Before we head to Pinehurst for the U.S. Open next week, the PGA TOUR is hosting the Memorial Tournament this week, which is one of the PGA TOUR’s eight signature events this season. As one of these designated tournaments, the Memorial features a purse of $20 million, a limited field of 73 golfers – including all the PGA TOUR’s best players – and there will be a top-50 and ties cut following the first two rounds. Any player within 10 shots of the lead will also advance through the cut after the first 36 holes. Ever since this event was added to the annual PGA TOUR schedule in 1976, Muirfield Village (par 72, 7,569 yards, bentgrass greens) in Dublin, Ohio, has been the only course to host the Memorial Tournament. At last year’s edition of this event, Viktor Hovland won at -7, defeating Denny McCarthy in a playoff.
Muirfield Village was designed by the great Jack Nicklaus and is a challenging, tree-lined track, that is home to tiny greens, 68 bunkers and water in play on 13 holes. Any length of player can contend at Jack’s Place and the biggest challenges at this venue are avoiding all the hazards and sticking these small putting surfaces as often as possible. Missing these tiny greens is inevitable, so not only do we need to target strong iron players, but we also need to seek golfers who are crafty around the greens. Of the past four Memorial winners, three have finished the event top 12 in both SG APP and SG ARG. With Muirfield Village being a standard par 72 with four par fives, we need to put a heavy emphasis on par five scoring this week. Furthermore, targeting golfers who are efficient on 450-500-yard par fours is also a smart move. Six of the 10 par fours at Jack’s place land in this range and each of the last four Memorial winners have finished the tournament top-six in efficiency on the 450-500-yard par fours of Muirfield Village.
Below, I have featured four of my favorite DraftKings bargain plays for the Memorial Tournament, who all cost less than $7.5K.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $300K DRIVE THE GREEN [$50K TO 1ST]
Billy Horschel ($7,400) – After a disappointing campaign last season, Horschel has been great this year. The former FedEx Cup champion has made 9-of-14 cuts and has flashed awesome upside, with seven of those finishes being top-25 results, including a win at the Corales Puntacana Championship in April. Outside of his driver, Horschel has gained strokes in every major category in three of his past four starts and his resume at Muirfield Village is outstanding.
Horschel won the Memorial two years ago by a convincing four shots, which is just one of his five top-15 finishes at the event in 10 starts. Horschel checks all the boxes this week and is a must-have value play at only $7,400.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout ($7,300) – Bezuidenhout has never finished worse than T38th in three appearances at the Memorial and he is in excellent form right now.
The South African has only missed one cut in his last eight starts and six of his finishes during this run have been top-30 results, most notably with a T9 at the Valspar Championship. Gaining strokes ARG at eight straight events, Bezuidenhout is a terrific short-game player, that is very underpriced for his upside.
Ben Griffin ($7,200) – Griffin nearly captured the first PGA TOUR title of his career at the RBC Canadian Open this past weekend. The veteran closed the event with a 7-under 65 on Sunday – including birdies on three of his final four holes – to finish one shot behind the winner, Robert MacIntyre. During this outing, Griffin put on a show as a ball striker, gaining a field-best 7.0 strokes on approach, which tied his career high. Griffin has now carded a top-15 finish in three of his past four starts and sits at a career-best No.70 in the world golf rankings.
Griffin did miss the cut in his first attempt at Muirfield Village last season, but he only did so by one stroke and in this career-best form, he should redeem himself with a quality finish at Jack’s Place this week.
Lucas Glover ($7,000) – Glover is coming off a T12 at the Charles Schwab Challenge, which extended his cut streak to seven in a row. The former U.S. Open Champion has only missed two cuts in 14 starts this season and he ranks inside the top 20 in SGT2G, SG APP and SG ARG for the year.
Plus, Glover ranks sixth in 450-500-yard par four efficiency when we compare this field’s last 24 rounds, which is vital for Muirfield Village, where six of the 10 par fours land in this range. Glover has advanced to the weekend in 10 of his last 12 starts at Jack’s Place and is a safe bet to make the cut this week.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $300K DRIVE THE GREEN [$50K TO 1ST]
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is Hunta512) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skills and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.
