Apparently, the young man has been reading up.

Hovland wasn’t the best ball striker this week at the Memorial Tournament. He wasn’t the best putter, either. But he was darn good at both. Throw in some respectable scrambling and you have a recipe for success, which is what the 25-year-old achieved with his playoff victory Sunday at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

Enduring a 2022-23 season where he has come frustratingly close in several big events, including a share of second only two weeks ago in the PGA Championship, Hovland finally cashed in when he sank a seven-foot par putt on the 18th hole, the first hole of sudden death, to defeat hard-luck Denny McCarthy. The victory, Hovland’s fourth on the PGA Tour and his first on the U.S. mainland, was set up when he got up and down for par from behind the green on his final hole in regulation and McCarthy couldn’t do the same a few minutes later. They each shot 70 and finished at seven-under 281.

“I’ve been playing well, but I’ve just been trying to stay within myself and play my own game,” said Hovland, who also finished T-3 at the Players and T-7 at the Masters this year. “Maybe before I would have fired at some pins that I shouldn’t, but I played smart and came up clutch this time. It feels even better after a few close calls the last few months.”

Hovland, who trailed by as many as four shots at one point on a breezy final day, birdied two of his last four holes in regulation, including a 28-footer at the par-17th that was the only birdie at the long par-4 all day. His 281 total was the fourth-highest winning score in Memorial history and the highest since Hale Irwin won with the same total in 1985 as Muirfield Village, firm and fast, put up a fight that had players comparing it to a major examination.

Which perhaps was why Hovland eventually emerged with the victory. The former U.S. Amateur champion might not have been comfortable on difficult layouts in years past, but he’s warming up to them.

“I feel like I’ve won a decent amount of tournaments for only being a pro for four years,” said Hovland, also a two-time DP World Tour winner and a two-time champion of Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge. “However, they have been at low-key places, resort courses and abroad, so it feels really cool to get my first win on the U.S. soil, especially at a tournament like this where this week the golf course is arguably harder than most major championship golf courses we play. It felt like a major. So it was really cool that I was able to get it done at a place like this.”

Andy Lyons

He knows exactly how he got it done. Hovland, who joined Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy as the only player to have at least one win in the last four seasons, displayed enough of his usual solid play tee to green, but he ranked 21st in scrambling and third in strokes gained/putting, which was crucial to counter McCarthy, the tour putting leader who ranked first on Muirfield’s treacherous greens.

Joked tournament host Jack Nicklaus, “I walked out on the 18th green tonight with Viktor and I said, ‘This is what you guys putted on?’ It was hard.”

The whole place was hard, the course playing to a 74.985 scoring average during the final round.

“I’ve historically kind of done better at easier golf courses because of my aggressive nature of how I play the game and I like to hit right at the pin. So if the ball stops where it lands, I can be very aggressive and just take it at the pins,” said Hovland, who rose from seventh to fifth in the World Ranking. “On the harder golf courses, you can hit good shots and you’re just going to miss some greens. So if I’m missing more greens and I didn’t have the short game before, it just puts more pressure on my ball striking, and to a certain point there’s only so many greens that you can hit. I feel like maybe this week I hit about 10, 11, 12 greens every single day and didn’t hit it bad, by any means, I hit it fine, but if you don’t have a short game to kind of get you through those holes that you were missing greens on, then you just don’t have a chance.

“I feel like now with my good ball-striking and a short game that I can rely on, I feel like these hard golf courses should suit me a lot better than they have in the past.”

McCarthy, 30, led for much of the afternoon and had a putt for his first tour win after finding the rough left of the fairway at 18, but he missed from 23 feet. He then blocked his tee shot in the playoff into the right rough and again failed to reach the green in regulation. Hovland, meanwhile, drove 30 yards past McCarthy and in play and put his second shot on the green 51 feet left of the hole. His birdie try came up well short, but he managed to coax in the second in the right side of the cup for a victory worth $3.6 million in the designated event.

Dylan Buell

Both men began the day one stroke behind a trio of leaders, including World No. 3 McIlroy, but it was McCarthy, who finished T-5 at Muirfield Village last year, who leaped ahead by going out in 33 to lead by as many as two strokes for most of the day. A series of gutsy par saves kept him ahead until the last hole. The Maryland native still recorded his best finish on the PGA Tour, and his $2.1 million payday was four times the most he had previously earned in his six full seasons on tour.

