2026-06-02 The Memorial Tournament

The Memorial Tournament

Your weekly guide to fantasy golf on the PGA TOUR

⛳ This week on the PGA TOUR

Tournament: The Memorial Tournament
Date: June 4–7, 2026
Venue: Muirfield Village Golf Club, Dublin, Ohio
Purse: $20,000,000 (winner $4.0 million)
Cut Rule: Top 50 and ties after Round 2, plus anyone within 10 strokes of the lead.
Course Details: This week the world’s best descend on the par-72 monster that Jack Nicklaus built and still personally fine-tunes nearly every year. Stretching to roughly 7,569 yards, it’s one of the longer tracks the Tour visits all season — but raw power alone won’t cut it. Nicklaus designed it as a shotmaker’s examination, and he has continued to tinker with it over the decades to keep pace with the evolving elite game. The defining features are the same ones that make grown men weep: tree-lined fairways that pinch in at the landing zones, a creek that snakes through the property and threatens tee shots and approaches on three of the four par 5s, and small, severely undulating bentgrass greens that run pure and fast. The course is especially tough tee-to-green, with very thick and penalizing rough and fast and firm greens. The rough is grown to near U.S. Open thickness every June, so missing fairways is punished harshly — a key reason this course historically produces one of the lowest birdie rates from the rough on Tour.
What’s New: Not much, and that’s actually the headline. No major course changes were conducted after last year’s edition, which is surprising only because tweaking the fairways, greens and bunkers has become an almost yearly staple here. After the dramatic 2021 face-lift — tightened rough lines, every greenside bunker rebuilt, several greens shrunk, and around 250 yards added — the design has settled in. The biggest change for 2026 is off the course: a new scoreboard. The test itself is exactly the beast it’s been the last few years.
Weather: Dublin, Ohio is shaping up for a warm, mostly dry week, with highs climbing from the low 80s Thursday into the mid-80s by the weekend and only slim rain chances (around 10%) for the opening rounds. Saturday brings a slightly better shot at a stray storm (about 25%), but with firm, warm conditions in the forecast, expect Jack’s greens to get fast and firm — exactly the high-scoring defense Nicklaus loves.

Welcome to one of the crown jewels of the PGA TOUR calendar. Founded and still hosted by Jack Nicklaus, the Memorial Tournament has been a late-spring tradition since 1976, and this week marks its 50th anniversary — a milestone edition of an event Jack built to honor the game’s greats and test the world’s best on one of the most demanding venues they’ll see all year. As the seventh of eight Signature Events this season, it carries a $20 million purse and an elite, limited 72-player field, which means the talent is stacked top to bottom. It’s the first Signature Event to feature both McIlroy and Scheffler since the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March. Speaking of Scheffler — the World No. 1 arrives as the two-time defending champion, chasing history: a win would make him the first player to take the same PGA TOUR event three years running since Steve Stricker at the John Deere from 2009-11, and put him alongside Tiger Woods’ legendary 1999-2001 three-peat here. He won’t have it easy. The field includes World No. 2 Rory McIlroy (still seeking his first Memorial title), Cameron Young, Matt Fitzpatrick, red-hot Russell Henley, Justin Rose, reigning FedExCup champion Tommy Fleetwood, J.J. Spaun, Patrick Cantlay, Justin Thomas, and Hideki Matsuyama. In short: if you’re setting a lineup this week, there’s no shortage of stars to build around.

Past Champions:

2025 – Scottie Scheffler (−10)
2024 – Scottie Scheffler (−8)
2023 – Viktor Hovland (−7)
2022 – Billy Horschel (−13)
2021 – Patrick Cantlay (−13)

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🏌️ Players to Watch (and a Few to Fade)

This is a course that rewards precision over power and tends to reveal itself through history — past performance at Muirfield Village means a lot here. In fact, 10 of the past 11 Memorial winners had made the cut at the course in their previous appearance. Since the major 2021 renovation tightened the rough, rebuilt the bunkers, shrank some greens, and added length, low scores have become much harder to come by — the winning total has dropped from 13 under in 2021 and 2022 down to single digits in each of the last three years. That makes this less a birdie-fest and more a test of patience, where avoiding big mistakes matters as much as making putts. The greens are tiny and lightning-fast, the greenside bunkers are among the most punishing on Tour, and the course ranks inside the top five for the lowest scrambling percentage on the schedule (around 53%) — so getting up-and-down here is a genuine grind. Approach play is the great separator: putting yourself on the correct tier of these severe green complexes is the difference between a tap-in birdie and a three-putt bogey. Add in thick, near-U.S.-Open rough that punishes anyone who sprays it off the tee, and you’ve got a week where ball-striking and course knowledge rise to the top.

