The Memorial Tournament
Heading into the Memorial, Robert MacIntyre, a two-time winner on the DP World Tour, earned his maiden PGA TOUR victory last weekend at the RBC Canadian Open, winning by one stroke over Ben Griffin. The Scotsman, a pre-tournament price of 80/1, has cycled through several caddies since earning his full-time TOUR card last fall but called on his father, Dougie, who is the head greenskeeper at their local Glencruitten Golf Club in Oban, to man the bag last week in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Griffin had piled on the pressure with three consecutive birdies on the 15th, 16th and 17th to close within one of MacIntyre, but could not find a fourth in a row on the last to potentially force a playoff.
MacIntyre gained exactly zero strokes on approach but gained 11.2 strokes, with the putter ranking first in the field for Strokes Gained: Putting. With this victory, he earns a spot into the U.S. Open (courtesy of a now Top 60 OWGR), and the next two PGA TOUR signature events – The Memorial Tournament (although he declined this invitation to return home to Scotland this week) and the Travelers Championship.
Rounding out the Top 10 were Victor Perez in solo 3rd, Tom Kim and Rory McIlroy T-4, Corey Conners as the leading Canadian in 6th, Ryan Fox, Maverick McNealy, and Mackenzie Hughes finished T-7.
This week, the PGA TOUR heads to Dublin, Ohio, for The Memorial Tournament at “Jack’s Place,” the Jack Nicklaus-designed Muirfield Village Golf Club just outside of Columbus.
As usual, OWGR No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (+375) is the tournament favorite and has finished 3rd here in his last two appearances (2021 and 2023).
Rory McIlroy (8/1) had won two of his last four events before this week but had not finished better than 4th (2016) here.
Xander Schauffele (9/1) is entering an event this week for the first time as a major champion, having won the PGA Championship three weeks ago.
Collin Morikawa (14/1) has a win on this golf course having won the one-off Workday Charity Open that was held at Muirfield Village during the COVID-impacted season of 2020.
Viktor Hovland (18/1) looked lost for most of this 2024 season until he might have found something, perhaps reuniting with swing coach Joe Mayo at the PGA Championship three weeks ago, finishing outright 3rd. Hovland is also the defending champion of the Memorial Tournament.
The market outside of the Top 5 on the odds board starts with Ludvig Åberg (22/1), Justin Thomas (25/1), 2019 and 2021 Memorial winner Patrick Cantlay (25/1), 2014 Memorial winner Hideki Matsuyama (35/1), and Tommy Fleetwood (35/1).
The Event
The Memorial Tournament was founded in 1976 by Jack Nicklaus at his “home course” Muirfield Village Golf Club. There is no title sponsor for the event, but Workday, a cloud computing and enterprise software company, took over as the presenting sponsor two years ago and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, based in Columbus, is the primary charitable beneficiary of the tournament.
Nicklaus first spoke of wanting to host his own tournament at the 1966 Masters Tournament and eventually made it a reality ten years later. Jack has always modeled this event after The Masters, and golf viewers with a keen eye will notice various similarities between Muirfield Village and Augusta National.
Like the Masters, tradition is a major focal point at the Memorial. Every year, the event honors historical and accomplished figures in the game of golf. This year’s honorees are Tom Weiskopf, the 1973 Open Champion and 16-time PGA TOUR winner who passed away in 2022, and Juli Inkster, a seven-time major champion and two-time Solheim Cup captain.
Typically, an invitational event with a 120-player field, The Memorial is a “Signature Event” containing only 73 players this year. It is one of three player-hosted tournaments, along with The Genesis Invitational and the Arnold Palmer Invitational, that feature a 36-hole cut to the top 50 and ties, plus any player within 10 shots of the lead. With a total purse of $20 million, the winner receives $4 million and 700 FedEx Cup points.
The Field
Here is the 73-player field for this year’s Memorial Tournament:
Field Updates:
- Alex Noren IN on a sponsor exemption.
