the Memorial Tournament 2024 Preview: Everything To Know About Muirfield Village

The PGA TOUR heads to Dublin, Ohio, with the 2024 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village next on tap. Compare the Memorial Tournament odds at the best sports betting sites to increase your potential PGA TOUR golf betting payouts. Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Xander Schauffele project as the top favorites for this upcoming tournament.

The game’s best are all headed to Jack’s Place again, this time for the 2024 Memorial Tournament at the famed Muirfield Village. The Memorial Tournament was synonymous with Memorial Day Weekend up until this year but has now been pushed a week later to fall in the week immediately preceding the U.S. Open. Overall, the PGA TOUR has made a concerted effort in 2024 to build momentum leading up to and/or following each Major championship.

The Memorial Tournament is one of the most storied non-majors on the TOUR schedule. 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.

We’ll run through the key facts and info you need to know about Muirfield Village before betting the Memorial Tournament odds.

THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT ODDS: THE FAVORITES

Scroll to the bottom for complete outright odds and to compare prices across the best sportsbooks in your state. Find opening PGA TOUR odds for favorites here once sportsbooks release them on Monday. Click on the odds below to bet now.

THE FIELD AT A GLANCE

The ninth Signature PGA TOUR event of the 2024 season, a concentrated field of all of the PGA TOUR’s best will congregate on a Jack Nicklaus-designed course for the second time in four weeks. As per usual for the Signature Events in 2024, a reduced field of just 72 players will tee it up in Dublin, Ohio, with all players within 10 strokes of the leader advancing through the cut to play the weekend.

All eligible PGA TOUR players inside the OWGR top-30 players will be at Muirfield Village this week, headlined by Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele. That was the expectation for all Signature events this season, but a packed schedule has kept all the best players from coming together in a non-major since THE PLAYERS.

Of those qualified, only Min Woo Lee and Nicolai Hojgaard of the OWGR top 50 have elected to skip, prioritizing an extra week of prep for Pinehurst. All in all, this is as good of a field as the Memorial Tournament could have hoped for, with Scheffler, McIlroy, and Schauffele all trending with their A-games leading in.

Viktor Hovland returns to defend his 2023 victory. He has come down to Earth since winning the TOUR Championship last season, but a return to his old coach, Joe Mayo, has paid immediate dividends with a third-place finish in his latest start at the PGA Championship. In addition to Hovland, Billy Horschel, Patrick Cantlay, Hideki Matsuyama, Matt Kuchar, and Justin Rose represent the list of past champions in the field.

INTRODUCTION TO MUIRFIELD VILLAGE

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.

But 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 five years have produced dramatically different playing conditions. Yet, they still produced remarkably similar leaderboards.

The 2019 conditions took place in Muirfield Village’s business-as-usual setup at 7,392 yards. Patrick Cantlay made the course look easy winning at -19. But only eight players reached double digits under par.

In 2020, due to COVID scheduling weirdness, Muirfield Village hosted back-to-back events in July. First, at the Workday Charity Open, Collin Morikawa defeated Justin Thomas in a playoff at -19. For the Workday, the 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 questionable 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.

An Extensive Renovation

As the 2020 Memorial came to a conclusion, staff 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.

Over the last two years, calm conditions a winning mark of -13 and -7 from Billy Horschel and Viktor Hovland respectively. So, after course overhaul, the ensuing leaderboards post-renovations have maintained a consistent look and feel.

How It Breaks Down

One of the most visually stunning properties on the PGA TOUR schedule, the identity of Muirfield Village’s perfectly manicured set up lies in its length, generous fairways, long and penal rough, and firm and fast Bentgrass greens.

After renovations, Muirfield Village now stands 100 yards longer, playing as a 7,571-yard par 72. Unique to Muirfield Village compared to most other PGA TOUR tracks, the four par 5s are the only holes which feature a scoring average below par. That makes Par-5 Scoring and Bogey Avoidance crucial to contend this week.

The Memorial Tournament has produced some of the largest outliers between winning scores and median scoring over recent years. Despite 2.5 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. Credit that to the unpredictable weather conditions in Dublin.

For Muirfield Village course specs, hole-by-hole breakdown with yardages, and past Memorial Tournament winners with their pre-tournament odds, visit our Memorial Tournament page.

Editor’s Note

COURSE HISTORY AND COURSE COMPS

Memorial has produced an eclectic cast of champs. For every elite winner (Hovland, Cantlay, Rahm, DeChambeau), we’ve also had some inexplicable ones (McGirt, Lingmerth, Dufner). Looking further back, elites have dominated. Tiger Woods has won five times. Jack Nicklaus, Hale Irwin, and Tom Watson have also won multiple times. That group features plenty of variety, but the trend suggests those who can consistently find the fairway for four days will find the most success.

