The Memorial Tournament 2022 Preview: Everything To Know About Muirfield Village

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Written By John Haslbauer | Published at May 29, 2022
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Grab yourself a milkshake. We are off to Jack's place for the 2022 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio. As always, we'll start the week's previews by looking at the Memorial Tournament odds.

This is one of the most storied non-major tournaments on the TOUR schedule each year. It dates back to 1976 and sits upon one of the most breathtaking backdrops in golf outside of Augusta National. Muirfield Village sternly tests golfers and has produced a diverse cast of winners over the past decade. More recently, we've seen the cream start to rise to the top here, with winning scores in the low teens under par.

Firm, fast and tight Bentgrass greens signify this course. Players must be precise with their approaches and hit their landing areas in order to hold these greens. That consequently puts an emphasis on playing from the fairway. Muirfield Village features some of the most penal rough on TOUR. It's nearly impossible to hold these tight greens from the rough, so strength around the greens will be a must for players to contend.

With all that said, similar to major conditions, it will take a strong all-around game to contend for four days at Muirfield Village. I'm looking for well-rounded players who are elite in terms of SG: APP, SG: ARG, and above average OTT. We’ll run through the key facts and info about Muirfield Village ahead of the 2022 Memorial Tournament.

THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT ODDS: THE FAVORITES

Scroll to the bottom for complete outright odds and to compare prices across legal sports betting in your state.

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THE MEMORIAL FIELD AT A GLANCE

Like the Charles Schwab Challenge, the Memorial is another 120-man invitational with a top-65-and-ties cut line.

A regular stop on TOUR the week after Memorial Day each year, this event has done well to attract the game's best. That despite taking place now two weeks between the PGA Championship and U.S. Open. As we look ahead to the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club, the difficult rough around the fairways and greens at Muirfield Village should serve as perfect prep.

As we've come to expect, another great field lies in store for the Memorial. Seven out of the top-10 OWGR players -- excluding Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas and Sam Burns -- will tee it up this week. Jon Rahm highlights the field as world No. 2, seeking redemption after a WD with a commanding six-stroke lead through three rounds in 2021. I'm sure that won't be brought up at all this week.

Patrick Cantlay, winner of two of the last three Memorial Tournaments, returns once again to defend his title after edging past Collin Morikawa in a playoff last year. The win came with a Rahm-sized asterisk, so it'll be interesting to see how he responds in his title defense. In addition to Cantlay, Rahm and Morikawa (winner of the 2020 Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village), we'll also see Bryson DeChambeau, Jason Dufner, David Lingmerth, Hideki Matsuyama and Matt Kuchar return to the field as former champions.

INTRODUCTION TO MUIRFIELD VILLAGE

The more things seem to change, the more they stay the same. That's the name of the game at Muirfield Village, as the last three years have produced three dramatically different playing conditions. Yet, they still produced remarkably similar leaderboards.

The 2019 conditions took place in Muirfield Village's business-as-usual set up at 7,392 yards. Patrick Cantlay made the course look easy winning at -19, but he was one of only eight players to reach double digits under par.

In 2020, due to COVID scheduling complications, Muirfield Village hosted back-to-back events in July. First was the Workday Charity Open where Collin Morikawa defeated Justin Thomas in a playoff at -19. For The Workday, staff grew the greens out to play slower and more receptive than what we'd usually see at the Memorial.

For the following week at the Memorial, the greens had completely changed. They played extremely firm and fast, nearly impossible to hold with any long iron approach. Jon Rahm dominated, winning by three strokes at -9, despite a bogus two-stroke penalty assessed after the Sunday round. The conditions Sunday produced the most difficult scoring of any non-major since 2015, with an average of 78. Only Matt Fitzpatrick recorded a round in the 60s.

As the 2020 Memorial came to a conclusion, they immediately began an extensive renovation. By 2021, Muirfield Village played a full 100 yards longer at 7,543. It featured brand new greens complexes amongst other modifications. Rahm tallied -18 through three rounds, six strokes clear of the field and in position to coast to victory. Then, he withdrew due to a positive COVID test. Instead, Cantlay emerged victorious over Morikawa in a playoff at -13.

So, after course overhaul, the first leaderboard post-renovations still included each of the last three winners at Muirfield Village.

2020 Renovation

Diving a bit further in the renovations, Jack Nicklaus described the impetus as not to necessarily make the course harder, but to make it better. The one-year project was a massive undertaking, beginning before the 2020 Memorial even wrapped. Some of the major adjustments to the course include reconstructing all 18 greens with new Bentgrass, irrigation, and Precision Air Systems. They re-contoured most greens with redesigned bunkers, pushed back new tee boxes for about 100 yards in added length, and resurfaced the fairways and surrounding green areas for better drainage.

Find full details on the changes here.

