Dublin, Ohio - Scottie Scheffler won the memorial last year and has won Jack Nicklaus's handshake and trophy. Now is all the highest praise among the tournament hosts.

"He performed the same as mine," Nicklaus said.

Nicklaus's 18 professional titles remain the gold standard for golf, saying he has never played in a tournament and thinks it was his victory. Golf needs preparation. It's the process of hitting the fairway and green, always improving.

"I've been trying to feel like I'm climbing," Nicklaus said.

Scheffler showed a lot in his three years on Golf Hill.

He talks endlessly about getting ready as he stepped on his first t-shirt, for every hole and limiting the wrong plan. It has earned him 18 titles worldwide, including the third-place Grand Slam title two weeks ago.

Scheffler has led the PGA Tour statistics for each of the last two years, which measures T-shirts as Green.

"He hit the ball from left to right, keeping the ball for a long time and hitting a lot of greens," Nicklaus said. "The evaluation of Schefler, which was the Golden Bears' assessment at his peak.

"I like him doing it with ease," Nicklaus said. "He never got frustrated with doing anything. He felt very calm about it. It reminded me of the way I played. I tried to be very calm and never panic."

The 50th edition of the Memorial begins Thursday, as Schefller attempts to join Tiger Woods as the only repetitive champion in Muirfield Village.

As usual, the $20 million signature field was stacked together but missing Masters champion Rory McIlroy, who chose not to compete for the first time since 2017.

The looming Oakmont is open, imminent, and is said to be one of the hardest tests in the country. Scheffler made his U.S. Open debut in Oakmont in 2016 and opened with 69 times before missing out on layoffs.

But this is too far away. He is a shot-by-hole, weekly thinker. Even if he is the defending champion, he will not look back.

"I'm only focused on one shot at a time, but you always position yourself on one hole," Scheffler said. "I'd say it's basically one hole at a time. When I step on the first tee tomorrow, I'm going to remind myself that I'm ready and I'm ready for the game. Now, it's all about going out to play."

Muirfield Village is as lush as ever, raining in the past two weeks, and another bit of the past two days certainly will make it long and soft.

Victor Hovland scored each digit in the last two years - Scheffler won 1 point with 280 in 2024 with 80 shots, while Viktor Hovland scored 7 points in 281 shots and 281 shots and won the playoffs the previous year.

"It's always hard. It does feel like that," Max Homa said. “It’s interesting that in the next few days, the score was because I’ve been here for the last few years and I felt it was very firm and it was a test. It was so difficult to have the green, and it wasn’t possible to put the ball in a good position at times.

"But this year, the hard feeling is like America's opening more," he said. "I have a few lies today and you just want to get it along the 70 yards on the fairway."

Scheffler's preparation includes rest. He is in a busy extension this year. He won eight shots in Dallas, won a week at home, then won the PGA title with five shots and tied for fourth in the Colonial next week.

It was his third straight week and then he made the U.S. Open.

"Enough rest," Schefler said.

Nicklaus started the game in 1976 - he was 36 and would continue to win four professional titles before scaling - and stay active and keep talking to the players about what they like and what they can get better.

"He wants this golf course to be the best test for golf tests, so he just sat in the last few years of a player's meal basically asking men what they think of the course," Scheffler said. "I think it's really cool for someone who has the experience he has in golf, all the achievements he has done, having him sit in the meal and ask the guys at the moment how they can improve their game, I think it's really cool."

Nicklaus is all large-scale tests. He is known as one of the greatest clutch putters of all time, but the Golden Bear never enjoyed the game decided. Like Ben Hogan before him, he thought the test should start with the tee.

"Making putts is all part of the game," Nicklaus said. "As long as it's not a putt game, that's what I don't like. I'm very concerned about fairways and greens. If you ask Scheffler, I'm sure he's all about fairways and greens. And I've never talked to him."

Nicklaus saw a large number of Schefflers, mainly winning the memorial last year.