It’s another big week for the PGA, the tour will be in Ohio this week for the Memorial Tournament Presented by Workday, the purse is filled with 20 million dollars and all 120 golfers will be fighting to get a piece of it. The massive purse has brought out the biggest names in the sport, with an exciting weekend ahead, I have broken down the event, and given out my best bets for the week.
Tournament Information:
The Memorial Tournament Presented by Workday will be held at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. This course is a par 72 track playing off of 7,571 yards. The scoring at this venue is typically very low, and presents a bunch of different challenges including, tree lined fairways, well placed bunkers, plenty of water hazards, and extremely small and lightning quick greens. With 20 million dollars on the line this weekend, the field is stacked with the best players in the world to attack this track that is one of the more challenging that we have on tour.
Detailed Scorecard:
Event History:
Muirfield Village Golf Club was opened in 1974, being designed by Jack Nicklaus. In 1976 the course held the first edition of the Memorial Tournament, and this course has been the home of the event ever since. In 2020 Nicklaus made some renovations to the course after Patrick Cantlay took home the trophy after posting a -19, since these renovations, the winning score has not surpassed -13 in three straight years.
Past 5 Winners & Their Strokes Gained Analysis:
Lowest Winning Score: Tom Lehman (-20) - 1994 *Prior to renovation*
Largest Margin of Victory: Tiger Woods (7 Strokes) - 2001 *Prior to renovation*
Playoff Information: This event has gone to a playoff in five of the last nine years, but in the other four years, all winners have won by multiple strokes.
Course Information:
As I mentioned in the opening Muirfield Village Golf Club will be playing off of 7,571 yards this year approximately, that would be the third longest course played on tour, only behind the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island and the South Course at Torrey Pines. It goes without saying, but length will be an advantage here, but not all that necessary, being a par 72 the distance is spread out fairly evenly across the course, there are seven par 4’s playing over 400 yards, and one more playing over 500 yards, and these holes are where I think the difference will be made this weekend.
Off the tee, players are going to have to be extremely accurate, some fairways are lined with trees, some have bunkers in landing zones to contend with, and there are also 13 water hazards that players are going to have to be wary of. The fairways are about average in width but missing them is very penalizing, having the 10th highest missed fairway penalty on tour since 2015.
There is going to be a ton of emphasis put on the approach game this weekend, the greens are extremely small at Muirfield averaging only 5,000 square feet per green complex and they will be running at a 13 on the stimpmeter. Long putts on greens with this kind of speed will make even the best putters nervous, but the way to avoid that is by sticking approach shots tight, with a solid approach game.
Now, obviously every approach shot won’t be within 20 feet, but there isn’t a lot of room on these greens to begin with, so those long putts I just mentioned might be few and far between, but these smaller greens will put a lot more emphasis than usual on players gaining strokes around the green.
Players Path To Victory:
Approach Game (175-200 Yards):
Last year at this event, 21.1% of approach shots came from this distance, which was 5% more than any other distance. I am anticipating most of these approaches to come on the long par 4’s, which are the holes that I said I think are going to be the difference this weekend. The other approach shots coming from this distance
Par 5 Scoring:
There are 4 par 5’s on this par 72 layout at Muirfield Village Golf Club, three of which are listed over 550 yards, but none of them are longer than 580 yards. These four holes were the four most birdied holes on the golf course last year, and all of them were eagled at least once on the weekend. For golfers to get in the mix this weekend, I think these are must birdie holes.
Around The Greens:
The average green size on the PGA tour is 6,600 square feet, here at Muirfield they are only 5000 square feet on average, which will create more missed greens to go along with the more firm conditions that are expected this weekend, due to the heat forecasted this week and the lack of rain.
Four straight winners at this venue have finished inside the top five in SG: Around the Green in their respective fields, which just further shows how important the wedge game will be this weekend. Typically, I don’t look too much into these categories, because on most courses, approach game is far more important when looking at a guy to win an event, but here at Muirfield where it is always low scoring, I think the around the green game will be what keeps guys in the mix.
Other Key Statistics:
Official Picks:
Outright Winner:
- Xander Schaufele (+1400) - To Win 4.00u
- Patrick Cantlay (+1000) - To Win 4.00u
- Sungjae Im (+3300) - To Win 4.00u
- Russell Henley (+5500) - To Win 4.00u
Placements:
- Patrick Cantlay - Top 10 Finish (+125) - To Win 1.00u
- Corey Conners - Top 20 Finish (+170) - To Win 1.00u
- Russell Henley - Top 20 Finish (+200) - To Win 1.00u
- Si Woo Kim - Top 20 Finish (+187) - To Win 1.00u
It’s another big week for the PGA, the tour will be in Ohio this week for the Memorial Tournament Presented by Workday, the purse is filled with 20 million dollars and all 120 golfers will be fighting to get a piece of it. The massive purse has brought out the biggest names in the sport, with an exciting weekend ahead, I have broken down the event, and given out my best bets for the week.