“I battled really hard,” McCarthy said, fighting back his emotions. “Heartbroken right now, but a lot of positives to take from this week. Played really well and obviously my putter kept me in it when I was a little shaky. I hit a lot of good golf shots this week.”

McIlroy briefly separated himself from the tight-bunched leaderboard when he pitched in for birdie from well left of the green at the par-3 fourth hole to reach seven under, but he soon was passed by McCarthy, and a host of others, as the swing flaws he had been battling the last few months reared up. Bogeys on both par-five holes on the outward nine hinted at the struggles ahead, and McIlroy could never get untracked in a closing 75 that left him tied for seventh.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” McIlroy said. “I feel a little better about everything compared to where I was a couple weeks ago at Oak Hill. So it’s obviously not the result that I wanted today, but I feel like there was a few more positives than there was a couple weeks ago.”

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler finished third after firing the low round of the day, a five-under 67 that left him one back at 282. Playing alongside No. 2 Jon Rahm in a marquee pairing of the top-two golfers in the Official World Golf Ranking, Scheffler has been a ball-striking genius this season and dominated tee to green at Muirfield Village. His runner-up finish was his third straight top-five, and since winning the WM Phoenix Open in February, the powerful Texan hasn’t finished worse than T-12.

“I just tried to bring a good attitude coming in,” Scheffler said after making the cut on the number and then shooting a tournament-best nine under on the weekend. “The first two days here were really frustrating. It’s tough. It’s the fourth week in a row. I’m pretty tired. I was in contention at Byron, PGA, and Colonial, and I’m pretty worn out at the moment. So I was just proud of how I showed up this weekend and fought. I hit it so good and I gave myself a chance. Made a few more putts go in, it’s a little different story.”

Andy Lyons

The Memorial served as an Open Qualifier for the 151st championship next month at Royal Liverpool. The leading three players not already exempt earned a berth, and those spots went to Andrew Putnam (T-5), Adam Schenk (T-7) and Lee Hodges, who was T-12 and won a tiebreaker of David Lipsky via a higher World Ranking.

Speaking of majors, the U.S. Open is less than two weeks away, and Hovland hopes there’s more magic coming his way at Los Angeles Country Club. While failing to win at Oak Hill, a closing 70 was considered a victory of sorts as he continues to learn how to handle the pressure of the game’s biggest stages. Given the conditions, and the field, Hovland has reason to believe his victory at Muirfield Village is validation that his short game is catching up with the player Hovland hopes he can be.

The post How dangerous is Viktor Hovland with an improved short game? Look no further than his win at Memorial appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Imagine, for a second, being a member at a club like Muirfield Village. Would you ever leave the property? The milkshakes alone would keep you coming back day after day, to the point where you’d eventually have to be asked if you have a home, Judge Smails style.

Of course, in that scenario, you aren’t a tour professional like Jason Day, who has access to just about any top golf course in the world if and when he wants it. But still, as a member at Jack Nicklaus’ place, which is less than a 30-minute drive from his home in Columbus, you’d think Day would get over there every once in awhile. You’d be wrong.

While it still technically is a “home game” for the Aussie-turned Ohioan since he lives nearby, it’s hardly that when Day actually puts the tee in the ground.

“I play four-and-a-half rounds a year [at Muirfield Village],” Day said Thursday. “Nine holes with a pro-am and then typically, or, depends, could be three-and-a-half or two-and-a-half or four-and-a-half, depending. But, yeah, so just usually the week of.”

If we’re reading that correctly, Day is claiming he plays Muirfield Village, where he is a member, literally only on the week of the Memorial Tournament. Wait, what?

It’s true, and it’s something Day has copped to before. Last year, following a third-round 68, Day said: “Everyone says it’s my home club and it is to a certain degree. But before this week I only played nine holes in the last two years here. Even though I live like 30 minutes away. I’m too lazy to get in my car and drive 30 minutes to a championship golf course. I’d rather go to (Double Eagle), another championship golf course 10 minutes away.”

