40th Memorial Tournament This And That

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The Memorial normally arrives as a strong barometer for the U.S. Open two weeks away. With its classic parkland setting, thick rough, fast greens and overall demanding offerings, Muirfield Village offers a chance to see who is playing well.

With a faux links looming in two weeks at Chambers Bay, The Memorial won't foretell what is to come, and that's a good thing. For a change The Memorial is about a classic, traditional event with a strong field.

Doug Ferguson previews the event where Hideki Matsuyama defends against a field including the red-hot youngsters (Fowler, Spieth) and the old guys hoping to quiet some of the youth obsession (Woods, Mickelson, Furyk, etc...).

Steve DiMeglio reports on Tiger, who is due to show signs of improvement with his latest game overhaul, has implemented a few things in his swing.

The early Woods-Reed-Day pairing will be the focus of PGATour.com/DirecTV's Live@ coverage starting at 8 am ET.

My preview touching on the many intriguing storylines from the Nationwide Live Studio:

Nicklaus: "I think I underachieved all my life"

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Jack Nicklaus held court today at The Memorial, launching the 40th edition of the tournament he founded by honoring Nick Faldo and journalism lifetime achievement honorree Doc Giffin. Before that ceremony, however, the Golden Bear took questions from the media.

Doug Ferguson kicks off his AP notes column with Nicklaus' view that he was a constant underachiever and how that shaped his approach to the game.

"I think that if you feel you're overachieving, or getting more out of what you should get, then you stop working," Nicklaus said. "I always feel like I'm never getting what I should be getting out of what I'm doing. So you've got to work harder to make sure you do that. I always wanted to climb a mountain. I always wanted to get better. ... So I just tried not to believe anything about what I would read or what I would hear or what I even thought.

"I still don't think I achieved what I could have achieved in my career."

PGA Tour Responds To Garcia Heckling Concerns

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I've noticed a greater tolerance of loud and rude types at PGA Tour events and the conspiracy theorist in me chalks it up to fear of upsetting the only people who matter (18-34 y.o.'s). Hopefully I'm wrong. And while it's part of the fun at Scottsdale and good times are not to be discouraged in the appropriate places, there is a concern with too many drunks getting too close to the action. Because as we saw at The Players, where the group behind the 17th tee desperately needed to be coralled, folks worldwide noticed.

The Guardian's Ewan Murray followed up with the PGA Tour and a statement was issued to clear the air, preventing an international incident. For now.

“If players were subjected to inappropriate comments and heckling during their rounds at The Players, that behaviour is completely contrary to our goal. Over the last several years, we doubled uniform police, significantly increased our private security presence and hired more senior officers to help with crowd control.

“We will continue to evaluate ways in which we can be more diligent in reducing any distraction to players and ensuring our no-tolerance policy is implemented. Fans who act inappropriately and affect the tournament experience with disrespectful behaviour will be ejected immediately.

“The Players 2015 was one for the record books and we are dedicated to ensuring a few poorly behaved fans do not impact the competition or the experience for our players and fans.”

“On a 7500 yard golf course Rory McIlroy hit 9-iron or less into 15 of 18 holes”

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Rory McIlroy posted a spectacular 61 at Quail Hollow to erase his previous course record. It's hard to take such a moment and highlight the absurdity of the ball going too far, but it has to be done! This is in no way a disparagement of McIlroy's accomplishment, merely a consideration of whether this is good for the professional game when 7,500 yard courses appear too short to defend themselves without resorting to absurd measures?

A deeper look at the numbers should be wake-up call No. 20,391 for the authorities that the "test" for elite players just isn't what it used to be and that nothing positive is gained from stretching the "championship" distance serves the long term interests of the sport.

Thanks to J Held for posting this chart of all the short irons McIlroy had into what was once thought of as a strong test. Maybe more shocking than hitting 9-iron or less into 15 of the 18 holes? Look at the long par-3 clubs.

Quail Hollow hosts the 2017 PGA Championship when the ball will (theoretically) fly longer and the course could have more roll.


The McIlroy highlights...

NBC Shows 381 Regulation Shots From The Players

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I hate to be the bearer of bad news American TV viewers: it's all downhill from here.

The second of two big golf tournaments with limited commercial interruptions has been played and NBC showed an astounding number of shots during Sunday's thrilling 2015 Players finale.

It's entirely possible Fox Sports may limit themselves to four breaks/six minutes of commercials an hour (or less) at the U.S. Open (as previous partner NBC did), but I've yet to hear any announced plans for a Masters or Players-like presentation. And we already (sadly) know how The Open Championship and PGA Championship play out commercial-wise.

ClassicSportsTV.com tracked the shots from Sunday's Players and reports...

I tracked the televised strokes by player during the NBC airing of the final round of the Players Championship. NBC showed 381 regulation strokes from the Sunday round. The telecast began at 2pm ET and regulation play ended at 6:48, so this worked out to 1.32 strokes per minute - the highest average of the six events I have tracked.

Also worth noting: winner Rickie Fowler only accounted for 12 of the regulation shots (all of his playoff shots were seen, but not included in the above summary).