The Rundown: 2023 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village

We head into another designated event with the 2023 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village.

The Memorial was founded; and is hosted and designed by Jack Nicklaus. It always boasts a strong field and is considered one of the more prestigious tournaments of the year. That’s even more so the case this year in an elevated event.

Last year Billy Horschel shot even par on Sunday and won the tournament by four strokes to claim his seventh career victory. Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa, Jon Rahm, and Sungjae Im were some of the more notable names to finish in the top ten.

Jon Rahm was robbed in 2021 when he was forced to withdraw due to Covid with a six-shot lead following his third round. Patrick Cantlay ended up being the official winner for the 2nd time in three years but Rahm should’ve had his 2nd consecutive win at the Memorial. Rahm also won in 2020 when back-to-back tournaments were held at Muirfield Village.

The course took a beating over that consecutive week stint in 2020 and a lot of work has been done at Muirfield since. Work included irrigation work, adding a PrecisionAire system, rebuilt fairways and greenside bunkers, reconstruction of the greens, and over 140 trees added.

The Memorial Tournament is hosted at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio. It is a par 72 coming in at about 7,540 yards with very fast undulating Bentgrass greens.

Seven holes at Muirfield Village are par fours ranging from 450-500 yards. Three par fives are from 550-600 yards with the fourth being just under 550 yards. Scoring well on the par fives is a must especially considering that they play as the four easiest holes on the course. Three of the par threes play over 200 yards.

The finishing three holes are a challenge with the par three 16th playing as the 2nd most difficult hole. Holes 17 and 18 are par fours playing as the 4th and most difficult holes on the course.

Mid to long irons will be relied upon heavily at Muirfield Village.

Shots from 150-200 yards make up 45% of approach shots. With 23% coming from 150-175 and 22% from 175-200 yards. Greens are a little harder to hit with GIR percentage coming in at 61 percent.

Missing greens can be hazardous with many greenside bunkers. Sand saves will absolutely come into play with 147 bunkers around Muirfield Village.

Driving accuracy is a bit higher here than tour average coming in at 68 percent and finding fairways will certainly be an advantage. Driving distance is slightly less than tour average coming in at 281 yards.

The field consists of 120 golfers with the Top 65 and ties making the cut after 36 holes to play the weekend.

2023 Memorial Tournament: The Key Stats

• Approach
• Sand Saves
• Par 4s 450-500 yards
• Proximity 175-200 yards
• Proximity 150-175 yards

Historical Cut Line at The Memorial

• 2022: +3
• 2021: +3
• 2020: +4
• 2019: +2
• 2018: +1

Recent Winners of The Memorial

2022: Billy Horschel -13
2021: *Patrick Cantlay -13
2020: Jon Rahm -9
2019: Patrick Cantlay -19
2018: Bryson DeChambeau -15