- Jackson Koivun IN as the 2024 Jack Nicklaus Award recipient for the top NCAA player. Koivun, a freshman at Auburn University, is the SEC Individual Champion, was the NCAA Individual Runner-Up, and was part of Auburn’s NCAA Championship team this year.
- Ben Griffin, Robert MacIntyre, and Victor Perez IN all via the Aon Swing 5.
- Robert MacIntyre OUT via W/D; Davis Thompson IN via being 6th in the Aon Swing 5.
The Course
Muirfield Village Golf Club serves as host for the Memorial Tournament and has done so every year since 1976. The course is about 20 miles north of Columbus, where the Jack Nicklaus played his collegiate golf at The Ohio State University. Nicklaus designed Muirfield Village, named after Muirfield, Scotland, where he completed his first grand slam in 1966 after winning the British Open in 1974. The track plays as a Par 72 and will measure out at 7,569 yards.
After the 2020 event, Nicklaus oversaw an extensive course renovation that saw new tees added on five holes, a complete reconstruction of the green complexes with Bentgrass surfaces, and recontoured bunkers. The 15th hole was also completely rebuilt. This renovation also lengthened the course by close to 100 yards.
The course is still a tree-lined, parklands design and has played as the 2nd most difficult non-major championship course on the PGA TOUR last year at an average round score of 73.18 (+1.18 over par).
The Bentgrass fairways are generous (32-yard average fairway width), but trouble lurks with missing fairways as the mix of Kentucky Bluegrass, Ryegrass, and Fescue rough will be around 4″ this week. Muirfield Village tends to favor power fade shots off the tee and players with high ball flights.
The sloping Bentgrass greens will be quick and will run about 13 on the stimpmeter. The firm greens are an average of 5,000 square feet (5th smallest on the PGA TOUR). The layout consists of 68 bunkers (that have all been modified) and 12 water danger holes.
Muirfield Village is a classical, second-shot golf course.
While Memorial is a unique track, there are several Nicklaus designs on the PGA Tour that could provide some correlations:
- Annandale Golf Club – (Sanderson Farms Championship through 2013)
- Glen Abbey (2008, 2009, 2012, 2015-2018 RBC Canadian Open)
- Montreux GCC – Barracuda Championship
- Old Greenwood – 2020 Barracuda Championship
- PGA National – Honda Classic
- PGA West, Tournament Course – The American Express
- PGA West – Nicklaus Private (Humana Challenge through 2015)
- Sherwood Country Club – Thousand Oaks – (World Challenge through 2013 and 2020 ZoZo Championship)
- Valhalla Golf Club (2014 PGA Championship)
Aside for the Nicklaus design links, other courses that are more correlated to Muirfield Village include Augusta National, Innisbrook, Quail Hollow, TPC Potomac, Torrey Pines, and Bay Hill, Olympia Fields, Oak Hill, and Bethpage Black. PGA National and Glen Abbey have the best correlations of the Nicklaus designs.
Nicklaus widens the fairways to really test players on approach and on the greens. Here is what he said upon beginning the renovations in 2020:
“My belief is that tournament golf should be a test to find out who is the best golfer that week. Far too many tournaments have eliminated the rough and firmness of greens, and that is just not my idea of what the game of golf should be. So, I am going to stick with my old-fashioned beliefs about how the game of golf should be played and the way golf courses should be set up. The whole gamut of all shots is what the game of golf is all about. The game should challenge every facet of every club in the bag.”
A majority of the scoring at Muirfield comes on the four Par 5s. They make up the only four holes that play under par residing in the 550–600-yard range. In the most recent renovation, the four par 5s were each lengthened to make them more difficult to reach in two shots to make this set of Par 5s the most difficult on TOUR since 2020.
Three of the Par 3s are over 200 yards and play a combined 0.62 over par ranking as the 3rd toughest group of Par 3s on TOUR.
