All of the top five players in the world will be at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin this week for the 2021 Memorial Tournament. Among them, of course, is Jon Rahm, who won the event in 2020. There had been some modifications done on the Muirfield Village Golf Club since the last time the Memorial Tournament was played there. Will any of those changes make a significant impact on the play of the golfers? For now, let’s take a look at some of the favorites, sleepers, and long shots for this event.
Thomas only had a T40 at the 2021 Charles Schwab Challenge, but that was good enough of a rebound for him after he missed the cut at the PGA Championship a week earlier. Thomas has five top 10s in 16 starts this season, which includes his win in THE PLAYERS Championship. He will travel to Muirfield Village as the No. 1o n the Tour in terms of birdie average (4.61) and second in scoring average (69.786). Thomas has two top 10s in seven starts at Muirfield Village Golf Club, having placed eighth in 2018 and fourth in 2017 editions of the Memorial Tournament.
Rahm should be well-rested, as he didn’t take part in the Charles Schwab Challenge last week. Prior to that, he went tied for eighth in the 2021 PGA Championship. Rahm has finished inside the top 10 in four of his last seven starts. But more important to know about Rahm is the fact that he’s the defending champion of the Memorial Tournament. He scored 9-under 279 last year including a 67 in the second round of the 2020 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club. That was only his second appearance on that course, and he’ll be looking to go back-to-back this weekend.
DeChambeau is searching for his third win of the season still. He won the US Open last year then topped the field at the 2021 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. Since then, he’s gone 6 of 6. During that stretch, he had a couple of top 10s, though he has not cracked the top 35 in each of his last two starts. You can forget about his subpar performances of late and just focus on his being a one-time winner of the Memorial Tournament. He won at Muirfield Village Golf Club in 2018 with a 15-under 273 score.
Conners is on a bit of roll. He has made the cut in all of his last 10 starts. During that span, he had gone third place in the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, finished seventh in THE PLAYERS Championship, and more recently, went T20 in the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Ranked 69th in the world, Hoffman is on an even nicer stretch than Conners. Hoffman has made the cut in each of his last 11 starts. He gained even more momentum ahead of the Memorial Tournament by finishing with a T3 in the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Hadwin has finally recovered from a recent bad stretch in which he missed the cut three times in a row. After placing tied for 64th in the PGA Championship, Hadwin cracked the top 10 for the second time this season by finishing tied for eighth in the Charles Schwab Challenge.
