Jack Nicklaus wasn’t necessarily happy about doing the PGA Tour a favor.
The 18-time major champion and 73-time PGA Tour winner backed a new plan to move the annual Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, back by a week to immediately precede the U.S. Open in support of the PGA Tour’s signature event series.
“Last week was better,” Nicklaus said at a news conference on Tuesday. Sports Illustrated“But the reason we’re here this week is because the tour asked us to help. They said there was something they wanted to do, the players asked for it, so we said we’d help and we said yes. We’re helping this week.”
“But we said we would revisit it after this tournament and then see how we schedule it after that and we said discussions are ongoing.”
The tournament, now in its 49th year, will take place from June 6-9 and is traditionally held two weeks before the U.S. Open and the week after Memorial Day.
Nicklaus noted that the tournament has been linked to holidays in the past.
“Yesterday was Memorial Day, which is usually a big day for the gallery. We had about 1,000 people there yesterday,” he said. “From a sponsor’s standpoint, it might not be as advantageous because I’m sure they’ll also be there for board meetings, their kids’ graduations and so on.
“But it makes no difference. It’s going to be a good tournament either way this week, with everything that’s going on. And like I said, we did it as a favor and the Tour asked us to do it, so we said yes. So we’ve always been supporters of the Tour. We want to continue to support what’s best for the Tour, but we also want to support what’s best for the Memorial Tournament. So that’s still to be determined.”
The idea for the new schedule was created to ensure that a regular tournament isn’t sandwiched between two signature or major events.
In 2023, the Memorial was played before the RBC Canadian Open. This year, the two tournaments switched dates and Robert MacIntyre won in Toronto last week.
The “Golden Bear” didn’t accept this and insisted on taking rest between major tournaments, just as he had done in the past.
“Let me put it this way: When I was playing, I rarely ever played the week before a major,” Nicklaus said, “so to be asked to help run a golf tournament during a week that I definitely don’t play, that’s an important part of it for me.”
Nicklaus’ tournament is one of eight signature events on the PGA Tour this year with a reduced field and a $20 million prize purse, including $4 million for the winner.
The tournament was first held in 1976 at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
