The Memorial: Jack Nicklaus Reveals Hardest 'Tournament I Ever Won'

Newsweek

28-05-2025

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The Memorial Tournament will celebrate its 50th edition starting Thursday, May 29. It's one of the longest-running tournaments on the PGA Tour, which has naturally led to many memorable moments taking place there over the years.
In fact, it was precisely there that the event's host, Jack Nicklaus, recorded the hardest victory of his career. This is no small feat, considering Nicklaus won 117 tournaments in professional golf, 73 of them on the PGA Tour, including 18 major championships.
According to the Golden Bear himself, this was the second edition of the Memorial Tournament (1977), the first of two he won.
"The second year, I won and, unfortunately, we couldn't finish it on Sunday," Nicklaus recalled during his pre-event press conference.
"We had bad weather, and I finished it on Monday morning, and [I] won that. And I have always felt that that was probably the most difficult tournament that I had ever won."
Jack Nicklaus follows his drive during the second round of The Memorial Tournament at the Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.
Jack Nicklaus follows his drive during the second round of The Memorial Tournament at the Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.According to a May 23, 1977, report in the Pittsburgh Press, three consecutive storms hit Muirfield Village that Sunday, forcing 10 players to finish on Monday. Nicklaus parred all his three remaining holes during the continuation to finish the round at 1-under and the event at 7-under.
This score earned him the title, beating Hubert Green by two strokes. Green was 3-under through the 14th hole when play was suspended, but he could only manage par on his remaining four holes on Monday, finishing with a final round of 69 and a 72-hole score of 5-under.
To give you an idea of the caliber of that year's event, the top 10 included not only Nicklaus and Green but also Tom Watson, David Graham, Fuzzy Zoeller, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Lee Trevino, Bob Murphy, Gary Player, and Joe Inman.
My @MemorialGolf wins in '77 and '84 were among my most difficult and rewarding. Playing the role of tournament founder, host and even maintenance worker—stuffing my son Jack's caddie bib with every piece of trash I found—made golf a bit more challenging. See you in Ohio in July! pic.twitter.com/8gbekIbEpp — Jack Nicklaus (@jacknicklaus) May 27, 2020
Nicklaus won the Memorial Tournament again in 1984, when he shot an 8-under and then defeated Andy Bean in a playoff. With this victory, he became the first multiple winner of the tournament.
He didn't remain the only player in that group for long, though, as Hale Irwin joined him the following year. To date, five other players have won the Memorial Tournament more than once: Greg Norman, Tom Watson, Patrick Cantlay, Kenny Perry, and Tiger Woods.
Woods is the most successful player at Muirfield Village, having won five times (1999, 2000, 2001, 2009, and 2012)—two more victories than Perry (1991, 2003, and 2008). Perry and Watson (1979, 1996) share the record for the longest time between their first and last wins in this event: 17 years.
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