Understandable. Well, somewhat. Sure, convenience is always key, but Muirfield Village seems like one of the handful of places in golf that’s not only worth a 30-minute drive, but maybe even a multiple-hour trek.

In 13 PGA Tour official trips to Muirfield Village, Day has managed just one top-10 finish. A second seems unlikely this week following Day’s first-round 76, which caused him to admit that he should probably play his “home club” more.

“I just don’t get over here enough. I should, I probably should, with the way that I played.”

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Jordan Spieth (69), Tyrrell Hatton (71) and Rory McIlroy (72), all among the most entertaining players on tour, albeit for different reasons, put on quite the show at Muirfield Village. McIlroy got the trio of Ryder Cuppers started with a pin-seeker on the third.

However, they’re all looking up at Davis Riley (67), who played his final seven holes in four under par to grab the lead at the Memorial Tournament. But no other group produced as many highlights as the marquee trio.

As is typically the case, Spieth filled up the cup in a variety of ways, sinking long birdie putts, saving par from seemingly impossible spots and holing out from off the green. If there was any concern that his missed cut at the Charles Schwab Challenge last week was a harbinger of things to come, he quickly put that to rest.

Spieth was only one-under when he missed the green at the par-4 10th. In vintage Spieth fashion, he was not deterred.

He's a magician ?

Ridiculous touch from the bunker for @JordanSpieth! pic.twitter.com/b5dhZpgcH5

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 1, 2023

He followed that up with a simple two-putt birdie at the par-5 11th to get to three-under. Spieth found some trouble off the 13th tee, missing the fairway right, then short-sided himself in the left rough 30 yards short of the green. All he could do was hack it out to about 23 feet. No matter. He canned that to save par and stay bogey-free for the round and one shot off the lead.

Par save and a fist pump ?@JordanSpieth remains just one back @MemorialGolf. pic.twitter.com/uLUllBJ5Gh

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 1, 2023

He came to the 17th still one shot back. He left his approach shot roughly 15 feet from the hole for birdie — one of just eight greens he hit all day. If you’ve been even a casual viewer of golf most of the last decade, you already know what happened next.

Walking it in for birdie ?@JordanSpieth heads to the last with a share of the lead @MemorialGolf. pic.twitter.com/UVpV5QHC64

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 1, 2023

“It felt like a great round. It was nice to beat a tough golf course,” Spieth said. “I did that on Sunday at the PGA, and then a place that historically has been, I think, the best place for me as a professional, at Colonial, to miss the cut there was just, was such a bummer.

“So to come out and put good work in, feel really healthy, and get a lot of short game work in and get my touch — feel like my touch is back. It started on the first hole today. I mean, I feel like the bunker play is one of the strengths of my game, and the last couple tournaments it’s been really poor, actually poor enough to not allow me to have a chance to win golf tournaments.”

The birdie tied him for the lead, but his glory was short-lived as he had to scramble to save bogey at the last to finish two shots behind Riley.

A less-fortunate playing partner

McIlroy had a similarly impressive round going through most of the afternoon. He wasn’t perfect, but few players run into birdies the way he McIlroy does. The Northern Irishman played the front nine in two under, despite parring both par fives, thanks to iron shots like this at the par-4 third.

He erased a bogey at the 10th with a birdie at the 11th. At the other par 5 on the back nine, McIlroy dripped a chip slowly down the green to tap-in range on 15 to get to three-under and one off the lead.

In perhaps a perfect representation of the last several years of his career, McIlroy got close to the top, but could not grab control of the tournament. He stuffed his tee shot on the difficult par-3 16th inside six feet, but could not convert and remained in a tie for third.

Pin seeking with @McIlroyRory ? pic.twitter.com/HUSzIBKgw5

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 1, 2023

And then came the 18th hole.

McIlroy’s drive missed right and he was left with a bad lie and a worse stance. Swinging at waist-height, he was barely able to advance his ball. Once again from the rough, McIlroy flew the green, leaving an impossible chip to a green now sloping severely away from him. Unable to keep that shot from running through the green, he quickly found himself chipping for bogey, which he left nine feet short. After missing the putt for double, he tapped in for triple bogey and, in one hole, fell into a tie for 33rd.

