Midway Musings: Past champions rise at Muirfield Village

DUBLIN, Ohio. – We’ve hit the halfway point at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday and it’s some former champions who are punctuating the leaderboard in ominous positions.

The 2014 champion Hideki Matsuyama stormed up the leaderboard on Friday with a 7-under 65 placing him 7 under for the week and just one off the lead. He’s one behind Justin Suh (+900) who carded a 66 to move to 8 under.

But while Matsuyama is now +450 to win with BetMGM Sportsbook, it’s another former champion who has taken favoritism.

Patrick Cantlay, the 2019 and 2021 winner, is into +350 to make it a third title at Jack’s Place, after he moved to 6 under following a 67. He shares third place with David Lipsky (+3500).

Stalking them all is 2020 champion Jon Rahm who is now +600 after his second consecutive round of 70 to sit 4 under and tied for sixth. Rory McIlroy (+850) joins him with four others in a tie for sixth.

Former PLAYERS champion Si Woo Kim (+1600) is in a tie for fifth with Mark Hubbard (+5000).

Let’s break down the talking points over the first 36 holes and try to get a hold on what’s to come over the next 36.

• Pre-tournament favorite Scottie Scheffler’s uncanny streak of top 12s is seemingly coming to an end. Scheffler hasn’t finished outside the top 12 in an event since a T45 at THE CJ CUP in South Carolina last October. But rounds of 74-73 have him at 3 over and making the cut on the number in a tie for 61st.

• Former champions and the second and third pre-tournament favorites Jon Rahm and Patrick Cantlay are still well and truly in the mix. Rahm, the 2021 winner, sits at 4 under, four off the pace despite losing strokes on the greens. His tee-to-green game remains on point and with a little luck with the putter he could surge on Saturday. Cantlay, much like Rahm, is losing strokes putting but is gaining a plethora with his sublime ball striking. He leads SG: Tee-to-Green for the week with Rahm fourth.

• Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green remains the key metric at Muirfield Village with the last eight champions all being inside the top 11 of the stat for the week. Through two rounds the top seven players Tee to Green in Patrick Cantlay (T3), Si Woo Kim (T5), Lee Hodges (T12), Jon Rahm (T7), Patrick Rodgers (T7), Hideki Matsuyama (2nd) and David Lipsky (T3) are all inside the top 12 on the leaderboard.

• 2014 champion Hideki Matsuyama is the only player in the top 11 to be losing strokes Off-The-Tee. But he has gained 5.352 on approach to make up for it and ranks 11th in SG: Putting to sit just one off the pace.

• Leader Justin Suh is dominating on the greens leading the field in SG: Putting with +3.667 per round. That’s more than a shot better than the second-ranked J.T. Poston at +2.597 a round. He is 23/23 inside seven feet this week and has needed just 27 and 25 putts in his two rounds.

• Among those to miss the cut were recent AT&T Byron Nelson winner and local Ohio resident Jason Day, 2022 rookie of the year Cameron Young, Justin Thomas and defending champion Billy Horschel.

• Checking in on my pre-tournament picks… Winners: Patrick Cantlay and Jon Rahm are both still well and truly in contention. Xander Schauffele, my top 5 selection, sits at T22 while my top 10 choice of Scottie Scheffler is on life support if not dead already at T61. Shane Lowry’s Friday 76 makes him a longshot to hit my top 20 selection, now at T44 while Akshay Bhatia’s 78 means I’ve missed on my top 40 prediction. My longshot options of Adam Scott and Sahith Theegala made the cut, but at T44 and T53 respectively they remain longshots indeed. Scott was disappointing Friday given he sat at four under and close to the lead through 11 holes before dropping five shots in his last seven holes.

• Rory McIlroy is in contention again but I’m still not sure it’s time to jump on board. McIlroy is one bad hole away from being near the lead and he seems in a better frame of mind this week so far, but I’m still not convinced he can get all the way to top spot. It is promising ahead of his title defense at the RBC Canadian Open.

• Muirfield Village is set to get firmer and faster. With the place already nice and baked, continuing hot temperatures should see a true winner come through as Jack Nicklaus sets a hard and fast test. The final three holes ranked the three toughest over the opening two rounds leaving a daunting finish ahead.

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