IT'S back to Jack’s Place for the 41st edition of The Memorial Tournament with the top 75 on the previous PGA Tour money list taking part.
Jack Nicholas designed Muirfield Village and named it after his favourite Open venue. The top five in the world are taking part with the top three of Jason Day, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth all looking for their own personal two in a row.
Former winner Hideki Matsuyama has to be considered as a contender here. He won in 2014 and last year had good tilt at retaining his title when he finished fifth. He has three top-10 finishes in his last five outings and two top 20s so the form is there.
He is 11th in GIR with 70.05% and that could be the important stat this week. His overall stats are superb with strokes gained: off the tee 7th; SG: approach the green 3rd; SG: tee to green 5th and 7th in scoring average. Also his scoring average over eight rounds here is 68.875. Definitely got to be there at the finish.
Over the past four or five weeks Chris Kirk has been playing some good golf and appearing regularly on the leaderboard. With five top 15s in his last eight outings it’s good to see the 31-year-old American competing at the top again. His GIR stat is 65.14% (109th, strokes gained: approach to the green is 0.565 (24th), and driving accuracy 61.20% (87th). He also finished T4 here in 2014 so can play the course.
Patrick Reed has still to win this year but I don’t think it’s that far off. He is 2nd in strokes gained: around the green with 0.591; GIR is 64.99% (113th), 2nd in scrambling (67.37%) and he’s first in overall putting 1.526. Reed was playing really well at the beginning of the season but seems to have gone into a bit of a dip recently. However, a good T15 at the Dean & Deluca last week will hopefully be the turning point and he can continue the form at Muirfield.
Recommended Bets
1.5pts ew Hideki Matsuyama (16-1, bet365)
1.5pts ew Chris Kirk (66-1, Betfred) paying top six
1.5pts ew Patrick Reed (40-1, Betfred) paying top six
Ace Venturer
Speith 7/1 ew
Kuchar 20/1 ew
Casey 50/1 ew
Kisner9/2
Knox 5/1
Top 10 finish
Craig this is a tough one to call. Always like a small bet on Paul Casey and Kisner did me a good turn early in the season and was on my list for this week but his form is just not good enough at the moment.
aceventurer, good luck with your tips. I like Matsuyama as usual but when in-form trio Jason, Jason and Rory are in the field it’s hard to see past one of them winning it – but which one? Day’s record though is as he says “horrible” at Muirfield Village.