The Memorial Tournament Preview
- trackmengolf
- Jul 14, 2020
- 7 min read
After Collin Morikawa capitalised on Justin Thomas’ late slip in incredible fashion at last week’s Workday Charity Open, we were all left wanting more of the kind of drama only certain golf courses the quality of Muirfield Village can provide. Luckily, we’re back for more this week at Jack’s Place in its more traditional guise as the host of the Memorial Tournament, rounding out back to back weeks at the Ohio venue. So how can we possibly improve on the 75 feet of putts made on the first hole of last week’s playoff? Well with longer rough, faster greens and the sort of field we would normally only expect to see in a Major championship, there’s every reason to expect another enthralling spectacle.
Where experience was always thought to be vital to be able to contend on golf’s biggest stage, the landscape is quickly changing and that was very much exemplified last week with last Sunday’s final threeball all 27 or younger and their combined age the 2nd lowest in history. Morikawa, as so often has been the case with past winners at Muirfield Village, produced a stellar performance with his irons with his 5.87 strokes gained on the field with his approach shots on Sunday setting a record for any previous winner on the PGA tour. It’s been heavily debated which of the “class of 2019” graduates consisting of him, third placed Viktor Hovland and the previous week’s runner-up Matthew Wolff will have the most success by the end of their careers but Morikawa has laid down an early marker and now has more wins than missed cuts in his career. If you find that remarkable, than imagine having more major wins than missed cuts in your career for a stretch spanning fifteen years. It’s highly unlikely any of them will ever emulate that feat but the man who accomplished it is back this week, and that’s as good a reason as any to tune in.
What will it take to win here?
We could just copy and paste what we wrote here last week as it pretty much played out how it usually does at Muirfield Village, with quality iron-play very much to the fore. Morikawa moved himself up to number one in the strokes gained approaching the green category for the season after last week while runner-up Justin Thomas moved himself into second with a similarly strong ball-striking performance. The top three finished 3rd, 4th and 6th for the week in that category with a very timely good putting week for Morikawa proving just enough to see him prevail, despite nearly missing the two footer which forced the extra holes. For those who missed last week’s preview, Muirfield Village is 7,392 yard par 72 designed by Jack Nicklaus and the Memorial has been a mainstay on the PGA Tour schedule since 1976. Nicklaus designs are renowned for their emphasis on strong approach play, and a look back at the last ten winners of the memorial gives a good insight into what’s required to win here:
2019 Patrick Cantlay
2018 Bryson Dechambeau
2017 Jason Dufner
2016 William McGirt
2015 David Lingmerth
2014 Hideki Matsuyama
2013 Matt Kuchar
2012 Tiger Woods
2011 Steve Stricker
2010 Justin Rose
It’s a pretty decent roll of honour so far and Collin Morikawa’s name fits in well with some of the previous quality ball strikers to have won here such as Patrick Cantlay, Jason Dufner, Hideki Matsuyama and Justin Rose. Even for the lesser known names on the list such as Billy McGirt and David Lingmerth, iron-play has always been their strength and Dufner actually managed to win in 2017 despite negative strokes gained putting, so good was his approach play. Distance off the tee isn’t a prerequisite for success either with five of last week’s top six ranked higher for driving accuracy than distance and accuracy may be even more important this week with the rough remaining uncut and even more punishing than it was last week. Speed of the greens will also increase from 11 foot on the stimpmeter to 13 foot this week so that combined with the longer rough should see a lower winning score than the 19 under Morikawa and Thomas reached last week.
The Field
As we’ve already eluded to, you could be excused for looking at this field and thinking this was a major championship with only Adam Scott of the world’s top ten ranked players not in attendance. The last five winners on the PGA Tour are all in action with Morikawa joined by Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Webb Simpson and Daniel Berger after the latter four chose to take last week off. Bryson has been updating on us on the latest progress on his mission for obscene distance after posting a slightly alarming video of him working on his tee shots in his coach Chris Como’s house. The rough at Muirfield Village is far more penal than on any the courses we’ve encountered so far since the lockdown so it will be interesting to see how his bomb and gouge approach plays out this week.