Here are the names worth circling on your roster sheet:

Scottie Scheffler — The two-time defending champion and World No. 1, chasing a historic three-peat. There’s been chatter about his ball-striking being a touch off his ridiculous standard this season, but until someone beats him here, he’s the man to fade at your own risk.
Russell Henley — Arguably the best pure fit in the field. He just won the Charles Schwab Challenge in a playoff, has multiple top-10s this season including the Masters, and leads the Tour in driving accuracy — exactly the profile this second-shot golf course rewards. He finished T5 here last year.
Patrick Cantlay — A two-time Memorial champion (2019 and 2021) who simply gets this place. He’s added a pair of top-5 finishes around those wins and ranks 2nd on Tour in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green — a huge asset given how punishing the scrambling is here. If the putter cooperates, watch out.
Hideki Matsuyama — The 2014 champion, who famously won here in his very first Memorial start. A world-class iron player, which is the single most important skill this week.
Justin Rose — The 2010 winner and still a remarkably consistent ball-striker at this stage of his career. A proven horse for this course who knows how to navigate it.
Rory McIlroy — World No. 2 and back in the field after skipping last year. He’s never won at Jack’s place, and has openly admitted his length advantage gets somewhat neutralized by the way the fairways pinch in — but an in-form McIlroy is always dangerous, and the storyline alone makes him compelling.
Ludvig Åberg — One of the hottest ball-strikers in golf and sitting near the top of the odds board. He’s racked up a string of strong 2026 results, including 3rd at Bay Hill, a pair of 5ths at TPC Sawgrass and TPC San Antonio, and 4th at Harbour Town. His all-around game travels beautifully to premium-approach venues like this.
Xander Schauffele — An elite, well-rounded ball-striker who rarely beats himself — exactly the bogey-avoidance profile that wins here. He doesn’t have a deep Memorial résumé, but his consistency and shot-making make him a strong fit for a demanding setup.

Potential Fades:

Cameron Young — Despite having some of the shortest odds in the field, the data is wary. He’s never cracked the top 20 in four starts here, has broken par just once over his last 12 rounds at Muirfield Village, and is teeing it up for the first time in three weeks since the PGA Championship — a tough spot to shake off rust.
Wyndham Clark — He’s red-hot, having just closed with a 60 to win the CJ Cup, so the temptation is real. But his Memorial track record is mediocre (a best finish of just T12), and his bomber profile has historically been a shaky fit for this precision-first test. Buyer beware.
Jordan Spieth — Always a tempting, familiar name, but proceed with caution. He hasn’t won in nearly four years, and his recurring issue is waywardness off the tee — the exact flaw Muirfield Village’s thick rough punishes most severely. He’s played the course respectably in the past, but his current form makes him a risky build.

🧐 Did You Know?

Jack designed the entire experience — and still runs it. Now in its 50th anniversary year, the Memorial is one of only a handful of PGA TOUR events both founded and hosted by the same legend. Jack Nicklaus founded the tournament, designed Muirfield Village himself, and has presided over every single edition since 1976. There’s no other regular-season stop on Tour with that combination of host, course, and pedigree all tracing back to one person.

Every year honors a golf great — and 2026 reaches all the way back to the game’s origins. A signature tradition is the Honoree Ceremony, held the Wednesday of tournament week. This year’s honorees are two-time major champion and 1980 Memorial winner David Graham, along with — posthumously — Allan Robertson, the early St. Andrews professional widely regarded as the first great golf professional, whose death in 1859 helped inspire the creation of The Open Championship.

The yellow you’ll see everywhere has a deeply personal meaning. The tournament’s “Play Yellow” theme isn’t just branding. It’s inspired by the yellow shirts Jack Nicklaus wore in the final round of tournaments, which he did to honor Craig Smith — the son of a close friend who fought bone cancer and died at age 13 in 1971. The campaign now raises money for Children’s Miracle Network hospitals.

