Tag: 2024 Memorial

Back on top: Scottie Scheffler continues dominant season with 1-stroke victory at the Memorial

“It’s been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. I think that’s a pretty accurate description of what it’s felt like at times”

Having already won this year at the courses famously connected to Arnold Palmer and Bobby Jones, two of the faces that would be etched on the Mount Rushmore of golf, Scottie Scheffler added winning at Jack’s Place, shooting a final-round 2-over-par 74 at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio on Sunday in the 2024 Memorial Tournament. That was enough to hang on for a one-stroke victory, his 11th career PGA Tour title, at the house that Jack Nicklaus built.

“I like it when it gets this hard,” Scheffler said. “I didn’t do a whole lot great today but I did enough to get it done.”

The only other player to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship in March, the Masters in April and the Memorial in June in the same season? In 2001, Tiger Woods, another of the faces on the Mount Rushmore of golf, achieved that feat.

That’s pretty select company. Ahead of the PGA Championship last month, Woods was asked to describe the tremendous run by Scheffler to become the dominant world No. 1 this season. “If he putts awful, then he finishes in the top 10. If he putts decent, he wins. He putts great, he runs away. He’s just that good a ball-striker and that good an all-around player.”

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After entering the final round with a four-stroke edge, Scheffler was nursing a one-streak lead before he canned a 16-foot par putt at 16 to stretch his lead to two and despite a rocky finish, he held off Collin Morikawa, who closed in 71, the only player from the final 13 groups to break par, for his fifth top-5 finish this season. Scheffler finished with a 72-hole aggregate of 8-under 280.

“I know he didn’t have his A game on several holes today, like a lot of fellas didn’t have their A games on several holes today, but he put enough of his A game together to win the golf tournament and that’s what it’s all about,” Nicklaus, the 18-time major winner and Memorial tournament host, said.

It marked Scheffler’s third win at a Signature event this season and fifth win in his last eight starts, making him the first to win five times in a season since Justin Thomas seven years ago and the first to win five times before the U.S. Open since Tom Watson in 1980.

Scheffler opened with rounds of 67-68 to claim the 36-hole lead and managed to extend it by a stroke despite a triple-bogey on Saturday and three-putt bogey at 18. He signed for 71. Conditions during the final round remained tough on a sun-drenched day when the blew and turned greens brick hard. With a scoring average of nearly 75 and only six players managing to break par on Sunday, it felt a little too much like the U.S. Open had come one week early.

“Muirfield Village is growling at the players today,” said CBS’s Trevor Immelman.

Scheffler made two bogeys on the front nine and just one birdie – at No. 6 – as Adam Hadwin made an early move before stumbling late and finishing alone in third (74).

“I had put a Band-Aid on the round for a long time,” said Hadwin “and the Band-Aid came off and it was carnage.” As a consolation prize, Hadwin did earn the one spot available into the British Open at Royal Troon in July to the top finisher not already qualified.

Morikawa remained hot on Scheffler’s heels, especially after he drilled a 32-foot birdie putt at the par-3 12th, his longest putt he had made since the first round of the PGA Championship, a span of 202 holes, to get within one.

Scheffler failed to answer at 12 from closer range, made a nervy short-range birdie stab at 13 and watched in disbelief as his ball spun out on 15. Although he stepped up with the clutch par save at 16, Scheffler left the door open for Morikawa to catch him by missing an 8-foot par putt at 17 to cut his lead in half. But Scheffler made an up-and-down from over the green at 18, pumping his right fist with gusto when his 5-foot putt for the win dropped. Morikawa, who also played in the final group with Scheffler at the Masters in April, had seen this movie before.

Asked what about Scheffler’s game impresses him, Morikawa said, “Everything. The guy could be off balance and the ball’s right down the middle of the fairway. Look, his ball striking is incredible. Growing up, his short game and putting was always amazing, but how good he hits his irons and the control he has is amazing. Distance control is key and it’s king and he’s got that.”

Scheffler topped the field in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and Approach-the-Green and his putting qualified as decent enough: he ranked 42nd in Strokes Gained: putting in the final round and 22nd for the week in the 73-man field, lending credibility to Tiger’s assessment of his game. In the end, Scheffler got the traditional winner’s handshake from the legendary Nicklaus that he so desired.

“It would mean a lot to me to be able to shake his hand and win this golf tournament with all the history here and what Mr. Nicklaus has meant to the game,” Scheffler had said earlier in the week.

That wasn’t the only greeting Scheffler received behind the 18th green. Wife Meredith and baby Bennett were there to congratulate him on daddy’s first win as a parent. Between adjusting to being a new dad and the emotional toll of being handcuffed and arrested — charges that have since been dropped — before his second round tee time at the PGA Championship in Louisville last month, Scheffler was happy to be back to the familiarity of trying to chase down another victory.