Tournament Information:
The Memorial Tournament Presented by Workday will be held at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. This course is a par 72 track playing off of 7,571 yards. The scoring at this venue is typically very low, and presents a bunch of different challenges including, tree lined fairways, well placed bunkers, plenty of water hazards, and extremely small and lightning quick greens. With 20 million dollars on the line this weekend, the field is stacked with the best players in the world to attack this track that is one of the more challenging that we have on tour.
Detailed Scorecard:
Event History:
Muirfield Village Golf Club was opened in 1974, being designed by Jack Nicklaus. In 1976 the course held the first edition of the Memorial Tournament, and this course has been the home of the event ever since. In 2020 Nicklaus made some renovations to the course after Patrick Cantlay took home the trophy after posting a -19, since these renovations, the winning score has not surpassed -13 in three straight years.
Past 5 Winners & Their Strokes Gained Analysis:
Lowest Winning Score: Tom Lehman (-20) - 1994 *Prior to renovation*
Largest Margin of Victory: Tiger Woods (7 Strokes) - 2001 *Prior to renovation*
Playoff Information: This event has gone to a playoff in five of the last nine years, but in the other four years, all winners have won by multiple strokes.
Course Information:
As I mentioned in the opening Muirfield Village Golf Club will be playing off of 7,571 yards this year approximately, that would be the third longest course played on tour, only behind the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island and the South Course at Torrey Pines. It goes without saying, but length will be an advantage here, but not all that necessary, being a par 72 the distance is spread out fairly evenly across the course, there are seven par 4’s playing over 400 yards, and one more playing over 500 yards, and these holes are where I think the difference will be made this weekend.
Off the tee, players are going to have to be extremely accurate, some fairways are lined with trees, some have bunkers in landing zones to contend with, and there are also 13 water hazards that players are going to have to be wary of. The fairways are about average in width but missing them is very penalizing, having the 10th highest missed fairway penalty on tour since 2015.
There is going to be a ton of emphasis put on the approach game this weekend, the greens are extremely small at Muirfield averaging only 5,000 square feet per green complex and they will be running at a 13 on the stimpmeter. Long putts on greens with this kind of speed will make even the best putters nervous, but the way to avoid that is by sticking approach shots tight, with a solid approach game.
Now, obviously every approach shot won’t be within 20 feet, but there isn’t a lot of room on these greens to begin with, so those long putts I just mentioned might be few and far between, but these smaller greens will put a lot more emphasis than usual on players gaining strokes around the green.
Players Path To Victory:
Approach Game (175-200 Yards):
Last year at this event, 21.1% of approach shots came from this distance, which was 5% more than any other distance. I am anticipating most of these approaches to come on the long par 4’s, which are the holes that I said I think are going to be the difference this weekend. The other approach shots coming from this distance
Par 5 Scoring:
There are 4 par 5’s on this par 72 layout at Muirfield Village Golf Club, three of which are listed over 550 yards, but none of them are longer than 580 yards. These four holes were the four most birdied holes on the golf course last year, and all of them were eagled at least once on the weekend. For golfers to get in the mix this weekend, I think these are must birdie holes.
Around The Greens:
The average green size on the PGA tour is 6,600 square feet, here at Muirfield they are only 5000 square feet on average, which will create more missed greens to go along with the more firm conditions that are expected this weekend, due to the heat forecasted this week and the lack of rain.
Four straight winners at this venue have finished inside the top five in SG: Around the Green in their respective fields, which just further shows how important the wedge game will be this weekend. Typically, I don’t look too much into these categories, because on most courses, approach game is far more important when looking at a guy to win an event, but here at Muirfield where it is always low scoring, I think the around the green game will be what keeps guys in the mix.
Other Key Statistics:
SG: Tee To Green
SG: Around The Green
SG: Approach
Proximity To Hole
Par 4 Scoring Average: 450-500 Yards
Official Picks:
Outright Winner:
- Xander Schaufele (+1400) - To Win 4.00u
- Patrick Cantlay (+1000) - To Win 4.00u
- Sungjae Im (+3300) - To Win 4.00u
- Russell Henley (+5500) - To Win 4.00u
Placements:
- Patrick Cantlay - Top 10 Finish (+125) - To Win 1.00u
- Corey Conners - Top 20 Finish (+170) - To Win 1.00u
- Russell Henley - Top 20 Finish (+200) - To Win 1.00u
- Si Woo Kim - Top 20 Finish (+187) - To Win 1.00u
All odds from bet365 @ the time of writing.
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