A resident at nearby Westerville and a Muirfield Village Golf Club member, Day has played the Memorial tournament on 11 occasions with a best finish of a tie for 15th three years ago. He has made 7-of-11 cuts and banked $US345,497.44 in prizemoney in the event.

When he shared the clubhouse lead following his second round two years ago Day admitted that his record on his home course does “annoy me a lot” but he enters this week buoyed by a top-10 finish at the Workday Charity Open played across a slightly modified Muirfield a week ago.

That result moved Day five spots up the Official World Golf Rankings to No.58 but as he plots a greater rise he has extended his hand to help fellow Aussie Jason Scrivener to prepare for his PGA TOUR debut.

After he accepted an invitation organised by his management company to play at Muirfield this week Scrivener reached out to Day and his caddie Luke Reardon, bunking in with Reardon in Columbus during his two-week quarantine and also this week.

The pair will begin their opening rounds just 22 minutes apart on Thursday night AEST, Day going out of his way to ensure Scrivener can make a strong early impression in front of Jack Nicklaus.

“I did a bit of practice there last week. Jason organised for me to do some practice out there,” Scrivener said of having a well-connected member to call upon, the pair both former Australian Boys Junior champions.

“It’s been good to get familiar with the place and get used to it because it’s a pretty cool place.

“I played the course for the first time with Jason and Bubba Watson on Tuesday so that was a bit of a fun.

“Bubba’s hilarious so it was good to meet him and to catch up with Jase, so it was pretty relaxed.”

Day and Scrivener make up half of the Aussies in the field this week along with Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman, Leishman drawn with South Korean pair Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim for the first two rounds.

It’s been 25 years since an Australian has triumphed at the Nicklaus-designed course when Greg Norman claimed the second of his two Memorial victories, Adam Scott falling two strokes shy of victorious Patrick Cantlay in the 2019 tournament.

Exempt on the PGA TOUR in 2020, Rhein Gibson missed out on a spot at Muirfield, choosing to join the Aussies on the Korn Ferry Tour at this week’s TPC San Antonio Championship at The Oaks.

There will be Aussies everywhere when the tournament commences with in-form Brett Coletta paired with Australian veteran Robert Allenby in the first group off the 10th tee and Brett Drewitt and Ryan Ruffels also providing a strong Aussie presence from 11.45pm AEST.

For the second week in succession Deyen Lawson is the lone Aussie on the European Tour, off in the fifth group of the opening round of the Euram Bank Open from 3.40pm AEST.

Round 1 tee times AEST

European Tour
Euram Bank Open
GC Adamstal, Ramsau, Austria
3.40pm Deyen Lawson, Victor Riu, Santiago Tarrio

Defending champion: Calum Hill
Past Aussie winners: Nil

PGA TOUR
The Memorial Tournament
Muirfield Village, Dublin, Ohio
10.06pm              Cameron Smith, Charles Howell III, Troy Merritt
10.28pm*            Jason Day, JT Poston, William McGirt
10.50pm              Jason Scrivener, Bernd Wiesberger, Haotong Li
2am*     Danny Lee, Rory Sabbatini, Matthew NeSmith
2.33am*              Marc Leishman, Sungjae Im, Si Woo Kim

Defending champion: Patrick Cantlay
Past Aussie winners: David Graham (1980), Greg Norman (1990, 1995)
Top Aussie prediction: Jason Day
TV schedule: Live 4.30am-8.30am Friday and Saturday; Live 2.30am-8am Sunday; Live 3am-9am Monday on Fox Sports 503

Korn Ferry Tour
TPC San Antonio Championship at the Oaks
TPC San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas
10.15pm*            Brett Coletta, Robert Allenby, Curtis Thompson
11.05pm*            Curtis Luck, Jim Knous, Lee Hodges
11.25pm              Rhein Gibson, David Kocher, Grant Hirschman
11.25pm*            Jamie Arnold, Jonathan Randolph, Nicolas Echavarria
11.45pm              Brett Drewitt, Ryan Ruffels, Vince India
11.45pm*            Harrison Endycott, Matt Atkins, Chandler Blanchet
4.10am Steven Bowditch, Will Zalatoris, Rick Lamb

Defending champion: New event
Top Aussie prediction: Rhein Gibson