THE MEMORIAL: Nearly fifty years ago, Jack Nicklaus, then the game’s best player and now its most legendary statesman, decided he wanted to stage a tournament near his hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Two years prior, in 1974, Nicklaus had designed and developed a course in the Columbus suburb of Dublin which he called Muirfield Village (named after his favorite Open Championship venue), and he chose this new course as the site of his new tournament, which he named The Memorial to honor the history of the game and greats of the past. Each year, an individual is recognized as that year’s Honoree in a special ceremony. This person is generally a player, but this year’s Honoree is Barbara Nicklaus, Jack’s wife.
The Memorial has become as associated with Nicklaus as any tournament has ever been with any one player. This is Jack’s Tournament, held at Jack’s Place. He’ll greet the champion with a handshake as they walk off the 18th green on Sunday, he’ll preside over the ceremony, and he’ll spend plenty of time on the telecast that so many of us will be watching, dropping in each day to sit with the guys in the booth and pontificate.
Jack’s presence isn’t the only reason we have a stacked field this week, of course — this is the 7th of the Tour’s 8 Signature Events this season, meaning it’s a $20 million cash bonanza with a “major lite” feel. Like other Signature Events, there’s a limited field this week, with only 72 players set to tee it up, but unlike the other tournaments in this new “Tour within a Tour” that we’re all getting used to, there will actually be a 36-hole cut this week. Of course, the cutline will be top-50 and ties plus anyone within 10 shots of the lead, so it’s quite generous, but at least it keeps golf’s time-honored tradition alive of having to perform well to get paid. These no-cut events where the last place guy gets a large 5-figure check make a mockery of the very thing that sets golf apart as a professional sport: there are no guaranteed contracts. You have to earn your money. If you can’t play, you can’t eat. We see fringe players having to quit every year to enter the workforce, and we see legends of the game humbled and forced to stay home on weekends. There are no favorites in pro golf- at least, there shouldn’t be. The trampling of this concept is part of what is so distasteful about LIV and, frankly, these Signature Events as well.
The course will be familiar to nearly everyone in the field: Muirfield Village is a tough tee-to-green test that features small, undulating greens and thick, U.S. Open-like rough. The fairways are somewhat generous, making it a fair test for the players, but if you miss the fairway at Muirfield Village you will be struggling to make par. While the course measures over 7,500 yards from all the way back, it’s not a “bombers only” type of track, and it isn’t the type of place where players can just bash driver and gouge wedges out of the rough, either. Instead, the Nicklaus design will force players to hit a steady diet of mid-irons into the lengthy par-3s and the several par-4s which will be pushing 500 yards. The greens will be firm and lightning fast, and if you miss your approach shots in the wrong spots you have no chance of success this week. You’ve got to put it in the fairway off the tee, and you’ve got to be great with the irons to succeed at Muirfield. There’s no “faking it” around here, which is why this tournament has produced so many quality champions over the years.
World No. 2 Rory McIlroy had decided to stay home, but the rest of the Tour’s big names are here, including the biggest of all, Scottie Scheffler, who dominates BETDAQ’s Win Market at 4.0 (next closest player- Xander at 20.0). Here are three guys I have my eye on this week:
WIN MARKET
Recommendations to BACK (odds in parenthesis)
Justin Thomas (22.0)- The Justin Thomas Comeback Tour is in full swing, as the 32-year-old World No. 5 has logged a victory and a pair of runner-up finishes across his past five starts. He’s been striking the ball beautifully and has been especially deadly with the irons, ranking 5th on Tour in strokes gained on approach, and he leads the Tour in birdie average, producing nearly five per round (4.80). Thomas is having the best season of anyone not named Scheffler or McIlroy, and he’s had some great success at Muirfield Village throughout his career, finding the top-10 here three times and the top-5 twice, with his best finish to date a runner-up in 2020. As we’ve seen repeatedly in the past, when Thomas runs hot, he runs really hot — his best might be better than anyone else’s best. That makes him a nice value here at better than 20/1.
Sepp Straka (42.0)- While Straka did miss the cut at the PGA Championship last time out, I’d chalk that more up to a post-victory hangover than anything else, as his triumph at the Truist the previous week surely affected his preparation at Quail Hollow. Straka has now recorded two victories and ten top-15 finishes this season, firmly staking his claim as one of the top players in the game. He’s undoubtedly one of the best iron players in the world, currently ranking 2nd on the PGA Tour in strokes gained on approach, so it should come as no surprise that he has an excellent record at Muirfield Village, finding the top-20 in three of his six career appearances at this event, including a 5th-place showing last year. All things considered — the form, the confidence, the course history — Straka should be considered a blue-chip option this week, which is why I’m a bit surprised that he’s trading at around 42.0 right now. He’s a great bet at that price.
Sam Burns (96.0)- After struggling with inconsistency early in the season, Burns has really begun to put things together lately, reeling off finishes of 13-5-30-19 across his last four starts. His last competitive round was a beautiful Sunday 67 at the PGA, the second-lowest round of the day and one that rocketed him up the leaderboard, earning him a nice little chunk of change in the process. He’ll now carry that momentum to a place where he has plenty of good memories, finding the top-20 in three of his past four appearances at this tournament and boasting an under-par career stroke average at Muirfield Village. Burns has five PGA Tour victories, so he knows how to close when he smells blood in the water on Sunday, and with the way his game has been trending it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he were to find himself in the mix this weekend. He’s a terrific value at a price like 96.0.
