We head to Ohio and Jack Nicklaus’ beautiful Muirfield Village for our annual stop for The Memorial.
They’ve again dummied the field down in these new and AWFUL signature events, in which there is a cut of top 50 (out of 72) players unless you’re within 10 shots of the lead.
6/6 is crucial and clicks will be tight with such a narrow pool to select from.
You don’t want to miss the fairway and you want your approach and ball striking to be hot. A solid putter will help as well as Scottie couldn’t make a single putt last year en route to Viktor Hovland winning.
Don’t worry about Scottie’s trend. He’s still by and far the cream of the crop and his trend is just simply difficult to maintain given the heater he was/is on.
It’s not like it’s super egregious, but people must really be expecting a PGA Championship hangover from Xander as Rory, Viktor & Collin are all projecting slightly more than he is. That might honestly be a mistake, but that seems very much like a vibes type thing.
I don’t know what happened to Ludvig at the PGA. It made absolutely no sense to me. He must be more injured than we know. Still, there’s a depression in his click numbers and theoretically, he should be another great fit here.
Rory & Collin will be pretty heavily clicked, but obviously good plays.
I’m not in love with Hideki’s peripherals here. The field doesn’t seem overly enamored with him either. Still low teens, but I don’t know. Might be fine on a fade.
Straka has been solid here. I think he’s very much in play. So does the field, so be cautious on how you pair him with others (like a Scheffler) but other than that, should be fine.
Henley is going to be the cheap mega chalk. How you play should decide your exposure. If you’re a MME type player, your choice is under or significantly overweight (field position I think will be 17-20%). I think you just click any one of the other good options in that price range if you’re a single lineup or small amount of lineups type player.
Viktor might finally be back and he won here last year! He’ll be popular, though.
Fleetwood, Noren, Conners are all fine even with a very surprising MC from Noren in Canada. Some times we’ll see that from players if they’re not fully invested in the tournament. I expect that’s likely a blip, given season performance, but at least worth monitoring performance here this week.
SUNGJAE! Boy oh boy - he’s found his game, for sure. With a ton of chalky options surrounding him, I think he’s a really solid click given his accuracy and game coming back.
Wildcards in Wyndham & Sahith top our more volatile pool. Who knows. They aren’t super great course fits, but they both have all the talent in the world. You’re betting on upside playing either of them.
Lee Hodges will likely get some run given his price tag, but I think he’s fine.
Tom Kim found his game again, full stop. He’s back. I think initial projections are probably too low on him, but there’s also a ton of chalk in his range, so maybe it puts a cap on how many people click him.
Rickie is the guy I think has really started to figure it out. High trend rank. The results haven’t been overwhelming, but he has made every cut since the beginning of February. Given that he’s a stronger putter than recent performances, the field not being on him yet, very strong course history here, price - he’s a guy I’m probably not leaving my lineup without.
McCarthy will be double digits. People just like playing him.
Bez, Riley, Harman & Rose are all just fine. Very low clicks, likely won’t submarine you. I really like Putnam as well. I think he’s an outstanding click.
People are chasing Eckroat slightly. He’s in the Lee Hodges territory of clicks down in that region. You can get away with it, but I’d probably be underweight in tournaments and fade in single entry.
Good luck - let’s get that critical 6/6 through!