We head into another signature event with the 2024 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village.

The Memorial is hosted and designed by Jack Nicklaus. It always boasts a strong field and is considered one of the more prestigious tournaments of the year. That’s even more so the case since it’s been deemed an elevated/ signature event. This is the last of the Player hosted signature events that has a cut.

Last year Viktor Hovland won in a playoff over Denny McCarthy with a score of seven under par. Many golfers went backwards on the leaderboard Sunday but Scottie Scheffler shot a finishing round 67 and finished one stroke outside of the playoff despite losing over eight strokes Putt on the week.

In 2022 Billy Horschel shot even par on Sunday and won the tournament by four strokes to claim his seventh career victory. Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa, Jon Rahm, and Sungjae Im were some of the more notable names to finish in the top ten.

Jon Rahm was robbed in 2021 when he was forced to withdraw due to Covid with a six-shot lead following his third round. Patrick Cantlay ended up being the official winner for the 2nd time in three years but Rahm should’ve had his 2nd consecutive win at the Memorial. Rahm also won in 2020 when back-to-back tournaments were held at Muirfield Village.

The course took a beating over that consecutive week stint in 2020 and a lot of work has been done at Muirfield since. Work included irrigation work, adding a PrecisionAire system, rebuilt fairways and greenside bunkers, reconstruction of the greens, and over 140 trees added.

The Memorial Tournament is hosted at the Jack Nicklaus designed Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio. It is a par 72 coming in at about 7,540 yards with very fast undulating Bentgrass greens.

There are four par threes, four par fives and ten par fours. Seven holes at Muirfield Village are par fours ranging from 450-500 yards. Three par fives are from 550-600 yards with the fourth being just under 550 yards. Scoring well on the par fives is a must especially considering that they play as the four easiest holes on the course. Three of the par threes play over 200 yards.

The finishing three holes are a challenge with the par three 16th playing as the 2nd most difficult hole. Holes 17 and 18 are par fours playing as the 4th and most difficult holes on the course.

Mid to long irons will be relied upon heavily at Muirfield Village. Shots from 150-200 yards make up 45% of approach shots. With 23% coming from 150-175 and 22% from 175-200 yards. The greens are on the smaller side and a little harder to hit with GIR percentage coming in at 61 percent.

Missing greens can be hazardous with many greenside bunkers. Sand saves absolutely come into play with 68 bunkers around Muirfield Village. The greenside bunkers are very penal. If the bunkers are avoided on missed greens balls should hang up in the rough making it slightly easier around the greens.

Driving accuracy is a bit higher here than tour average coming in at 68 percent and finding fairways will certainly be an advantage considering the surrounding deep penal rough. With the importance of accuracy driving distance comes in slightly lower than tour average coming in at 281 yards.

The field consists of 72 golfers with the Top 50 and ties making the cut after 36 holes to play the weekend.

2024 Memorial Tournament: The Key Stats

• Approach
• Sand Saves
• Par 4s 450-500 yards
• Proximity 175-200 yards
• Proximity 150-175 yards
• Fairways Gained

Historical Cut Line at The Memorial

• 2023: +4
• 2022: +3
• 2021: +3
• 2020: +4
• 2019: +2

Recent Winners of The Memorial

2023: Viktor Hovland -7
2022: Billy Horschel -13
2021: *Patrick Cantlay -13
2020: Jon Rahm -9
2019: Patrick Cantlay -19

Golfers to Consider

Collin Morikawa

Morikawa is in incredible form coming in. He has back to back 4th place finishes at the Charles Schwab and PGA Championship. He also came 16th at the Wells Fargo, 9th at Heritage and 3rd at the Masters.

He’s improved tremendously off the tee gaining strokes off the tee in six straight tournaments. His irons were surprisingly spotty for a bit but he’s gained strokes on approach in back to back tournaments.

Collin was forced to withdraw from the Memorial last year and missed the cut in 2022. He did however finish 2nd in 2021 gaining just under seven strokes on approach. He also won the Workday in 2020 which was played at Muirfield Village.

Max Homa

Homa had a rough time at the Charles Schwab missing the cut. He previously finished 35th at the PGA Championship gaining 3.3 strokes on approach. He does have two top-10 finishes in his last five tournaments coming 8th at the Wells Fargo and 3rd at the Masters.

We do know that Homa tends to have specific courses where he plays well and tends to elevate his game in the bigger tournaments. The last two times he’s played Muirfield Village he finished 5th and 6th. He was not playing well when he finished 6th in 2021. He came in off of two straight missed cuts.

I have made an outright wager on Homa at +4000 w/top 6 each way

Keegan Bradley

Keegan has been playing great golf lately. In his last three tournaments he’s finished 21st, 18th and 2nd. Hes gained strokes on approach in six of his last seven appearances and has also been driving the ball very well recently. He gained 5.7 strokes off the tee at the Charles Schwab and 6.6 strokes at the PGA Championship.

Keegan has some mixed results at the Memorial. He finished 30th and 37th his last two times playing at Muirfield Village and has finished eighth on two separate occasions. He’s only failed to gain strokes off the tee once at the Memorial in 13 appearances. He’s also put well on these greens gaining 5.4 and 3.4 strokes putting his last two times. Bentgrass is by far his best putting surface.