2022 Memorial Tournament: Top 10 Power Rankings at Muirfield Village
The PGA Tour heads to the Great Lakes region for the first time this year.
The Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio is the scene for this week’s action.
Seven of the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking are teeing it up in this 120-player field. Top-65 and ties make the cut despite the smaller field size.
The course opened in 1974. Jack Nicklaus has annually hosted consistently strong fields at his tournament since 1976.
Muirfield Village also hosted the 2020 Workday Charity Open, a makeshift one-time event held the week prior to the Memorial Tournament. It was created due to the PGA Tour needing to fill out its schedule after the pandemic wiped out several tournaments in the spring.
Muirfield Village is a par 72 measuring 7,462 yards. It tends to draw praise for its immaculate conditioning and lush, green grass. The fairways and greens are bentgrass/poa annua.
We all remember during the 2020 Memorial as play was still going on on the holes ahead, the greenskeeping staff was ripping up turf left and right.
It was part one of a two-phase renovation project that began in 2019. According to Golf Digest, the first phase included new tee boxes on holes 8, 11, and 15 as well as a new rough area on the par-5 fifth.
The second phase shut down the course to rebuild all greens and bunkers, add sub-surface heating and cooling systems below the greens and alter fairway widths. The par-5 fifth is also redesigned to play more difficult.
Muirfield Village is a prototypical parkland-style layout.
The strategy to play well here is “right in front of you” as they’d say, so it’s all about execution. Forced carries and aerial style assaults tend to get it done best, though the right conditions can firm things up.
A left-to-right ball flight like Jack used to hit is favorable.
The weather forecast looks pretty nice. High temperatures expect to peak around 80 with little to no rain and winds projecting to top in the low double-digit miles per hour.
The U.S. Open is two weeks away, so a lot of big names are on site to get their game geared up for The Country Club. Let’s dive into the top 10 players I see contending for the title in Ohio.
Will Zalatoris is making his debut at Muirfield Village. He comes to Ohio looking to shake off a surprising missed cut last week at the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Perhaps it’s not all that surprising given it was on the heels of the PGA Championship where Zalatoris posted his fifth top-10 in a major in eight career starts. It was Big Z’s closest call to date, finishing in second place in a playoff behind Justin Thomas.
A lot of energy was expended to contend at a challenging Southern Hills layout, so it made sense for Zalatoris to drop off a bit at Colonial.
His form in 2022 has been too strong to expect him to go into a full-on slump. Zalatoris also got into a playoff at the Farmers Insurance Open to take second place and was top-10 at the WGC-Match Play and Masters.
Zalatoris leads the PGA Tour in strokes gained tee to green (1.748).
The Wake Forest alum is also top 10 in SG off the tee (.666, 10th) and SG approach (.95, 3rd).
Zalatoris is sixth in greens in regulation (70.37%) and sixth in par-3 scoring (2.98).
As we all know, the putter is what plagues the 25-year-old. He’s shown glimpses of success with his unorthodox stroke, but he’s still seeking more consistency.
Dialing in the driver will also be key to his success as he’s outside the top 150 in driving accuracy.
His first career PGA Tour win will come soon. Not quite this week, but I prognosticate another top-10 for Zalatoris.