2026 the Memorial Tournament Preview: Everything To Know About Muirfield Village

The PGA TOUR heads to Dublin, Ohio, with the 2026 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village next on tap. Compare the Memorial Tournament odds at the best sports betting sites to increase your potential PGA TOUR golf betting payouts. Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Cameron Young project as the top favorites for this upcoming tournament.

The game’s best are all headed to Jack’s Place for the 2026 Memorial Tournament at the famed Muirfield Village. The Memorial Tournament was synonymous with Memorial Day Weekend, but in recent years, it’s pushed back into early June as a more ideal final destination for U.S. Open preparation. Overall, Muirfield Village is one of the most stunning properties on the PGA Tour’s annual schedule and is a proper, major-like test that appropriately challenges players throughout their bag.

Not only does it look and play nice, the Memorial Tournament is also one of the most storied non-majors on the Tour schedule. It dates back to 1976 and sits upon one of the most breathtaking backdrops in golf outside of Augusta National. Muirfield Village sternly tests golfers and has produced a diverse cast of winners over the past decade. More recently, we’ve seen the cream start to rise to the top here, with winning scores in the low teens under par.

We’ll run through the key facts and info you need to know about Muirfield Village before betting the Memorial Tournament odds.

the MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT ODDS: THE FAVORITES

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THE FIELD AT A GLANCE

The penultimate Signature PGA TOUR event of the 2026 season, a concentrated field of all of the PGA TOUR’s best will converge at Jack’s Place this week. As per usual for the Signature Events in 2026, a reduced field of just 72 players will tee it up in Dublin, Ohio, with all players within 10 strokes of the leader advancing through the cut to play the weekend.

We seem to have lost the plot for most of this season when it comes to Signature Events. What was designed to attract all of the PGA Tour’s best one stage eight times per year has failed to deliver on that promise. Whether that has been an issue of forcing players to tournaments they don’t want to play, or stacking too many back-to-back Signatures around the majors, we won’t have that issue this week.

The Memorial Tournament is revered by all PGA Tour players and is one that every top player builds their schedule around. It falls in an ideal place on the schedule, and as such, has attracted all but two eligible OWGR top-50 players. Only Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland will be absent. Their omission from the field is surprising, considering both have won at Muirfield Village. Hovland’s victory came in a playoff over Denny McCarthy in 2023, while Morikawa won the 2020 Workday Charity Open here with two additional runner-up finishes at the Memorial Tournament. Neither player has provided a reason for their withdrawal, and both will be worth monitoring closely in the coming weeks ahead of the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. 

Scottie Scheffler headlines as the clear favorite this week on what may be his most dominant track on Tour. Scheffler is chasing a three-peat at the Memorial and has finished 1st, 1st, 3rd, and 3rd at this event over his last four appearances. 

In addition to Scheffler, the list of past champions in the field this week also includes Billy Horschel, Patrick Cantlay, Hideki Matsuyama, and Justin Rose.

INTRODUCTION TO MUIRFIELD VILLAGE

Firm, fast, and tight Bentgrass greens signify this course. Players must be precise with their approaches and hit their landing areas in order to hold these greens. That consequently puts an emphasis on playing from the fairway. Muirfield Village features some of the most penal rough on TOUR. It’s nearly impossible to hold these tight greens from the rough, so strength around the greens will be a must for players to contend.

But the more things seem to change, the more they stay the same. That’s the name of the game at Muirfield Village, as the last six years have produced dramatically different playing conditions. Yet, they still produced remarkably similar leaderboards.

The 2019 conditions took place in Muirfield Village’s business-as-usual setup at 7,392 yards. Patrick Cantlay made the course look easy, winning at -19. But only eight players reached double digits under par.

In 2020, due to COVID scheduling weirdness, Muirfield Village hosted back-to-back events in July. First, at the Workday Charity Open, Collin Morikawa defeated Justin Thomas in a playoff at -19. For the Workday, the staff grew the greens out to play slower and more receptive than what we’d usually see at the Memorial.

For the following week at the Memorial, the greens had completely changed. They played extremely firm and fast, nearly impossible to hold with any long iron approach. Jon Rahm dominated, winning by three strokes at -9, despite a questionable two-stroke penalty assessed after the Sunday round. The conditions on Sunday produced the most difficult scoring of any non-major since 2015, with an average of 78. Only Matt Fitzpatrick recorded a round in the 60s.