McIlroy averages 4.33 birdies per round at Muirfield Village, more than anyone else in tournament history, but his best finish is a tie for fourth. The good news is, he won’t have long to think about his late-afternoon misfortune with an early tee time on Friday.

A proper showman

Few entertain like Hatton. The fiery Englishman is notorious for his animation on the course and disdain for otherwise revered golf courses.

Thursday was no different.

Hatton left himself an ideal yardage on the par 5, which is common among PGA Tour players. What happened next was theatre only he could produce.

When a club drop leads to a birdie.

Just a casual hole for @TyrrellHatton ? pic.twitter.com/n7NrZnOhi4

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 1, 2023

That is a full club drop and surrender cobra, followed by a 32-foot bomb for birdie. The full gamut of emotions in just a few minutes.

A few holes later, he was in danger of dropping a shot, only to save par from off the green.

If this threesome produces highlights like this on Friday, the fans at Muirfield Village will have more than just the course’s famous milkshakes to rave about.

The post A marquee group delivers, a comeback completed and a surprise leader at the Memorial appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

There’s nothing better than a good bit. You just have to commit wholeheartedly and it will be appreciated immensely … well, at least by most. That’s exactly what happened at Muirfield Village this week as Reddit user db_banner discovered a new autograph item, much to the chagrin of Memorial Tournament security.

When you see a sign that states “NO AUTOGRAPHS,” there’s only one logical thing to do … get autographs on that sign. Eight PGA Tour pros agreed.

When pushed on how he got the sign, the original poster told a story that’s as amusing as the board itself.

The pros at the Memorial Tournament appreciated the irony
by in golf

“I had been eyeing it up all morning thinking it would be cool to get autographs on. Then about an hour later I saw an employee taking them down so I asked if I could have one. He hesitated but then handed me one.

“Once I started having pros sign it, a security guard took notice and made a big deal out of it. He was radioing to higher-up people trying to figure out how I got it. At one point he grabbed it to look at it, so I gripped harder so he couldn’t take it. And then I got the hell outta there.”

Apart from Alex Smalley’s John Hancock, it’s a bit tough to figure out who’s who, but a few enterprising Reddit users seem to have put together a correct rundown: Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick, Aaron Rai, Ben An and Akshay Bhatia.

With the designated event’s elevated field, this was the perfect tournament to get an autographed “NO AUTOGRAPHS” sign. It’s something the pros will remember as well, so nice work by db_banner.

“All of the pros loved it,” the miscreant said. “Alex Smalley said this was his favourite thing he has signed.”

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Fittingly, after taking one of golf’s longest breaks, Daniel Berger is set to return on golf’s longest day.

Berger, who turned 30 on Friday of this year’s Masters Tournament, was last seen in action at the 2022 US Open at the Country Club, Brookline. He missed the cut, shooting rounds of 70 and 75 before shutting it down for nearly a year due to lingering back issues.

As Berger told the Associated Press earlier this month, he reached a point of no return in Massachusetts last June. A week earlier, he tied for fifth in the Memorial Tournament despite suffering from serious pain, then told himself “this is it”. He attempted to gut it out at Brookline anyway.

“I was taking two ice baths a day to get on the course,” Berger said.

The issue first arose during a break Berger took after his 2021 Ryder Cup debut at Whistling Straits, where Berger went 2-1-0 overall. He didn’t play an official PGA Tour event after that until the 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions, where he tied for fifth. Over the next sixth months he made 11 starts, collecting six top-25 finishes with a bad back and even taking a five-shot lead into the final round of the 2022 Honda Classic. By the sound of it, fighting through the pain was not worth it.

“That was the worst six months of my life,” Berger said. “I’ve had a pretty easy life. I play golf for a living — it’s not that stressful. But there was a point that I would have given up golf for the rest of my life not to feel like that.”

Fortunately, Berger is not giving up the game, instead using the last 300-plus days to rehab his way back to the golf course. A book reference from European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald, in addition to plenty of training, has allowed Berger to see enough progress over the last few months to feel confident enough to tee it up for real again. This coming Monday, the four-time PGA Tour winner will be off at 7.35am local time at Pine Tree Golf Club in Boynton Beach, Florida, in the US Open final qualifying stage.

