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The European Tour again boasts a prominent tournament this week in the shape of the Italian Open, but the Memorial Tournament in Ohio is no doubt the big event on the calendar.
The Memorial, one of only five invitational events on the PGA Tour, was created by Jack Nicklaus nearly 50 years ago and is staged at Muirfield Village – a course of his design, in his hometown.
Nicklaus often attracts big names for his event, including one of his biggest fans in Tiger Woods – who has won this five times.
Across the Atlantic, and the Italian Open has attracted an impressive field for its 75th staging after it moved from October to its new May start. It also sees the Gardagolf Country Club return as host for the first time in over a decade.
See below as we run through the BMW PGA and the Fort Worth tournaments for you including facts, odds and picks from our own golfing professional Cliff Jackson and Betfair.
MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT
FIELD: The Memorial boasts one of the top fields seen in 2018 with home favourites Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Tiger Woods all teeing it up, whilst the foreign opposition is equally as good with Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Henrik Stenson in action. Jason Dufner is on hand to defend his title.
QUOTES: Nicklaus himself is delighted to see Woods back in his tournament, saying: “I am very happy for him. I never thought he would play again after the fusion. I am not a doctor but I never dreamed you could fuse somebody and they could go play golf. I think that he’ll win when he believes it himself between his ears.
“When he really starts to believe that – and maybe winning here would be one thing that would (help that) … I think he’ll win and do I think he’ll win majors again? Yeah, I think he’ll win majors again.”
Excited to be back at The Memorial. New @TaylorMadeGolf #MGwedge going in the bag this week. pic.twitter.com/wq83blgY20
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) May 30, 2018
ITALIAN OPEN
FIELD: The Italian Open has benefited from the BMW at Wentworth last week with a number of big names on show. Ty Hatton defends his title, but he has a tough task on his hands with the likes of Alex Noren, Tommy Fleetwood, Matt Fitzpatrick and Rafa Cabreba Bello teeing it up. The one name the home fans will be turning up for is Francesco Molinari – the winner in England last week.
Great to be back in italy to defend the @ItalianOpen
Hopefully I can put up a good defence ???? #RolexSeries #ItalianOpen pic.twitter.com/AOBxqcyfft— Tyrrell Hatton (@TyrrellHatton) May 30, 2018
Our resident golf expert is Cliff Jackson. Cliff is a leading youth coach and PGA professional at the famed Seaton Carew Links – one of the oldest courses in the world.
We came close last week, and again there are two great events this week. Looking at the Italian Open, and aside from Francesco Molinari, who I think could very well be a major player, I would look at some like Rafa Cabrera Bello.
The Memorial is a truly wonderful field, again I think Jason Dufner will do well here, but the likes of Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth are surely looking for big weeks.
