The Five: Which Viktor Hovland will show up and more major Memorial storylines

DUBLIN, Ohio – There’s no rest for the weary at this point in the PGA TOUR calendar. The Memorial Tournament presented by Workday kicks off a crucial three-event stretch, with the U.S. Open and the Travelers Championship, the final Signature Event of the season, rounding out the trio of tournaments.

The bunched schedule allows players to catch fire and make a Scottie Scheffler-like run. Could that be Xander Schauffele, who finished second at Quail Hollow and broke through with a win at the PGA Championship? Or could it be Rory McIlroy or Scheffler or Wyndham Clark or Ludvig Åberg? The next three weeks will loom large over the narratives that carry through the end of the FedExCup season and into 2025.

So, here are the top five storylines of the week to get everyone ready for the Memorial at Jack’s place.

1. Which Viktor Hovland will show up?

Viktor Hovland was direct when describing the challenges Muirfield Village Golf Club presents.

“It's going to punish you and bring you down if you miss it on the wrong sides,” he said Tuesday. “I think it's one of the hardest courses we play all year.”

For the Hovland we saw the first four months of 2024, a course of that difficulty was likely to break him. He struggled to control his ball flight and had not tallied a top 10. But the version of Hovland we saw at the PGA Championship, who challenged Xander Schauffele down the back nine and nearly claimed his first major, was the same version we saw win the 2023 Memorial.

And it’s that version the golf world eagerly hopes is here to stay. His title defense at Muirfield Village is his first start since the solo third at Valhalla Golf Club, offering us the first chance at an answer.

Hovland said his form returned at Valhalla and remained through his practice sessions. He has continued to work with swing coach Joe Mayo, who Hovland brought back into his inner circle ahead of the PGA Championship. The two worked together in 2023 during the best year of Hovland’s career.

The reversal in form begs the question, does Hovland regret parting with Mayo in the first place? Hovland didn’t go that far but said it’s been a learning experience.

“Looking back, I've given this some thought, I'm a completely different player than I was when I first came out here, and every single thing that I've done since turning pro has led me to become a better player,” Hovland said.

“I got a longer driver, I fastened my backswing, I got a little bit stronger in the gym, I started doing AimPoint on greens, whatever it might be, like every single thing that I've done has helped me to play better golf. So I don't think I need to completely throw the baby out with the bath water, but definitely have to maybe spend a little bit more time and make sure that if I'm going to go in a different direction it's maybe a little bit more planned out, or need more data supporting that decision. But, yeah, probably, I mean, the classic saying, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' I mean, you need a very good and valid reason to try to change something if it's already working, but I do kind of think my track record speaks for itself.”

It’s the fine edge of golf. Every player tries to improve, but knowing when to stop innovating is hard. Xander Schauffele spent the last five years living inside the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking, yet he brought on new coach Chris Como and chased speed gains, hoping to improve. It translated into his first major. Meanwhile, Billy Horschel tried to find marginal improvements after 2022, which translated into his worst season on TOUR in recent memory in 2023. The pursuit of innovation can go both ways.

Hovland has always been a tinkerer. He learned the golf swing by watching YouTube videos and only found Mayo through social media videos. Innovation is inherent in his DNA, and pursuing more of it also caused his short-lived downfall earlier this year.

Muirfield Village won’t look so scary if Hovland's found the right formula.

2. Final chance for U.S. Open spot

The Longest Day in Golf is over, but a path into the U.S. Open is still available for numerous players in the Memorial. The top 60 in the Official World Golf Ranking after this week will qualify for the year’s third major, hosted at Pinehurst No. 2.

The following players are in the field at the Memorial but NOT in the field at the U.S. Open and could qualify with a strong finish (likely a victory) this week.

• Ben Griffin – 70th (in the OWGR)
• Lee Hodges – 75th
• Davis Riley – 78th
• Andrew Putnam – 79th
• Patrick Rodgers – 87th

Notably, Adam Scott, No. 60 in the OWGR, is not in the Memorial field. Scott lost in a playoff to Cameron Davis to earn a U.S. Open spot during Final Qualifying on Monday. Scott is in danger of snapping his streak of 91 consecutive major championship appearances. His hopes aren’t dashed, though he will need nearly every player below him in the rankings to struggle at Muirfield Village.