This time last year, speculation mounted about how much we should weight course history. I approached the 2021 Memorial Tournament odds by honing in on the top T2G players at Muirfield Village. A complete overhaul of the greens seemed a welcome change for players who struggled to make putts in the past. That would include players like Xander Schauffele and Shane Lowry, good long-term putters with solid T2G history at the event who hadn't been figured out these greens. Both players did gain strokes putting last year. So, it's worth taking a second look at Muirfield Village putting history if players who've struggled long term saw better results in 2021.

Ultimately, the ends justify the means, so if Rahm, Cantlay and Collin Morikawa were still able to pick Muirfield Village apart, it seems safe to continue to reference long-term course history to project success.

How It Breaks Down

After renovations, Muirfield Village now stands 100 yards longer, playing as a 7,543-yard par 72.

The Memorial Tournament has produced some of the largest outliers between winning scores and median scoring over recent years. Despite 2.5 of the winning scores over the last five years pushing beyond -15 (half credit for Rahm), the median four-day score has fallen under par just once over the same span.

Similar to Augusta National, all of the scoring happens on the four par 5s. Par-5 Scoring is always crucial on par-72 courses. Particularly so at Muirfield Village, when considering that exactly zero of the par 4s or par 3s have a scoring average under par.

Augusta North?

Like Augusta National, the scoring difficulty at Muirfield Village also comes largely from the premium on touch on and around greens. Jordan Spieth has drawn Augusta comparisons when describing the greens due to firm, fast, and contoured Bentgrass. Tight greens and pin locations create a challenge for some of the shorter hitters in the field, as at their firmest, these greens are nearly impossible to hold on long iron approaches. Like Augusta, flighting the ball to a higher apex will be crucial to hitting more greens in regulation.

Continuing the Augusta comparison, Muirfield Village has become a glorified second-shot golf course. Very generous, wide landing areas have yielded 70-75% Driving Accuracy on average over the last five years, a slightly higher rate than what we've seen at the Masters. It's no surprise that Jack Nicklaus, a six-time Masters champion, would emulate some characteristics from the world's most famous golf course when constructing his own crown jewel. Most profoundly, he designed the par-3 12th hole as a near replica of Augusta's infamous par-3 12th.

While the fairways are wide, there is a drastic penalty for missing them. Water lurks throughout the course, and the long, thick rough at Muirfield Village penalizes heavily. Missed Fairway Penalty and Penalty Strokes Per Round are amongst the highest on TOUR. The presence of long, thick rough around the fairways and greens is really the only component that differentiates Muirfield Village from the tight lies and longer rollouts we see at Augusta, which is almost entirely devoid of rough.

Jack Nicklaus Design

Just as we see Pete Dye specialists, we have seen Jack Nicklaus course specialists. Nicklaus tends to design his courses a bit more forgiving in the fairways to let players more freely and regularly reach for their drivers. The trade off is difficult green-side complexes that will put an emphasis on strong Approach play and a premium on Around The Green and Scrambling.

Nicklaus' most famous designs we've seen on the PGA TOUR also include Glen Abbey GC, PGA National, PGA West (Nicklaus Course), The Concession Golf Club and Valhalla GC. Cantlay stands out on Nicklaus courses, gaining more than 74 strokes over his last 36 rounds. Morikawa has notably already picked up two wins on Nicklaus courses in his early career between the Workday Charity Open and WGC-Workday at Concession. The rest of the top 10 Nicklaus Course specialists include Jason Day, Adam Scott, Rory McIlroy, Rahm, Matt Kuchar, Gary Woodland, Charley Hoffman and Sam Ryder.

Traits And Recent Notable Facts

Looking back at how Muirfield Village has played compared to other PGA TOUR courses over recent years, 2021 did not produce any significant statistical trends compared pre-renovation play. As previously noted, 2020 featured outlier conditions between the extremely firm, fast greens and drastic weather conditions.

If we omit 2020, Muirfield Village has routinely played as a top-five course in Around The Green and Approach difficulty, as well as difficulty from the rough both around the fairways and greens. Given the rough's thickness, that checks out. Players must remain in control of their Ball Striking to avoid positions of Scrambling from the rough as often as possible.

The course did have a few notable differences in 2021. The par 5s played significantly more difficult, the fifth-most difficult in 2021. Rory McIlroy said the changes to the par-5 15th eliminated any reward for going for the green in two, as the green won't hold with a fairway wood. The hole is easier to score on with a wedge from a layup area.

The work done to the greens produced more made putts. This event ranked 32nd out of 40 courses in 2021 in Putting Difficulty. It had never finished outside the top-20 dating back to 2015. Putting produces volatile stat trends, but if the greens have become easier to read, that may open the door for stronger T2G players.

Check the weather forecast frequently. Extreme winds and heavy rain have impacted in years past. As of now, things look uncharacteristically calm, with the forecast calling for sunny conditions in the high 70s and winds not exceeding 10 mph. A potential thunderstorm on Wednesday evening may soften up the course further, making for perfect scoring conditions.

Monitor if that changes, but if not, this sets up as Matt Fitzpatrick's worst nightmare.

MUIRFIELD VILLAGE COURSE SPECS

Muirfield Village (7,543 Yards, Par 72)

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