The Memorial Tournament
Sam Burns strikes back! This past week at the Charles Schwab Sam Burns completed the Hat Trick and captured his third win of the season via a playoff with Scottie Scheffler. Burns is playing out of his mind right now. Burns shot a 5 under 65 on Sunday to sneak his way into a playoff with Scheffler. Burns is always one for the style points, on the first playoff hole Burns completely buries a 40-footer for birdie to take the victory. What’s even more impressive is that at the start of the day Burns was 7 shots out of first place. Not only was he seven shots out but he finished his round at least 2-3 hours before the leaders so Burns was patiently waiting all day long in hopes for a chance in a playoff. The long wait was worth it as the young hotshot captured his third victory of the year and his fourth career victory. On top of those wins, Burns has also notched four top 10’s in only 16 events. On top of all of it, Burns is doing all of this at 25, it’s safe to say Burn’s future is more than bright.
Speaking of bright, the next couple of weeks on tour are going to be very bright. The first stop is a big favorite, the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club. The Memorial is a really special event among the players because it's Jack Nicklaus’ event. Anybody who follows golf knows how pivotal Jack has been to the game of golf as well as the growth of golf throughout his life. Every year this event provides top tier golf and the games best from all around the world gather for a chance to win “Jack’s Event.” Not only is the field stacked but the golf course is a phenomenal track. The best part about it is every year Jack changes the course. This past year Jack redid all the greens, resurfaced tee boxes, restructured bunkers, added 100 yards of length to the course, and most notably is the 15th hole which was completely rebuilt from tee to green. Now modifications of this magnitude do not happen very often and Jack Nicklaus might be the only person who can successfully pull it off in exactly one year. The coolest thing about the renovations is that he started them during the tournament of the previous year. Last year by the time the players made it to the back nine Jack was already sending his maintenance crews out to the front nine to begin renovations. It’s safe to say that a job like this can really only be accomplished with millions of dollars at your disposal, and in this case, Jack has just that.
Much like the course, the field is spectacular. This week fans can expect to see Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth and more. However, the most notable not competing this week is Dustin Johnson. DJ has decided to compete in the LIV event and has most recently agreed to a $125 million deal to join the LIV. This is surprising considering DJ has been a premier player on the PGA Tour for over 15 years. The most interesting piece about all this is how the PGA Tour will respond to DJ and the other tour players who opted to compete in these events. Nevertheless, expect firepower this week at The Memorial this week. (Mike)
Last night, the break-off Saudi league announced the field for their first event next week in London. The list was quite boring honestly except for one surprise. I was quite shocked to see Dustin Johnson appear on that list. Just a few months ago he pledged his allegiance to the PGA Tour. There is no doubt that they threw an absurd amount of money at DJ and he is free to do as he wants, but puzzling for a guy that is already making millions of dollars a year to do this. He will also skip out on his top sponsor’s event next week at the RBC Canadian Open, which makes me think that relationship is probably over as well. Greed is a helluva drug and it is a shame to see DJ sell out here.
As for the rest of the field, what a snooze fest. Sure there are some former major champions in the field, but all of them are past their prime. Nobody in the field is good enough for me to tune in and that includes DJ. I hope the LIV Tour crumbles and Greg Norman continues his career of disappointment.
As for The Memorial this week, Mike already touched on how good this field is. It has the feel of something similar to The Players. This week does not feel like just another week on tour. It feels like the players know this week means just a little bit more. That being said, I think Patrick Cantlay gets it done this week. He has been relatively quiet lately, but The Memorial is a place he historically plays well at so it feels like a good time for him to get out of his mini-slump.
I have been a long time hater of Bryson, but I am interested to see how he plays this week in his return to competitive golf. I do not want to see him near the top of the leaderboard or anything, but I think golf is better when he is at least playing. Bryson missing the cut is must-watch TV. Another thing I have my attention on this week is Rickie Fowler. He has started to make a few cuts lately, but it has been far too long since he was competing on a Sunday. I am hopeful every week is finally the week he puts it all together, but there is no better place to do it than at Jack’s tournament. (Tyler)