Memorial Tournament 2025 First-Round Leader Tips: Trio to back from 40/1 to 60/1

• 40/141.00 Hideki Matsuyama is a course horse and two-time FRL here

• 55/156.00 Matt Fitzpatrick has been starting well in elite tournaments 

• 60/161.00 Keegan Bradley is another with a run of recent good openers

Weather forecast for Thursday

Muirfield Village is a tough test so it'll be a relief that winds range between 5-9mph on day one. It could gust a little higher than that in the afternoon.

Temperatures start at around 60 and peak at around 75 degrees in mid-to-late afternoon.

The field is split into 36 two-balls, the first pair out at 7:50am and the last at 2pm.

There's no obvious draw advantage.

Hideki Matsuyama @ 40/141.00

Hideki Matsuyama has plenty of strong history at Muirfield Village.

The 2021 Masters champion won this event on debut and has had six further top 25s at the course since. That run includes a fifth, a sixth and an eighth (last year).

What's more, he's twice been first-round leader at the Memorial thanks to openers of 64 and 65.

His form is a little patchy of late and he suffered a surprise missed cut in the US PGA but, a week earlier at the Truist Championship, the Japanese star shot rounds of 63 and 65 on his way to 17th.

There are hints that he has another low one in him here and 40/141.00 (1/4, 5 Places) looks well worth a punt. 

Matt Fitzpatrick @ 55/156.00

It's been a tough season so far for Matt Fitzpatrick and parting with long-time caddie Billy Foster suggested he was really struggling to find answers.

But turning over a new leaf seems to have had a positive effect in the early stages.

The Englishman banked an excellent tied eighth in the US PGA and that followed a top 25 in the previous week's Truist Championship.

He's made some fast starts too with R1 leader positions of fifth (Heritage), ninth (US PGA) and 11th (US Masters) in four of his last five individual events.

Like this one, they were all elite tournaments (two Majors and a Signature Event) and now he comes to a Muirfield Village course where he was third in 2020, ninth in 2023 and fifth last year.

The ingredients are there for Fitzpatrick to make an early impact.

Keegan Bradley @ 60/161.00

Keegan Bradley has served punters well in the FRL market down the years and he's worth a play here at 60/161.00.

The Ryder Cup captain has been in the top 13 after day one no less than seven times at the Memorial and that includes 2022 and 2024.

Fourth at halfway last year, Bradley has again had his R1 scoring boots on in the last few months.

He was second after the opening lap of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, while he has FRL form of 10-7-9, shooting 67, 64 and 68 respectively in those three events: the RBC Heritage, the Truist Championship and the US PGA.

Bradley tees off at 1:40pm local, with Matsuyama starting out at 10:30am and Fitzpatrick at 12.15pm.

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