Memorial Tournament: Expert Picks

Tournament Information

Memorial Tournament

Date: May 30^th – June 3rd

Course: Muirfield Village Golf Club

Purse - $9.1MM ($1.6MM to winner)

FedEx points – 500 to winner(s)

2018 Winner: Bryson DeChambeau (-15)

Course

Muirfield - Opened in 1974, this course is named after Muirfield, Scotland. This par 72, 7,390 yard course is fun in that Jack will routinely tweak aspects to challenge golfers any time it is noted that they are cheating the layout. It is built and tailored for golfers to follow it through a journey with bunkers and hills forcing them into selected shots.

My Starting 4

Byeong-Hun An (1st selection this year) — He is the one of three golfers with top-25 finishes each of the last three years at Memorial Tournament. He was 11^th here in 2016, 25^th in 2017, and 2^nd in a playoff last year against Bryson DeChambeau. He does not have a great lead into this tournament, his last four tournaments have two missed cuts, a withdrawal, and a 68^th place. I think this could be a deep sleeper pick here.

Matt Kuchar (6th selection this year) — Matt has a long history of success at Muirfield. Most notably, he recently has two fourth place finishes and a 13^th place finish from 2016-2018. He’s currently 1^st in FedEx ranking and he has top-15 finishes in his last five consecutive tournaments.

Rickie Fowler (3rd selection this year) — Back to back top-10 finishes bring Rickie into this year’s tournament at Muirfield. He’s 7^th in FedEx Ranking (10^th in OWGR) and he comes into this tournament fresh off a missed cut at Charles Schwab but prior to that he had top-20 finishes in three of his previous four tournaments.

Justin Thomas (4th selection this year). With a fourth place finish in 2017 and an eighth place finish in 2018, Justin comes into this tournament with a strong familiarity with the Jack Nicklaus course. He’s currently 13^th in FedEx ranking (6^th in OWGR) and he has not missed a cut yet this year.

My Bench 2

Peter Uihlein (1st selection this year) — He struggled through April with four consecutive cuts but he comes into the Memorial with back-to-back top-15 finishes. He has top-25 finishes each of the last two years and Peter vaulted up the leaderboard with a 66 on Sunday last year.

Kyle Stanley (2^nd selection this year) – He is among the best over the last two years at the Memorial (6^th in 2017; 2^nd in 2018). His 2019 season has not gone as well – he is 106^th in FedEx Cup ranking. He might be turning the corner this season, after a stint where he missed the cut in six out of seven tournaments in February and March, he has two missed cuts and two top-25 finishes in his last four tournaments.

2019 Stats

Starting 4: Avg finish 45th (35th percentile)

Bench 2: Avg finish 56th (44th percentile)