Memorial Tournament 2026: Dave Tindall's each-way picks from 22/1 to 40/1

Introduction to the Memorial Tournament

There was a spell from late 2010 to early 2012 when men's golf struggled to identify its best player.

Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy were all ranked World No.1 in that period until Tiger took it back for over a year from 2013 to 2014.

Without question, golf has a clear World No.1 right now but you wouldn't really know it if looking down the list of recent winners.

The last 10 regular strokeplay events have thrown up 10 different victors. And, amazingly, Scottie Scheffler isn't on that list.

Winless since January's American Express, there's good reason to think that Scheffler chalks up another 'W' this week though.

He's won the last two editions of Jack Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village and it should really have been the last three but for an abysmal putting performance in 2023.

Scheffler has 71 rivals to get past in this latest Signature Event and he's just 7/24.50 to return to the winners' circle and secure victory for the first time in 11 starts. It's worth pointing out that he has three seconds, two thirds and a fourth during this 'drought'!

Muirfield Village is a tough, tree-lined test featuring fast-running bentgrass greens that are on the small side.

Scheffler won the last two editions on the 7,569-yard par 72 with scores of -10 and -8 while Viktor Hovland emerged victorious from the 2023 playoff after shooting -7.

The winner has ranked 1st for Strokes Gained: Tee To Green in four of the last five years and Around The Green, unlike at many other courses, has been a key part of that.

Three of the last five champions ranked 3rd for ATG so this isn't just a case of who hits their irons best even though Approach is important as always.

Four of the last five winners ranked in the top 10 for Off The Tee so there's no hiding with that either.

The winner will likely be strong in all elements from tee to green and then do enough with the putter.

Sepp Straka each-way @ 35/136.00

Sepp Straka was 14th on his first very first start at Muirfield Village. That was when it hosted the Workday Charity Open in the Covid-hit season of 2020.

Two 69s and a pair of 70s landed him a top 15 and since then he's really hit his straps at Jack's place.

In 2023 he was eighth at halfway before finishing 16th. Two years ago a third-round 68 put him in second with a lap to go before he stuttered to finish fifth. And last year he held firm on Sunday, ending in third spot after firing 66-70 on the weekend.

Straka hasn't been a consistent force this season but we've seen him shine in some big events.

The Ryder Cup star was runner-up at Pebble Beach, fourth at the Cadillac and eighth in The Players Championship - all big events with high-quality fields.

At Pebble and Sawgrass he'd tipped us the wink with finishes of 18th (Phoenix) and 13th (Bay Hill) the week before.

So although the standard was lower, last week's 12th place in his home Austrian Open could be a good marker.

He shot 67-66-68-67 there and was 5th in Approach so basically just didn't hole enough putts.

But the shortstick isn't as key this week and jet-lag shouldn't be considered an issue either. We must presume he's made the journey from Austria to the States numerous times (he's lived in America since the age of 14).

Straka is 40s in the 5 Places market and 35/136.00 for 10. The small price cut is well worth it for those extra places.

Bet 2: Tommy Fleetwood each-way @ 22/123.00

With the golfing gods apparently sharing the love around, one prominent name waiting patiently for his turn to shine is Tommy Fleetwood.

Fleetwood has rather come down from his 2025 late-season high which saw him end his winless run on American soil by landing the FedEx Cup jackpot via a dominant victory in the Tour Championship.

But he's hardly fallen off a cliff. The Englishman has made the top 10 in half of his 10 PGA Tour starts this season and, filter out majors, and it's five in eight.

That includes fifth at the Truist Championship just two starts ago after sitting second at halfway.

Fleetwood has taken his time to come to the boil at Muirfield Village and two early visits (2015 and 2017) both produced missed cuts.

But after a lengthy gap, he's played the last two editions, finishing 20th in 2024 and 16th last year. They look good groundwork for a big week.

Fleetwood certainly has the profile we're looking for. He's 9th Tee To Green and 6th Around The Green this season.

The putter - not the priority here - is rather average but until a missed cut in the US PGA, he'd gained strokes on the greens in each of his last four events.

With a US Open at Shinnecock where he was runner-up in 2018 and an Open Championship in his backyard at Royal Birkdale coming up, Fleetwood will be particularly keen to get his game sharp for those two huge events.

What better way to give himself a boost than a win here.

Missing the cut in the US PGA was a shock as he very rarely heads home after 36 holes. It's happened just twice in his last 58 starts and on both those occasions he bounced back with a second place on his very next outing.

Read through his quotes and Fleetwood sounds like things are close. That top five at the Truist last month proved it and now it's time to kick on further.

Playing him without Scheffler is the way to go at 22s given he's the same price in the 5 Place market with the World No.1 included.

Bet 3: Justin Rose each-way @ 40/141.00

The popular narrative was that Justin Rose was shooting himself in the foot by switching to McLaren irons straight after his near-miss at The Masters.

The way he was dismissed suggested he'd perhaps seen some lying around in a pit lane during a visit and thought "I'll give these a go".

Of course, Rose is a perfectionist who has tinkered many times previously so it was obvious he would have road-tested these heavily.

And although his first few tournaments were sketchy - Rose never is one for consistency - in his first start with them in a major he was 10th (14th Approach) at last month's US PGA.

I'm going to back him to do something similar here by taking the Englishman at 40s in the 10 Places market.

It's rewinding a few years but Rose is a former winner at Muirfield Village and he's also twice finished runner-up. Overall he has seven top 10s in this event.

Recent efforts have fallen flat but a second-round 66 last year showed he can still score here.

A runaway winner at Torrey Pines earlier this year, Rose showed his short game was in great nick by ranking 1st for Around The Green in the US PGA at Aronimink.

He shot 65-69 on the weekend there and said on Sunday: "Kind of hit some really beautiful iron shots into some pins, worked the ball nicely into right flag, left flag."

As for the new irons: "I know these things are great. I've worked really hard on the process. Yeah, it was good to kind of play well today and see the evidence of that statistically."

Nicely rested since Aronimink and sixth at the Nicklaus-designed Valhalla in the 2024 US PGA, let's hope Rose is on one of his 'go' weeks. If so, a second win of 2026 isn't beyond him.

Now read Steve Rawlings' Memorial Tournament preview

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