I’m on location this week near Columbus, OH to watch The Memorial Tournament, a tournament Jack Nicklaus has attempted to craft into his very own Masters tournament. There’s the course, a 7300-yard test with small greens, a meandering stream, hills left and right (and fore and back), and a 165-yard 12th hole over water to a diagonal, peanut-shaped green. There are the caddies, who all wear white overalls. There are the trash bags, all tents, and the course conditions – green, green, and green. There’s even the name of the club at which the tournament is played – “town name” Golf Club (I guess Jack forgot the word ‘National’). Nicklaus, winner of six Masters, has created a tournament that draws big fields, I’ll give him that. But The Memorial is no Masters.
Heck, it may not even be a PGA Tour stop after this year… but more on that tomorrow.
With The Memorial coming up this week, I started thinking about the great events on the PGA Tour schedule each year that aren’t considered major championships. The four majors are of course The Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA Championship. These four tournaments are obviously the best and most important each year and for great reason. The following is a list of events I feel are just a small step behind the major championships but still very special to all the PGA Tour players. There is only room for five, so some great tournaments missed the cut including the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Mercedes Championship, Bank of America Colonial, and the upstart Wachovia Championship.
The man once and forever known as “Radar” – as much due to the fact that he looked like his M.A.S.H. counterpart as he was accurate with his irons – quietly walked away with the Senior PGA Championship on Sunday. In true tortoise-meets-hare fashion, Mike Reid plodded along, firing three consecutive rounds in the 70s to enter the final round two back.
The thought slipped into Justin Leonard’s mind briefly as he stood over a 3½-foot putt for bogey on No. 18. If he missed, he was going to a playoff.
Justin Leonard grabbed the largest 54-hole lead of the year as he shot a 4-under 66 to lead the pack by a whopping 8 strokes. He sits at 17-under. He has carried a lot of confidence into the weekend having shot an 
Hit it straight off the tee and hit a lot of greens. That is the key for Justin Leonard so far this week at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. He shot a five-under par round of 65 on Friday to push his lead to five strokes over a surging Fredrik Jacobson. Leonard is currently ninth in driving accuracy and tied for first on greens in regulation. Add that to the fact he is fourth in putting, and it’s easy to see why the Texan is cruising so far in Memphis.