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The Memorial Tournament: Power ranking the top ten golfers at Muirfield Village

By Mike Randleman

DUBLIN, OH - JUNE 03: Tiger Woods walks up the green on the 18th hole during the final round of The Memorial Tournament Presented by Nationwide at Muirfield Village Golf Club on June 3, 2018 in Dublin, Ohio. (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)
DUBLIN, OH - JUNE 03: Tiger Woods walks up the green on the 18th hole during the final round of The Memorial Tournament Presented by Nationwide at Muirfield Village Golf Club on June 3, 2018 in Dublin, Ohio. (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images) /
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DUBLIN, OH – JUNE 02: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland crosses a bridge to the 17th green during the third round of The Memorial Tournament Presented by Nationwide at Muirfield Village Golf Club on June 2, 2018 in Dublin, Ohio. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
DUBLIN, OH – JUNE 02: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland crosses a bridge to the 17th green during the third round of The Memorial Tournament Presented by Nationwide at Muirfield Village Golf Club on June 2, 2018 in Dublin, Ohio. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) /

Rory McIlroy is a Northern Irishman, but he loves him some American style courses like Muirfield Village. Aerial, target golf is his cup of tee and this is a place where he can feel free to bash away.

Rory is first on Tour in strokes gained off the tee (1.284) and is bound to have a solid week even if the wedges and putter lag behind. In seven starts at the Memorial, the 30-year-old owns four top-10s as well as a T15. He last finished T8 in 2018 (74-70-64-69) and was one of the best players on the weekend to pull within four of the winning total.

He finished just under 70% both in fairways hit and greens in regulation while averaging 306 off the tee.

"“…it’s U.S. Open rough out there,” McIlroy said in 2017. “You’ve got to keep it on the fairway. You can’t control your ball at all, you can hardly get to the greens out of the rough. So there will be a lot of just put it in the fairway and take your chances from there.”"

Fortunately for him, he’s 11th in proximity from the rough. He’s eighth in strokes gained approaching the green and is no worse than 55th in strokes gained putting.

Aside from the majors (which are obviously very important), McIlroy has been arguably the best player in the world in 2019. Here are his results: T4-T5-T4-2-T6-1-T9-T21-T8-T8.

His last start was the PGA Championship and was only his second since Augusta, so he should be fresh for this week.

It’s easy to knock the four-time major champion for not winning more, but that level of consistency is remarkable. For daily fantasy owners, it’s a nice feeling to know he’s not going to submarine your team, even if you’re left pulling your hair out at another missed 10-footer.

If the course is wet this week, that only helps McIlroy’s cause.

McIlroy will file in behind Tiger and Brooks at Pebble Beach coming up, but a win here at Jack’s place will be a reminder that Rory’s still kicking.

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