Muirfield Village Key Fantasy Stats

Memorial Tournament

July 16th – 19th, 2020

Muirfield Village G.C.

Dubin, OH

Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,456

Purse: $9.3 million

with $1,674,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Patrick Cantlay

by Sal Johnson

Founder, Chief Data Officer, GOLFstats

E-mail me at:
sal@golfstats.com

So for the first time since 1957, we will see the same course hold two tournaments consecutively. Back then the World Championship of Golf was played the week after the All-American Open and both were played at the Tam O’Shanter Club outside of Chicago. In the ten years, this was on the schedule, the first one in 1948 saw Lloyd Mangrum win back to back, a feat that wasn’t duplicated again. So Collin Morikawa will be looking to match that this week.
Despite the hype that Muirfield Village was going to be set up to score better on last week, it’s scoring average of 71.85 was about the same it’s been over the years at the Memorial. So even though the course was softened with all of the rain that fell during the week it ranked 9th hardest of 2020, while last year at the Memorial the course played to a 72.08 average and was the 13th hardest. In 2018 Muirfield Village played to a 71.40 average, the 30th hardest course on the PGA Tour. In 2017 the course played to a 72.80 average and was the 13th hardest. So don’t expect a serious change of scoring average from last week to this week.
To show that if you want it to rain in Columbus, Ohio just bring in the PGA Tour, thunderstorms will affect the event again with Thursday, Friday and Saturday having a 50% chance of thunderstorms, Sunday is supposed to be nice. So despite the greens going to be faster this week, there is going to be no real challenges that will change the characteristics of the course in a week’s time.

So this is based on the most important stats for the Muirfield Village, based on data from last week’s Workday and using data from all the players in this week’s field with stats from 2020. Of course weather plays a factor in scoring and with the course being wet, the temperature high and conditions soft, expect good scoring. It has to be said that Muirfield Village may be the victim like other courses on the PGA Tour in which technology is taking some of the bite out of the course. In some respects that is true, but if the course played very dry and fast, along with some wind the course would be very tough.
Last week we didn’t see an assault on shotmaking as the course ranked 16th hardest for 2020 in Driving Accuracy (out of 33 courses played in 2020) and 6th in Greens in Regulation. The same in some other stats like scrambling, the course was the hardest of the year in getting it up and down, but to be fair, in past we compare these stats over the course of a season which includes majors and courses that tend to always play hard, this year we haven’t had a major and missing some tough courses like Quail Hollow, home of the Wells Fargo and of course the Players Championship.
Still, in looking at last week’s stats we will be able to compare more accurately how players do this week. One thing that is striking is that of those in the top-ten in driving distance at Workday, only Patrick Cantlay finished in the top-ten. Collin Morikawa finished 19th, while Justin Thomas was 20th, so driving if far isn’t important. As for keeping the ball in the fairway, Collin Morikawa was T-9th, Justin Thomas was T-14th and 3rd place finisher Viktor Hovland was T-4th so it’s more important to keep it in the fairway than driving it long. As for putting Collin Morikawa was 13th in Strokes Gained Putting last week while Justin Thomas 29th and Viktor Hovland were 52nd. Still putting was important when you look at how Ian Poulter was 2nd in Strokes Gained Putting and finished T-5th. Gary Woodland was 3rd in SG Putting and finished T-5th, Chase Seiffert was 4th in SG Putting and finished 4th and Charley Hoffman was 7th in SG Putting and Billy Horschel was 6th as both players finished T-7th at Workday, so yes putting is a key to a possible win.

In looking at our four categories and taking into account that there will be more rough and faster greens, our first category for this week at Muirfield Village is strokes gained tee-to-green. Last week Collin Morikawa ranked 3rd in this stat, while last year’s champion Patrick Cantlay ranked 2nd, 2018 champion Bryson DeChambeau ranked 12th, 2017 champion Jason Dufner ranked 1st, 2016 winner William McGirt ranked 7th and 2015 champion David Lingmerth ranked 9th. Next important is putting inside 10 feet, Muirfield Village has some great greens, they are only 5,000 square feet but have a lot of undulation, and the bentgrass is easy to read. Still, with the greens running at 11 on the stipmeter the course ranked 8th hardest while Collin Morikawa was 20th, making 63 of 69 putts inside ten feet. Now, this isn’t bad, Morikawa when you consider that he had 55 putts six feet and in and only missed one. Last year the course ranked 12th in this category while Patrick Cantlay was 19th making 64 of 71 putts. In 2018 Muirfield ranked 12th, 8th in 2017, 10th in 2016 and 4th in 2015 while in 2018 champion DeChambeau ranked T-19th, 2017 winner Dufner ranked T-38th, 2016 winner McGirt ranked T-23rd and 2015 winner Lingmerth ranked 5th. You have to putt well to score well at Muirfield Village, last week the field made 87.29% of the putts in that distance.
Our third important stat is scrambling, players will miss greens and have to get it up and down. Last week at the Workday the course was 1st in scrambling, while Morikawa was 31st. The course ranked 7th last year, 11th in 2018, 2nd in 2017, 14th in 2016, and 13th in 2015 while Cantlay ranked 5th last year, DeChambeau ranked 1st in 2018, Dufner in 2017 was 30th, McGirt was 6th in 2016 and Lingmerth was T-9th. Our last category is birdie average, last week it ranked T-18th while Morikawa ranked 1st. Last year it ranked T-28th while in 2018 it ranked 42nd, in 2017 it ranked 29th, in 2016 it ranked 48th and in 2015 was 43rd which means that it’s hard to make birdies at Muirfield Village. So how did our winners do, Cantlay was 1st last year making 25 birdies, in 2018 DeChambeau was T-7th, Dufner was T-2nd in 2017, averaging 5.25, McGirt was at 5.00 which ranked T-16th and Lingmerth averaged 5.50 and ranked T-6th.
So look for the course to play the same this week as it played last week.

*Strokes Gained tee-to-green: The per round average of the number of strokes the player was better or worse than the field average on the same course & event minus the players’ strokes gained putting value.

*Putting inside 10 feet: Very easy, counts every putt from ten feet in to see who makes the most.

*Scrambling: The percent of time a player misses the green in regulation, but still makes par or better.

*Birdie Average: Average number of birdies made over the course of a round

The 116 of the 132 players from this year’s field with stats from 2020:

Click any column title in the table header to sort columns.

Speak Your Mind

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.