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Mixed martial arts The Memorial Tournament Best Bet: 67.00 Value Pick This Weekend
The Memorial Tournament Best Bet: Thursday, June 1st
Muirfield Village Golf Club is the host course for The Memorial Tournament. We have analysed the betting markets to bring you our The Memorial Tournament best bet for this weekend’s competition.
In this article:
The Memorial Tournament Preview
Thursday, 1st June, 12:00 (UK)
Muirfield Village has hosted the Memorial Tournament since 1976, the tournament coming to Ohio two years after the course opened.
Jack Nicklaus is this week’s tournament host as well as the Muirfield Village course designer. Nicklaus has constantly tinkered with the course over the years to combat the increased distance players hit the ball, the latest renovation coming in 2020. Muirfield Village will play as a par 72, stretching out to 7,533 yards.
Players are faced with thick rough, firm greens and a demanding test from tee to green. Often referred to as Jack’s Place, Muirfield Village demands quality approach play. Six of the last eight winners ranked inside the top ten for SG: Approach.
Recent PGA Championship runner up, Scottie Scheffler, is the favourite at 7.50. Remarkably, the world number one has yet to finish outside the top 12 in any event in 2023 and it’s entirely possible that streak continues given he already has a third place finish at this event in 2021.
Tournament conditions look ideal, with sunshine forecast each day and a moderate breeze. The greens will firm up as the week progresses, with scoring likely to be tougher on the weekend.
The Memorial Tournament Best Bet
This is the eleventh elevated event of the year on the PGA Tour. The aim of these elevated events being to bring the best players on the Tour together to compete for an increased prize fund.
The first ten elevated events have shown us that we shouldn’t look too far down the betting to find a winner. Wyndham Clark was the only player to win one of the first ten elevated events from outside the world’s top 50 and Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm have taken home the winner’s cheque in half of the events.
Rahm and Scheffler both tee it up this week and neither can be dismissed. Scheffler’s consistency makes him a threat on any course and we shouldn’t forget that Rahm is effectively a two time winner on this course, even if the history books suggest he’s only picked up one win at Muirfield Village. The Spaniard would surely have taken home the title here in 2021 were he not forced to withdraw after a positive Covid test with a six shot lead and only one round to go.
I’m not going to attempt to separate the world’s top two and have instead opted to bet with bet365 in the ‘Without Scheffler and Rahm’ market. This is an interesting market on bet365 that really suits the needs of this tip. It’s one of several interesting markets available on the site for this tournament.
Harris English ticks the world’s top 50 box, currently occupying 39th spot in the world rankings. He also has plenty of experience, with three PGA Tour wins to his name and was a member of the victorious Ryder Cup Team in 2021.
A stellar 2021, during which he won twice, saw him rise to 10th in the world rankings but 2022 proved to be a lean year. Injury problems and loss of form set him back but he appears to be back in the groove this year with a runner up finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and third place at the Wells Fargo Championship. It shouldn’t go unnoticed that both of those events were elevated and the world’s best were in attendance.
English has recorded two top 20 finishes from three starts at Muirfield Village and whilst it would have been handy to see a bigger body of work from the 33 year old, it’s enough to be cautiously optimistic.
Only six players bettered English’s tee-to-green game last week in Texas and he ranked 3rd for SG: Approach three starts ago at Wells Fargo. He very much looks like a player trending in the right direction and he’s the player I like as an each way bet in the aforementioned ‘Without Scheffler and Rahm’ market at 67.00 with bet365.
Finally, as an added bonus, English has positive associations with Columbus, Ohio. It was here in 2011 that he triumphed as an amateur on the Korn Ferry Tour. That win at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational may have come on a different course but he’s spoken of his liking for the area in subsequent interviews.
- Selection: Harris English EW (Without Scheffler and Rahm)
- Best Odds: 67.00 (bet365)
- Stakes: 1/10
Odds via bet365 as at 15.20 May 31st 2023. Odds may now differ.