The 36-hole day is among the sport’s most gruelling tests, which shows you just how much better Berger must be doing, and how eager he is to get back. Once as high as No. 12 in the world, Berger is currently 146th.

The post This four-time PGA Tour winner will make his long-awaited return at US Open final qualifying appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

In another era, golf’s major championships made the players. It made their careers, and it made their ability to make a better living. Today, the players make the majors. Or so it appears, according to four-time major winner Rory McIlroy.

In response to the launch of the LIV Golf League, which offers $25 million purses at each of its events, the PGA Tour has increased its prize money at a number of designated events, including this week’s Memorial Tournament, which bumped its purse $8 million this year to $20 million. The major championships also have responded in kind, with the Masters offering a record $18 million this year and the PGA Championship awarding $17.5 million, also a record.

Should the major championships, including the US Open and Open Championship, find a continual proliferation of purse increases unsustainable, McIlroy said it wouldn’t stop him from competing in golf’s four biggest tournaments, but the organisations that run those championships might risk losing other players. And they can’t afford to do that.

“It wouldn’t stop me from playing a major, but at the same time the major championships basically rent the talent for a week from the PGA Tour, and you could argue from LIV and DP World Tour and wherever else,” he said on Wednesday at Muirfield Village Golf Club. “So the major championships aren’t going to be the product that they are without the top players in the world.

“So, would that mean that I would, or anyone would, go to the lengths of not playing a major championship to make a point? No. But that’s just having a reasonable conversation with the governing bodies and the people that run those tournaments and try to come up with a solution.”

The solution being more money? It appears so.

The No. 3 player in the world and an outspoken representative for the PGA Tour over the past year, McIlory has twice won the PGA Championship to go with one victory each in the U.S. Open and Open Championship. Whether the majors or other tour events can continue to increase purses is a legitimate question, one Northern Irishman couldn’t answer.

Nevertheless, he believes golf overall is in a position to continue to increase financial incentives for players.

“You have a new entity [LIV] coming into the game offering $25 million prize funds and other entities feel the pressure to keep up,” he said. “You think about the four most important tournaments in our game, the prize funds aren’t in the top 20 of prize funds. You think about that, right? That doesn’t quite add up. So whether there needs to be some sort of correction in that or — I don’t know.

“Look, as a player these big prize funds are great. But it’s a good question whether that’s sustainable in the long-term. Golf has never been healthier. The industry’s doing really well. There’s more money coming into the game than ever before. More people want to put money into the game. For the short and medium-term, I don’t think it’s a problem. But long-term, I don’t really have a good answer for you. But right now, I think it’s at least sustainable for the next decade.”

Coming off a T-7 finish at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill despite fighting his swing, McIlroy seeks his first victory of the year. He has four top-10 finishes at Muirfield Village Golf Club in 11 Memorial appearances.

“I can’t remember a time where I felt so uncomfortable over the ball for four days,” he admitted. “So I needed to go back home and work on some things and, yeah, feeling a lot better about it, not fighting the club face quite as much. Feel a little bit more free, which is obviously a nice feeling.”

Especially coming into a $20 million event.

The post Would pros skip majors if the purses don’t rise? Rory McIlroy says that could happen appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

In his tournament debut at the iconic Jack Nicklaus design, Rahm badly missed the cut, shooting rounds of 73 and 77 despite nearly winning at Colonial the week before. Naturally, Rahm wondered if it was the course, and not himself, that was to blame.

“It’s funny, first time I played here I played bad, I missed the cut. I think I told Adam [Hayes, Rahm’s caddie]: ‘Man, I don’t know if I’m ever going back to that golf course,’” Rahm said on Tuesday at Muirfield Village.

For two years, Rahm kept his word, skipping the tournament at Jack’s place because, evidently, he thought it didn’t fit his eye. Hayes disagreed.

“[Hayes] was telling me: ‘You’re going to go back and you’re going to love it. You are tailor-made for that golf course,’” added Rahm.

Extenuating circumstances, also known as the COVID-19 pandemic, forced Rahm to return, as golf was the first sport back in full force in May of 2020. Due to scheduling changes, there were two events hosted at Muirfield Village on consecutive weeks in July of 2020, the Workday Charity Open and the Memorial Tournament. Rahm returned to Jack’s place for the Workday Charity Open, struggling over the first 54 holes, shooting one-over.

