The PGA Tour will be back in Dublin, Ohio for the next two weeks, as the players get ready for the Workday Charity Open, the first of back-to-back events being held at Muirfield Village. DraftKings has a $1,000 free to play pool on the DraftKings Sportsbook that enables their users to get in on the action, additionally, you can create private pools to play with friends or family. To participate in the pool, choose winners on each of 10 unique props offered up by the contest and compete for prizes. Play the free pool here: DraftKings Sportsbook Pools.
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This will be the first time the Workday Charity Open will be contested, but its host venue has been a mainstay on the Tour schedule for quite some time now. Muirfield Village sets up as a 7,392-yard Par 72 venue with Bentgrass greens. Patrick Cantlay won here at The Memorial last season, posting a 19-under par winning score, the best score a winner has posted here since Tiger Woods in 2000. The venue carries four short par 5s, but a plethora of longer par 4s, and typically challenges players throughout the round with tough green complexes and thicker rough. The venue may play a touch easier for the Workday as they look set to keep the greens slower than normal before ramping them up next week for The Memorial.
Regardless of how you’re approaching things, I’ve written up my thoughts on this week’s DK Sportsbook pool and have tried to give you decisive picks and strategies to employ at each level. Hope you enjoy.
Who will have the best finishing position?
Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Jon Rahm or 2 or more tie
Thomas is coming off a missed cut at the Travelers where he ejected himself from the event early with two rounds of 71. He had been looking very close to putting a great week together prior to that event though, posting top-10 finishes at both the Heritage and Charles Schwab Challenge. His record at Muirfield includes a few sketchy results, like shooting an 80 en route to a missed cut last season, but he was T8 and T4 here the years prior. Cantlay, who is the defending Memorial champion, looked fine in his return to action at the Travelers two weeks ago, finishing T11 and ended his week with a stellar round of 65. Rahm has only played Muirfield once prior and MC’d, making him an easy fade for me in this group
Choice: Justin Thomas
· As easy as it would be to cross him off due to the poor missed cut he’s coming off, Thomas has generally outplayed Cantlay most of the year. The easier conditions this week should favor his aggressive style as well.
Who will have the best finishing position?
Hideki Matsuyama, Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele or 2 or more tie
All members of this group have shown some good signs over the past three events, making it a difficult one to decipher. Matsuyama bounced back from a missed cut at the Heritage three weeks ago to post a T21 finish in Detroit last week. He won his first PGA Tour event at Muirfield Village in 2014 and has finished T13 and T6 here the past two years. Schauffele has looked great coming out of the restart, posting a T3 finish in his first start at Colonial and a T20 in his last one at the Travelers, where he began his event with a 63. He also posted his best finish ever at Muirfield last year with a T14. It feels strange to say, but Koepka feels like the wildcard of the group. He withdrew, pre-event, from the Travelers but had posted a T7 in his start prior to that and looked close to his normal dominant self.
Choice: Brooks Koepka
· Despite having limited course history at Muirfield, I still like betting on the upside of Koepka in this group. He’s looked and sounded more confident after each start of late and at his best is easily the best player in this group.
Who will have the best finishing position?
Viktor Hovland, Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose or 2 or more tie
Hovland has been one of the most consistent ball-strikers on Tour over the past month and has now gained +5 strokes or more on his approaches in each of his past two starts. His putting stroke leaves a lot to be desired and it’s worth noting that he’ll be making his first career start at Muirfield Village this week, which contains notoriously tricky green complexes. Hovland’s also going up against two crafty veterans with good course history at Muirfield. Rose won here in 2010 and has only finished outside the top 15 at Muirfield once over his past five visits. Fowler finished runner-up here in 2017 and inside the top. 15 here in both 2018 and 2019 as well. He showed signs of progress last week in Detroit where he rallied on Sunday for a T12 finish.
Choice: Rickie Fowler
· Hovland has been the best player of this group since the restart but he’s in tough this week against two players with great course history. Fowler’s ball-striking has been trending upward and he feels like the choice here.
Who will have the best finishing position?
Gary Woodland, Patrick Reed, Collin Morikawa or 2 or more tie
All three players in this group have recorded at least one top 10 since the restart but are all also coming into this week off a missed cut. Reed finished T7 in his first event at the Charles Schwab but has been lackluster since, losing strokes on the greens and with his approaches at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Morikawa’s story is similar, as he lost in a playoff at Colonial but has looked terrible ever since. Woodland also missed the cut at the Travelers but did shoot two rounds under par there and has the most the experience playing at Muirfield, having participated in The Memorial every year since 2012.
Choice: Gary Woodland
· Morikawa will be making his first start at Muirfield and given his recent form, is not a player I’d trust. Woodland’s ball-striking has been better than Reed’s and he also trumps him in course experience, so I’ll lean Gary here.
Who will have the best finishing position?