Seven of the 10 Par 4s play between 450-500 yards.
The closing stretch at Muirfield Village includes the 16th, a 200-yard par 3 over water, the 17th, a big 485-yard Par 4 with a tight corridor off the tee, and the 18th, 480-yard finishing hole that features an uphill dogleg with multiple hazards.
Here is the official Memorial Tournament scorecard:
Recent History
2023: Viktor Hovland (-7/281); 20/1*
2022: Billy Horschel (-13/275); 60/1
2021: Patrick Cantlay (-13/275); 22/1**
2020: Jon Rahm (-9/279); 22/1
2020: (Workday Charity Open) Collin Morikawa (-19/269); 30/1***
2019: Patrick Cantlay (-19/269); 18/1
2018: Bryson DeChambeau (-15/273); 50/1****
2017: Jason Dufner (-13/275); 66/1
2016: William McGirt (-15/273); 200/1*****
2015: David Lingmerth (-15/273); 250/1******
2014: Hideki Matsuyama (-13/275); 66/1*******
2013: Matt Kuchar (-12/276); 22/1
2012: Tiger Woods (-9/279); 9/1
2011: Steve Stricker (-16/272); 30/1
2010: Justin Rose (-18/270); 80/1
Playoff win over Denny McCarthy – *
Playoff win over Collin Morikawa – **
Playoff win over Justin Thomas – ***
Playoff win over Byeong-Hun An and Kyle Stanley – ****
Playoff win over Jon Curran – *****
Playoff win over Justin Rose – ******
Playoff win over Kevin Na – *******
Tournament Trends
- 8 of the last 14 Memorial winners were behind after 54 holes.
- 9 of the last 14 Memorial winners were 11th or better after R1. (2023: Hovland 17th, 2022: Horschel 21st, 2018: DeChambeau 16th, 2016: McGirt 44th; 2014: Matsuyama 21st).
- 5 of the last 7 Memorial winners had at least one Top 5 finish within four lead-up starts to the event.
Statistical Analysis
Nearly all Nicklaus designs are considered to be “second-shot golf courses,” and Muirfield Village is no exception. Muirfield ranks as the 4th-toughest course to gain strokes on approach.
Strokes Gained: Approach (Last 24 Rounds)
- Scottie Scheffler 33.2
- Corey Conners 30.1
- Rory McIlroy 24.7
- Akshay Bhatia 22.4
- Si Woo Kim 22.1
- Xander Schauffele 20.5
- Russell Henley 17.2
- Seamus Power 16.3
- Sahith Theegala 16
- Justin Thomas 15.9
- Tom Hoge 15.2
- Alex Noren 14.9
- Hideki Matsuyama 14.9
- Tony Finau 14.6
- Will Zalatoris 14.4
Strokes Gained: Approach (Last 36 Rounds)
- Scottie Scheffler 48.8
- Corey Conners 43.6
- Tom Hoge 33.7
- Xander Schauffele 29.5
- Tony Finau 28
- Si Woo Kim 25.6
- Justin Thomas 23.8
- Viktor Hovland 21.8
- Rory McIlroy 21.6
- Shane Lowry 21.3
- Akshay Bhatia 20.4
- Victor Perez 19.8
- Russell Henley 19.6
- Austin Eckroat 19.3
- Will Zalatoris 19.3
The GIR (Greens In Regulation) rate here last year was only 52%. Cantlay and Horschel ranked 1st in the field for GIR during their respective victories in 2021 and 2022 here at Muirfield Village.
Greens In Regulation Gained (Last 36 Rounds)
- Scottie Scheffler 55.6
- Corey Conners 46
- Xander Schauffele 44.9
- Byeong Hun An 35.3
- Tony Finau 34.9
- Ludvig Åberg 32.7
- Alex Noren 32.3
- Keegan Bradley 31.4
- Shane Lowry 31.1
- Rory McIlroy 31
- Viktor Hovland 29.5
- Justin Thomas 28.5
- Lucas Glover 27.4
- Patrick Rodgers 27
- Sahith Theegala 24.7
- Will Zalatoris 24.5
Nearly half of the approach shots at Muirfield Village come from 175 yards or more.