An Extensive Renovation

As the 2020 Memorial came to a conclusion, staff immediately began an extensive renovation. By 2021, Muirfield Village played a full 100 yards longer at 7,543. It featured brand new greens complexes amongst other modifications. Rahm tallied -18 through three rounds, six strokes clear of the field and in position to coast to victory. Then, he withdrew due to a positive COVID test. Instead, Cantlay emerged victorious over Morikawa in a playoff at -13.

Over the last four years, calm conditions have produced a winning mark between -13 and -7 from Billy Horschel, Viktor Hovland, and Scottie Scheffler. So, after the course overhaul, the ensuing leaderboards post-renovations have maintained a consistent look and feel.

How It Breaks Down

One of the most visually stunning properties on the PGA TOUR schedule, the identity of Muirfield Village’s perfectly manicured setup lies in its length, generous fairways, long and penal rough, and firm and fast Bentgrass greens.

After renovations, Muirfield Village now stands 100 yards longer, playing as a 7,569-yard par 72. Unique to Muirfield Village compared to most other PGA TOUR tracks, the four par 5s are the only holes that feature a scoring average below par. That makes Par-5 Scoring and Bogey Avoidance crucial to contend this week.

The Memorial Tournament has produced some of the largest outliers between winning scores and median scoring over recent years. Despite 2.5 winning scores over the last six years pushing beyond -15 (half credit for Rahm), the median four-day score has fallen under par just once over the same span. Credit that to the unpredictable weather conditions in Dublin.

Known affectionately as “Jack’s Place”, Muirfield Village is the crowning achievement of Jack Nicklaus’ post-playing career. Undergoing an ambitious renovation project in 2020, Muirfield Village Golf Club now features state-of-the-art drainage systems and new Bentgrass turf from fairway to green, which allows the course to withstand the harsh weather conditions that come to Dublin, Ohio. The property at Muirfield Village is stunning and is one of the most picturesque venues to host a PGA TOUR event each year. The course is designed to penalize wayward drives with its presence of thick rough throughout, and requires elite touch around the greens to remain in contention.

Course Renovation

Diving a bit further in the renovations, Jack Nicklaus described the impetus as not to necessarily make the course harder, but to make it better. The one-year project was a massive undertaking, beginning before the 2020 Memorial even wrapped. Some of the major adjustments to the course include reconstructing all 18 greens with new Bentgrass, irrigation, and Precision Air Systems. They re-contoured most greens with redesigned bunkers, pushed back new tee boxes for about 100 yards in added length, and resurfaced the fairways and surrounding green areas for better drainage.

Find full details on the changes here.

In 2021, speculation mounted about how much we should weigh course history. I approached the 2021 Memorial Tournament odds by honing in on the top T2G players at Muirfield Village. A complete overhaul of the greens seemed a welcome change for players who struggled to make putts in the past. That would include players like Xander Schauffele and Shane Lowry, good long-term putters with solid T2G history at the event who hadn’t been figured out these greens. Both players have seen improvements on the greens since 2021. So, it’s worth taking a second look at Muirfield Village putting history if players who’ve struggled long term saw better results after 2021.

Ultimately, the ends justify the means, so if players like Rahm, Cantlay, and Collin Morikawa were still able to pick Muirfield Village apart, it seems safe to continue to reference long-term course history to project success.

Augusta North?

Like Augusta National, the scoring difficulty at Muirfield Village also comes largely from the premium on touch on and around greens. Jordan Spieth has drawn Augusta comparisons when describing the greens due to firm, fast, and contoured Bentgrass. Tight greens and pin locations create a challenge for some of the shorter hitters in the field, as at their firmest, these greens are nearly impossible to hold on long iron approaches. Like Augusta, flighting the ball to a higher apex will be crucial to hitting more greens in regulation.

Continuing the Augusta comparison, Muirfield Village has become a glorified second-shot golf course. Very generous, wide landing areas have yielded 70-75% Driving Accuracy on average over the last five years, a slightly higher rate than what we’ve seen at the Masters. It’s no surprise that Jack Nicklaus, a six-time Masters champion, would emulate some characteristics from the world’s most famous golf course when constructing his own crown jewel. Most profoundly, he designed the par-3 12th hole as a near replica of Augusta’s infamous par-3 12th.

