The year Jack Nicklaus finished 13 shots clear of Tiger Woods at The Memorial Tournament

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Unsurprisingly, Tiger Woods was the talk of the town heading into the 1997 Memorial Tournament, with the boy wonder making his first appearance at Muirfield Village.

Tiger Woods had announced himself onto the world stage earlier on in the year, winning The Masters by 12 shots to secure his first major title. He followed that by then clinching the Byron Nelson Golf Classic the following month.

Woods would have a golden opportunity to make it three wins on the spin at the Mastercard Colonial. However, a poor final round would see the 21-year-old have to settle for fourth place.

One week later, Woods would make his debut at The Memorial Tournament.

The year Jack Nicklaus beat Tiger Woods by 13 shots at The Memorial Tournament

With the US Open just around the corner, it was probably not all that surprising that Jack Nicklaus was asked about the chances of Woods completing the grand slam in 1997. Interestingly, the 18-time major champion did not rule it out.

“He’s on a pretty big high. And he’s playing awfully well. I think – obviously he’s the only one that’s got a shot at it,” he said.

“The golf courses this year, I think with Congressional is a very, very good golf course for him. I don’t know whether Troon is or not. I think Troon – Troon’s a hard golf course to say, because there’s so many factors, Troon can be hard, Troon can be soft. When it’s hard Troon is really a difficult golf course to really manage a golf game, really tough that way. And Winged Foot, I don’t know, Winged Foot’s a strange golf course, it’s produced strange winners. You remember Casper when he won there, it was basically – what did he have 104 putts or something, and then Hale won there, didn’t he? And then Fuzzy? And I think the greens are really the factor at Winged Foot. The greens are very, very difficult at Winged Foot. You’ve got to be on your putting game at Winged Foot.

“I would say that chances of Tiger winning two of them at Congressional are very good. Beyond that I don’t know. I think anybody winning all four is a very, very difficult chore, but it’s possible.”

Not only is the 1997 Memorial Tournament significant for marking Woods’ debut – he would go on to win the event a record five times – but it would also see Nicklaus roll back the years and produce an incredibly impressive performance.

The weather meant that 1997’s event was reduced to three rounds. Woods may not have minded that, as he ended the week five over par and in a tie for 67th.

Nicklaus meanwhile, would register his final top 10 at Muirfield Village. The Golden Bear was eight under par and finished in a tie for eighth.

It was not the only time Nicklaus would have the edge over Woods on a big stage. Nicklaus finished six places higher than Woods at the 1995 Masters, when the latter was an amateur.

More impressively, Nicklaus was tied for sixth at Augusta National in 1998. Woods would also be in the top 10, but would finish eighth.

How the top 10 at the 1997 Memorial Tournament looked

There was an outstanding leaderboard for the 1997 Memorial Tournament. Vijay Singh was victorious, with the Fijian proving to be one of seven major champions inside the top 10.

Woods would not have to wait too long for that first taste of victory at the event. He finished two shots clear of Singh in 1999, before retaining his titles in 2000 and 2001.

Nicklaus would make the cut four more times at his own event, but 1997 marked the final time that he would end the week under par for the tournament.