Memorial would complete Legends Slam for Mickelson
By Dave Shedloski, PGATOUR.COM Senior Correspondent
Chart: Chasing the Legends Slam
Photo Gallery: Legends on the PGA TOUR 
DUBLIN, Ohio -- Plenty of perks go to the winner of a PGA TOUR event. This week, there's an extra one.
Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger can explain. He won the 1993 Memorial Tournament with a magnificent birdie from out of a greenside bunker on the 72nd hole 
to beat his good friend Payne Stewart. He was given a check for $252,000 for his stunning triumph. But before that, something more meaningful and memorable was placed in his palm.
It was the outstretched hand of tournament founder and host Jack Nicklaus.
"I don't really remember too much of what Jack said," Azinger recalled Wednesday in the media center at Muirfield Village Golf Club. "It just was ... just really cool to hit that shot, win the tournament, and then come up that hill [behind the 18th green] and see Jack Nicklaus standing there with his arm extended."
The major championships, of course, are the most coveted titles in golf. THE PLAYERS Championship has an irrefutable prestige all its own. The World Golf Championships bring golf's best players together for another trio of events with the currencies of big cash and bragging rights on the table.
This week's Memorial Tournament presented by Morgan Stanley, which begins Thursday, is one of four stops on the PGA TOUR that offer something extra: a link to a legend. That would be the Golden Bear, winner of a record 18 professional major titles.
The others are the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard at Bay Hill Club in Orlando, the EDS Byron Nelson Championship in suburban Dallas, and the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, in Fort Worth, Texas, which often is referred to as "Hogan's Alley," in honor of Ben Hogan, a native of Fort Worth who won the first two editions at Colonial.
Call it the Legends Slam.
Ten players have won three of the four. Six are active. Just one has a chance to complete the set this week: No. 2 Phil Mickelson, who is coming off his second victory at Colonial.
"It is a special feeling for a player to win a tournament that the greats have associated themselves with," said Mickelson, who has won four total in the rotation (two Colonial, one Nelson, one Palmer). "That's a very strong lure for TOUR players of today to show respect and try to play the events that Arnold's put his name to, Jack's put his name to, and Byron as well."
The other active players seeking just one more piece to the puzzle are Fred Couples, Ernie Els, Kenny Perry, Vijay Singh and Tiger Woods. The leader in total victories among the four is Woods with nine. Perry, who has won the Memorial twice, is next with five, which accounts for more than half of his career victory total (nine).
The hole in his resume is the EDS Byron Nelson Championship. And he knows it.
"I've heard it many times," said Perry, 48, who said he was planning to try it two more times before heading to the Champions Tour. "A lot of people have mentioned it to me. Mostly with the tournament, the Byron Nelson tournament, the guys in the red slacks [volunteers], they come up to me, you know, and remind me of it. But that would be a neat accomplishment to have those four wins, be attached to those great men."
Nicklaus not only founded and hosts the Memorial, but he also designed Muirfield Village. The Memorial is the only one of the four that is contested on a course of the respective legend's making, though Palmer has been proactive in redesigning the Bay Hill layout first conceived by Dick Wilson.
"Well, I mean, how can it not be?" Sergio Garcia responded when asked whether or not the Memorial was a special tournament on the schedule. "It's Jack's event and it's definitely one of the best tournaments we play all year. A great golf course. So any tournament you win out here, it's valuable. And this big one, this big one is even more. So it's always important to at least have a chance to win this tournament."
"It's a great golf course," Azinger said. "So you win on great golf courses, it's always nice."
That's why the majors carry so much prestige; the quality and the historical significance of the venues add to the importance of the event.
Mickelson, who had to withdraw from last year's Memorial due to a wrist injury he suffered preparing for the U.S. Open, was asked where the Golden Bear's event ranked among the tournaments he hadn't won.
"Well, I haven't won the U.S. or British Open so those two are going to be kind of the ones I would like to get the most," he said. "But this is one of the most prestigious events we have on TOUR, so it's high up there.
"There are certain events out here that still hold a lot of more ... that always will hold more prestige because of what they are," Azinger added. "The history and the tradition ... Jack's tournament and Arnold's tournament, that's two of them."
Two of four. It's a nice quartet, and any of them would make any golfer's resume that much more special.
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