2021 Memorial Tournament: Top 10 power rankings at Muirfield Village

At this point, I’ve lost a lot of trust in Rory McIlroy at the majors. It’s fair for anyone to feel that way after a lackluster T-49th at the PGA Championship.

With that said, PGA Tour Rory is a whole other animal. His major drought is seven years strong. Meanwhile, he’s got nine PGA Tour wins since 2014 and some more European Tour wins to boot.

Surprisingly, the Northern Irishman hasn’t won at Muirfield Village but it’s a great layout for him. His aerial attack playing style lends itself to lush parkland courses like this. A great driver like McIlroy is rewarded at Jack’s Place, as is good long iron play.

The 31-year-old owns four top-10s in nine starts at this venue, all coming at the Memorial Tournament. His best was T-4th (71-66-70-68) in 2016 where he was two shots out of a playoff. McIlroy netted T-32nd (70-72-72-78) last year where he was in contention through 54 holes.

“Yeah, I mean, you’ve got to drive it well. You have to drive it in the fairway, especially this week,” McIlroy was quoted by ASAP Sports in 2019. “The rough is very thick. And I’ve had — shot some good scores and had some good finishes around here. It suits me well. I think three of the best five putting rounds on Tour I’ve had here. I like the greens here. I’ve felt comfortable on them.”

McIlroy’s just four weeks removed from a win at the Wells Fargo Championship. It was one of three top-10s and five top-25s on the PGA Tour in 2021.

Rory is sixth on the PGA Tour in strokes gained off the tee (.679) aided partially by his second rank in driving distance (319). If he can just limit the big misses, wide fairways like at Muirfield Village will be a welcome sight.

He’s also seventh in birdie average (4.39) and 22nd in approach proximity from 175-200 yards (31’10”).