A recent adjustment of the tee boxes back to beyond 7,500 yards should give the course even more of a major feel and start to weed out some of the more random players. I’ll look for a tighter card of favorites this week, as I would at an actual major.

Looking at Course History, 10 players have had multiple T15 finishes over the last five years. That list includes Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Billy Horschel, Max Homa, Si Woo Kim, Patrick Cantlay, Matt Fitzpatrick, Denny McCarthy, Rickie Fowler, and Jordan Spieth.

Nine players have avoided missing the cut over each of the last five years (min. three appearances): Scottie Schefffler, Xander Schauffele, Viktor Hovland, Sahith Theegala, Si Woo Kim, Patrick Cantlay, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Adam Schenk, and Jordan Spieth.

The top 10 in terms of overall course history at Muirfield Village are Patrick Cantlay, Matt Kuchar, Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Billy Horschel, Denny McCarthy, Si Woo Kim, and Max Homa.

Patrick Cantlay

When it comes to performance at Muirfield Village, there is Patrick Cantlay who stands head and shoulders above the rest after Jon Rahm’s departure from the PGA TOUR.

Over seven career appearances, Cantlay has finished no worse than T35 with four top-four finishes and two wins. He has gained strokes both off the tee and on approach in all six past appearances and has always been at his best putting on fast Bentgrass greens.

Course Comps

As a long, challenging par 72 with penal rough and fast, Bentgrass greens where the par 5s offer the only respite, there are several comparable venues for projecting success at Muirfield Village.

Torrey Pines and Bay Hill rate as the most obvious and sensible comps. They are each top-tier, non-major events that annually host deep, strong fields. Each measures over 7,400 yards and features thick, penal rough around both the fairways and greens. Rahm, Scheffler, McIlroy, and Scott each have consistently strong results across the three courses to further that point.

Beyond those obvious comps, an interesting overlap exists with TPC Potomac leaderboards. Kyle Stanley, Ryan Armour and David Lingmerth stand out as names we would not expect to see at the top of the leaderboard but who have found repeated success at both courses. Francesco Molinari and Max Homa join Stanley as winners at TPC Potomac. Each has posted T10 finishes at the Memorial. Both courses feature penal rough and long-term exposure to difficult windy conditions. That emphasizes positioning off the tee and scrambling on Bentgrass greens.

Three weeks ago, I looked very closely at Muirfield Village’s performance as the top comp course to Valhalla Golf Club for the PGA Championship. Xander Schauffele, Bryson DeChambeau, Viktor Hovland, and Collin Morikawa all supported that correlated trend well, so I’ll take a close look at performance at the 2024 PGA Championship when building out my player pool for the Memorial this week.

More tertiary comparisons exist to Caves Valley, another massive property with thick rough and fast Bentgrass greens. I expect scoring to be about half of what we saw at the 2021 BMW Championship, however. Olympia Fields is another recent BMW Championship venue on similar agronomy which features Rahm as an overlapping champion.

As this is an elevated field, it’s fair to pull in performances at recent major venues that share similar characteristics. In addition to Valhalla, Oak Hill, Bethpage Black, TPC Harding Park, and Augusta National stand out as the top comps among major venues over the last five years. Though Augusta lacks the element of penal rough, it rewards patience, conservative approach shots, and creative shot shaping and places a premium on par-5 scoring.

Combine performance across this list and the top-10 players in Comp Course History here are Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, Max Homa, Viktor Hovland, Ludvig Aberg, Thomas Detry, Corey Conners, Tommy Fleetwood, and Russell Henley.

KEY STATS TO CONSIDER

• Recent Form (SG: T2G)
• SG: APP
• SG: OTT / Driving Distance
• Par-5 Scoring / Par 5: 550-600
• Par 4: 450-500
• Prox: 175+
• Good Drives Gained (In Long Rough)
• SG: ARG (Fast Greens, Long Rough) / Scrambling Gained
• Bogey Avoidance
• SG: Putting (Bent)
• Course & Comp Course History

Looking at the off-the-tee specifically, history has shown that driving distance matters more than driving accuracy. Players who recklessly spray driver into the rough will struggle to generate scoring opportunities, though. Although this can be described as a second-shot course with generously wide fairways, I’m still looking for players above average in SG: OTT and Driving Distance.

Expected pristine conditions should swing the pendulum towards a premium on approach and a lower winning score below par than we’ve seen over recent years. Strong iron players will have more opportunities to hold these greens. The top 10 in SG: APP entering this week are Scottie Scheffler, Corey Conners, Tom Hoge, Xander Schauffele, Si Woo Kim, Shane Lowry, Tony Finau, Ludvig Aberg, Justin Thomas, and Will Zalatoris.

In 2023, 51% of approach shots came from beyond 175 yards. Honing in more specifically on the top long-iron players in this week’s field, we find Hideki Matsuyama, Ludvig Aberg, Jake Knapp, Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Tony Finau, Si Woo Kim, Cameron Young, and Byeong Hun An.

