Power Rankings: the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday

For as powerful as Jack Nicklaus presented as a golfer, he wouldn’t have become a living legend and arguably the greatest of all time without an equal measure of touch. Many things can be measured but only he knows how it’s felt. That balance contributed to his career as a course architect, and it is within the spirit of an artist for why a masterpiece truly never is complete.

Muirfield Village Golf Club is in its fourth year following a renovation that left little updated, but – shocker! – there’s yet another significant change to a not-so-significant hole of the stern Nicklaus design that rises into focus for the 49th edition of the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday.

Details of it and more information concerning the seventh Signature Event of the season are below.

The Memorial is the last of the three legacy invitationals of the season. Like The Genesis Invitational and the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard previously contested, there will be a 36-hole cut of low 50 plus ties and all golfers within 10 strokes of the lead. The field is 73 deep as of midday Monday. The Travelers Championship that concludes the series of Signature Events on June 20-23 will not have a cut.

Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, is positioned to serve as a proper primer for next week’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2. The course will punish the unprepared. As the stock par 72 has matured in its latest iteration, scoring has risen steadily with averages it hadn’t logged in a decade. It eclipsed 73 in each of the last two years, the higher of which 73.522 a year ago. That’s due in part to the fact that it was the stingiest course in all of 2022-23 in yielding greens in regulation at just 9.39 on average per round.

The quartet of par 3s also was the toughest set among all courses with a scoring average of 3.21, while the par-3 16th hole has been in a class of its own. In 2017, 2020 and 2023, it was the hardest of all par 3s on the PGA TOUR in each of those seasons. Last year’s average was 3.36. However, if any entrant had the audacity to look forward to its challenge this year, he will be greeted with an entirely new angle.

The tee is 30 yards to the right of its old perch. That has shifted the perspective of the water hazard from front to primarily left of the target that now looks deeper even though it hasn’t changed. A front bunker was replaced with short grass and the hole was reduced by two yards to its new maximum of 218 yards. It’s the only major modification to Muirfield Village that now tips at 7,569 yards.

Bentgrass greens average 5,000 square feet and will approach if not eclipse 13 feet using a Stimpmeter. Primary rough is four inches as usual, so the course tests similarly. Muscle plays off the tee, irons must be sharp on approach, pars don’t suck.

Cooperative conditions are forecast throughout the tournament. That doesn’t mean that a sprinkle can be ruled out entirely but a delay is unexpected as daytime temperatures scale into the 70s. The primary challenge will be in the form of wind. The constant will be its prevailing push from westerly directions. (Wednesday’s Golfbet Insider will include an updated review of the weather.)

The survivor, er, champion of the Memorial will bank 700 FedExCup points and $4 million. He’ll also secure an exemption into THE PLAYERS Championship through 2027 through which his PGA TOUR membership exemption will extend (or longer depending on his current status).

The top finisher at the Memorial, not otherwise exempt into The Open Championship, will gain entry into the final major of the year, and the top 60 in the updated Official World Golf Ranking at the conclusion of the Memorial will qualify for the U.S. Open.

ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE

MONDAY: Power Rankings

TUESDAY*: Sleepers

WEDNESDAY: Golfbet Insider

SUNDAY: Points and Payouts; Medical Extensions; Qualifiers; Reshuffle

* - Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.