While the fairways are wide, there is a drastic penalty for missing them. Water lurks throughout the course, and the long, thick rough at Muirfield Village penalizes heavily. Missed Fairway Penalty and Penalty Strokes Per Round are amongst the highest on TOUR. The presence of long, thick rough around the fairways and greens is really the only component that differentiates Muirfield Village from the tight lies and longer rollouts we see at Augusta, which is almost entirely devoid of rough.

Jack Nicklaus Design

Just as we see Pete Dye specialists, we have seen Jack Nicklaus course specialists. Nicklaus tends to design his courses a bit more forgiving in the fairways to let players more freely and regularly reach for their drivers. The trade-off is difficult green-side complexes that will put an emphasis on strong Approach play and a premium on around-the-green and scrambling.

Nicklaus’ most famous designs we’ve seen on the PGA TOUR also include Glen Abbey GC, PGA National, PGA West (Nicklaus Course), The Concession Golf Club and Valhalla GC. Cantlay stands out on Nicklaus courses, gaining more than 74 strokes over his last 36 rounds. Morikawa has notably already picked up two wins on Nicklaus courses in his early career between the Workday Charity Open and WGC-Workday at Concession. 

Traits And Recent Notable Facts

Looking back at how Muirfield Village has played compared to other PGA Tour courses over recent years, 2021 did not produce any significant statistical trends compared to pre-renovation play. As previously noted, 2020 featured outlier conditions between the extremely firm, fast greens and drastic weather conditions.

If we omit 2020, Muirfield Village has routinely played as a top-five course in around-the-green and approach difficulty, as well as difficulty from the rough both around the fairways and greens. Given the rough’s thickness, that checks out. Players must remain in control of their Ball Striking to avoid positions of scrambling from the rough as often as possible.

The course has had some notable differences post-renovation. The par 5s played significantly more difficult, the fifth-most difficult on Tour since 2021. Rory McIlroy said the changes to the par-5 15th eliminated any reward for going for the green in two, as the green won’t hold with a fairway wood. The hole is easier to score on with a wedge from a layup area.

The work done to the greens produced more made putts. This event ranked 32nd out of 40 courses in 2021 in Putting Difficulty. It had never finished outside the top-20 dating back to 2015. Putting produces volatile stat trends, but if the greens have become easier to read, that may open the door for stronger T2G players.

Check the weather forecast frequently. Extreme winds and heavy rain have impacted in years past. As of now, things look uncharacteristically calm, with the forecast calling for overcast conditions in the low 70s and winds not exceeding 10 mph. There is potential for showers on Sunday, but as always, the forecast is subject to change and worth monitoring throughout the week. 

MUIRFIELD VILLAGE COURSE SPECS

• Yards: 7,569
• Par: 72 (4x 3s / 10x 4s / 4x 5s)
• Greens: Bent (Fast)
• Green Size: 5,000 sq. ft. (Average)
• Rough: 4″ Kentucky bluegrass / Rye / Fescue (Thick)
• Architect: Jack Nicklaus
• Historic Cut Line: +3 to +4
• Comp Courses: TPC Potomac, Torrey Pines, Bay Hill, Augusta National, Caves Valley, Bethpage Black, Oak Hill, Olympia Fields, Aronimink GC, Philadelphia Cricket Club, Quail Hollow Club
• Official Scorecard:

COURSE HISTORY AND COURSE COMPS

Memorial has produced an eclectic cast of champs. For every elite winner (Scheffler, Hovland, Cantlay, Rahm, DeChambeau), we’ve also had some inexplicable ones (McGirt, Lingmerth, Dufner). Looking further back, elites have dominated. Tiger Woods has won five times. Jack Nicklaus, Hale Irwin, Tom Watson, and even Scottie Scheffler have also won multiple times. That group features plenty of variety, but the trend suggests those who can consistently find the fairway for four days will find the most success.

A recent adjustment of the tee boxes back to beyond 7,500 yards should give the course even more of a major feel and start to weed out some of the more random players. I’ll look for a tighter card of favorites this week, as I would at an actual major.

Looking at Course History, a long list of 13 players have had multiple T15 finishes over the last five years. That list includes Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Billy Horschel, Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay, Si Woo Kim, Sungjae Im, Matt Fitzpatrick, Sam Burns, Xander Schauffele, Sepp Straka, and Sahith Theegala.