“It’s been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. I think that’s a pretty accurate description, I think, of what it’s felt like at times,” he said. “Yeah, it’s definitely nice to be sitting here a winner again.”

2024 Memorial Tournament
Scottie Scheffler with his wife Meredith and their newborn son, Bennett, after winning the 2024 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club. (Photo: Kyle Robertson-USA TODAY Sports)

Jack Nicklaus doesn’t like the Memorial bumping up against the U.S. Open

“That discussion (with the PGA Tour) is in process,” Nicklaus said Tuesday at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

DUBLIN, Ohio — Jack Nicklaus has a message for anyone wondering why the Memorial Tournament moved off its traditional date closer to Memorial Day, and whether it might someday move back.

“That discussion (with the PGA Tour) is in process,” Nicklaus said Tuesday at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

Translated: Nicklaus is not thrilled that the tournament he founded and has hosted since 1976 is bumping against next week’s U.S. Open.

“We would prefer the other week,” Nicklaus said, meaning two weeks before the U.S. Open, which before the switch this year was the tournament’s spot on the tour schedule for decades. The RBC Canadian Open filled that spot this year. “We are here this week because the tour asked us to help them out. They said they had a thing they wanted to do, and what the players asked for, and we said yes, but that we would review it after this tournament.

The “thing” the tour wanted, and pushed by top players, was bunching of the higher-money, limited field events such as the Memorial to make travel and scheduling around major championships more logistically friendly. The Memorial immediately precedes the U.S. Open while the Travelers, one of eight signature events, follows immediately after the national championship.

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The tour also wanted to schedule non-signature events in consecutive weeks, both so they did not get left in the wake of the more lucrative events and to give players opportunities through the “Swing Five” format to gain enough points to qualify into the signature tournaments.

Nicklaus understands the reasoning, but is not all-in with the result, at least when it comes to the Memorial. For one thing, the Golden Bear finds it somewhat hypocritical to expect the top players to show up in Dublin the week before a major championship when he seldom did so during his playing days.

“I would rarely play a week before a major championship,” he said. “So I’m asked to be putting on a golf tournament that I would never play, and that is the essential (issue) from my standpoint.”

2024 Memorial Tournament
The 2024 Memorial Tournament trophy on the first tee as Andrew Putnam tees off during the first round of the 2024 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club. (Photo: Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch)

But not the only issue. Nicklaus pointed out that Monday attendance at the Memorial, which was decent when the event was played the week of Memorial Day, dropped this year.

Memorial tournament director Dan Sullivan confirmed that Monday attendance dipped due to not opening on Memorial Day, but offered that Tuesday’s attendance was equal to last year. The tournament does not release attendance figures.

Nicklaus added that “from the sponsor’s standpoint, Memorial Day is what the name is and we were around Memorial Day,” Nicklaus said, adding that hosting the tournament a week later in June gets into high school graduations.

Nicklaus stressed that the Memorial will thrive in spite of the schedule change.

“We did this as a favor (to the tour),” he said. “We’ve always been a supporter of the tour, and will continue to support what is best for the tour, but also want to support what’s best for the Memorial Tournament. So that is to be determined.”

Is the modified 16th hole at Memorial any better? Pros weigh in

Tour pros teed off on the par-3 16th at Muirfield Village last year.

A familiar voice rang out as Jack and Barbara Nicklaus wheeled their golf cart past the 17th tee Wednesday at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

“Love No. 16,” Matt Kuchar yelled from No. 17 tee.

Nicklaus waved thanks and kept driving, presumably satisfied that at least one PGA Tour player was giving his redesign of the maligned par 3 a thumb’s-up.

Not all players were as enthusiastic with their praise.

“It’s better than it was. Put it that way,” said Jordan Spieth, one of several players who met with Nicklaus after the 2023 Memorial Tournament to share their misgivings about the hole at Muirfield Village, which ranks as the No. 1 private course in Ohio.

If Nicklaus was looking for a universal ringing endorsement of his changes, well, professional golfers seldom are 100 percent thrilled when confronted with a challenging hole.

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And No. 16 is dastardly, forcing right-handed players to draw the ball – lefties must fade it – 218 yards into a narrow green with water on the left and a bunker back right. It has undergone several transformations through the years, but none has satisfied everyone.

No hole in the 49-year history of the Memorial Tournament has been criticized by players like the 16th, which took heat in the early days of the event when George Archer complained that no par 3 should be longer than 200 yards.

The complaints reached another level last year when several players took dead aim at the hole.

“It’s a stupid hole,” Westerville resident Jason Day said, echoing the sentiments of many.

Nicklaus took the feedback to heart, changing the hole by moving the tee about 30 yards to the right, which took more of the greenside pond out of play. More significantly, he removed a bunker just to the right of the green, replacing it with a grassy slope.

