GOLF: Scottie Scheffler eyes exceedingly rare 3-peat in return to Memorial

A few weeks removed from the second major of 2026, the PGA Tour's best players have reconvened at another tournament they badly want to win: the Memorial Tournament, beginning Thursday in Dublin, Ohio.

Of the top 10 in the world rankings, only Collin Morikawa is absent from Muirfield Village Golf Club this week. The $20 million signature event is celebrating its 50th anniversary year, a half-century after Jack Nicklaus launched it during the prime of his playing career.

Rory McIlroy, who is famously just a Masters title away from completing the career Grand Slam, said there are only two tournaments he has yet to win that he would love to cross off his list: the ones hosted by Nicklaus and Tiger Woods—the Memorial and the Genesis Invitational.

"I always thought it would be cool to win here and take that little walk up the hill off the 18th green and shake Jack's hand," McIlroy said Wednesday. "Also, Jack and I share a nice history. We've known each other now for nearly 20 years—or I've known him for nearly 20 years. He's been nothing but great to me and my family. So, yeah, this is certainly one I would love to get done."

The Northern Irishman's only peer at the very top of the sport, Scottie Scheffler, is the two-time reigning champion after posting a four-stroke victory last year.

Reporters asked Nicklaus this week why Scheffler has excelled at his tournament, and Nicklaus simply pointed to his head.

"There's a lot of spots out here where there's just not really a [safe] miss, and you just got to step up there and hit the shot," Scheffler said. "I feel like over the years here I've done a really good job of being committed to what I'm trying to do. And I think sometimes your mind looks a little stronger when you're hitting the ball where you're looking more often than you're not. And I think, when I look over the course of my career, I would say my mind has always been one of my biggest strengths."

Scheffler could become the first player since Steve Stricker at the John Deere Classic (2009–2011) to three-peat at a PGA Tour event.

McIlroy will play the first two rounds alongside another fan favorite, Justin Thomas, while Scheffler is paired with newly minted PGA champion Aaron Rai. The Englishman is making his first start since a stellar final-round 65 earned him his first major title.

"It took a good few days, I think, for me to really get my head around it," Rai said. "I mean, I don't think I still have fully. But the following morning it was just more of an excitement really. ... It was only really when my dad came to my house a few days later that we started to speak about it a little bit more that I started to kind of embrace it and let it sink in a little bit more."

Players will face a par-72, 7,569-yard challenge that has not yielded many low scores of late. Scheffler is the only player in the past three years to crack double-digits under par.

While the field was limited to 72 players, the Memorial remains one of the few signature events that includes a 36-hole cut (top 50 plus ties, and anyone within 10 shots of the lead).

Beyond the expected headliners, players who qualified via the Aon Swing 5 points race included Eric Cole, Brandt Snedeker, and former U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, who played his way in by winning the CJ Cup Byron Nelson two weeks ago.

"Coming in after a win—it's amazing what winning does in golf or even just playing consistently really good golf," Clark said. "You just move on to the next week. You're super confident, super—just believing that good things are going to happen. So, yeah, I feel great. Regardless of what happens, at least mentally I'm like, ‘Hey, I got a chance to win this tournament.'" -Field Level Media/Reuters