The Memorial Tournament Predictions, Odds, Best Bets

• Two-time tournament winner Patrick Cantlay defends the title
• Jon Rahm also returns, determined to atone for his forced withdrawal last year
• 18-time major championship winner Jack Nicklaus hosts the event

The Memorial Tournament Odds

Check out our predictions and odds for the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village. Odds taken from Caesars Sportsbook.

The Memorial Tournament Picks and Predictions

Will Zalatoris each way in the outright pick at +2800 with Caesars Sportsbook

Sepp Straka can grab a top 10 at +1200 with FanDuel Sportsbook 

Jordan Spieth to beat Cameron Smith at -110 with bet365

As mentioned above Jon Rahm returns to the Memorial Tournament this week with something to prove and the bit between his teeth.

The Spaniard won the title in 2020 and last year played three rounds in imperious fashion, exiting the 18th hole on Saturday with a six-shot lead.

Whereupon everything went horribly wrong in a manner he could never have expected: in short, he’d failed a Covid test and had to withdraw.

The despair on his face was one of the most memorable images of the 2021 season and it says much about the Spaniard’s determination that he used the disappointment to fuel his US Open triumph two weeks later.

One of the curious elements of the situation was that the two men who took advantage of Rahm’s position were Collin Morikawa (who lost the playoff) and Patrick Cantlay (who won in extra holes).

And why was this curious? Because the three men involved were also the most recent winners at Muirfield Village: Cantlay and Rahm winning the Memorial in 2020 and 2021, and Morikawa claiming the 2020 Workday Charity Open, an extra event held in the early weeks post-lockdown.

The field’s task this week, then? To break the stranglehold of that trio!

The Course Report: Muirfield Village

This is the place that Jack built and Nicklaus likes to keep it protected from the modern golfer and technology.

It’s a par-72 set at 7,533-yards and he keeps the short-iron approaches to a minimum which makes sense because Nicklaus believes that testing approach shots is critical.

The first element of that notion is revealed by the width he offers from the tee because one side of those large fairways will always provide a better angle than the other.

Then the greens are set at a diagonal and test distance control throughout the week.

If the approaches miss the smallish putting surfaces, the rough is thick and the bunkering has been renovated to provide a difficult test.

And to add to the troubles? The greens are famously lightning fast.

It is often said of Nicklaus tracks that they are “second shot tests” and Muirfield Village is the best example.

Where There’s a Will

If Will Zalatoris needs comfort after a series of near-misses in his quest to win a first PGA Tour title then the presence of Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns in last week’s Charles Schwab Challenge playoff might have provided it.

His close friend Scheffler landed 11 top fives in two years on the PGA Tour before his breakthrough win in February, whereupon he won four times in half a dozen starts.

And Burns, who eventually landed his fourth PGA Tour title in just over 12 months in those extra holes last Sunday, had before then suffered the repeated agony of gaining leads before losing them.

The Zalatoris top five count is only six but, in both the Farmers Insurance Open at the start of the year and then again in the PGA Championship two weeks ago, he suffered playoff defeat.

His only previous start at Muirfield Village was before he graduated to the top level so we can take his missed cut with a pinch of salt.

More relevant is his outstanding form and the fact that his game is built on exceptional tee-to-green qualities.

We must also factor in that he prefers putting on fast greens.

Take him each way in the outright at +2800 with Caesars Sportsbook which offers eight places.

Straka Likes a Nicklaus Test

So far in 2022 the PGA Tour has faced two Jack Nicklaus examinations, at PGA National in the Honda Classic and at Harbour Town in The Heritage.

At the first of those Austria’s Sepp Straka landed his first PGA Tour victory and he finished third at the second.

Can he complete the hat trick of Nicklaus’s top 10s?

This will be his fourth visit to Muirfield Village and he has a current best of T14th on debut, but he’s a better and a more confident golfer this season than he has been in the past.

Take him to make the top 10 with the FanDuel Sportsbook offering +1200.

Take on Smith

I want to oppose the Australian Cameron Smith this week because something about Muirfield Village is a very bad fit for him.

Something? Maybe that would be better written as “everything”!

Because in six visits he has made just two cuts and never finished in the top 60.

In 16 rounds at the course he has never gone sub-70, only once broken par, and only twice equaled it.

In five of his six visits, he lost strokes on the field tee to green and on another five he lost strokes on the greens.

It’s a terrible combination and needs opposing.

Jordan Spieth is the man because he leads Smith 5-0 in the head-to-head count at the course.

Moreover, the American has made 8 of 10 cuts at the layout and every single one of them was a better finish that Smith’s Muirfield Village career-best.

The Aussie is certainly due a better effort, but he’s worth taking on.

Take Spieth at -110 with bet365.

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