Jack Nicklaus drives his wife, Barbara, through a crowd of fans during a practice day for the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club. (Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch)

What hasn’t changed is the firmness of the green, which is difficult to hold when tee shots land past the first 20 feet. That is after Nicklaus reshaped the putting surface in 2021 to help keep balls from bouncing off the green even on good shots.

“I’ve always really liked the hole,” Sahith Theegala said, before shooting holes in it. “But there does come a point where you’re hitting a shot and you feel you have no chance of holding the green, whether you hit a good shot or a bad shot, there needs to be a change made. I’ve landed a few balls like four paces on, in the middle of the green, and they went over the back of the green.”

The recent alterations Nicklaus made won’t change that, Theegala said.

“But because the angle changed if you hit a draw in there you can land it on the green and get one close, whereas before the angle was too straight on to be able to do that,” he said. “You’re going to see some guys hit some pretty big draws into the hole, taking less club, just because that bailout area front right is pretty easy now. Before, you pretty much chalk it up to a 4 and move on. It’s easier and a better hole now.”

Collin Morikawa explained that moving the tee actually has less impact than Nicklaus removing the front-right bunker.

“The bunker was never bad, but it’s not like you wanted to be in it,” he said. “The little runoff on the side isn’t as drastic as I thought it would be, so you could actually putt it or chip it across the green. It’s still a tough tee shot, don’t get me wrong. You’re still hitting 7-iron, 6-iron, 5-iron, depending on the wind, to a small, narrow green that doesn’t have a lot of depth.”

Xander Schauffele agreed with Morikawa that removing the bunker makes the 16th more gettable.

“It’s more fair now,” he said. “Taking that bunker out allows you to be as defensive as you would like, without sort of laying up with a 50-yard pitch shot. You’re going to see a lot of balls end up in that little area, especially those front two pins.”

Chris Pratt, Peyton Manning among stars to tee off in Memorial pro-am

Star-Lord pairs up with Peyton Manning, Rory McIlroy in celebrity pro-am pairing.

“Guardians of the Galaxy” star Chris Pratt joined join Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning and former Ohio State wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez in a group with PGA Tour players Rory McIlroy and Jason Day at Wednesday’s Workday Golden Bear pro-am leading up to this week’s Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

Pratt, Manning and Gonzalez teed off at 7 a.m. local time with McIlroy, and Day will sub in for McIlroy on the back nine.

The pro-am, which is part of Memorial Tournament week, also features a handful of other celebrities, including actor Rob Lowe playing with defending Memorial winner Viktor Hovland, and former NFL quarterback Steve Young playing with reigning U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark.

Other current or former professional athletes teeing it up include Andre Iguodala (NBA), Buster Posey (MLB) and Harris Barton (NFL).

Scottie Scheffler looks back at arrest after charges dropped: ‘I believe in forgiveness’

Charges were dropped, but the memory of arrest lives on for Scottie Scheffler.

Scottie Scheffler knows his jail mug shot that went viral on social media is here to stay.

The world’s No. 1-ranked golfer is relieved charges were dropped last week following his May 17 arrest for a traffic incident at the PGA Championship in Louisville, Kentucky. Scheffler was handcuffed and briefly jailed after a Louisville police officer claimed the golfer failed to stop his SUV when ordered to do so. The officer claimed he was dragged and injured by Scheffler’s vehicle.

But while relieved, Scheffler said Tuesday at Muirfield Village Golf Club that having the charges dropped was “kind of only the beginning of kind of getting past it.”

Friends and golf fans now feel freed up to ask Scheffler about the traffic incident.

“I’m hoping to get there (to normalcy), but it’s almost more appropriate for people to … make jokes about it and stuff like that,” he said.

Even if he never has to answer another question about the arrest outside the gates of Valhalla Golf Club, Scheffler said the trauma will always be only a flashback away.

“That’s something that will always, I think, kind of stick with me,” he said. “That mug shot, I’m sure, is not going anywhere anytime soon.”

2024 PGA Championship
Scottie Scheffler with his caddie Ted Scott during the final round of the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club. (Matt Stone-USA TODAY Sports)

The Memorial is Scheffler’s first tournament since the charges were dropped, but he said the chaos has not negatively impacted his golf.

“When it comes to on the golf course, I’m always prepared to go out and play,” he said. “Even after I got arrested I went out on Friday and had a good round of golf. … No matter what the circumstances are off the course, if I’m showing up at a tournament it’s not some sort of ceremonial deal. I’m here to play.”

His record at Muirfield is impressive. In three appearances he has two third-place finish and a tie for 22nd.

Scheffler’s attorney, Steve Romines, was prepared to seek legal action against the Louisville Police Department if the case had gone to court.

“If we needed to use it, I think Steve was more than ready … just because there was a ton of evidence in our favor,” Scheffler said. “There were eyewitnesses on the scene that corroborated my story. All the evidence pointed to exactly what my side of the story was.