Something clicked on Sunday, however, with Rahm posting an eight-under 64 and carrying that momentum over into the following week. Despite a final-round 75 marred by a rules controversy, he won the 2020 Memorial Tournament, making Hayes’ words feel prophetic.

The following season, in his title defence, Rahm led by six strokes after 54 holes before infamously being forced to withdraw due to a positive test for COVID-19. Barring an epic collapse, he would have likely been a back-to-back Memorial Tournament winner just a few years after thinking he didn’t want to come back to Muirfield Village. When listening to your caddie pays off.

“I think it’s a golf course you kind of need to learn to play a little bit,” Rahm said. “It gives you a lot of options off the tee on a couple of holes. Getting a couple of reps helps. But it’s mainly, it’s a little different to what we play throughout the year. It’s target golf. You put it on the fairway, put it on the proper side of the fairway to give you the best angle to the green. Par-3s are all difficult. You have to be really accurate with your iron play. No surprise Tiger has such a success here, right. You just need to come out and be the best. While you’re doing that it actually makes you think a little bit more than some of the golf courses we go to. So like I said, it’s a fun test and I think that’s why I’ve played well.”

Much like Augusta National, a place Rahm has also had success, Muirfield Village is very much a second-shot golf course, which has allowed strong iron players like Woods, Patrick Cantlay and other great ball-strikers to thrive in Dublin, Ohio. In the strokes-gained/approach department, only two players (Collin Morikawa, Scottie Scheffler) have been better than Rahm this season. There aren’t many safe bets in golf, but Rahm continuing his hot run at Muirfield Village, a book he once judged by its cover, feels like a safe bet this week.

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Nearly all the top-ranked players in the world will convene once again for one of the most sought-after titles on the PGA Tour. It’s yet another elevated event — this one in the heart of the season — just two weeks removed from the PGA Championship and two weeks away from the US Open.

Muirfield Village underwent renovations after the 2020 edition, so we now have two events worth of data with the new conditions. The Jack Nicklaus/Desmond Muirfield design is one of the most complete tests we see. And we know the rough will be thick and the course will test every facet of the game.

Here are the players who have my interest — and those who certainly don’t — this week at the 2023 Memorial Tournament.

Golfers I’m Definitely Backing

Patrick Cantlay
Despite not having a trophy to show for it, 2023 has been the year of Patrick Cantlay. He’s been knocking the cover off the ball, gaining 10-plus strokes ball-striking at both the PGA Championship and Players Championship. He’s earned seven top-10 finishes in his past nine starts and has a pristine record around Muirfield Village. He’s won this event twice and has two more top-four finishes, all in the past five years.

Justin Thomas. Richard Heathcote

Justin Thomas
The pendulum has swung too far on Thomas. He’s been driving it well, excluding the PGA Championship, and his short game is starting to stabilise. He has three top 20s at the Memorial in the past five years and also lost in a playoff to Collin Morikawa at the 2020 Workday Charity Open, an event also held at Muirfield Village.

Sahith Theegala
Theegala has teed it up twice in this event with a T-32 in 2021 and T-5 last year. He’s arguably playing better golf now than prior to either one of those starts. While his skill-set is still very raw, he’s learning to adapt to different courses each week, and his results are constantly improving. He’ll be a menace from tee-to-green and will look to heat up with the putter.

Ryan Fox. DP World Tour

Ryan Fox
His T-21 finish for Fox last week at Colonial Country Club, which wasn’t really a good fit for him, was very impressive. Muirfield Village should better reward his skill-set — the ability to bomb it off the tee and be precise with his irons. While his around-the-green play is still a liability, he’s turned into a serviceable putter in 2023.

Austin Eckroat
The highly touted Oklahoma State Cowboy is playing the best golf of his young PGA Tour career right now. He’s gained strokes off the tee in four straight and has gained at least three strokes ball-striking over those events. That has produced four made cuts, highlighted by a T-2 at the Byron Nelson and T-16 at the Charles Schwab Challenge.

