It’s that time of the year for us to honor our beloved armed forces troops who’ve passed away in service of our country, and what better way to celebrate the occasion through sports than with the PGA Tour’s annual Memorial Tournament.
A good number of the Tour’s stars will tee off in Dublin, Ohio this week. Exactly who did the internet’s experts predict will emerge victorious from the Jack-Nicklaus-designed course at Muirfield Village? Let’s find out below.
2017 Memorial Tournament Expert Picks and Predictions
*Find the complete list of the 2017 Memorial Tournament betting linesHERE!
Pro Golf Now
For his weekly power rankings, Pro Golf Now‘s Sam Belden went with none other than the world’s best golfer to date, Dustin Johnson,as the top dog in his list.
Belden mentioned that although the Columbia, South Carolina native has somewhat cooled off in the second half of May, the fact remains that Johnson (+550) still has a streak of seven-consecutive top-15 finishes as we speak. That stretch, by the way, includes back-to-back victories in Pacific Palisades and Mexico City.
Being the current leader this season in driving distance, greens-in-regulation and total strokes gained serve as further proof that Johnson is in another class of his own heading into this week’s tournament as he aims to win his first-ever title at Muirfield.
Golfshake
We have another nod here for Dustin Johnson, this time coming from Golfshake.com’s Derek Clements.
Clements also has his doubts regarding Johnson’s style of play in navigating Muirfield’s tricky paths to the hole, but he also did praise the decade-long pro for his much-improved form on the greens. Right now, Johnson ranks eighth amongst all golfers in putting from 10 feet (60-percent accuracy), and that will indeed nicely complement his strong driving skills as he looks to improve upon his career-best solo third-place finish at the tournament last season.
Sports Interaction
Bucking the DJ trend is Sports Interaction‘s Ricky Rothstein, who sided with Hideki Matsuyama instead. The 25-year-old Japanese standout is no stranger to success at the Memorial, with Rothstein recalling Matsuyama’s victory in the tournament back in 2014 and his fifth-place finish the following season.
Despite missing the cut at Muirfield last year and having a couple of sub-top-20 finishes in his last two starts, Matsuyama (+1,800) remains as one of the few golfers in this week’s field that can match Johnson’s driving acumen. With that in mind, we should still expect the current runner-up to Johnson in the FedExCup standings to regain his stellar form this week for what could be his fourth victory of the season and first since early February.
