Honorees

Raymond Floyd was known as one of golf's most fiery competitors. He used that intensity to win 22 PGA TOUR titles, another 11 on the Champions Tour, and earn an eventual induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Come next spring he also will be known as the latest addition to Memorial Park.

The Captains Club announced June 3 that the 2013 Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide Insurance would be played in honor Floyd, whose top triumphs included four major championships and the 1982 Memorial Tournament, which he considered one of the most important to his career.

"The bigger wins stay with you. The ones you had to work for are the ones that give you the most satisfaction," Floyd said five years ago, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his victory at Muirfield Village Golf Club. "I can tell you this: nothing was ever easy for me in Jack's tournament."

Floyd, a native of Fort Bragg, N.C., was never easy to beat. In a career that spanned four decades, Floyd was a perennial contender due to his superb short game and mental toughness. He is widely considered one of the greatest chippers to ever play the game.

"Raymond's short game was simply tremendous," said Memorial Tournament founder and host Jack Nicklaus. "He always got the most of out a round because of it."

Floyd won the first of his four major championships in the 1969 PGA Championship at NCR Country Club in Dayton, Ohio, defeating Gary Player for a one-shot victory. In the 1976 Masters Tournament, Floyd put on a magnificent scoring performance at Augusta National Golf Club, winning by eight strokes. His 271 aggregate score tied the then-tournament record set by Jack Nicklaus in 1965. Floyd captured a second PGA in 1982 at Southern Hills in Tulsa, winning wire-to-wire by three shots over Lanny Wadkins. And in 1986, Floyd registered perhaps his most emotional victory, capturing the U.S. Open with a dramatic two-stroke win over Wadkins and Chip Beck at famed Shinnecock Hills Country. At age 44, he was at that time the oldest winner of the U.S. Open.

One of the other hallmarks to Floyd's Hall of Fame career was his longevity. He and Sam Snead are the only players to win official events in four different decades. In 1992, he became the first player to win on the PGA TOUR and on the Champions Tour in the same calendar year.

Floyd served on eight U.S. Ryder Cup teams, a record he shares currently with Wadkins, Billy Casper and Phil Mickelson, and he captained the U.S. team in 1989. In 1993 in Kiawah Island, S.C., Floyd became the oldest player to compete in the Ryder Cup at age 51. A father of three, Floyd resides in Palm Beach, Fla., with his wife, Maria. He retired from competitive golf in 2010.