(Provided by Tennis World USA)
The Memorial Tournament starts this Thursday (Movistar Golf). It is one of the best tournaments on the PGA Tour. It was created by the living myth Jack Nicklaus in 1976 and has been held every year without interruption. Even in 2020, when the calendar was changed due to the Covid pandemic.
And that year Jon Rahm won it.
Memorial Tournament, schedule
It is played at the Muirfield Village Golf Club, in Dublin (Ohio) with a prize pool that in this edition reaches 20 million dollars, and where Spanish golf will be represented by Rahm, who returns to the circuit after the PGA Championship two years ago.
weeks. For the Basque, the Memorial, which is another of the ‘designated’ events of the PGA Tour and which brings together seven of the top 10 in the world ranking, and 38 of the top 50, has a special meaning. After winning it in 2020 he became Number One in the world for the first time in his career.
The following year he had to retire after the third day after testing positive for Covid. He was leading by six strokes and beat Patrick Cantlay. Jon was told the positive as soon as he left the 18th hole green. Hard and cruel because he also missed the Tokyo Olympics weeks later.
Be that as it may, this week the man from Barrika has options to recover the leadership of the world ranking that he ceded after the PGA to a Scottie Scheffler whose last 14 results on the PGA Tour are breathtaking: 3rd at the Colonial, 2nd at the PGA, 5th at Byron Nelson, 11th at Hilton Head, 10th at Masters, semifinalist at World Match Play, champion of The Players, 4th at Bay Hill, 12th at Genesis Riviera, champion at Phoenix, 11th at Amex, 7th at the Tournament of Champions and, before in 2022, 9th in Houston and 3rd in the World Wide Technology.
No wonder he is the player with the most top ten in a season on the PGA Tour, 11, followed by Rahm, Max Homa and Xander Schauffele, with 8. Therefore, recovering number 1 will not be an easy task. The numbers made by the world ranking guru on Twitter, Nosferatu, say that Jon only has two results to return to the top of the ranking: win or finish second alone.
Besides, once this is done, he’ll be dependent on what Scheffler does. The Memorial will dish out 64.8 OGWR points to the winner, which can cause a lot of movement in the world rankings. In any case, Rahm can rest assured that McIlroy, number 3 in the world, will not be able to reach him even by winning the tournament.
Jon is in great form. He is endorsed by his four victories in four months, including the Augusta Masters. Also, Muirfield Village, the Golden Bear’s second home, suits him and he has always played very well there. In addition to Rahm and Scheffler, Nicklaus will welcome Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Matt Fitzpatrick, Collin Morikawa, Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth, Viktor Hovland or Xander Schauffele, among others.
As he stated in the previous hours, Nicklaus does not miss the cracks that have defected to the LIV, read, without going any further, Brooks Koepka, winner of the PGA two weeks ago, Cameron Smith, winner of the British Open 2022, or Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau, the latter a 2018 Memorial champion.