2018 Memorial Preview, Picks And Daily Fantasy Plays
It should be a very fun week at Muirfield Village.
Last week we had plenty of action on both the PGA TOUR and the European Tour with Francesco Molinari holding off Rory McIlroy and the field at the BMW Championship outside London while Justin Rose won the Fort Worth Invitational by three shots for what was the ninth TOUR win of his career.
This week the TOUR heads to Jack’s tournament, The Memorial, at Muirfield Village Golf Club as Jason Dufner looks to defend his title from a year ago.
The Course
Muirfield Village — Par 72–7,392 Yards — Bent Greens
At under 7,400 yards Muirfield is far from one of the longest courses on TOUR, but we haven’t seen any past champion over the last five years post a number better than -15. Dufner hoisted the trophy last year with a four-day total of -13.
Speaking of past champions, the trend over the past five years hasn’t favored the long hitters suggesting that trying to overpower this track isn’t the way to go with the likes of Matt Kuchar (2013) and David Lingmerth (2015) topping the field . Hideki Matsuyama, the 2014 champion, may be an outlier however as he can certainly put the ball out there.
If you’re looking for one key-stat for this week, strokes gained approach is something to keep an eye on as this truly is a second-shot course. There isn’t an awful lot of trouble off the tee and if a player can keep it in play and continue a trend of strong second shots, odds are he’ll be towards the top of the leaderboard. Par 5 scoring should be looked at as well, particularly with the long hitters as all four Par 5’s this week are reachable in two for at least 85% of the field with the longest (№11) topping the scorecard at 567 yards.
It’s also worth nothing that there are only 120 golfers in the field this week, but the same cut rule applies as the top 70 and ties will play on the weekend. For Daily Fantasy players, having six guys make the cut this week should be at an all-time priority.
DFS Must-Haves
Kevin Na ($7,600 on Draftkings): Na enters this week in extremely good form firing a 62 on Thursday last week following that up with a 61 on Sunday to finish fourth in Fort Worth.
Oh, and when it comes to strokes gained around the green, Na is the best player on the planet right now. He might be towards the back of the pack in terms of his off the tee game, but that shouldn’t be a factor this week.
He didn’t play in the even last year, but does have a T-13 finish to his name back in 2015 here.
Matt Kuchar ($8,500 on Draftkings): Kuch has finished top-five or better in each of the past two years and won the event back in 2013. In 10 career visits to Muirfield Village he has seven top-10 finishes. If you’re a course history person, it doesn’t get much better than Kuch’s resume.
He hasn’t been too impressive this year, but he has made 14 of 15 cuts and at that price range he’s a must-have in your lineup despite the fact he could easily be the highest owned player in the field.
The Winner
Justin Thomas: We’re three months removed from Thomas’ last win, therefore we’re overdue to see him in the winner’s circle. Somehow it still feels like he’s flying under the radar despite the fact he’s missed one cut in 11 events in 2018 with his worst finish in said tournaments being a T-22 at the Tournament of Champions.
It doesn’t really need to be mentioned because it should be a given, but strokes gained approach (7th), scoring average (2nd) and overall strokes gained tee to green (3rd) pop off the page. He finished T-4 here last year.
Notables in the field: Jason Day, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose, Dustin Johnson, Henrik Stenson, Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson and Jordan Spieth.
