Lowdown: Memorial Tournament
Purse: €8.15million (€1.45m to the winner)
Where: Muirfield Village, Dublin, Ohio
The course: Traditionally the home of the Memorial tournament (but also with events including the Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup and Solheim Cup on its hosting list), Muirfield Village - designed by Jack Nicklaus and Desmond Muirfield and opened for play in 1974- is a Par 72 layout of 7,456 yards. A week ago, it played host to the Workday Charity Open (won by Collin Morikawa) but this week's set-up will see faster greens, up from 11 to close to 14 on the stimpmetre, along with some extra growth of rough. The signature hole is the Par 5 11th which features a meandering stream and various levels of terrain.
What's the big deal? Well, Tiger's back for one. Woods - a five-times winner of the tournament - has been on the sidelines for the past five months, dating back to his appearance in the Genesis Invitational in February.
The field: Nine of the world's top-10 are playing, the only absentee being Adam Scott who has kept away from the PGA Tour's restart. The strength of the field is actually the strongest ever of a regular PGA Tour event. Collin Morkikawa is seeking to go back-to-back having won the Workday in a play-off over Justin Thomas a week ago . . . and Thomas is one of four players who has the chance to leapfrog Rory McIlroy into the world number one spot. Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson and Webb Simpson are the others in with a shot at No.1.
Irish in the field: Shane Lowry has Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose for company (1st round tee-time 6.06pm Irish time); McIlroy is in the marquee group along with Tiger Woods and Brooks Koepka (tee-time 6.17pm Irish time), while Graeme McDowell is in a two-ball with Dylan Frittelli (7.01pm Irish time).
Betting: Bryson DeChambeau - on the back of a run of 3rd-8th-6th-1st since the tour's reboot - is the market leader at 9/1 but the strength of the field is a notch up on that of his win at the Rocket Mortgage and better value can be found with the equally in-form Daniel Berger who is generally available at 35/1: Berger has finished first and third on his two most recent outings and the slick greens at Jack's Place will suit him. Some each-way value could be found with Matthew Wolff, aiming to bounce back from a missed-cut last week and on show at 125/1.
On TV: Featured group coverage starts from 12.15pm on Sky Sports Golf, with full live coverage commencing from 7.30pm.
