Written by Stephen Moloney (www.twitter.com/TheCheeky9)
When Justin Thomas’ eagle putt dropped on the par 5 15th to get him to -21 on Sunday, I thought Collin Morikawa was done … but he kept fighting and forced himself into a playoff.
When Justin Thomas’ monster of a 50-foot putt for birdie then dropped on the first playoff hole, I thought, once again, that Collin Morikawa was soundly done. I mean, we’d just witnessed one of those famous “Muirfield Moments” that would be shown forever more in every single broadcast of the Memorial from here to eternity, no way is Morikawa draining a lightning-quick, downhill 24-footer with two breaks in it to extend the playoff … but then he did.
And it’s for those reasons – along with the week as a whole, really – that could make the Workday Charity Open the seminal tournament in Collin Morikawa’s career going forward. Like, for him to make his first trip to a course like Muirfield Village (regardless of it being a slightly tuned-down version), go up against a quality field and pull off a gritty, gutsy win in a playoff against a competitor as tough as Justin Thomas must be the ultimate confirmation that not only does he belong out there, but he can hang with the best of them and come up clutch when he has to.
In other words, in a game where the likes of ‘Tiger at Las Vegas’, ‘Rory at Quail Hollow’ and ‘Spieth at the John Deere’ serve as instant reminders of where just some of golf’s biggest stars were born, ‘Morikawa at Muirfield’ may well have just joined those illustrious ranks.
Now, however, with the first of this two-week stint at ‘Jack’s Place’ done and in the books, it’s time for the layovers from last week to dust themselves down, the newcomers to fly in on their private jets and us to prepare for our second excursion around Muirfield Village – except this time? There’s going to be a bear on the loose.
Field Report
Below you will find the top 30 players in the world as of this week. If they have a ✅ alongside their name, they’re in the field this week; if they have an 🆇 alongside their name it means they’re not in the field this week:
| Rory McIlroy | ✅ | Justin Rose | ✅ |
| Jon Rahm | ✅ | Marc Leishman | ✅ |
| Justin Thomas | ✅ | Gary Woodland | ✅ |
| Dustin Johnson | ✅ | Tony Finau | ✅ |
| Webb Simpson | ✅ | Matt Kuchar | ✅ |
| Brooks Koepka | ✅ | Abraham Ancer | ✅ |
| Bryson DeChambeau | ✅ | Sungjae Im | ✅ |
| Patrick Reed | ✅ | Hideki Matsuyama | ✅ |
| Adam Scott | 🆇 | Louise Oosthuizen | ✅ |
| Patrick Cantlay | ✅ | Paul Casey | ✅ |
| Xander Schauffele | ✅ | Shane Lowry | ✅ |
| Tommy Fleetwood | 🆇 | Matt Fitzpatrick | ✅ |
| Collin Morikawa | ✅ | Daniel Berger | ✅ |
| Tiger Woods | ✅ | Bernd Wiesberger | ✅ |
| Tyrrell Hatton | 🆇 | Kevin Na | ✅ |
Notable additions to the field who didn’t play last week:
Christiaan Bezuidenhout. Rafa Cabrera-Bello. Ernie Els. Harris English. Sergio Garcia. Branden Grace. Kevin Kisner. Haotong Li. Alex Noren. Victor Perez. Cameron Smith. Brendon Todd. Erik van Rooyen. Danny Willett.
The Yardage Book
(i) Below you will find the scorecard for Muirfield Village Golf Club. For each hole I’ve listed its par and what shape best suits it off the tee (for right-handers):
| Front 9 | Muirfield Village Golf Club | Back 9 |
| #1: Par 4 – Fade | Dublin, Ohio | #10: Par 4 – Draw |
| #2: Par 4 – Draw | 7,456 yards | #11: Par 5 – Draw |
| #3: Par 4 – Draw | #12: Par 3 – Either | |
| #4: Par 3 – Either | #13: Par 4 – Draw | |
| #5: Par 5 – Fade | #14: Par 4 – Fade | |
| #6: Par 4 – Fade | #15: Par 5 – Fade | |
| #7: Par 5 – Draw | #16: Par 3 – Either | |
| #8: Par 3 – Either | #17: Par 4 – Either | |
| #9: Par 4 – Fade | #18: Par 4 – Fade | |
| Out: 36 | Par 72 | In: 36 |
(ii) As mentioned in last week’s ‘Yardage Book’ for the Workday Charity Open, the course at Muirfield Village was set up a touch differently to what it normally would be for the Memorial in order to protect the course for this week’s event and provide a sense of ‘difference’ between the two events. What this meant in practice was the use of alternative tee boxes, the rough wasn’t as penal (though it still played nice & gnarly), and the greens were deliberately made to run slower in order to avail of alternative pin positions.
