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It’s a funny old world, this year has been one of the oddest the modern world has witnessed, and this week golf is experiencing that unconventionality in full. In theory, the best golfers in the world should be at Sandwich seeking the Claret Jug. In theory, golfers never play a course twice in two weeks on any schedule. In practice, welcome to the new normal: when course form and current form become one as Muirfield Village hosts a second tournament in a fortnight. There will be some differences. For example, last week’s winner Collin Morikawa lifted the Workday Charity Open trophy and this week he will attempt to win The Memorial Tournament (what a bizarre double that would be). The field is also ramped up, with more of the world’s top 20 in attendance and greater depth further down, too. It is also said that the greens will be a little quicker than they were last week, returning to the swift putting surfaces we have come to expect at Muirfield Village. But there is also no doubt that we have an intriguing conundrum in front of us this week, a riddle with clues that we’re entirely unused to dealing with. The course is Jack Nicklaus designed and he famously insists that it is a second shot track (indeed, most of his layouts are like this; he likes to provide width from the tee and then create putting surfaces that are shaped to provide a different challenge every day with hole locations that fully test distance control). It’s a 7,456 yard examination with a par of 72 and Tiger Woods, who returns to action this week, says of it: “Over the course of my career I’ve done well on Nicklaus courses. I’ve always felt that my high fade has been advantageous.” Jason Dufner, winner in 2017, said: “It’s mostly a second-shot golf course, so you need to be on your irons and able to hit shots from all the different angles that Mr Nicklaus has presented to you.” Jordan Spieth hasn’t won here but says: “As different as it looks, it plays pretty similar to Augusta. It’s not the toughest off the tee but, unless you’re in the right spot where you’re attacking, you have to take your medicine. Where on other courses you can knock in a 15-footer, here you have to play defensive because these greens are as fast as we see all year.”
Angles to consider 1/ SG: Approach As if to emphasise Nicklaus’ words about the importance of the approach shots, last week’s 1-2-3 (Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Viktor Hovland) ranked top eight for the year in SG: Approach (and completed the top three last week). 2/ SG: Tee to Green The last six winners have ranked third, second, 12th, first, seventh and ninth in this category, whilst the play-off losers in that period have, with one exception, also thrived getting the ball onto the green ranking second, third, ninth and 33rd. 3/ Par 5 Performance Last week’s winner ranked second on the long holes and play-off loser Thomas was first. In the 2019 Memorial the top three were T1st for Par 5s. 2017 winner Dufner was third and 2016 winner McGirt fifth.
Selections The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following players are selected. Hideki Matsuyama His stats are strong. He’s sixth this season for SG: Approach, third for SG: Tee to Green and seventh for Par 5 Performance. He also boasts a fine course record, winning on debut in 2014 and contending for the title on another four occasions. Last week he was in the top ten all week until a final round 73 dropped him to T22nd. Xander Schauffele Another with good numbers. He ranks 21st for SG: Approach, 13th for SG: Tee to Green and 25th for Par 5 Performance. He missed the cut on debut at the course, but was T14th in 2019 and repeated that last week. Before that he really should have won at Colonial and was tied fourth at halfway at River Highlands. Doc Redman On his last start the youngster was all the rage and with good reason: he had been second at Detroit last year and opened the restart with a fast-finishing T21 at Colonial and faster-finishing T11 at Harbour Town. He owned the R1 lead on return to Detroit and collected T21. His only previous experience of Muirfield Village was a missed cut two years ago when an amateur, but his price, which plummeted on return to Detroit, is back in three figures and his stats hint at suitability: 15th for SG: Approach, 29th for SG: Tee to Green and 17th for Par 5s.
Tips: 0-3; -6.00pts 1.25pt e.w. Hideki Matsuyama at 25/1 (Skybet, William Hill 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) mc 1pt e.w. Xander Schauffele at 28/1 (William Hill 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) 13th 0.75pt e.w. Doc Redman at 125/1 (Skybet 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) mc
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