Strong Field In Ohio For Jack Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament

Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm are all at Muirfield Village this week for Jack Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament

Strong Field In Ohio For Jack Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament

It's Memorial Tournament week on the PGA Tour as Jack Nicklaus hosts at his Muirfield Village Country Club in Dublin, Ohio.

Last year, William McGirt won his first PGA Tour title after beating Jon Curran in a playoff.

Interestingly, there has been a playoff to decide the Memorial Tournament in each of the last three years.

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Five of the world's top 10 players make up a strong field with the US Open at Erin Hills just two weeks away.

World number one Dustin Johnson headlines with world number three Jason Day, number four and 2014 Memorial Tournament winner Hideki Matsuyama, number six Jordan Spieth and number nine Jon Rahm all in the field.

Rory McIlroy pulled out of the tournament last week with rib pains. He will now go into the US Open without any tournament preparation.

Last week's Dean & Deluca Invitational winner Kevin Kisner is also playing.

Venue: Muirfield Village GC, Dublin, Ohio Date: June 1-4 Course stats: par 72, 7,392 yards Purse: $8,500,000 Winner: $1,615,000 Defending Champion: William McGirt (-15)

TV Coverage: Thursday 2 – Sky Sports 4 from 7.30pm Friday 3 – Sky Sports 4 from 7.30pm Saturday 4 – Sky Sports 4 from 5.30pm Sunday 5 – Sky Sports 4 from 5pm

Player watch

Jon Rahm - The Spaniard came close last week at the Dean & Deluca Invitational, eventually finishing in a tie for second. Since winning the Farmers Insurance Open in January, Rahm has five top-five finishes on the PGA Tour and has moved up to ninth in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Hideki Matsuyama - The world number four won here in 2014 and has come a long way since then. He has been slightly quiet in the last few months but did finish T22nd at The Players Championship three weeks ago and hasn't played since, so he'll have surely been working hard on his game.

Jordan Spieth - After two missed cuts, Spieth finished in a tie for second last week at Colonial, missing out by one stroke. This is a huge tournament this week and victory here would put him in a great place with the US Open just around the corner.

Key hole: 18th. A long, par-4 finishing hole of 484-yards, it generally averages well above par. For last season the fairway bunkering was redesigned to catch more drives. The players now need to carry the ball fully 350 yards if there to get past all the sand.