With last week now done and dusted, however, the usual Memorial tee boxes will be in use, meaning the course will play slightly longer; the rough probably won’t have been touched since last Thursday so expect that to be even gnarlier; and with the greens bound to be running a lot faster, we’ll see some of the more ‘classic’ pin positions we’d come to expect from ‘Jack’s Tournament’ – in other words, the course played nice last week for charity … but now it’s going to bare its teeth.
(iii) Given they’ll be speeding the greens back up to around 13/13½ on the stimpmeter this week, it’ll be interesting to see if those who played in the Workday Charity Open will find that increase in speed difficult to adjust to, and, as a result, will those players who didn’t play last week be at something of an advantage because they’re coming in fresh and not with an entire week’s worth of built-up ‘feel’ for slower greens to try and flush out of their system? We’ll have to see.
(iv) Other than the above, last week’s ‘Field Report’ (which you can read here) should cover everything else you need to know about Muirfield Village for this week’s event.
(iv) Below you will find the top 10 and ties for last week’s Workday Charity Open, plus the top 10 and ties for the last three years of the Memorial at Muirfield Village Golf Club:
| 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
| Collin Morikawa -19 | Patrick Cantlay -19 | B. DeChambeau -15 | Jason Dufner -13 |
| Justin Thomas -19 | Adam Scott -17 | Byeong Hun An -15 | Rickie Fowler -10 |
| Viktor Hovland -15 | Martin Kaymer -15 | Kyle Stanley -15 | Anirban Lahiri -10 |
| Chase Seiffert -14 | Kevin Streelman -13 | Patrick Cantlay -14 | Matt Kuchar -9 |
| Gary Woodland -12 | Marc Leishman -12 | Peter Uihlein -13 | Justin Thomas -9 |
| Ian Poulter -12 | Hideki Matsuyama -11 | Joaquín Niemann -12 | James Hahn -8 |
| Patrick Cantlay -11 | Jason Dufner -10 | Justin Rose -12 | Kevin Kisner -8 |
| Billy Horschel -11 | Jordan Spieth -10 | Rickie Fowler -11 | Kyle Stanley -8 |
| Jason Day -11 | Bud Cauley -9 | Dustin Johnson -11 | Bubba Watson -8 |
| Charley Hoffman -11 | Emiliano Grillo -9 | Rory McIlroy -11 | Graham DeLaet -7 |
| Russell Henley -11 | Billy Horschel -9 | Patrick Rodgers -11 | Jamie Lovemark -7 |
| Sam Ryder -11 | Tiger Woods -9 | Justin Thomas -11 | Daniel Summerhays -7 |
| Kevin Streelman -11 |
The Oracles’ Fourball
Jon Rahm
Having come within a few keystrokes of picking him for the Workday Charity Open, only to opt for Patrick Cantlay in his stead, the reigning King of the Rolex Series finally gets the nod this week over the reigning Memorial Champion. With his lack of experience at Muirfield Village being the deciding factor in leaving him out last week (as before the Workday he’d only competed once at ‘Jack’s Place’ back in 2017 & missed the cut), I think having had a full week of practice and four full days of tournament-play (plus the fact he’ll be playing a 9-hole exhibition on the Wednesday before the Memorial) Rahm should feel far more familiar with the course when he steps on the tee Thursday and, as a result, possibly make a real run at the title.
Because, in reality, everything about the Spaniard’s game should match up perfectly to the challenge presented by Muirfield Village. He can shape the ball both ways, but a fade is his stock shot (like Morikawa). He’s long and reasonably accurately off the tee (he averaged 304 yards off the tee last week with 67.8% accuracy). On the occasions he does find the rough, he’s plenty powerful enough to muscle his way out of it. He’s deadly when dialled-in with his irons and wedges (he had an average of 70.83% in GIR % last week with that climbing as high as 72.22% & 83.33% over the weekend). He can scramble with the best of them (34th on Tour). And when he gets hot with the putter he can shoot the lights out – as evidenced by his -8 round of 64 last Sunday.
Basically, the World #2 has the game to win at Muirfield Village, but after the last week and a bit of reconnaissance, he now might just have the requisite knowledge to fully exploit it.