Average Proximity Gained 175-200 Yards (Last 36 Rounds)
- Austin Eckroat 13.06
- Cameron Young 11.74
- Akshay Bhatia 9.99
- Matt Fitzpatrick 8.8
- Viktor Hovland 8.21
- Eric Cole 8.18
- Collin Morikawa 7.9
- Will Zalatoris 7.88
- Adam Hadwin 7.75
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout 7.41
- Byeong Hun An 6.77
- Shane Lowry 6.51
- Tony Finau 6.36
Average Proximity Gained 200+ Yards (Last 36 Rounds)
- Xander Schauffele 31.89
- Tony Finau 17.79
- Rory McIlroy 16.55
- Kurt Kitayama 16.1
- Akshay Bhatia 15.58
- Byeong Hun An 13.36
- Matt Fitzpatrick 12.38
- Lucas Glover 12.14
- Sahith Theegala 11.8
- Hideki Matsuyama 11.57
- Tom Hoge 10.06
- Patrick Cantlay 9.95
- Corey Conners 9.77
- Lee Hodges 9.59
- Jake Knapp 9.58
While Muirfield Village is fairly easy to gain strokes off the tee, players still need to have good positional driving and stay out of the thick rough as much as possible or still must reach the greens even when not in the fairway.
Good Drives Gained – Thick Rough (Last 36 Rounds)
- Scottie Scheffler 45.3
- Si Woo Kim 33.7
- Viktor Hovland 32.3
- Lucas Glover 30.8
- Collin Morikawa 30.4
- Corey Conners 29
- Andrew Putnam 28.3
- Russell Henley 25
- Rory McIlroy 24.3
- Wyndham Clark 22.8
- Tommy Fleetwood 20
- Hideki Matsuyama 19.9
- Austin Eckroat 19.1
- Will Zalatoris 19
While positional driving does matter a great deal, Driving Distance still gives you easier second shots to the smaller greens here.
Average Driving Distance Gained – Per Round (Last 36 Rounds)
- Rory McIlroy 19.38
- Chris Gotterup 18.48
- Byeong Hun An 17.62
- Wyndham Clark 17.06
- Ludvig Åberg 11.79
- Justin Thomas 11.38
- Tony Finau 10.21
- Taylor Pendrith 9.88
- Stephan Jaeger 9.87
- Jake Knapp 9.77
- Jordan Spieth 9.53
- Kurt Kitayama 9.3
- Cameron Young 8.66
- Xander Schauffele 8.36
- Sam Burns 8.26
The four Par 5s are the most scoreable here and players will have to take advantage to be in contention.
Strokes Gained: Par 5s (Last 36 Rounds)
- Scottie Scheffler 31.8
- Mackenzie Hughes 24.8
- Xander Schauffele 22.9
- Hideki Matsuyama 18.7
- Will Zalatoris 18.5
- Patrick Cantlay 16.7
- Justin Thomas 16.6
- Nick Dunlap 16.2
- Byeong Hun An 15
- Akshay Bhatia 14.9
- Rory McIlroy 13.9
- Wyndham Clark 13.8
- Ludvig Åberg 13.2
- Billy Horschel 12.7
- Taylor Pendrith 12
Seven of the 10 Par 4s play between 450-500 yards.
Strokes Gained Par 4s 450-500 Yards (Last 36 Rounds)
- VIktor Hovland 35.7
- Scottie Scheffler 33.8
- Rory McIlroy 27.7
- Xander Schauffele 23.5
- Ludvig Åberg 21.8
- Tom Hoge 21.1
- Hideki Matsuyama 21
- Patrick Cantlay 16.2
- Alex Noren 14.6
- Shane Lowry 14.6
- Jordan Spieth 14.4
- Billy Horschel 14.4
- Stephan Jaeger 14.3
- Collin Morikawa 12.6
- Russell Henley 12.6
- Tony Finau 12.5
- Taylor Moore 12.4
- Si Woo Kim 12.3
With players missing greens almost half the time they will have to scramble frequently.
