Photo: Nicklaus Design
The 2023 Memorial Tournament, hosted by Jack Nicklaus, returns to Muirfield Village this week, making it’s debut as a designated event. With that new designation, what has already been a strong field in past years is even stronger this time around. This has been a tournament that in years past certain players always seem to perform well at. Guys like Patrick Cantlay and defending champion Billy Horschel have incredible track records at this event and look to keep that going despite facing the best field this event has likely ever seen. Muirfield Village tips out at around 7,200 yards and puts a premium on being in the proper position whether off the tee or approaching the greens. This is not a golf course you can plan on getting around on the strength of some true hero shots while the rest of your game is shaky. Let’s get into our picks for this week. Per usual, we will follow our standard format. That is one player each from the top, middle, and bottom of the odds board who we think will perform well this week.
Tyrrell Hatton
Tyrrell Hatton is playing some of the best and most consistent golf of his career right now. Here are his last three starts: T15 at The PGA, T5 at Byron Nelson, and T3 at Wells Fargo. He also has a T6 at Waste Management, a T4 at API, and was the runner up at The Players this year. Clearly Hatton has some consistent high quality performances in designated events so far this season and there is no reason to think that will change this week. He is a course fit everywhere he goes because of his elite level iron play. He has no true weaknesses to his game as he does everything at an at least above average level for a tour player. He is 11th in true strokes gained amongst all players this year according to data golf. Tyrell hasn’t had a win on The PGA Tour since his 2020 API victory, which seems improbable with all of the high quality golf he has played in that span. Look for that to change this week as he is our pick to win this event.
Justin Suh
First year PGA Tour member Justin Suh had a lot of hype surrounding him coming into the PGA Tour this season. He had a highly decorated amateur career, but struggled to get his professional career going as quickly as some expected him too. This season has been a success so far for Suh, showing he truly belongs on Tour. He made the cut in every event he played from The CJ cup, all the way through until he had an MC at Byron Nelson just a few weeks ago. He clearly has a high level of consistency to his game, and we have seen him pop a few weeks as well. He finished T6 at The Players and T5 at Honda, and he is coming in off of a T26 at The PGA and a T16 at Charles Schwab last week. Suh is above tour average in driving accuracy, a skill highly valued at Muirfield Village and is one of the best putters on tour so far this season. This will be another week where we think Justin Suh really pops. We are projecting Suh to have a top 10 finish this week at The Memorial.
Austin Eckroat
Eckroat is a PGA tour rookie this season. He played his college golf at Oaklahoma State and got his PGA Tour card by way of the KFT Finals last year. His debut season on The PGA Tour has been boom or bust in a lot of ways thus far. He had a stretch of 8 missed cuts in 9 events in the middle of the season. However, he also has two top five finishes in events this year. His premier skill thus far in his professional golfing career is his driving accuracy. That makes him a positive strokes gained course fit for the week. He is also coming in playing his best golf of his season so far. He has made four straight cuts, had a T2 at Byron Nelson, and just posted a T16 at Charles Schwab last week. We think that Eckroat keeps this positive momentum going and posts another top 20 finish this week at The Memorial.