Memorial Tournament First-Round Leader Tips: Get with Glover

Weather forecast for Thursday: It's a very mild day in Ohio with temperatures starting at around 66 degrees and then dropping to the early 60s for the rest of the golfing day. There's a chace of rain in the morning. Winds are light at the start and go to around 10mph in the afternoon. There are pros and cons for each wave so there's no obvious bias.

Get with Glover

Word from the course suggests it's playing firm which could mean 2020 offers the best clues as it was similar conditions then.

Lucas Glover opened with a 69 to sit fifth after 18 holes on that occasion and it wasn't his first good start at Muirfield Village.

The former US Open champ has ended day one in the top five three times in the last five years after setting out with 67s in both 2017 and 2018.

He hasn't made the best of those low openers but that doesn't concern us in this market.

A top 25 in the USPGA shows his game is in decent nick and he's ranked in the top four for Strokes Gained: Approach in his last two events: Southern Hills and Colonial. That looks a key skill this week.

Glover heads out at 07:48 and can hopefully make an early impression. He's 80/1.

Woodland to make early inroads

Gary Woodland is clearly a fan of Muirfield Village.

The 2019 US Open champion has three top sixes and three more top 25s to his name at the par 72 Jack Nicklaus layout.

Back in that 2020 edition, he was quick out of the blocks and sat third after day one. Widening the picture he's fired in the 60s in the first round four times in the last seven years.

Woodland's form is rather coming and going at the moment but he had back-to-back top fives on the recent Florida Swing and is always one to look to on firm courses.

The 66/1 shot is one of the later starters at 13.24 from the 10th.

Side with Stallings

Scott Stallings had a great time last week, qualifying for the US Open in his own neck of the woods and then posting fourth place in the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial.

All that may catch up with him here at some point but I'm hoping on day one the above will manifest as momentum rather than fatigue.

He's made six of seven cuts at Muirfield Village and has a fourth and two top 25s to his name.

Stallings was actually the first-round leader here in 2012 while more recently he ended the opening lap in 12th place on his penultimate visit in 2019.

He's been starting well this season, finishing in the top 10 after 18 holes on six occasions, the most recent at Colonial last week.

The 80/1 shot is in the opening group from the 10th, teeing off at 07.00.