Golf Channel Reporter Whit Watson is in Dublin, Ohio this week for the Memorial Tournament. Phil Mickelson has never won the Memorial Tournament but he is also looking ahead to the U.S. Open. Watson was actually surprised to find out that Mickelson has never won at Muirfield Village. 5-time U.S. Open Runner-up Mickelson is heading to Olympic Club next week on a scouting trip to figure out what clubs he will want to hit off the tee among other things. He wants to be able to plan his strategy off the tee on every hole.
People noticed that the conferences by Tim Finchem at Muirfield Village and Tiger Woods on Google+ ran at the same time on Tuesday and many people feel that the timing of Tiger’s conference was not coincidental and was done to send a message to Finchem and the PGA TOUR as well as the press corps. While some feel that it is a conspiracy theory that Tiger purposefully tried to overshadow Finchem, others think that it is not a far-fetched idea that Tiger would try to do something like that.
The reaction among the media to Jack Nicklaus’ emotional speech about Tournament Honoree Tom Watson was one of relative surprise. When Nicklaus conducts news conferences, he is someone who tends to give very thoughtful and at times very long answers so it was a bit unusual to see Nicklaus at a loss for words due to his emotions towards his fellow competitor and friend Tom Watson.
A number of players who were not playing in the pro-am on Wednesday went over to Scioto Country Club to take a look at the course. Many players in the field in the Memorial Tournament are playing in the U.S. Open Sectional Qualifier in Columbus, OH where they will play 18 holes each on The Ohio State University’s Scarlet Course and Scioto Country Club. If players in the qualifier miss the cut at Muirfield Village, they will be staying in town to prepare for Monday.
