Known for its delicious milkshakes, Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, hosts the Memorial Tournament, one of the PGA Tour’s premier events of the season. Hosted by legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus, the winner of the Memorial will be presented with a gold statue of Nicklaus and will shake hands with the man himself.
World No. 1 and back-to-back reigning Memorial champion, Scottie Scheffler, is trying to be the first guy to three-peat on the PGA Tour since Steve Stricker won the John Deere Classic from 2009-11. Scottie would be the second golfer to three-peat at Muirfield after Tiger Woods from 1999 to 2001.
Hand up: This season has been brutal for me from a betting perspective. My PGA Tour 2026 bankroll -31.26 units (u), and I’ve only hit one outright in 2026. Regardless, there are still two majors and plenty of events to get out of the hole, and comeback season starts this week at Muirfield.
The following odds are based on my previous bets on the golfers listed below. Subject to change.
There isn’t much left for Rory to accomplish in golf after winning the grand slam at last year’s Masters. He successfully defended his title by winning another green jacket this year. McIlroy can pass Scheffler and Cameron Young in having the best season on TOUR with a win this week.
That said, at this point, Rory’s only focus is on building his legacy, which is clear with his schedule, featuring only majors and signature events. The Memorial is one of two non-majors McIlroy hasn’t won that he’ll want to add to his resume.
He didn’t play in the Memorial last year. It bummed Nicklaus out, and Rory will have to make it up to him. Obviously, they are friends as fellow golf icons, but McIlroy has never shaken Jack’s hand at Muirfield, and Nicklaus is 86 years old, so he won’t have many more chances.
The other three best golfers of the post-Tiger era, Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Scottie, have already won the Memorial. Woods has won the Memorial five times and Nicklaus twice. Also, it’s not like Rory has played badly at Muirfield: He has five top-10’s in 13 Memorial Tournaments.
And, not that it matters all that much because Rory can win at any course, but Muirfield is Jack’s ode to Augusta, where McIlroy has won two straight Masters. The bottom line is we should get a motivated Rory this week, and he is my No. 1 power-ranked golfer in the world right now.
A two-time Memorial winner in 2019 and 2021, Cantlay has the second-best course history in this field behind Scheffler. Cantlay has gained strokes on approach in all 10 career visits to Muirfield, which is the most important for Jack’s Place.
Meanwhile, he enters Muirfield trending up. Cantlay has a T12-or-better in our straight starts — T7 at the Valspar Championship, T12 at The Masters, T8 at the RBC Heritage and T10 at the Truist Championship — bookended by a T32 at THE PLAYERS and a T35 at the PGA Championships.
He has gained strokes tee-to-green (driving, on approach and around-the-green) in all six of those events. Putting is less predictive at Muirfield, and that’s been the weakest club in his bag this year. But Cantlay has gained strokes on the greens in six of his last eight visits to Muirfield.
This is another horse for the course. Hideki won the Memorial on debut in 2014 with another Top-20s, including three top-10s. Matsuyama has cooled after starting the season with four straight T13-or-better finishes, but he hasn’t missed a cut in 2026.
His driving has been terrible this season. Yet, Hideki is dialed in with his irons and still has a world-class short-game, which are the two most important skills for Muirfield. Surprisingly, he is putting well this year. So, if Hideki can hit the fairway this week, or just stay out of the water, he could be in the mix Sunday.
The 2023 Canadian Open champion enters the Memorial in good lead-in form. Taylor was T9 at the 2026 Cadillac Championship, T14 at the Truist and T26 at the PGA Championship in his previous three starts.
He played better at the PGA Championship than the T26 indicates; Taylor was T2 after three rounds before firing a final-round 74 (+4).
Last year, he was tied for the lead at the Memorial after two rounds and finished fourth. Taylor has gained strokes on approach in five of his seven career visits to Muirfield, which is one of the toughest “second shot” courses on TOUR.
Furthermore, Jack’s Place is a difficult course with fast and small Bentgrass greens. Well, the Canadian ranks 14th on TOUR this year in scrambling and eighth in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green, and Bent is his best putting surface.
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Taylor has picked up strokes with driving accuracy in four of his last five starts, which have been three signature events and two majors. If he keeps hitting fairways, the rest of his game is good enough to put him into contention at the Memorial.
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Despite his fantastic course history, I’m hoping Cantlay won’t be popular this week because he hasn’t won since 2022. Nonetheless, I’ve already used the first six betting favorites and Matsuyama. That pretty much forces me to pick Cantlay here.
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