“But at the end of the day, I did not want to have to pursue legal action against Louisville, because the people of Louisville are then going to have to pay for the mistakes of their police department, and that just doesn’t seem right.”

Going through what he did in Louisville does not change his perspective on the criminal justice system or whether he would now think twice about assuming someone is guilty of a crime.

“I try to believe people are innocent until proven guilty,” he said. “So when someone is accused of something … I try not to see people for kind of their bad sides. Just because somebody’s accused of something doesn’t mean they actually did it, or maybe they did do it and maybe they just made a mistake.

What’s new at the 2024 Memorial Tournament? Check out changes to the fan experience

Tee times have changed, the field is smaller and the 16th hole received another renovation.

In most ways, this week’s Memorial Tournament will feel familiar as always. Muirfield Village Golf Club likely will get hit by a thunderstorm Wednesday (though Thursday through Sunday look good), the 14th hole will be party central and spectators will attempt to traverse the rolling terrain without spilling a drop of their favorite malted beverage.

But in one big way, the 49th Memorial will look drastically different. For the better part of three decades fans could show up early and spread out across the 220 acres of manicured golf course to watch the pros play the front and back nine simultaneously. The previous field of 120 forced the PGA Tour to send players off No. 1 and No. 10 in threesomes to make sure everyone finished before dark. In other words, there were golfers everywhere you looked.

Not anymore.

Pros at Memorial Tournament all will tee off No. 1 in twosomes

Fans who arrive early and set their lawn chairs up on No. 10 through 18 may wonder where the players went. The back nine will be relatively barren for a couple of hours in the morning before the first group off No. 1 makes the turn. And instead of seeing three players in each group, the fans will only see two, because the smaller field (from 120 down to 73) allows it.

Logistically, the smaller field should lessen the impact of weather delays. Fewer players means an easier time getting the round finished after any rain and lightning pass through.

The change in sending all players off No. 1 also means more fans gathering around fewer holes, and concession stands will be more crowded. On the plus side, the atmosphere should make Thursday and Friday feel more like Saturday and Sunday as fans race across nine holes instead of 18 to find the players making the most birdies.

A few other changes fans should be aware of:

2023 Memorial Tournament
Rickie Fowler tees off on the 16th hole during third round of the 2023 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club. (Kyle Robertson/Columbus Dispatch)

No. 16 at Muirfield is more – and less – of a watering hole

After players voiced their displeasure − again − with the 16th hole last year, tournament host Jack Nicklaus changed the par 3 by moving the tee to the players’ right, which brings the greenside pond less into play. He also replaced a right greenside bunker with a slope of grass.

Fans will notice a new drinking establishment adjacent to the 16th green. The Simply Spiked Lounge features a variety of drinks. Also new at No. 16 is “The Hill on No. 16,” a seating area with Adirondack chairs available to watch players continue to shake their head at a hole they have never liked.

Pose at Memorial with your favorite PGA Tour player

If you can’t meet your favorite pro in person, at least you can pose with him by walking into an interactive screen at a new kiosk located in the Champions Pavilion and Golden Bear Club. Just don’t try asking for an autograph because, “pssst,” they’re not really there.

Folds of Honor Friday to honor military, first responders

Fans are encouraged to wear red, white and blue clothing Friday as a display of unity with the families of fallen or disable military members and first responders. Also, the Patriot Parachute Team will execute a flag jump onto the 18th green as the national anthem is played immediately following the conclusion of the play.

Robert MacIntyre withdraws from signature event at the Memorial a day after first PGA Tour win

“I would love to go home for a party,” MacIntyre said Sunday after his win at the RBC Canadian Open.

Less than 24 hours after claiming his first PGA Tour win, Robert MacIntyre has withdrawn from the Memorial, the limited-field, big-money signature event at Jack’s Place.

MacIntyre played his way into the Memorial as well as the U.S. Open and the next signature event after that, the Travelers Championship, but it appears some much-needed rest is on tap in the short term.

“This is my fifth event in a row,” the Scotsman said in the afterglow of his win at the RBC Canadian Open in Hamilton, Ontario, with his dad, Dougie, working as his caddie. “I was planning to do U.S. Open qualifier tomorrow [Monday], 36 holes with my dad on the bag. Thankfully that’s off the cards.”

When asked specifically about playing the Memorial, he said: “I’ve not even spoken to my mom, my family, my team, my managers. I mean, I’m guessing I’m going to have to (smiling). I mean, I would love to go home for a party, but I think we’ll probably play next week.”

The PGA Tour made the announcement about the WD mid-day Monday, which opened a spot for Davis Thompson via the Aon Swing 5. There are 73 players in the field at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, where the total purse is $20 million and first place is good for $4 million.