The Memorial: Why the PGA Tour golfers are wearing yellow ribbons on their hats

It's time for the annual Memorial Tournament. 

The signature PGA Tour event is staged every year at the Jack Nicklaus designed Muirfield Village in Columbus, Ohio. 

Nicklaus, now 86, has served as tournament's host since 1976 and always greets the champion on the 18th green. 

Anyone watching the action unfold this week will likely notice something simple but striking on the fairways. 

Competitors in the 72-player field and their caddies are either wearing yellow items of clothing or yellow ribbons on their hats. 

But why?

Well, the reason is to raise awareness and funds for children's hospitals. 

The Play Yellow campaign is a charitable initiative led by Nicklaus and his wife Barbara in partnership with the PGA Tour and Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.

The inspiration for "Play Yellow" comes from a personal story involving Nicklaus and a young boy named Craig Smith.

Smith battled bone cancer in 1971 and sadly passed away at the age of 13. Nicklaus was his hero. 

Craig believed wearing yellow brought good luck, and Nicklaus honoured him by wearing yellow during tournaments, most notably during his 1986 Masters victory. 

This tradition evolved into the "Play Yellow" campaign, encouraging golfers and fans to wear yellow and support children's health initiatives. 

Watch Nicklaus explain here:

"His mother asked Barbara if I would call him," Nicklaus previously explained.

"So I called him and talked to him and developed a relationship. And I talked to him quite frequently.

"One day I called him after a tournament I had won and Craig said to me, he says, 'Jack, do you know why you won today?' And I says, 'Why is that, Craig?'

"He says, 'I wore my lucky yellow shirt.' So that's where it started. I won that tournament, we didn't really say much about it. He passed away at the age of 13, 1971.

"I wore yellow quite often then on Sunday for him, and I was rummaging through my suitcase [before The Masters] in 1986 and I found this yellow shirt.

"And I said, 'What do you think, Barbara?' And she says, 'Craig would love it. Go for it.' So I wore a yellow shirt on Sunday in '86, and then I won and ended up having to tell the story."

Play Yellow is understood to have raised more than $130m since 2019.