Scrambling Gained (Last 36 Rounds)
- Denny McCarthy 28.7
- Mackenzie Hughes 21.8
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout 18
- Alex Noren 17.1
- Billy Horschel 14.7
- Russell Henley 14.4
- Peter Malnati 14.2
- Ben Griffin 13.5
- Tommy Fleetwood 13.1
- Andrew Putnam 12.2
- Xander Schauffele 12.1
- Scottie Scheffler 11.6
- Justin Thomas 11.4
- Hideki Matsuyama 11.3
- Jason Day 10.1
Muirfield Village is one of the more difficult courses to gain strokes Around the Green.
Strokes Gained: Around The Green (Last 24 Rounds)
- Hideki Matsuyama 21.9
- Collin Morikawa 14.8
- Alex Noren 14.6
- Denny McCarthy 12
- Tommy Fleetwood 10.9
- Scottie Scheffler 10.8
- Lucas Glover 10.2
- Davis Thompson 9.6
- Si Woo Kim 9.2
- Taylor Moore 8.6
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout 8.5
- Justin Thomas 8.4
- Tony Finau 8.1
- Russell Henley 8
- Billy Horschel 7.4
- Mackenzie Hughes 7.3
Strokes Gained: Around The Green (Last 36 Rounds)
- Hideki Matsuyama 28.6
- Justin Thomas 20.1
- Alex Noren 17.2
- Denny McCarthy 16.7
- Scottie Scheffler 15.7
- Jason Day 14.9
- Tommy Fleetwood 14.8
- Mackenzie Hughes 14.7
- Russell Henley 14.4
- Collin Morikawa 13.7
- Ben Griffin 12.7
- Max Homa 12.1
- Lucas Glover 11.2
- Xander Schauffele 10.3
- Davis Thompson 10.2
Only the Par 5s play under par for the field average. The other 14 holes average over par and there are plenty of potential bogeys on the layout.
Bogey Avoidance (Last 36 Rounds)
- Scottie Scheffler 41.3
- Xander Schauffele 39.3
- Rory McIlroy 34.1
- Alex Noren 28
- Ludvig Åberg 25.6
- Billy Horschel 22.8
- Denny McCarthy 22.4
- Tommy Fleetwood 21.5
- Hideki Matsuyama 21.3
- Sahith Theegala 19
- Ben Griffin 18.1
- Justin Thomas 18.1
- Sam Burns 17.4
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout 16.9
- Viktor Hovland 16.2
Players have to putt a bit defensively at Muirfield VIllage, largely due to the speed of the greens.
Strokes Gained: Putting – Bentgrass Greens (Last 24 Rounds)
- Denny McCarthy 25.8
- J.T. Poston 22.6
- Viktor Hovland 21.4
- Matt Fitzpatrick 21.4
- Harris English 19.3
- Justin Rose 18.7
- Max Homa 16.9
- Keegan Bradley 16.7
- Wyndham Clark 16.7
- Sahith Theegala 16.6
- Xander Schauffele 16.1
- Sam Burns 15.9
- Patrick Cantlay 14.2
- Matt Kuchar 12.2
- Brendon Todd 12.2
- Adam Hadwin 12.1
Strokes Gained: Putting – Bentgrass Greens (Last 36 Rounds)
- Denny McCarthy 38.1
- Patrick Cantlay 37.7
- Keegan Bradley 34
- J.T. Poston 32.6
- Viktor Hovland 30.9
- Justin Rose 28.4
- Sahith Theegala 27.4
- Harris English 24.6
- Sam Burns 23.6
- Eric Cole 22.9
- Matt Fitzpatrick 21.2
- Max Homa 20.9
- Brendon Todd 20.5
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout 20.5
- Mackenzie Hughes 19.4
Finally, we can examine which players perform historically well on Nicklaus designs.