Outside Options

Scottie Scheffler. Kevin C Cox

Scottie Scheffler
There are three instances of a golfer gaining 15-plus strokes from tee-to-green this season, per the RickRunGood.com golf database. Scheffler owns all three of those, including last week in Texas. He now possesses five of the best 11 tee-to-green weeks of any golfer at any event this season — with no other golfer appearing on the list more than once. He’s a machine, with little sign of slowing down anytime soon.

Corey Conners
Conners was in the mix at the PGA Championship before fading to a T-12 finish. That marks back-to-back top 12s when you include his T-8 at the Wells Fargo Championship in his prior start. His ability to play out of the fairways should be beneficial at Muirfield Village, and he’s never missed the cut in four trips. His T-13 finish last year was the best of his career.

Si Woo Kim
Even with the renovations completed a few years ago, Kim has taken a liking to these putting surfaces. He’s gained strokes putting in five straight trips to this event, which has buoyed him to three straight top 20s. If he can heat up the flat stick again this year, he’ll be quite dangerous.

Billy Horschel. Warren Little

Billy Horschel
It’s been a rough year for Horschel, but there are enough signs of improved play to try and catch him early. Despite missing the cut at the PGA Championship, he gained 0.50 strokes to the field and had his best week in terms of SG/off-the-tee since last fall. His weapon, the putter, heated up last week in Texas, gaining 4.78 strokes putting. If he can put those two things together and lean on his solid history — three top 15s in the past four years — this could be a decent chance.

Justin Suh
Suh has always been reliant on a hot putter, but he’s starting to find his stride in the long game. He has gained two-plus strokes ball-striking in each of his past two starts — producing two top-26 finishes. He’s certainly trending in the right direction and playing solid golf.

Golfers I’m Fading

Collin Morikawa. Sam Greenwood

Collin Morikawa
I worry that Morikawa currently has his “B-” approach game right now. That’s still good enough to compete, but is it good enough to win? He’ll get a boost in positive sentiment thanks to his win at the Workday Charity Open, a one-off event held at Muirfield Village in 2020. The putter has significantly hampered Morikawa, and he’ll need to find magic with that club to cross the finish line.

Matt Fitzpatrick
In the two years since the redesign, Fitzpatrick has struggled to put it all together at Muirfield Village. He lost four strokes on approach in 2021 and lost 7.5 strokes/putting in 2022 — missing the cut in both years. This year has been a roller-coaster for Fitzpatrick, winning the RBC Heritage but struggling more often than not.

Cameron Young
Young slumped early in 2023, marred by significant losses in the short game. I worry that his stat profile right now looks a lot like those weeks from early 2023. He’s lost over six strokes putting in his past three starts and has lost around-the green in three of his past four. That’s not a great sign for someone who usually has such great touch both on and around the greens.

Keegan Bradley. Tim Nwachukwu

Keegan Bradley
Since 2018, there are only two golfers in this field who have played as many rounds as Bradley at the Memorial and have lost more strokes than him, per the RickRunGood.com golf database. Bradley is losing 0.22 strokes per round in 16 rounds, which include two missed cuts. The noted ball-striker has lost strokes on approach in three of his past four starts and now heads to a place that has given him trouble.

Lucas Glover
There is no one in this field who has played more rounds at the Memorial than Glover since 2008. He’s got a whopping 52 rounds on the resume but very little success to show for it. That’s 15 starts with his best finish coming in 2016 — a T-33. Experience is not everything this week, and Glover is a good example of that.

Rick Gehman, founder of RickRunGood.com and the RickRunGood YouTube Channel, is one of the industry’s leading experts on golf DFS

The post Memorial Tournament picks: It’s the year of Patrick Cantlay appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The big weeks on the PGA Tour seem to be coming more frequently than ever. Of course, that’s because they are, with the now-designated events and their $20 million in prize money drawing most of the top players in the game.

Up next week is the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in Ohio — always popular because it’s hosted by Jack Nicklaus, but even more so with this new status. And with the field finalised, it’s going to be another major-like show of star power, including the top five in the World Ranking — Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele.

The 2022 edition was a bit of a yawner, with Billy Horschel winning by four shots over Aaron Wise and six over Cantlay. In 2021, Cantlay won the title by beating Collin Morikawa in a playoff. Rahm won in 2020.

There are a few notables missing, with players being allowed to skip one designated event each season. Tony Finau, Max Homa and Tommy Fleetwood didn’t enter.

