Location | Dublin, Ohio |
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Established | 1976, 41 years ago |
Course(s) | Muirfield Village Golf Club |
Par | 72 |
Length | 7,392 yards (6,759 m) |
Tour(s) | PGA Tour |
Format | Stroke play |
Prize fund | $8.5 million |
Month played | June |
Aggregate | 268 Tom Lehman (1994) |
To par | −20 Tom Lehman (1994) |
William McGirt |
The Memorial Tournament is a PGA Tour golf tournament, founded 41 years ago in 1976 by Jack Nicklaus. It is played on a Nicklaus-designed course at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, a suburb north of Columbus. The golf course passes through a large neighborhood called Muirfield Village, which includes a bronze sculpture of Nicklaus mentoring a young golfer; unveiled in 1999, it is located in the wide median of Muirfield Drive.
One of the main features of the tournament is a yearly induction ceremony honoring past golfers. A plaque for each honoree is installed near the clubhouse at Muirfield; Nicklaus himself was the honoree in 2000.
The purse was increased over 37% for the 2016 edition, from $6.2 to $8.5 million.
The greater Columbus area is where Nicklaus was born, raised, learned the game of golf, went to college, and started his own family. It was his vision to create a golf club that embodied his personal and professional life and to create a golf tournament that would long represent his passion for tournament golf, and would give back to a community that has embraced him and the game. This was fulfilled in May 1976 with the first Memorial Tournament, two years to the day after the course opened at Muirfield Village. The par-72 course was set at 7,072 yards (6,467 m), a considerable length for the mid-1970s.
Nicklaus signaled his intent to host his own tournament during Masters Week in 1966, when he spoke of his desire to create a tournament that, like The Masters, had a global interest, and was inspired by the history and traditions of the game of golf. He also wanted the tournament to give back in the form of charitable contributions to organizations benefiting needy adults and children throughout Columbus and Ohio. The primary charitable beneficiary of the tournament is Nationwide Children's Hospital.
The Memorial reached the height of its popularity in the 1990s having reached "sold-out" status, a first on the PGA Tour other than the major championships. For a variety of reasons, the event has started seeing ticket sales decrease during the last five years.