Dustin Johnson is yet to win at Murfield Village but ought to have done when beaten by a shot in 2016 and Simpson and Berger come here in sparkling form with a number of consistent finishes the past few weeks and their games should be ideally suited to this test. Last week’s second and third are both back and both have good chances if replicating those performances, but Thomas has to overcome to emotional strain of missing out when he really should have won having been 3 shots clear with 3 holes to play, and Hovland is playing his sixth consecutive event having driven to each venue in between so fatigue could be a factor. We’ll touch on Rory McIlroy later and the PGA Tour have managed to swerve the grudge pairing of Brooks Koepka and DeChambeau, after Koepka appeared to accuse him of using steroids in his bid to build up. Koepka didn’t exactly back it up with a missed cut last week, but did show some signs of life having birdied 5 of his last 7 holes on Friday. Former winners Patrick Cantlay and Hideki Matsuyama produced typically solid performances at a course they love last week and should both produce another prominent showing.
But by far the biggest draw for most golf fans this week is the return of Tiger Woods, having not played on the PGA Tour since the Genesis Open in February. We have seen him in action once in the meantime as he participated in the charity event with Peyton Manning against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady at his home course Medalist, but it’s anyone’s guess what sort of shape he comes into this week in. He does love this course however, having won here five times previously and also helped the US win the President’s Cup in 2013 at this venue. While Tiger doesn’t have any weaknesses to his game, his strength has always been his supreme ball striking and that will stand him in good stead this week. Paired with McIlroy and Koepka for the first two days, it will be great just to see him back in competitive action, whatever the outcome.
Irish Interest
Both Shane Lowry and Graeme McDowell are back for more after a couple of solid if unspectacular finishes of 39th and 35th respectively last week at the Workday Charity Open. Lowry briefly threatened to get into contention on Friday before a poor finish put paid to his chances and McDowell started the second round in 6th after an opening 68 but couldn’t sustain it over the weekend. With neither coming into this week in spectacular form, it’s hard to envisage them contending for the title but Lowry in particular did strike the ball well last week finished 22nd for strokes gained approach and could post a more improved finish if building on that.
With a major-esque feel to this event, it looks an important week for Rory McIlroy to build on what has been a slightly muted return to golf for the Northern Irishman since the resumption. With Tiger back this week and Bryson doing his best to take most of the headlines lately, the spotlight has shifted off McIlroy somewhat so he’ll be keen to let his golf do the talking as he aims to solidify his position as world number one with the rescheduled majors and Fedex Cup playoffs on the horizon. Though yet to win at Muirfield Village, this is a course that sets up well for McIlroy with finishes of 10-5-MC-57-15-4-8-MC in his eight attempts at the Memorial, and he currently ranks 17th for strokes gained approach this season. McIlroy is often criticised somewhat unfairly for his sloppiness with his wedges but the emphasis is more on longer approaches at this course and that’s an area where McIlroy tends to do very well, and though there are certain holes where his length off the tee is nullified it’s still no disadvantage to be driving long around here. He’s always been mindful of the prestige certain events in the calendar hold and to win around this course under the watchful eye of Jack Nicklaus will provide plenty of motivation, and this looks a good opportunity to remind everyone what he’s capable of.
Rising Stars
With the strength of field this week and none of the usual qualifying spots afforded to amateurs that we usually see in the major, the list of names participating this week is one of mostly well-established PGA Tour pros who are here by virtue of their performance over the past few seasons. In saying that, we do have a couple of new names here as a couple of the Europeans hoping to play in the majors and bigger events later in the season have now completed their mandatory quarantine periods and have joined the field for this week. One of those is the young Austrian Matthias Schwab, who has worked his way through the ranks on the European Tour over the past couple of seasons and makes his first start on the PGA Tour since missing the cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 2017 shortly after turning professional. Though without a win as of yet, Schwab has emerged as one of the most exciting young talents on the European Tour over the past couple of years and came close to breaking his duck a couple of times last season as he posted five top 5s on his way to finishing 17th on the Race to Dubai standings. Having finished in the top 20 for greens in regulation over the past couple of seasons in Europe, his game should set up well for Muirfield Village, although he is in deeper waters than he would usually find himself in. Currently 91st in the world rankings, it’s interesting to see he has decided to take up the opportunity to play in the US rather than wait for the UK swing on the European Tour after it recommenced in his home country last week. That really speaks for his ambition and whether or not he can cut much ice on the PGA tour this time around, he is certainly one to watch for the rest of the year in Europe.
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