The latest of the PGA Tour’s signature events arrived with the Memorial Tournament. Like all of the most prestigious tournaments on the PGA Tour calendar, the Muirfield Village event has attracted many of the best players in the world, but one or two elements distinguish it from five of the eight tournaments.
The Memorial Tournament, famously hosted by 18-time Major winner Jack Nicklaus, is one of three signature events that are invitationals (the other two were February’s Genesis Invitational and March’s Arnold Palmer Invitational).
Because of that, they not only offer a slightly different prize money distribution that will see this week’s winner claim 20% of the $20m purse rather than the more typical 18%, but they also have a cut, which comes at the 36-hole mark.
That wasn’t the case for The Sentry, the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the RBC Heritage and the Wells Fargo Championship, and it won’t be for the Travelers Championship when it arrives later in the month.
The field is still limited, with 73 playing this week, although some will be saying their goodbyes to Muirfield Village for another year on Friday evening, and they won’t receive any prize money, either.
On the other hand, the top 50 and ties, plus any other player within 10 shots of the lead after his second round, will make it to the weekend. The size of this week’s field means that there’ll be a maximum of 23 missing the cut. However, in reality, it’s likely to be significantly less than that given the two caveats.
For reference, at the previous signature event with a cut, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the field was 69, and only 11 failed to reach the weekend.
For those who do make it to the third round, their hopes of lifting the trophy, receiving a handshake from Nicklaus and walking away with prize money of $4m on Sunday evening will live on for another two days.
The Memorial Tournament Cut Rule
- Top 50 and ties
- Players within 10 shots of the lead
