Memorial Tournament: Odds, value picks, predictions for Jack Nicklaus’ Signature Event

Following a thrilling RBC Canadian Open, the PGA Tour heads to Ohio for the annual Jack Nicklaus Memorial Tournament.

Xander Schauffele, fresh from a shock PGA Championship victory at Valhalla, will be teeing off for the first time as a major champion, as will Scottie Scheffler, playing his first tournament since Louisville police dropped assault charges against him.

Other top players include Rory McIlroy, Wyndham Clark and Viktor Hovland, with the latter winning at Muirfield Village last year.

Hovlan defeated Denny McCarthy in a playoff, the biggest win of his career at the time, but this victory marked the start of the “Hovlan Summer”, in which he won the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship in August.

Of course, Hovland arrives at Muirfield Village fresh off a solo third-place finish at Valhalla, his best and only top-10 finish of 2024 so far.

Overall, 23 of the top 25 players in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) are set to tee it up this week, with LIV Golf’s Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton being the only exceptions.

The course will provide a fantastic qualifying opportunity ahead of next week’s U.S. Open and will test the best players in the world.

Memorial Tournament Odds:

Latest Odds This week’s Memorial Tournament is brought to you by DraftKings:

• Scottie Scheffler +360
• Rory McIlroy +800
• Xander Schauffele +900
• Collin Morikawa +1400
• Viktor Hovland +1800
• Ludvig Oberg +1800
• Patrick Cantlay +2500
• Justin Thomas +2500
• Wyndham Clark +3500
• Tommy Fleetwood +3500
• Max Homa +3500
• Hideki Matsuyama +3500
• Sahith Teegala +4000
• Jordan Spieth +4500
• Matt Fitzpatrick +5000
• Cameron Young +5000
• Ahn Byung-hun +5000

Photo by Keyur Khamar/PGA Tour via Getty Images

Memorial Tournament Predictions

Muirfield Village Golf Club tests annually as the PGA Tour’s best course, even as Nicklaus continually refines the layout. His most recent renovation took place a few years ago, when Golden Bear reworked all the greens and bunkers, hoping to provide an added challenge for pros while maintaining playability for members.

While accuracy is paramount on this golf course, which hosted the 1987 Ryder Cup, distance is just as important: at 7,571 yards, it’s one of the longest courses on the PGA Tour.

The strange case of Tom Kim

Tom Kim is one of the most talented young players on the planet, but he hasn’t lived up to expectations entering 2024. Prior to a tied-for-fourth place finish at last week’s RBC Canadian Open, Kim’s best finish this season came at the WM Phoenix Open, where he finished tied for 17th.

But the 21-year-old’s game doesn’t have any glaring weaknesses. But it’s also not spectacular. If anything, he’s been relatively accurate off the tee, hitting 68.55 percent of his fairways this season, good for 19th on the PGA Tour. That said, he missed a number of fairways at the Canadian Open on Sunday but still managed to post a 6-under 64.

His putter has been good. A good putter usually translates to good results for a pro no matter what happens from tee to green. We expect Kim to continue to rely on his putter this week at Muirfield Village and finish +400 for his second top 10 of the year.

Viktor Hovland continues his comeback

Prior to the PGA Championship, Viktor Hovland was playing poorly, missing the cut at the Masters and shooting 81 in the second round. His short game had completely killed him and left him with zero confidence going into the middle of major championship season.

He then took some time off, reunited with his old coach, Joe Mayo, and shot three straight 66s at the PGA Championship, looking like a top player again at Valhalla and suggesting another big win was on the horizon.

Photo by Scott Tetch/PGA of America via Getty Images

However, Hovlan continues to struggle with his short game and ranks 174th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained around the greens.

Nonetheless, if Hovlan finds the fairways and greens like he did at Valhalla, he should have no problem winning. Plus, he won here a year ago and has spoken many times about how much he loves this golf course. Comfort often breeds confidence, so we expect Hovlan to finish in the top five at +360 and compete for the win again this year.

French Fever

Mathieu Pavon and Victor Pérez enjoyed strong first seasons as full-time members of the PGA Tour.

Pavon won the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year and has two other top 10 finishes. He hasn’t played since missing the cut at the PGA Championship, but there’s a good chance he’ll bounce back at Muirfield Village, where, like Torrey Pines, every aspect of his game will be tested. With odds of +1400 to finish in the top 10, Pavon is worthy of being picked as a longshot.

Perez, meanwhile, arrives in Ohio fresh off a tie for third at the RBC Canadian Open where he shot two 64s over the weekend. The former New Mexico Lobo is a great ball striker and ranks 13th on the PGA Tour in greens in regulation, but he hasn’t found many fairways and we’re a bit skeptical of how he’ll perform at Muirfield Village. But Perez putted well in Canada and should be in contention to win again this week. We expect Perez to finish in the top 10 at +1200.

Long shot winner

Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

Alex Noren received one of those sponsorship exemptions this week, and we’re hoping he makes the most of it. The 41-year-old Swede has played impressively this season, recording two top-10 finishes and finishing tied for 12th at the PGA Championship.

Noirein missed the cut at last week’s RBC Canadian Open, his first MC of the season, but the early exit will likely mean he arrives in Ohio refreshed and ready to go. His slick tee-to-green game suits this course well, and with a +8000 chance to win, we think Noirein is worth a shot.

Memorial Tournament Picks

Tommy Fleetwood has been playing consistently since THE PLAYERS Championship in mid-March. He tied for seventh at the Valero Texas Open and tied for third at Augusta. He also had good finishes at Quail Hollow and Valhalla and should have done better last week in Canada. But a double bogey at the start of the final round and a 2-over 72 on Sunday put him out of contention for the championship. He tied for 21st.

Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

Still, Fleetwood’s game is a perfect fit at Muirfield Village: He’s accurate off the tee, he putts well and he makes very few mistakes. He ranks eighth on the PGA Tour in bogey avoidance.

But what makes us like Fleetwood even more is the improvement he showed in his ball-striking last week in Canada. He currently ranks 137th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained on approaches to the green and 88th in greens in regulation percentage. But Fleetwood gained 5.28 strokes in iron play in Hamilton, ranking fifth among competitors.

We think the Brits will continue to have a decent chance this week and Fleetwood’s odds of winning at +3500 are fantastic, as he finally gets his breakthrough on the PGA Tour and the Golden Bear hands the trophy to a European player for the second year in a row.

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Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation Playing Through. Follow For more golf articles, follow us on Twitter Jack Mirko In the same way.