Xander Schauffele
It’s been a season of “almosts” for Xander Schauffele. Losing out in a playoff to Justin Thomas at the Tournament of Champions back in January after having an 8-footer to win it outright on the 72nd. A tie for 3rd at the Charles Schwab Challenge back in June after one of the cruelest lip outs you’ll ever see on the 17th hole at Colonial made him miss out on a place in a playoff against Collin Morikawa & Daniel Berger. And after a red-hot opening two days at the Travelers saw him get into contention, a lukewarm round of even-par on Saturday saw him fall too far back of the charging Dustin Johnson and the rest of the contenders.
What’s important about those above examples, though, is that it shows Schauffele has been in contention consistently throughout the season – because that’s what he does. He comes into tournaments, generally flying under the radar despite the fact he’s been a fixture of the top 10/top 20 players in the world for the past few years, and he gets up near the top of leaderboards through rock-solid play. Like, he’s sneaky long off-the-tee (30th on Tour with 305.1 yards). He hits a lot of greens (4th on Tour with 72.83%). And, most importantly, he gets the ball in the hole (8th in ‘Birdie Average’ & 7th in ‘Scoring Average’).
So after seeing him finish with a -10 total at Muirfield Village last week thanks to rounds of 69 (-3), 73 (+1), 66 (-6) & 70 (-2), I think if Xander can tighten up his driving (he had an average ‘Driving Accuracy’ of 53.57% last week) and get his average GIR% north of 73-74% (he averaged 69.44% for the Workday Charity Open) then, come Sunday, he could well wind up giving himself another opportunity to get back inside the winner’s circle after coming so close already this season.
Abraham Ancer
Since emerging from the lockdown, Abraham Ancer has clicked straight back into form in rattling off finishes of T-14, 2nd & T-11 at the Charles Schwab Challenge, RBC Heritage & Travelers Championship respectively to complement the standout finishes of T-4 at the WGC-HSBC Champions, T-8 at the Mayakoba Golf Classic, 2nd at the American Express & T-12 at the WGC-Mexico Championship he garnered earlier in the season.
The keys to Ancer’s success? Well, whilst the Texas native is well able to shift it off-the-tee with an average of 299.4 yards, where he really separates himself is with his accuracy, because he hits a lot of fairways (currently 50th on Tour with 65.67% & 11th in ‘Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green’) & he hits a lot of greens (53rd on Tour with 69.23% & 11th in ‘Strokes Gained: Approach the Green’). And to try to give those numbers a bit of context, at the RBC Heritage, for example, he hit 46 of 56 fairways for the week & 65 of the 72 greens in regulation … at Harbour Town … like, that is just insanely good.
So if he can bring that same accuracy to Muirfield Village and get the putter going like he had it at Harbour Town (where every single putt seemed to threaten the hole), then after seeing Kevin Streelman, a player in a very similar mold to him, grab a top 10 finish at the Workday Charity Open last week, I think Abraham Ancer could well be in a with a chance to find himself bypassing the famous Muirfield milkshakes come Sunday night and going straight for a bottle of his own tequila to toast his very first PGA Tour victory.
Viktor Hovland
After picking Viktor as one of the ‘Oracles’ Fourball’ for the Travelers Championship back in June (wherein he finished in a tie for 11th), I decided against picking him again for the Rocket Mortgage Classic the week after because, in my head, I was thinking after spending three straight weeks on the road and driving himself from tournament to tournament, that, despite how well he was playing, fatigue would begin to set in for the young Norwegian and he’d flame out in Detroit – he’d still make the cut, mind, but not do much otherwise.
He went on to finish in a tie for 12th.
Then came the Workday Charity Open last week. Again, Viktor crossed my mind as a possible candidate to slide right into the ‘Oracles’ Fourball’, but given he was now entering his fifth straight tournament, I was thinking to myself, “No, look, come on now – enough is enough. Five weeks on the road? Going pretty late into each of those previous four Sundays? Thousands of miles clocked up on the odometer of his Lexus? At a course as tough as Muirfield Village is? And he’s never played there before?! No, sorry, it’s surely all going to catch up to him now.”
What does he then go on to do? Winds up in the final group on Sunday and finishes 3rd.
So, going on the logic which he, himself, has created, given Viktor didn’t have to hop in his car Sunday evening, down a ‘5-hour Energy’ drink and tear across a shot of State Lines in order to make it to his next tournament, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him come back out on Thursday morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and ready to go again. Will it be a tougher test? Absolutely, and it’ll be interesting to see how he handles the faster green speeds, in particular. But if he can replicate the performance he pulled off last week (293.8 yards ‘Average Driving Distance’; 75% ‘Average Driving Accuracy’; & 70.83% ‘Average GIR %’), then Viktor could well get the victory his stellar play over the last month and a half deserves – it’d be a big ask, but he could pull it off.
Title Photo Credit: PGA Tour