Strokes Gained: Total – Average Per Round – Jack Nicklaus Designs (Last 36 Rounds)
- Collin Morikawa 2.8 (22 Rounds)
- Scottie Scheffler 2.46 (27 Rounds)
- Patrick Cantlay 2.37
- Eric Cole 2.18 (12 Rounds)
- Viktor Hovland 1.65 (30 Rounds)
- Xander Schauffele 1.6
- Justin Thomas 1.54
- Rory McIlroy 1.53
- Shane Lowry 1.53
- Tony Finau 1.52
- Lee Hodges 1.46 (19 Rounds)
- Sahith Theegala 1.45 (18 Rounds)
- Russell Henley 1.4
- WIll Zalatoris 1.39 (17 Rounds)
- Jason Day 1.34
- Jordan Spieth 1.31
- Billy Horschel 1.31
Memorial Best Bets
Collin Morikawa 14/1 DraftKings
Morikawa was the 54-hole co-leader three weeks ago at the PGA Championship before getting stuck in neutral on Sunday and finishing T-4. He also finished 4th the following week at Colonial. While it is difficult to find the proverbial “horse for the course” here at Muirfield Village, Morikawa has a stellar track record on Nicklaus designs (he plays that high power fade just like Jack did). Morikawa already has a win (2020 Workday Charity Open) and a second (2021 Memorial) at Muirfield Village while he has also won on two other Nicklaus courses: Montreux (2019 Barracuda) and The Concession (2021 Workday). He leads the field for Good Drives Gained over the last 24 rounds and his typically stellar approach play is starting to pick up steam.
Viktor Hovland 18/1 DraftKings
At the end of last year’s PGA TOUR season, Hovland, coming off a FedEx Cup victory, looked like the best player in the world. Then, he decided to change swing coaches and tinker with things that did not need to be tinkered with and his game suffered to start 2024. However, he reunited with the Trackman Maestro Joe Mayo, and that produced immediate results at the PGA Championship, where he finished solo 3rd. Hovland is the defending champion at the Memorial Tournament and finished 3rd here on his debut at the course in 2020 at the Workday Charity Open.
Justin Thomas 33/1 Circa Sports
It has now been two years since Justin Thomas has won (2022 PGA Championship) anywhere. He comes in with some solid momentum having finished 8th in the PGA at Valhalla, which is his best major championship finish since he won that 2022 PGA. In that PGA three weeks ago, Thomas ranked 7th for Strokes Gained Off the Tee, 3rd for Greens in Regulation, 5th for Strokes Gained Around the Green and 1st for Strokes Gained Tee to Green. JT has had some success here at Muirfield Village with a 4th (2017), 8th (2018) and a 2020 Workday Charity Open play-off loss to Morikawa.
Russell Henley 50/1 Boyd Gaming
Henley may not exactly jump off the page this week with only one Top 10 here (7th in 2020), but his run of recent form is hard to ignore. He has three Top 5 finishes this year and five Top 12 finishes overall this season. Henley is rated in the Top 10 in this field for Approach, Good Drives Gained, Scrambling, and Strokes Gained: Around The Green.
Tony Finau 59/1 Circa Sports
Finau’s ball striking has been very good of late as evident by leading the field at the PGA Championship, held at the Nicklaus-designed Valhalla, for Strokes Gained: Approach. The main culprit for Finau not being in contention more often is putting where he has lost strokes in six of his last seven events. However, the struggles with the putter could be mitigated this week as all players have to putt defensively on these fast greens at Muirfield Village. Finau has finished 8th (2015), 11th (2016) and 13th (2018) here at Muirfield Village and led after 18 and 36 holes here in 2020, before eventually finishing 8th.
