The 36th Memorial Tournament will be played this week at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.

The course and the tournament are the realization of Jack Nicklaus’ dream of a challenging championship golf course and PGA Tour event for the Columbus area.

It annually has one of the strongest fields of any nonmajor golf tournament and this is year is no exception.

Seven of the top 10 on the Official World Golf Ranking — including No. 1 Luke Donald and No. 2 Rory McIlroy — will tee it up on Thursday.

Luke is coming off of a win at the European Tour’s BMW Championship, and Rory has missed his last two cuts.

2012 Masters champion and No. 4 ranked Bubba Watson will make his first start in several weeks. He has only played once since his Masters win, deciding to spend some family time after he and his wife adopted a baby son.

No. 6, Justin Rose, who won the WGC-Cadillac at Doral and last week finished T-2 to Luke Donald in England, won the Memorial Tournament in 2010.

No. 7, Hunter Mahan, who has two wins in 2012, the WGC-Accenture and the Shell Houston Open, is also in the field.

No. 9 Tiger Woods will make his first foray back to the PGA Tour wars since his less-than-stellar performance at the Players. Woods went T-40 at the Masters, missed cut at the Wells Fargo, and T-40 at the Players in his last three starts since winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March.

Tiger has won the Memorial four times and will try to find some consistency in his game as he prepares for the U.S. Open at Olympic Club in San Francisco in a couple weeks.

2011 Memorial Champion and No. 10 world-ranked Steve Stricker also has a win and four top 10s in just eight starts in 2012.

Other players of interest in the field this week are Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, hometown boy Ben Curtis, Rickie Fowler, $10 million FedEx Cup winner Bill Haas, Nick Watney, Webb Simpson, Brandt Snedeker, and PGA Tour Rookie of the Year candidate John Huh.

The Memorial Tournament can be seen on television from 3 to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday on the Golf Channel. CBS will provide the coverage from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday and from 2:30 to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Muirfield Village Golf Club will test every aspect of a player’s game and demands superb shot-making from the golfer who wants to claim the big check and the trophy on Sunday evening.

Golf legend Jack Nicklaus, Muirfield Village honoree Tom Watson, and a strong field make for a can’t-miss event for golf fans everywhere.

For more golf tips and video, visit www.toledoohiogolflessons.com. Follow on Twitter: @tolohgolfr.

Tags: Fred Altvater, Jack Nicklaus, Memorial Tournament, Muirfield Village Golf Club, PGA Tour, The Back Nine

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2012 at 1:28 pm and is filed under Golf, Sports, The Back Nine.
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