If we continue to see the par 5s present the only scoring opportunities on this course, then Par-5 Scoring will play a premium. Each falls in the 550-600-yard range. With some designed not to be reached in two, they’ll play differently from your TOUR average in that range. Par-5 Scoring provides a broader picture of the players best equipped to capitalize. That top-10 list includes Scottie Scheffler, Mackenzie Hughes, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Nick Dunlap, Will Zalatoris, Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, Byeong Hun An, and Wyndham Clark.

If we narrow the list down to above-average players in terms of SG: APP, SG: OTT, SG: ARG, Driving Distance and Par-5 Scoring, then five remain: Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Davis Thompson, and Tony Finau.

Correlation

Looking at the correlation charts this week, we see many of the same characteristics to TOUR average, with a notable increase in the importance of Par-5 Scoring and a sizable decrease in the importance of Par-3 Scoring. This makes sense considering all of the scoring on the par 5s. The par 3s are difficult enough to take birdie out of play for a majority of the field.

SG: APP rates at notably at more of a premium. While outside the top 10, Driving Distance makes a major jump in importance, going from a bottom-10 stat on average to top 20 at Muirfield Village.

Eleven players in the field rank above average in each of the above 10 key stat categories: Hideki Matsuyama, Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, Byeong Hun An, Keegan Bradley, Ludvig Aberg, Tom Hoge, Sahith Theegala, and Viktor Hovland.

PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: Collin Morikawa

It’s been a return to ball-striking form for Collin Morikawa in 2024, who continues to generate birdie opportunities at an elite clip this season despite an uncooperative putter. He’s been percolating lately with five consecutive top-16 finishes in standard stroke play events. He’s made the game look easy over that stretch, consistently living out of the fairway (No. 8 SG: OTT) and capitalizing with elite iron play (No. 11 Prox: 175+).

Morikawa has just one finish inside the top 40 over four career starts at the Memorial, but there’s much more to the story than that resume suggests. His one finish inside the top 40 was a playoff loss to Patrick Cantlay in 2021. Not included in that is his victory at the 2020 Workday, which was contested at Muirfield Village during that COVID-impacted season. At last year’s Memorial Tournament, Morikawa was in contention just two strokes off the lead heading into Sunday before a freak gym accident forced him to withdraw the morning of competition with back spasms.

With the benefit of elite tee-to-green form and a strong course history that may come at a discount, Morikawa continues to trend closer and closer toward his first win of the 2024 season. He looks primed to continue his dominance on Nicklaus designs, as recently demonstrated with a T4 finish at the PGA Championship.

2024 MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT ODDS: DFS PLAYER POOL

With all the course-fit profiles in mind, I’m leaning early toward the below player pool. Naturally, I’m looking their way in the 2024 Memorial Tournament odds as well. I’ve broken the list down by projected pricing/odds tier for DraftKings.  

UNDERDOG GOLF DRAFT RANKINGS TIERS

New Underdog users via TheLines are eligible for a 100% match on your first deposit of up to $100. CLICK HERE and use the promo code THELINES when registering.

Tier 1

Scottie Scheffler
Xander Schauffele
Patrick Cantlay

Tier 2

Viktor Hovland
Collin Morikawa
Max Homa
Justin Thomas

Tier 3

Si Woo Kim
Hideki Matsuyama
Will Zalatoris
Cameron Young
Tony Finau

Tier 4

Byeong Hun An
Tom Hoge
Keegan Bradley

Tier 5

Davis Thompson
Jake Knapp
Denny McCarthy

THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT MODEL RESULTS & BREAKDOWN

2024 Memorial Tournament Model Breakdown

In my BTN model, I’m emphasizing Comp Course History and SG: APP first and foremost, followed by a more balanced mix of SG: T2G (L12), Par-5 Scoring, Prox 175+, SG: OTT, SG: ARG, Driving Distance and P4: 450-500, and SG: P (L36, Bent).

To little surprise, Scottie Scheffler emerges in the No. 1 spot of my model this week. He will be in a class of his own when the odds release on Monday but continues to search for his first career win later than April on the schedule.

After Scheffler, the rest of my model’s top 10 is rounded out by: Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Aberg, Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama, Viktor Hovland, Wyndham Clark, Justin Thomas, and Byeong Hun An. Hardly any surprises there in a week where the best all-around players should shine.

When 2024 Memorial Tournament odds open Monday, I’ll look to start my card with Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, or Viktor Hovland amongst the favorites, along with Hideki Matsuyama, Byeong Hun An, and Keegan Bradley as longshot considerations.

Check back in later this week for more updates. Best of luck navigating 2024 Memorial Tournament odds!

• Join TheLines.com’s free sports betting Discord channel, where we are talking golf 24-7-365.

COMPARE 2024 MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT ODDS

Outright Memorial Tournament odds: click on any of them to place a bet at legal sports betting sites.