For the seventh of eight Signature Events this season, the PGA TOUR is hosting the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club (par 72, 7,568 yards, bentgrass greens) in Dublin, Ohio. As a Signature Event, the Memorial features the PGA TOUR’s best players competing for a $20 million purse. This is a limited field of 72 golfers and there will be a top-50 and ties cut after the first two rounds. Any player within 10 shots of the lead will also advance following the first two rounds. Ever since the Memorial’s inception in 1976, Muirfield Village has been the only course to host this tournament. At last year’s Memorial, Scottie Scheffler (-8) won by one shot over Collin Morikawa.
Muirfield Village is a long, tree-lined course that is home to wide fairways, thick rough, small greens, 68 bunkers and water in play on 13 holes. Designed by Jack Nicklaus, Muirfield Village is nicknamed “Jack’s Place” and this venue is arguably the most challenging non-major course on the annual PGA TOUR schedule, as each of the last two winners at Muirfield Village haven’t cracked double-digit strokes under par. While we have seen short and long hitters win at this par 72, being efficient with your driver is essential to contending at Muirfield Village, as four of the past five winners here have finished the event top-10 in SG OTT.
With Muirfield Village presenting the third-smallest greens we have seen on the PGA TOUR this season, not only do you need to be in compelling form with your irons at this venue, but you also need to be a crafty player around the greens, as missing these tiny putting surfaces is inevitable and the rough around these greens is very penalizing. Of the last five winners at Muirfield Village, three have finished the week top-12 in both SG APP and SG ARG. Lastly, with six of the 10 par fours at this venue falling between 450-500 yards, targeting players who score well on this length of hole is a smart strategy. For six years running, the winner of the Memorial has 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, which all cost less than $7.5K.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $800K Summer Sand Trap [$200K to 1st]
Alex Noren ($7,400) – Noren missed most of this season with a hamstring injury and after finishing T-51 in his season debut at the Truist Championship earlier this month, the veteran was awesome at the PGA Championship in his next start, finishing T-17 at Quail Hollow Club. Noren carded a 5-under 66 in the third round and he nearly gained strokes in every major category at the major. Noren will now look to build off this showing at Muirfield Village, where he has made 4-of-6 cuts with two top-25 finishes, including a T-22 last season.
Ranking seventh in SG ARG when we compare this field’s last 50 rounds, Noren is an elite short-game player and his strong skills in that department give him great upside relative to his cheap salary at Muirfield Village.
Andrew Novak ($7,100) – While Novak has never competed at Muirfield Village before, very few players are in better form than the 30-year-old and he is a must-play at this cheap price tag. In his last six starts, Novak has finished T-3, runner-up, first, T-17, MC and T-11 in that order. That win came at the team-based Zurich Classic with Ben Griffin as his partner, but the rest of those finishes for Novak were solo starts, with his runner-up at the RBC Heritage being the highlight, which like the Memorial, is a Signature Event that features the PGA TOUR’s best players competing for a $20 million purse.
Novak has finished T-17 or better in four of his five starts at Signature Events this season and he has moved himself up 90 spots in the world golf rankings since the beginning of the season to a career-best No. 33. Novak ranks ninth on the PGA TOUR in SG ARG, setting him up well for Muirfield Village, and he has the potential to finish inside the top-15 this week if he can maintain his outstanding form.
Rickie Fowler ($7,000) – Fowler has only missed one cut in 11 starts this season and he just finished T-16 at last week’s Charles Schwab Challenge. The 36-year-old gained strokes on approach and with his putter at Colonial CC, and this marked Fowler’s second top-20 finish in his last three starts. The six-time PGA TOUR winner has shot even par or better in six of his last 10 rounds, and he is playing his best golf of the season as he travels to Muirfield Village this week.
Fowler boasts an impressive resume at Jack’s Place, making 10-of-15 cuts and carding six top-15 finishes at the par 72, two of which were runner-up finishes. Fowler has top-20 upside this week and likely will come with low ownership. In DraftKings’ main GPP of the week, Fowler has only cracked double-digit ownership once this season.
Eric Cole ($6,600) – Cole has finished T-24 and T-45 in his two starts at Muirfield Village and the 36-year-old returns to Jack’s Place this week playing terrific golf. Cole has advanced to the weekend in his last eight solo starts and six of these finishes have been top-30 results, most notably with a T-5 at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson last month.
During this cut streak, Cole has impressively gained strokes on approach at every event and he has shot under par in 21 of his 32 rounds. In this type of form, Cole shouldn’t have been priced under $7K and he is one of the best bargains on the board.