Matt Kuchar, Sungjae Im, Marc Leishman or 2 or more tie
None of these three men have been able to accomplish much in terms of high finishes since the restart. Im is coming off three poor performances in a row, all of which have seen him finish outside of the top 30. Leishman hasn’t looked great in his past two events either but did shoot 66-65 to open the Travelers before being waylaid by a cold putter on the weekend. Kuchar recorded the best result of the group in his last start, posting a T41 at the Heritage where he gained strokes against the field in every major statistical category. He won at Muirfield Village in 2013 and has only missed the cut here once in 12 tries over his career.
Choice: Marc Leishman
· Despite Kuchar showing a bit of form and having the best course history of the group, I’ll stick with Leishman here. His approach game has been fantastic all season and has recorded two top-5 finishes at The Memorial since 2015.
Who will have the best finishing position?
Jordan Spieth, Adam Hadwin, Bubba Watson or 2 or more tie
Hadwin looked terrific last week, rallying for a T4 finish at the Rocket Mortgage Classic on Sunday. The Canadian has made four cuts in a row and is showing signs of heating up with his putter. Spieth and Watson have been consistently inconsistent in 2020, but both have posted top 10s of their own since the restart, with Spieth locking up a T10 finish at the Charles Schwab. While all three men have recorded top-20 finishes at Muirfield Village at some point in their careers, it has been Spieth who has displayed the most upside at this week’s venue, with four top-20 finishes here in the past five seasons and a T3 finish to his credit back in 2015.
Choice: Jordan Spieth
· This one is very close, as Hadwin feels like a player on the rise, but I’d still rather side with the upside of Spieth here. He’s made six straight cuts, has the best course history of the group and has improved his iron play in three straight events.
Who will have the best finishing position?
Joaquin Niemann, Jason Day, Matthew Fitzpatrick or 2 or more tie
Day has been slow to get off the mat since the restart, recording three missed cuts and a T46 in four starts. He’ll be making his fifth consecutive start this week. The real decision here seems to lie between Fitzpatrick and Niemann, who have both flashed good upside in spots of late. Fitzpatrick should be the lower-owned of the two and makes for a decent contrarian target here. He has only played at Muirfield once and while he did make the cut, he could only manage a T68 finish. The Englishman has been hot with his putter lately but struggled badly on the greens at Muirfield last season, losing -6.8 strokes putting here. Niemann has also struggled with that club of late as well though, making this a bit of a toss-up.
Choice: Matthew Fitzpatrick
· I’m going to ignore Niemann’s stellar course history and go with Fitzpatrick, who looks like he may be on the verge of breaking through for a big week soon. The easier setup could help him this week as he’s not a huge hitter off the tee.
Who will have the best finishing position?
Byeong Hun An, Jason Kokrak, Billy Horschel or 2 or more tie
Horschel is coming into this week’s event off of two missed cuts and has now lost strokes on his approaches in three straight events. While he does have multiple top-20 finishes at Muirfield Village over his career, he feels like an easy fade in this group. An lost in a playoff at Muirfield in 2018 and has never finished outside of the top 25 here in four career starts. He hasn’t looked overly sharp since the restart but gained some confidence with his putter his last time out at the Travelers. Kokrak has shown the best upside since the restart, as he came dangerously close to winning in his first event back at the Schwab, recording a T3 finish. He’s never finished better than T35 at Muirfield Village, however.
Choice: Byeong Hun An
· An will likely be the chalky play here but I still think he’s the correct one. The South Korean has one of the best course histories in the field this week and has at least been sneaking through the cutline of late.
Who will have the best finishing position?
Matthew Wolff, Kevin Streelman, Scottie Scheffler or 2 or more tie
Wolff exploded out of nowhere last week to finish in solo second at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. The second-year player had been slumping badly prior to last week, as he’d missed two cuts in a row coming in and hadn’t recorded a top-25 finish in over seven starts. Streelman is also coming in off a runner-up finish, as he rallied late at the Travelers to finish in second place to Dustin Johnson, his second runner-up placing over his past six starts on Tour. Scheffler bombed out of the Rocket Mortgage last week, although he does carry a lot of upside and shouldn’t be discounted fully here. He followed up a first-round 79 with a bogey-free 65 last week.
Choice: Kevin Streelman
· Wolff and Scheffler are making their first appearances at Muirfield Village while Streelman has finished inside the top 10 here in two of his past four starts. He gets the nod from me in an admittedly close group.
Who will have the best finishing position
Cameron Champ, Louis Oosthuizen, Harold Varner III or 2 or more tie
Champ made his return to competition last week after being forced to sit out for an event due to a false positive on his COVID-19 test. He’s recorded T14 and T12 finishes in his first two starts since the break but will be playing at Muirfield Village for only the second time in his career. Oosthuizen is another veteran player who has yet to show any real form since the PGA Tour restarted, recording a T46 finish in his last start at the Travelers. Varner has been striking the ball amazingly well of late, gaining over +2 strokes on his approaches in three of his past four starts. He missed the cut at Muirfield last year but could be helped by the easier setup for the Workday this week.
Choice: Harold Varner III
· While Oosthuizen makes for a decent contrarian pick, rolling with the consistent Varner here seems like the right call. His putter seems destined to catch up to the rest of his game soon.
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