Daily Fantasy Golf Course Primer: The Memorial

Last week, we saw Justin Rose pick up a win at the Fort Worth Invitational amongst a pretty loaded field, and this week's Memorial could be considered even tougher.

Last year's field at the Memorial was about as tough as that at the Masters for the past two years, via datagolf. So that'll need to be factored into our daily fantasy decisions on FanDuel, but so will the course makeup.

Let's dive into Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio to see what stands out.

Course and Tournament Info

This week's field is slated to be around 120 golfers, so it's not quite as large as some open events can get. That means that there's a higher percentage chance that our golfers make it through the cut.

Muirfield Village is a 7,392-yard par 72 that can be quite difficult. Even with a strong field last year, it was 13th in difficulty relative to par on the tour season in 2018.

The greens here are bentgrass and can read 13.5 on the stimpmeter (very fast), and they're some of the smallest greens on tour, as well.

Which stats, then, do we need to see from our golfers on FanDuel this week?

Key Stats

Always weigh in strokes gained: tee to green and be aware of how hot or cold a golfer's putter has been, but other than that, dial in on these key stats for your golfers for this week.

This is a second-shot course, so strokes gained: approach matters. Approach is almost always the best indicator of future success, but historically, strokes gained: approach are more important here than on other courses on the tour, via datagolf.

Similarly, strokes gained: around the green or scrambling -- especially sand saves -- have correlated strongly to success in the past at Muirfield Village.

It's a par 72, so golfers who can score on par 5s get a boost for fantasy purposes. It's really as simple as that.

The par 3s range from 180 to 210 yards. For that reason, proximity or par 3 scoring around that distance deserves to be on the list this week.

With hittable fairways, golfers of all types can compete here, but these stats should be the core of research this week.

Course History Studs

Per datagolf, Matt Kuchar leads the tour in adjusted strokes gained per round at Muirfield Village (+3.06). Kuchar's results are simply sterling here since 2008: 13th, 10th, 5th, 8th, 2nd, no start in 2012, win in 2013, 15th, 26th, 4th, 4th. That's 10 top-26 finishes in 10 tries and 7 top 10s.

Justin Rose is second on the list at +2.81. Rose's form isn't quite as consistent, but he did finish 2nd in 2008, first in 2018, 8th in 2012 and 2013, and 2nd in 2015. But since 2004, he's missed 3 cuts in 11 tries.

Jason Dufner, last year's winner, has made four consecutive cuts at Muirfield Village, all resulting in a 33rd or better, but just once besting 19th.

Hideki Matsuyama won here four years ago and followed it up with a fifth-place outing. Then he missed the cut and finished 45th last season.

David Lingmerth won three years ago and has made all five cuts over the past five years. Since his win, he finished 27th and 15th.

Kevin Kisner bookended a missed cut in 2016 with an 8th in 2015 and a 6th in 2017.