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Well, that’s not exactly how they want to be looked upon, but players competing in this week’s Memorial Tournament who have committed to next week’s LIV Golf Invitational Series in London don’t want to be seen as anything other than professional golfers pursuing a new business opportunity.

The LIV Golf Invitational Series, the big-money rival to the PGA Tour, released its commitment list on Tuesday, and members Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford appeared on the list. So did amateur James Piot, who earned an invitation to Muirfield Village Golf Club as the US Amateur champion but is not exempt on the tour.

Jones and Swafford spoke to Golf Digest on Wednesday before playing in the tournament pro-am, and they cited myriad reasons why they are playing in the inaugural LIV Series event — and in the process jeopardising their standing on the PGA Tour.

The tour released a statement on Wednesday reiterating its position that players who decided to take Greg Norman, head of the LIV Series, up on his offer to play for $25 million in this first tournament at the Centurion Club.

“As communicated to our entire membership on May 10, PGA Tour members have not been authorised to participate in the Saudi Golf League’s London event, under PGA Tour Tournament Regulations. Members who violate the Tournament Regulations are subject to disciplinary action.”

Matt Jones. David Cannon

“I have no idea in regards to what the PGA Tour is going to do, whether it’s suspending, fining, whatever,” said Jones, 41, who has two tour titles, $17.3 million in tour earnings, and three children under the age of 10. The latter, he will tell you, is a big deal.

“I do care what happens,” he added. “I love the PGA Tour, but I like the opportunity that the LIV Tour affords me and my family, and, look, everyone has their own unique circumstances, and this fits with mine.”

Jones cited several “positives” that swayed him.

“I enjoy the concept of the team competition. The three-day tournament. The shotgun starts, so we’re all playing under the same conditions,” he said. “I play golf for a living. I have been out here for 15 years, and if I can play for more money, provide better for my family but at the same time maybe be home a little bit more, then why not?

“I was raised by two parents who were there for me in all my sporting activities, and I’ve missed a lot of events with my kids. If the schedule affords me a better opportunity to be there for my kids, and probably be a better father and husband, then that to me is a big deal.”

MORE: Analyzing the 42 players who have signed up for LIV Golf

Swafford, a father of two with $9.6 million in earnings, also liked the thought of being home a bit more often. He also was intrigued by the team competition that provides a twist to the proceedings.

“I’m excited about it. Schedule is very enticing to a guy who has two small kids,” said Swafford, 34, who won The American Express earlier this year for his third tour title. “I think the format, the team aspect, is going to be incredible. Look at Zurich [the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, which is a two-man team event]. Putting teams together turned an event that was in a tough part of the schedule into one that gets some incredible fields. I’m really looking forward to seeing how that works.”

Swafford wasn’t sure exactly how the teams would be drafted. Neither did he seem to care. “Just having something different sounds pretty interesting,” he said.

And his future with the tour? “We’ll have to see how that all works out,” he said. “But I think a lot of guys out here understand that we all have to do what’s best for each of us.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Rory McIlroy said that the tour should not “drop the hammer” on tour members who opt to compete next week. Patrick Cantlay, the defending champion at the Memorial, also seemed to have an open mind towards fellow players taking up the offer to play elsewhere. McIlroy is on the PGA Tour Policy Board and Cantlay joins the board in 2023.

“I think everyone’s situation is so unique and different,” said Cantlay, ranked sixth in the world. “The motivators that different guys have I think a lot of times guides their decisions. Obviously, you’ve seen by a lot of the guys that have chosen to go over there, they are in the later parts of their career in general. They don’t feel like they are on the upswing. They probably feel like they are on the downswing. So, they are trying to maximise what years they have left.”

Cantlay admitted that he is interested to see what exactly will happen next week. He probably is not alone.

“I’m as curious as you are to see how the tournaments will go and what the presentation will be like, if it will be similar to golf tournaments that we’re used to seeing on TV, or if it will be something totally different, and only time will tell,” he said. “It should be very interested to see — at least I’m interested to see what that product will be compared to what the product is right now that we are all used to.

“But it does seem to be an interesting time for golf, and I think it’s going to be interesting to see what happens.”

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