Five players have avoided missing the cut and finished inside the top-40 over each of the last five years (min. three appearances): Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Tony Finau, Si Woo Kim, and Xander Schauffele.

Scheffler & Cantlay

When it comes to performance at Muirfield Village, there have been two constants over the last six years: Scottie Scheffler and Patrick Cantlay. The two have combined for four victories at this event since 2019. Cantlay has five career top-12 finishes since 2018, while Scheffler has finished no worse than 3rd here since 2021.

The top 10 in terms of overall course history at Muirfield Village are Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Tony Finau, Adam Scott, Jason Day, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Ludvig Aberg.

Course Comps

As a long, challenging par 72 with penal rough and fast, Bentgrass greens where the par 5s offer the only respite, there are several comparable venues for projecting success at Muirfield Village.

Torrey Pines, Bay Hill, and Quail Hollow rate as the most obvious and sensible comps. They are each top-tier, non-major events that annually host deep, strong fields. Each measures over 7,400 yards and features thick, penal rough around both the fairways and greens. Rahm, Scheffler, McIlroy, and Scott each have consistently strong results across the three courses to further that point.

Beyond those obvious comps, an interesting overlap exists with TPC Potomac leaderboards. Kyle Stanley, Ryan Armour and David Lingmerth stand out as names we would not expect to see at the top of the leaderboard but who have found repeated success at both courses. Francesco Molinari and Max Homa join Stanley as winners at TPC Potomac. Each has posted T10 finishes at the Memorial. Both courses feature penal rough and long-term exposure to difficult, windy conditions. That emphasizes positioning off the tee and scrambling on Bentgrass greens.

Three weeks ago, I looked very closely at Muirfield Village’s performance as the top comp course to Aronimink Golf Club for the PGA Championship. Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, and Justin Rose all supported that correlated trend well, so I’ll take a close look at performance at the 2026 PGA Championship when building out my player pool for the Memorial this week.

More tertiary comparisons exist to Caves Valley, another massive property with thick rough, and fast Bentgrass greens. Olympia Fields is another recent BMW Championship venue on similar agronomy, which features both Rahm and Hovland as overlapping champions.

As this is an elevated field, it’s fair to pull in performances at recent major venues that share similar characteristics. In addition to Aronimink, Valhalla, Oak Hill, Bethpage Black, TPC Harding Park, and Augusta National stand out as the top comps among major venues over the last five years. Though Augusta lacks the element of penal rough, it rewards patience, conservative approach shots, and creative shot shaping and places a premium on par-5 scoring.

Combine performance across this list, and the top-10 players in Comp Course History here are Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Aberg, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Maverick McNealy, Harris English, Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, and Hideki Matsuyama.

KEY STATS TO CONSIDER

• Recent Form (SG: T2G)
• SG: APP
• SG: OTT / Driving Distance
• Par-5 Scoring / Par 5: 550-600
• Prox: 175+
• SG: OTT (Long Rough + High Missed Fairway Penalty)
• SG: ARG (Fast Greens, Long Rough) / Scrambling Gained
• Bogey Avoidance
• SG: Putting (Fast Bentgrass)
• Course & Comp Course History

Looking at the off-the-tee specifically, history has shown that driving distance matters more than driving accuracy. Players who recklessly spray driver into the rough will struggle to generate scoring opportunities, though. Although this can be described as a second-shot course with generously wide fairways, I’m still looking for players above average in SG: OTT and Driving Distance.

Expected pristine conditions should swing the pendulum towards a premium on approach and a lower winning score below par than we’ve seen over recent years. Strong iron players will have more opportunities to hold these greens. The top 10 in SG: APP entering this week are Ludvig Aberg, Adam Scott, Matt Fitzpatrick, J.J. Spaun, Kurt Kitayama, Scottie Scheffler, Sepp Straka, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, and Aaron Rai. 

In 2025, 51% of approach shots came from beyond 175 yards. Honing in more specifically on the top long-iron players in this week’s field, we find Ludvig Aberg, Adam Scott, Rory McIlroy, Sepp Straka, Matt Fitzpatrick, Alex Fitzpatrick, Sudarshan Yellamaraju, Jake Knapp, Sungjae Im, and Ryo Hisatsune.