🤔 Fantasy Strategy

Muirfield Village rewards a very specific profile, so let the course dictate your strategy rather than chasing big names. Three things matter most here. First, Strokes Gained: Approach is king — this is a second-shot golf course where getting on the correct tier of these severe greens is the whole game. Second, prioritize driving accuracy and bogey avoidance over raw distance; the thick, near-U.S.-Open rough turns wayward tee shots into bogeys in a hurry, and recent winners have ranked near the top in avoiding mistakes. Third, lean on course history — 10 of the past 11 winners had already made the cut here in their prior appearance, so this is a venue where comfort and reps count. Pair one or two elite ball-strikers at the top with value plays who fit that mold, and don’t overpay for bombers who don’t profile well.

Sleepers to Consider:

Sepp Straka — The standout course-fit sleeper. He’s been dynamite at Muirfield Village over the last three years, with a top-20 in 2023, a T5 in 2024, and a third-place finish last year, and he’s a precise, approach-first player tailor-made for this test. He also carries a trio of top-10s this season, including a T4 at Doral a few starts ago. Quietly one of the best plays in the field at his price.
Corey Conners — A pure ball-striker who fits this course as well as almost anyone. He’s had brilliant stretches of iron play this season but hasn’t cashed in with a hot putting week — and this tougher, iron-demanding setup is exactly where that ball-striking can shine if the putter even rises to average. A classic low-floor, high-ceiling tournament play.
Maverick McNealy — A strong value option rounding into form at the right time. After losing strokes on approach in three straight events, his irons came alive with big SG: Approach weekends, and he finished T5 at the Memorial last year — proof his game travels to demanding setups like this one.
Daniel Berger — A deeper-value sleeper with the precise profile this course wants. His blend of accuracy off the tee and crisp iron play gives him a real shot, and he’s finished T5 here before (2022) — plus he was runner-up at Bay Hill back in March, showing he can contend on a tough track when his game is sharp.

⭐️ Pro Tip: Don’t chase distance this week — at Muirfield Village, the players who hit fairways and stuff their irons close are the ones who’ll be standing on the leaderboard come Sunday, so build your lineup around accuracy and Strokes Gained: Approach.

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❎ One-and-Done Corner

The Memorial Tournament features a $20 million purse, including $4 million to the winner, matching the PGA Tour’s other Signature Events and representing one of the richest remaining tournaments of the season. With only the U.S. Open surpassing it in significance and prize money on the remaining schedule, the Memorial should be viewed as a premier deployment week for pool players. Those who have been saving their top golfers for the right opportunity have likely reached it, making this a week to balance using your strongest available options with your position in the standings and, if necessary, differentiating with less popular selections to gain ground on the competition.

For a one-and-done this week, target a golfer whose game is built on precision rather than power — the type who hits fairways, controls his irons, and avoids the big number rather than the bomber who overpowers a course. Muirfield Village simply doesn’t reward distance the way most modern venues do; the fairways pinch in at the landing zones, the rough is grown to near-U.S.-Open thickness, and the small, severely contoured greens punish anyone approaching from the wrong spot or the wrong angle. History backs this up: recent champions like Patrick Cantlay and Billy Horschel won by leading the field in bogey avoidance, and the past three winning scores have all sat in single digits, proving this is a grind where mistakes are far more costly than missed birdie chances. Now, we say it nearly every week that Strokes Gained: Approach is the metric that matters most — and that’s true — but this week you should crank that dial all the way up, because few venues on the entire calendar lean on iron play as heavily as this one.

➔ View Strokes Gained: Approach rankings on PGA TOUR

On a typical Tour stop, a hot putter or a couple of bombed drives can paper over mediocre approach play; here, the tiny, lightning-fast greens and brutal scrambling conditions leave nowhere to hide, so the player who consistently hits the correct tier from the fairway gains a far bigger edge than he would almost anywhere else. In other words, SG: Approach isn’t just the most important category this week — it’s the most important it’ll be all year. Pair elite ball-striking and SG: Approach with a solid history at the course (10 of the past 11 winners had already made the cut here in their prior appearance), and you’ve got the blueprint for the perfect one-and-done pick this week.

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The Memorial Tournament

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