Thursday 4 June 2015 07:40, UK
Rich Beem reflects on Rory McIlroy's display at last week's Irish Open and looks ahead to Tiger Woods' return to action at the Memorial Tournament.
It’s good to be back in the USA, where we drive on the correct side of the road! It has been a very busy schedule of late for me, with this week my seventh working in a row and sixth for Sky. I’ve finally been able to spend a week with my family as they flew up to see me from Austin this week, so having them with me will put me in good spirits heading in to the closing stages of a nine-week stretch. I played 11 weeks in a row early in my PGA Tour career, but have to say that was when I was a much younger man with fewer responsibilities which made it a touch easier!
Even though the weather was less than ideal, Ireland was fantastic as always and the hospitality from the fans was overwhelming, which was totally unexpected. What I thought was really cool was the fact that it didn’t seem like any of the fans left, even though Rory wasn’t playing well and the weather was no joy.
I have no worries about Rory or his game at the moment. Even though he is a young man, there are a lot of responsibilities in being world No 1 and we have no idea what they have to go through day in, day out. Along with the fact that he was hosting the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, I’m getting tired of just thinking about all he had on his plate the last five weeks!
I expect him to show up to Chambers Bay for the US Open the weekend before the tournament starts to get a good look at it, and I expect him to be on the first page of the leaderboard come Sunday of that week.
It was amazing how the 18th looked on Sunday afternoon; it reminded me of walking down the 18th at The Open Championship! Paul McGinley suggested that The Open could possibly be hosted there, but we’ll have to see how The Open goes in a couple years at Royal Portrush first. Royal County Down could easily hold its own against any course currently on the rota, and it would be a pleasure to cover that event in the future!
A great place
The Memorial has always been a special tournament to me, although I never played well here which was a bummer. Tournament host Jack Nicklaus was my first golfing idol and everything he does here at Muirfield Village is pure class, although that should be expected though from the 18-time major champion! The course is always tough but fair, with wide fairways, smallish greens, and penalizing rough. In breezy conditions, it was one of the toughest courses on tour for me to play. The wind swirls through the trees and is always tough to get the ball close.
I’m not sure what to expect from Tiger Woods this week. He has had three weeks off since his last start, The Players, where he performed very averagely. It puzzles me how a man that has achieved so much on a golf course, in the way that he achieved it, is struggling so mightily. He is great for the game and I think all fans of the game want to see him get back into good form - I certainly do.
I hope that the last three weeks has given him enough time to put some more time and reps in to come out on Thursday firing on all cylinders. He’s won here multiple times and knows how to play this course better than any other player in the field. He just needs to go out and, excuse the sponsor's pun, just do it.
There are also plenty of the younger players that I’m looking forward to seeing play this week, with Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas just a couple that I’m keen on. The course probably suits Justin’s game best from tee to green, but on the greens, well, Jordan has certainly proved that he is the best in the game when it matters. They have a good, healthy fun banter between them and push each other to get better every day.
I’m giving the nod this week to Justin, as Columbus is where he won his first Web.com tour event last year, at the Scarlet course, where this week’s host Jack Nicklaus attended college. I guess I’m just a sucker for good karma! Whatever happens, I’m expecting brilliant conditions out there this week and the tournament will have a well-deserved champion in the end.
Watch The Memorial Tournament throughout the week on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf.