If we continue to see the par 5s present the only scoring opportunities on this course, then Par-5 Scoring will play a premium. Each falls in the 550-600-yard range. With some designed not to be reached in two, they’ll play differently from your TOUR average in that range. Par-5 Scoring provides a broader picture of the players best equipped to capitalize. That top-10 list includes Jake Knapp, Alex Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffele, Nicolai Hojgaard, Ludvig Aberg, Scottie Scheffler, Alex Smalley, Matt Fitzpatrick, Maverick McNealy, and Shane Lowry.

If we narrow the list down to above-average players in terms of SG: APP, SG: OTT, SG: ARG, and Par-5 Scoring, then nine remain: Scottie Scheffler, Ludvig Aberg, Rory McIlroy, Cameron Young, Matt Fitzpatrick, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott, and Alex Smalley.

Correlation

Looking at the correlation charts this week, we see many of the same characteristics to Tour average, with a notable increase in the importance of Par-5 Scoring and a sizable decrease in the importance of Par-3 Scoring. This makes sense considering all of the scoring on the par 5s. The par 3s are difficult enough to take birdie out of play for a majority of the field.

SG: APP rates out notably at more of a premium. While outside the top 10, Driving Distance makes a major jump in importance, going from a bottom-10 stat on average to a top-20 at Muirfield Village.

Eight players in the field rank above average in each of the above 10 key stat categories: Scottie Scheffler, Ludvig Aberg, Matt Fitzpatrick, Cameron Young, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, and Alex Noren. 

PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: MATT FITZPATRICK

Is four wins too much to ask of Matt Fitzpatrick this 2026 season? That seems to be the only reason left not to consider betting Fitzpatrick to win the 2026 Memorial Tournament. It has been a transcendent year for the 31-year-old Englishman, who has finally helped us answer the question, “What if one of the best total drivers and short game players in the world also became elite on approach”? 

To this point in his career, Fitzpatrick had a ceiling. He was excellent in difficult scoring conditions and always a threat when scrambling was of premium importance. But his iron game was not precise enough to go flag hunting when easier conditions allowed. Entering this week 3rd in SG: APP, it’s no coincidence we’ve seen Fitzpatrick’s win rate skyrocket as he’s dialed in his irons.

Fitzpatrick has found repeated success on his favorite courses, and Muirfield Village is one of them; he has three top-10 finishes over his last six appearances. That success can be attributed in part to his prowess around the greens in long rough. He ranks No. 1 in that category and No. 1 in general Scrambling this season. With three wins and three additional top-20s over his last seven starts, Fitzpatrick ranks 4th overall in my model this week and has proven he has what it takes to take Scottie Scheffler down when he has his best stuff.

2026 the MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT ODDS: DFS PLAYER POOL

With all the course-fit profiles in mind, I’m leaning early toward the below player pool. Naturally, I’m looking their way in the 2026 Memorial Tournament odds as well. I’ve broken the list down by projected pricing/odds tier for DraftKings.  

the MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT MODEL RESULTS & BREAKDOWN

2026 Memorial Tournament Model Breakdown

In my model, I’m emphasizing Comp Course History and SG: APP first and foremost, followed by a more balanced mix of SG: T2G (L12), Par-5 Scoring, Prox 175+, SG: OTT, SG: ARG, Driving Distance, SG: ARG (Long Rough), Bogey Avoidance, and SG: P (L36, Bent).

To little surprise, Scottie Scheffler emerges in the No. 1 spot of my model this week. He will be in a class of his own when the odds release on Monday as he sets out for the rare three-peat at Muirfield Village. Scheffler is in a winning “drought” since The American Express, but has put himself in position to win most events since then, with six top-5 finishes over his last 10 starts.

After Scheffler, the rest of my model’s top 10 is rounded out by: Ludvig Aberg, Rory McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick, Cameron Young, Xander Schauffele, Tommy Fleetwood, Patrick Cantlay, Si Woo Kim, and Russell Henley. Hardly any surprises there in a week where the best all-around players should shine.

When 2026 Memorial Tournament odds open Monday, I’ll look to start my card with Matt Fitzpatrick, Ludvig Aberg, or Cameron Young amongst the favorites, along with Justin Rose, Maverick McNealy, and Keegan Bradley as longshot considerations.

Check back in later this week for more updates. Best of luck navigating 2026 Memorial Tournament odds!

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Photo Credit: AP/Chris Carlson