Jack Nicklaus May Not Like It, But His Event May Not Have a Cut Next Year
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Jack Nicklaus’s Memorial Tournament this week will be played for the 48th time at the Muirfield Village course he designed in the early 1970s. It is now a “designated event," which was never necessary to attract a strong field.
Typically two weeks prior to the U.S. Open, it has been perfectly positioned on the schedule to attract the top players. And for the last several years, it had already been given "elevated" status with a bigger purse and longer exemption for winning (three years) along with the Genesis Invitational and Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Those three tournaments were termed the "legacy" events and now they’ve been rolled into the designated event concept with a $20 million purse, up from $12 million last year.
One more possible change looms: going to a smaller field and no cut in 2024.
As part of the designated event idea, the eight tournaments that include these three legacy events will have fields that range from 60 to 80 players and no cut. Tiger Woods, who hosts the Genesis Invitational, has pushed back on that proposal.
"I certainly am pushing for my event to have a cut," Woods said at the Masters. “I think that maybe the player-hosted events may have cuts. These are things that Jack and I are still in discussion with Jay (Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner) and the board and the Tour and the rest of the guys. That still is in flux.
“I still think that there needs to be a penalty for not playing well, and to have that—every event shouldn't be always guaranteed 72 holes. I think that there should be a cut there. But we are trying to figure that out."
Nicklaus has expressed similar sentiments.
“We prefer to have more than 70 players," Nicklaus said. “With fans out there all day long, you’d like them to be able to cover the course all day."
The competitive aspect has been the reason cited most for not having cuts, but Nicklaus makes a fair point. It’s fewer players for the ticket buyer to see.
Woods' tournament is the old Los Angeles Open and used to have a full field, reduced to 120 players when it became a legacy event. The Palmer and Nicklaus tournaments used to be 105 players years ago before being increased to 120 players. The common theme was they all had a 36-hole cut.
Monahan has made it clear that no-cut events, including these legacy tournaments, are part of the plan going forward. It will be interesting to see this week if Nicklaus’s thoughts have evolved and where this ultimately goes.