This year’s Memorial Tournament will take place Thursday, June 1 through Sunday, June 4 at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. Memorial odds are now available with Scottie Scheffler (+600) as the favorite. Billy Horschel (+13000) cruised to victory in impressive fashion over a loaded field last year and will defend his title. Below we will provide a betting guide for the 2023 contest, which will include the Memorial Tournament odds as soon as they are posted by top sportsbooks.
Memorial odds
The Memorial odds have been posted by top sportsbooks. Memorial Tournament betting odds for 2023 show Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm and Patrick Cantlay as the favorites. Compare odds for those golfers and more below. Also be sure to find look at the best betting sites before placing an online wager.
The field for the 2023 Memorial Tournament will be officially announced on Friday, May 26. Until then, here are the odds for John Haslbauer’s projected favorites a month out from the event.
- Jon Rahm +800
- Patrick Cantlay +1000
- Scottie Scheffler +1200
- Rory McIlroy +1200
- Collin Morikawa +1400
Muirfield Village Golf Club
Known affectionately as “Jack’s Place”, Muirfield Village is the crowning achievement of Jack Nicklaus’ post-playing career. Undergoing an ambitious renovation project in 2020, Muirfield Village Golf Club now features state of the art drainage systems and new Bentgrass turf from fairway to green, which allow the course to withstand the harsh weather conditions that come to Dublin, Ohio. The property at Muirfield Village is stunning, and is one of the most picturesque venues to host a PGA TOUR event each year. The course is designed to penalize wayward drives with its presence of thick rough throughout, and requires elite touch around the greens to remain in contention.
In terms of Course History, Jon Rahm, Patrick Cantlay, Justin Rose, Matt Kuchar, and Max Homa highlight the list of players who have repeatedly played well here, suggesting an advantage for the best total drivers in the field with experience playing from thick rough.
Course 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.
In 2021, 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.
MUIRFIELD VILLAGE COURSE SPECS
- Yards: 7,571
- Par: 72 (4x 3s / 10x 4s / 4x 5s)
- Greens: Bent (Fast)
- Green Size: 5,000 sq. ft. (Average)
- Rough: 4″ Kentucky bluegrass / Rye / Fescue (Thick)
- Architect: Jack Nicklaus
- Historic Cut Line: +3 to +4
- Comp Courses: TPC Potomac, Torrey Pines, Bay Hill, Augusta National, Caves Valley, Bethpage Black, Oak Hill, St. George’s G&CC, Olympia Fields, TPC Harding Park
- Hole-by-hole Breakdown:
THE MEMORIAL BETTING HISTORY
It’s a bit puzzling to see names like David Lingmerth and William McGirt on the list of past champions in this esteemed event, but they’ve shown to be exceptions to the rule at the Memorial Tournament, as eight of the last 10 winners have opened at 66-1 odds or shorter. Jon Rahm and Patrick Cantlay have been dominant at this event in recent years, so bettors will want to find exposure to an elite player when betting the 2023 Memorial Tournament.
The below table tracks consensus pre-tournament outright odds for the last 10 winners of the Memorial Tournament.
| Year | Winner | Pre-Tournament Odds | Winning Score | Field Median Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Billy Horschel | +6000 | -13 | +1 |
| 2021 | Patrick Cantlay | +2200 | -13 | +1 |
| 2020 | Jon Rahm | +2200 | -9 | +4 |
| 2019 | Patrick Cantlay | +1800 | -19 | -3 |
| 2018 | Bryson DeChambeau | +5000 | -15 | -7 |
| 2017 | Jason Dufner | +6600 | -13 | Even |
| 2016 | William McGirt | +20000 | -15 | -8 |
| 2015 | David Lingmerth | +50000 | -15 | -3 |
| 2014 | Hideki Matsuyama | +6600 | -13 | -4 |
| 2013 | Matt Kuchar | +2200 | -12 | +1 |
How to bet on The Memorial
Betting on the 2023 Memorial golf tournament has never been easier. You can compare the best Memorial online betting odds from the top sportsbooks in the US above. Sites like DraftKings, BetMGM, Caesars and FanDuel will allow you to bet on an Outright Winner at The Memorial as well as Top 5, Top 10 and Top 20 finishers.
You can also get more granular with your Memorial betting as you can also wager on who will win each round of the tournament. Other markets include Wire to Wire Winner and will there be an Albatross? An albatross in golf is when a player scores three strokes under par on a single hole.