The Memorial Tournament Power Rankings

While Rory McIlroy is skipping the week, most of the best players in the world will tee it up for the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village.

The PGA Tour's seventh and penultimate Signature Event of the season takes place at ‘Jack’s Place’ as it's affectionately known, with Jack Nicklaus overseeing the design of the course, only McIlroy and LIV’s Bryson DeChambeau will be missing from the world’s top 20.

Nicklaus intended Muirfield Village to test every club in the bag and is extremely demanding from tee to green, getting harder the closer you get to the hole.

It’s a long course at more than 7,500 yards, so shorter hitters are immediately at a disadvantage off the tee, but with water hazards, bunkers and lush, penal rough lining the fairways, players can’t afford to spray it all over the place.

Owing to its difficulty off the tee and its firm greens, the putting surfaces will often be missed, testing the field's short game skills, while the speed of the bentgrass greens will also demand total concentration on every putt.

It’s one of the toughest tests the players will face all year – as seen by Shane Lowry’s 13-over-par round of 85 on Sunday last year – and anybody reaching double figures under par will likely be very close to winning.

With it being a long course and demanding on approach, it’s no surprise that a number of players have played well at Muirfield Village and Augusta National down the years, with the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Hideki Matsuyama, Justin Rose, Tiger Woods, Kenny Perry, Ernie Els all winning the Memorial.

Once again, Scheffler tops our Power Rankings, but who joins him in the top five?

5 - Justin Thomas

Few could have seen Justin Thomas missing the cut at the PGA Championship, particularly at Quail Hollow, the site of his first major win.

It brought Thomas’s momentum to a grinding halt after winning the RBC Heritage and finishing runner-up at the Truist Championship,

The big difference for Thomas this year is that he’s starting to find the bottom of the cup a lot easier than in recent years. He remains long off the tee, his iron game is elite, as is his short game.

As long as he can keep the ball in play off the tee, Thomas should have a chance this week.

4 - Patrick Cantlay

There are some venues Patrick Cantlay just loves. Riviera is one, TPC Summerlin is one, Pebble Beach is one.

While he’s never publicly declared Muirfield Village to be amongst his favourites, he has admitted it’s a course that suits his game and the results would agree with him.

Although his last two finishes at Muirfield Village have been T30-MC, his six prior to that read 4-1-T7-T32-1-T3.

Cantlay’s short game has blown hot and cold this year, but his long game has been excellent. If he can tighten things up on and around the greens, he’ll likely be a big player.

3 - Xander Schauffele

Although he finished a disappointing 28th at the PGA Championship, there are signs of life from Xander Schauffele.

His iron play is getting back to its old level and he was sending the ball absolutely miles off the tee at Quail Hollow, second to only Bryson DeChambeau in driving distance.

Of course, Schauffele will need to keep the ball on the straight and narrow this week, but he should be confident returning to a venue where his worst finish is T24 in his last seven outings.

2 - Collin Morikawa

The move to change caddies from the JJ Jakovac, who he won two majors with, was surprising, but it may be what takes Morikawa from nearly man to winner again.

It feels harsh to call a two-time major winner a nearly man, but Morikawa’s lack of hardware is remarkable considering his ability. Morikawa’s last win the in the USA was the WGC-Workday Championship back in February 2021, and the one before that was his PGA Championship in 2020 at TPC Harding Park. For context, Morikawa hasn’t won a full PGA Tour event in the United States in front of fans.

He's now working with Joe Greiner, Max Homa’s former caddie, with the pair finishing T6 and T5 in 2021 and 2022, and Greiner may provide the fresh perspective Morikawa needs to get over the line.

Of course, Morikawa won at Muirfield Village in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic (albeit in the week before the Memorial) and has been runner-up twice before.

The only weakness in Morikawa’s game is his distance off the tee, but he more than makes up for it everywhere else, and will expect to go close this week.

1 - Scottie Scheffler

With the exception of his outstanding third round that catapulted him up the leaderboard, Scottie Scheffler had his C-game at Colonial for the Charles Schwab Challenge and finished a fairly disappointing fourth. That he could finish fourth having briefly had a sweat over the cut on Friday afternoon tells you the levels Scheffler has returned to.

What makes Scheffler such an infuriating player to beat is the total lack of weaknesses in his game. He’s a long hitter, but not liable to drive the ball off the planet. He rarely makes mistakes with his irons, but if he does, his elite short game bails him out, and since switching to a mallet putter, he’s become one of the best in the world on the greens.

Last year, Scheffler put himself in such a strong position, holding a four-shot lead after the third round that he could play the final round two-over-par and still win.

His B-game will see him go close. His A-game gives the rest of the field no chance.