary reasons being because it’s being funded by Saudi Arabia. But some also chimed in that they quasi-admired the fact that PGA defectors were getting lavished with cash and not having to play nearly as much as they did on the PGA Tour.
So the PGA upped its game and introduced “Designated Events” two years ago where it was more of a limited field with a larger payout of $4 million going to the winner alone. Last year, the PGA switched the name from Designated to Signature but the payout has stayed the same.
In years past, the Memorial has since upwards of 120 in the field.
The event that Jack Nicklaus created and launched in 1976 is one of the eight Signature Events.
Also hitting the course will be OGWR No. 3 Xander Schauffele, No. 4 Collin Morikawa, No. 5 Justin Thomas, No. 6 Ludvig Åberg, and former tourney champs Viktor Hovland (2023), Patrick Cantlay (2019, 2021), Hideki Matsuyama (2014), Matt Kuchar (2013) and Justin Rose (2010) and major championship winners Keegan Bradley, Wyndham Clark, Matt Fitzpatrick, Lucas Glover, Brian Harman, Adam Scott and Jordan Spieth.
Click here for a complete list of this year's participants.