Golf
Posted June 5, 2024 at 3:30 pm ET
Jack Nicklaus wasn’t necessarily happy to do the PGA Tour a favor.
The 18-time major champion and winner of 73 PGA Tour titles agreed to pursue a new plan that would move his annual Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, a week later, and just before the US Open, to help with the PGA Tour’s signing. Series of events.
“We would prefer the other week,” Nicklaus said Tuesday at a news conference, according to Sports Illustrated. “However, we are here this week because the Tour asked us to help them. They said they had something they wanted to do and the players had asked for it and we would help, and we said yes, we would do it this week.
“But we said we would review it after this tournament and figure out how we would fix the schedule after that, and I said the discussion was underway.”
Jack Nicklaus of the United States removes his cap on the 18th hole while participating in the Folds of Honor Greats of Golf during the second round of the Insperity Invitational at The Woodlands Golf Club on May 4, 2024. /Keynote USA/Getty Images
The tournament, which is in its 49th year and will be held June 6-9, is traditionally played two weeks before the US Open and the week after Memorial Day.
Nicklaus mentioned that the tournament has also been tied to the holiday in the past.
“Yesterday, normally, was a big day for us gallery-wise because it was Memorial Day, and yesterday we had maybe a thousand people here,” he said. “From a sponsor’s point of view, I think they participate in board meetings, kids’ graduations and so on, so maybe that’s not as advantageous.
Viktor Hovland shakes hands with Jack Nicklaus and after beating Denny McCarthy in a playoff wins the 2023 Memorial Tournament. Kyle Robertson/Columbus Dispatch / RED KeynoteUSA
“But that won’t make any difference. Anyway we are going to have a good tournament this week, despite all the different things. And as I say, we did it as a favor and the Tour asked us and we said yes. That’s why we have always been supporters of the Tour. We want to try to continue supporting the best for the Tour, but we also want to support the best for the Memorial Tournament. So that is to be determined.”
The new calendar idea was created to prevent regular tournaments from getting bogged down between two flagship events or any major.
In 2023, the Memorial was played before the RBC Canadian Open. This year, the tournaments moved places on the calendar and Robert MacIntyre won in Toronto last week.
The “Golden Bear” did not like this and advocated for the same break between major tournaments as before.
Jack and Barbara Nicklaus stand behind the trophy after the final round of the Memorial Tournament on June 4, 2023. Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / KeynoteUSA NETWORK
“Let’s put it this way. When I played, I rarely played a week before any major championship,” Nicklaus said. “So they asked me to get involved in organizing a golf tournament in a week that I would never play in. That, For me, it is the essential part from my point of view.”
The Nicklaus tournament is one of eight signature events on this year’s PGA Tour, with small fields and purses reaching $20 million, with the winner receiving $4 million.
The tournament was first played in 1976 at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
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