Tournament: The Memorial Tournament
Course: Muirfield Village GC (Dublin, Ohio)
Course Stats: 7,392 Par 72
Course Architect: Jack Nicklaus (1974)
Course Features: Despite the fact that Muirfield Village opened for play in 1974, the course continues to rank among the top 100 courses in America based on the tinkering that Jack Nicklaus and company perform each year. Nicklaus designed the course in association with Desmond Muirhead, and the name was inspired by Nicklaus’s British Open victory in 1966 in Muirfield, Scotland.
The course will be stretched to 7,392 yards this week, and plays to a par 72. To understand the course and its layout, one must first understand Nicklaus’s design philosophy, especially at the beginning of his career in course architecture. Nicklaus has two main staples. The first, is to make the course playable for all skill levels, which means that the greens will be receptive to different types of approach shots. The second, is to work with the land that is given and not make a course in Ohio feel like it is in Florida or South Carolina. Early in his design career, Nicklaus designs could be easily recognized because the course would move from left to right, his preferred shot shape, and also the most common miss by amateurs. While that is certainly true of Muirfield Village, the course moves in both directions, so there isn’t one particular shot shape that has an advantage, or at least one has not been presented in the results and stats I have studied.
One thing is for sure, Muirfield Village is a shotmakers golf course, a place where ballstrikers tend to excel. Previous champions like Matsuyama and Lingmerth, rely on their ball-striking as much as anyone on Tour not named Adam Scott. At nearly 7,400 yards, Muirfield is lengthy course, and it gives bigger hitters an advantage because of the generous width of the fairways. The equalizer though, is in the size of the greens. They greens at Muirfield average roughly 5,000 square feet, which is about 20% less than the average Tour course. If you don’t find the fairway, it’s going to be tough to hit greens in regulation in firm and fast conditions.
I am looking for well-rounded players, leaning towards ball-strikers, with Proximity to Hole being a key metric to look for in your middle tier golfers.
1st Round Matchups
Jon Rahm (-110) over Jordan Spieth
Adam Scott (-110) over Hideki Matsuyama
Rickie Fowler (+105) over Matt Kuchar
Kevin Kisner (-110) over Tony Finau
Byeong Hun An (+100) over Kevin Chappell
Jason Dufner (+100) over Phil Mickelson
Futures
Dustin Johnson (+550)
Adam Scott (+2000)
Hideki Matsuyama (+1800)
Rickie Fowler (+2300)
Brooks Koepka (+4000)
Kevin Kisner (+4500)
Charl Schwartzel (+7500)
Jason Dufner (+7500)
