TOUR Insider: Bigger field means changes for Memorial

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Tiger Woods isn't competing in this week's Memorial Tournament presented by Morgan Stanley in suburban Columbus, Ohio, because his surgically repaired knee isn't ready for competition, meaning his first start after finishing second at the Masters will be next month's U.S. Open.

Ryan Moore is looking forward to the Memorial this week. (Dunn/Getty Images)

Nevertheless, Woods, the Memorial's only three-time champion, already has had an indirect impact on this year's 33rd playing of the event at which Jack Nicklaus is founder, host and course designer. After the creation last year of the AT&T National at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., which Woods hosts, the PGA TOUR sought to make field sizes a standard 120 players in all of its invitational events.

Therefore, last week's Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial increased its field from 113 to 120. The Memorial is enjoying an even larger bump in personnel after hosting 106 players a year ago at Muirfield Village Golf Club. The increase includes four additional sponsor exemptions and a new category that invites the top 30 from last year's FedExCup points list.

"Our decision to raise the field number was largely in response to a request made by the PGA TOUR and Tim Finchem," Nicklaus, who opened Muirfield Village in his hometown in 1974, said. "Tim has always been a big supporter of the Memorial Tournament, and he and the TOUR have worked very hard with us over the years and have done everything we have asked of them in order to improve the Memorial. I thought this was one request on their part that was very acceptable."

The additional players mean that the Memorial will have to institute a two-tee start. Previously, all competitors began their rounds on the first hole at Muirfield Village, a sylvan par-72 layout of 7,366 yards that has been continually upgraded over time but was not changed in the last year. Memorial's field of 120 is its largest ever, surpassing the 114 who competed in 1993.

Woods, No. 4 Adam Scott and No. 9 Vijay Singh are absent, but the rest of the top 10 in the world is entered, including No. 2 Phil Mickelson, who last year had to withdraw from the Memorial after 11 holes because of a wrist injury. Mickelson, whose best finish at Muirfield Village is a tie for fourth in 2006, won his second TOUR title of the year last week at Colonial.

Among other top-10 performers is defending champion K.J. Choi, who won the Sony Open in Hawaii in January but has stumbled of late, coming in after missing his last two cuts. Choi, incidentally, followed up his Memorial triumph by capturing the inaugural AT&T National.

FEDEXCUP POINTERS

• Two players with at least five appearances at the Memorial Tournament put perfect cut marks on the line this week: Jim Furyk, who hasn't missed the weekend in his 11 starts, and Steve Stricker (8). Furyk is a former Memorial winners.

• The field includes four players with central Ohio connections, led by former British Open champion Ben Curtis of Ostrander, who counts the Memorial among the most important tournaments on his schedule. Others are Dublin resident Bob Sowards, a former assistant professional at Muirfeild Village, rookie Travis Perkins who graduated from Olentangy High School in Columbus, and Joe Ogilvie, a player rep on the PGA TOUR policy board and former TOUR winner.

• Seven golfers who competed in the European Tour's BMW PGA Championship this past week have signed up to compete at the Memorial. Others making the trip across the Atlantic Ocean: Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Richard Green, Anton Haig, James Kingston, Justin Rose and Graeme Storm. Casey, Donald and Rose have dual membership on the PGA TOUR and European Tour.

• Don't be surprised if Kenny Perry's recent string of good play continues at the Memorial, where he will be making his 20th start. A two-time winner of Nicklaus' tournament, Perry has only one round over par in his last 16 and last year on the way to a tie for third he shot a stout 130 on the weekend (67-63).

• With THE PLAYERS decided by a playoff for the first time since 1987 as Sergio Garcia downed Paul Goydos, the Memorial Tournament moves to the front as the PGA TOUR stop that has gone the longest without being extended extra holes. The last playoff at Muirfield Village occurred in 1992 when David Edwards defeated Rick Fehr.

• Having competed the last four weeks and posting a pair of top-10 finishes in the process, Heath Slocum changed his mind about playing at Muirfield Village and withdrew over the weekend, opening the way for Charles Warren to make his first Memorial start.

• It has proven to be difficult for a first-time participant to win the Masters -- only three have done so -- and the Memorial, which Nicklaus styled after the Masters, also has been hard on rookies. Only one man, inaugural champion Roger Maltbie, has ever won the Memorial on his first try, something to chew on for the 21 first-time participants teeing it up this week at Muirfield Village.