Griffin, Putnam and Rodgers failed to qualify through Final Qualifying, while Hodges and Riley withdrew ahead of The Longest Day in Golf.

“I decided to withdraw from Canada, just to take a week of rest to get prepared for (Memorial),” Riley said. “Then obviously I was doing the U.S. Open qualifier in Canada the Monday after, and I just felt like it would be pretty taxing to go all the way up to Canada just for a 36-hole event and then come down here.

“There is still a way for me, I don't know exactly what I've got to finish, but there is a way, if I have a well enough finish this week, to get into next week, so I was just kind of putting all my eggs in the basket that route.”

3. Is Jackson Koivun the next college star?

The hottest golfer in the Memorial field is not Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele or Rory McIlroy. It’s Auburn freshman Jackson Koivun who will make his PGA TOUR debut this week.

Koivun is playing the Memorial on a sponsor exemption earned by winning the Jack Nicklaus Award, given by the Golf Coaches Association of America to the player of the year. It’s just the latest in a prestigious list of accolades. Koivun is the only golfer in NCAA history to win the Nicklaus Award, Ben Hogan Award, Haskins Award and Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award in the same season.

And he was the central piece in Auburn winning its first national championship last week. Koivun earned the clinching point in his semifinal match, which went to extra holes. Then he earned Auburn’s first point in the national championship against Florida State. Koivun won twice in his freshman season, including the SEC Championship. He finished in the top 10 in 12 of his 13 stroke-play starts and had the lowest adjusted scoring average (67.3) in Division I.

Koivun has already amassed 13 PGA TOUR University Accelerated points and will earn two more this summer when Christo Lamprecht and Michael Thorbjornsen make their pro debut and are removed from the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Koivun could earn a PGA TOUR card before his sophomore year, and he appears destined to become the second golfer to earn TOUR status through the Accelerated program, joining Gordon Sargent.

Koivun has checked every box of a young phenom. His performance at Memorial could launch him to even higher heights.

4. Trending into Pinehurst?

That Xander Schauffele played well at the PGA Championship was no surprise, given his performance the week prior. He finished second at the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte before heading West to Louisville and claiming his maiden major championship.

Will a similar story emerge over the next two weeks? A Signature Event again precedes a major, with the Memorial followed by the U.S. Open at Pinehurst next week. Could someone parlay a standout performance at Muirfield into an equally impressive showing at Pinehurst? That seems likely. So, who could those players be? Here are the 10 top performers, using Strokes Gained data, over the last 30 days.

1. Xander Schauffele
2. Rory McIlroy
3. Scottie Scheffler
4. Collin Morikawa
5. Viktor Hovland
6. Keegan Bradley
7. Byeong Hun-An
8. Corey Conners
9. Justin Thomas
10. Russell Henley

5. A subtle but significant tweak to the 16th hole

The famous par-3 16th hole will look different for this year’s tournament. Nicklaus and the tournament team moved the tee box 25 yards to the right, allowing golfers to play the hole up through the front of the green instead of over the pond that hugs the left side of the hole. Nicklaus also removed one of the front-right bunkers and added depth to another bunker.

“It definitely looks different, a little wider on the right side,” Hovland said after playing the back nine on Tuesday. “You're going to see a lot of guys in that right bunker. I think for the back right pin, that's a very tough bunker shot. Obviously all the right pins are going to be pretty tough. Yeah, it's still a hard hole, but at least now it feels like with the angle, you can hit a good shot and kind of run it on or around the green, so I think it's good.”

Billy Horschel said he likes the changes and expects the hole to play a bit easier but much more fairly. The 16th played as the second-hardest hole at the Memorial last year, yielding only 21 total birdies, the fewest of any hole. That should increase, Horschel predicted, though he also expects more balls to end up in the water left of the green.