Notables reviewed in Fantasy Insider on Tuesday will include 2010 champion Justin Rose, Brooks Koepka, Jason Day, Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth.
Despite the talent spill from Workday to the Memorial, the construction of each field is different. The Workday was a 157-man open event, while the pool for the 132-deep Memorial is an invitation, albeit 12 stronger than originally scheduled (to accommodate playing time lost due to the pandemic). So it probably doesn’t surprise keen-eyed golf fans that the field for Workday hit less than 10 percent of the welcome fairways on average than last year’s Memorial course (out of 120), even in the rain that limits deployment to landing areas.
When it comes to saving at par, last week’s percentage of 52.32 was the lowest of any course this season. That’s not a total of three points lower than the 2019 Memorial field (which ranked seventh lowest in all of 2018-19), but it’s an indication of general comfort and familiarity, or lack thereof, at the 5,000 goals square feet.
Still, the Workday field was recorded with an average score of 71,853 for the week. Last year’s Memorial field landed at 72,081.
Muirfield Village is a par 72 stock in which the par is a decent score when the wind blows, which it did for a good portion of the 2019 Memorial. However, whoever claims this week’s title, the PGA TOUR membership exemption from three years and the three-year exemption in THE PLAYERS Championship will have started the tournament with double digits under par.
Each of the past seven champions has completed 72 holes, no worse than 12 under 276. Bad weather cannot be ruled out during any round, meaning the rain will fall and the wind will not be a problem, so the score will remain low.
It is probably an exaggeration to consider that under-19s repeat 269. That was the addition posted by Workday champion Collin Morikawa and playoff victim Justin Thomas. They played the 7,456 yard track with modifications made for the substitute event.
Traditional jerseys and hole locations will reinforce the experience of what should be an overall longer test for the Memorial, at least in degrees. The bentgrass greens for Workday were set to run 11-11.5 feet on the Stimpmeter, but the ripples seemed to contribute to what would normally be a slow pace by TOUR standards. Depending on the weather, as always, this week’s speed could overshadow 13 feet, the longest of any event that releases the measurement.
