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May 12, 2022

Major Championship winners Jon Rahm and Hideki Matsuyama set to compete in the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday

DUBLIN, Ohio – Officials of the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday announced today that major championship winners Jon Rahm and Hideki Matsuyama, who each won their first major title last year and are past winners of the Memorial Tournament, are set to compete in the 47^th edition of the prestigious invitational founded and hosted by golfing legend Jack Nicklaus.

The Memorial Tournament presented by Workday is May 30–June 5 at the world-renowned Muirfield Village Golf Club.

Rahm is coming off a successful 2020-2021 PGA TOUR season that included a career-best 15 top-10 finishes, his first major championship title at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, and a runner-up finish in the final FedExCup Playoff standings behind 2021 Memorial Tournament winner Patrick Cantlay. Rahm posted no-worse-than T-8 in every major in 2021 and finished inside the top-10 in each of his final six starts of the season, excluding last year’s withdrawal from the Memorial Tournament. He maintained momentum in 2022 with an early second-place effort at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, including a third-round 61. Rahm has made the cut in 10 straight starts in 2022, and finally broke through with his first win of the year at the Mexico Open at Vidanta on May 1, bringing his career PGA TOUR victory total to seven. He currently sits at No. 2 in the Official World Golf Rankings and is seventh in FedExCup points. Rahm was at the center of an emotional moment at the 2021 Memorial Tournament, when, after finishing his third round with an 8-under 64 and taking a commanding six-shot lead, he was forced to withdraw from the Tournament after testing positive for COVID-19. This year will mark the Spaniard’s fourth start at Muirfield Village Golf Club, where in 2020 he joined Cantlay and Tiger Woods as the only Jack Nicklaus Award winners to hoist the Memorial Tournament trophy. Rahm’s career Tournament earnings are $1,674,000 and his scoring average is 69.67 over nine rounds.

Matsuyama, 30, ended a three-season winless drought in dramatic fashion last year by becoming the first Japanese male to win a major championship with his victory at the 2021 Masters Tournament. The win marked his sixth career PGA TOUR title, his first coming in the 2014 Memorial with a playoff victory over Kevin Na. Matsuyama’s TOUR win total now sits at eight after victories this year at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP and Sony Open in Hawaii. He has recorded a total of four top-10 finishes this season and is currently ranked

No. 13 in the world and No. 5 in FedExCup points. This will be Matsuyama’s ninth appearance at the Memorial Tournament, where he has enjoyed three top-10 finishes to go with $1,855,565 in earnings and a 71.18 scoring average.

In additional Tournament news, the Captains Club has chosen World Golf Hall of Fame member and golf pioneer Charlie Sifford as a 2022 Memorial Tournament Honoree alongside two-time Masters winner Ben Crenshaw. Sifford is the 80^th individual selected to receive the prestigious honor that will be posthumously presented during the annual Honoree Ceremony on Wednesday, June 1, at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

Charles Luther Sifford was born June 2, 1922, in Charlotte, N.C., one of six children to parents Roscoe and Eliza. He was introduced to the game at the age of 10 when he began to caddie at Carolina Country Club to help the family finances. He was able to play there when the course was closed or whenever he could sneak in a few holes, and he received instructional help from PGA professional Clayton Heafner.

He moved to Philadelphia when he was 17 and began competing against other Black golfers before serving in the Army. He turned pro at age 26 and followed his mentor Ted Rhodes to the United Golfers Association, where he soon became its top player, winning the Negro National Open six times. He gained notice with a victory in the Long Beach Open, shooting a final-round 7-under 64 to beat the likes of Billy Casper and Gene Littler. It wasn’t an official tour event at 54 holes, but to Sifford it was huge, saying, “This is what I’ve been waiting for. Now I hope I’ll really be able to go. 

And go he did, becoming the first Black member of the TOUR in 1961 when the PGA lifted its Caucasian-only clause. He was 39. Sifford won twice, at the 1967 Hartford Open and the ’69 Los Angeles Open, and he was a mainstay among the top 60 on the money list for a number of years. He later added one of the biggest prizes in senior golf with the 1975 Senior PGA Championship.

 Sifford was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2004. Among those who spoke on his behalf at the ceremony were Gary Player and Tiger Woods. In 2014, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.

Sifford died of complications from a stroke on Feb. 3, 2015, in Cleveland, Ohio, at the age of 92. President Obama said that Sifford, “had faced indignity and injustice even as he faced the competition … and helped to alter the course of the sport and the country he loved.”

To purchase remaining badge options for the 2022 Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, the public may visit www.memorialbadges.com or call the Tournament Ticket Office 9 a.m.-5 p.m. EDT weekdays at 877-MT BADGE (877-682-2343). Free Junior tickets are available in advance with a valid badge purchase or at all entry gates during Tournament week for kids 18 and under (must be accompanied by a ticketed adult). Any Day Practice Round tickets are available in packs of three. The cost is $45 and each ticket provides single-day practice-round access to the Tournament grounds Monday (5/30), Tuesday (5/31), or Wednesday (6/1).

For more information about the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, please visit thememorialtournament.com. For the latest news and updates on social media, follow the Tournament on Twitter and Instagram at @MemorialGolf and on Facebook at Facebook.com/theMemorialTournament.

About the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday

The Memorial Tournament presented by Workday is held annually at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. The Tournament, founded and hosted by Jack Nicklaus, is conducted each year with three goals in mind: to honor the memory of individuals living and deceased who have distinguished themselves in the game of golf; to showcase the world’s best golfers competing on one of the most challenging venues in the world for the enjoyment of spectators; and to benefit many Greater Columbus Charities in alliance with the Nicklaus Children's Health Care Foundation, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Eat. Learn. Play. and numerous other local organizations. For more information, visit www.thememorialtournament.com or call 614-889-6700.

About Workday

Workday is a leading provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, helping customers adapt and thrive in a changing world. Workday applications for financial management, human resources, planning, spend management, and analytics have been adopted by thousands of organizations around the world and across industries—from medium-sized businesses to more than 50% of the Fortune 500. For more information about Workday, visit workday.com.

Media Contact:

Thomas P. Sprouse                                                                                                                  

Director of Communications,                                                                                              

the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday                                                 

E-Mail: tsprouse@thememorialtournament.com                                   

Office: 614-889-6791                                                                                                             

Mobile: 614-519-1873