JoePa's MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

[joepa66]

THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

Love Muirfield Village Golf Club, especially when I used to be a photographer in Columbus. It's the 5th hardest course on the PGA Tour believe it or not! How can a course where golfers find the fairway 70% of the time as they did in 2008 be one of the hardest on tour......well, it seems not many hit the greens in regulations from those fairways. In 2008 just 56% made the GIR and only 46% of golfers who had to scramble were able to save par. Both percentages are among the lowest on tour. So load up on ball strikers who drive the ball accurately off the tee and hit the greens with regularity! Now, on to my picks......

TO FINISH IN THE TOP 5

KENNY PERRY 7/2 - KP is the defending champion and has won Jack's tournament 3 times, and he's also finished in the Top25 in 11 of his 20 starts here and he's got 6 Top10s here as well. He won in 2008 and T3rd in 2007. A model of consistency he has been in Dublin, Ohio. Perry is currently ranked 6th in the FedEx standings, and through 13 events this season has a win, a 2nd place finish, 6 Top10s, 9 Top25s, and is perfect in making the cut in all 13 events this year. He's really due for a bounce back because his last three tournaments - Zurich, Players, and Crowne Plaza - he finished a disappointing T59th, T22nd, and T34th. What a better place to right the ship than one you are successful on!

ZACH JOHNSON 7/2 - Zach is just 1 for 5 in Top10s at The Memorial with a T2nd in 2006. His recent form leads me to believe that he's a great play this weekend. In his last two tournaments he won the Valero Open, and T9th at -11 in the Crowne Plaza. He's made 11 of 14 cuts on the season, has 2 wins (the other the Sony Open), a 3rd at the Arnie Palmer, 5 Top10s, 8 Top25s, and currently ranks 1st in the FedEx standings. He's 16th in driving accuracy, 3rd in scoring average, 18th in GIR, 18th in ball striking and 37th in overall putting.

STEVE MARINO 8/1 - Despite being 0-2 in Top10 finishes at The Memorial and a best T29th in 2007, you cannot deny that Marino's recent form has been nothing short of spectacular. He's made 12 of 16 cuts on the year, finished 2nd last week at the Crowne Plaza, and has 3 Top10s on the year with a 5th at the Zurich, and 7th at the Sony Open. He ranks 13th in scoring average, and has finished in the Top25 in 8 of his 16 starts on the season with 5 of those Top25s coming in his last 7 tournaments. Marino is 9th in ball striking on tour based on his 295 yard drives and his 14th standing in GIR. Go Steven! Go Steven!


TO FINISH IN THE TOP 10

MARC LEISHMAN 12/1 - If you look at his season overall you won't find anything too glowing. He's made 7 of 13 cuts and missed 3 cuts in a row.....that is, until 2 weeks ago when he finished T5th at the Valero Open with four sub 69 rounds, and then last week he finished T8th at the Byron Nelson with rounds of 68-70-63-68. He's a first time Memorial player whose driving accuracy and GIR stats vastly improved over the last two weeks even though he still ranks 144th in accuracy off the tee (57%) and 62nd in hitting greens (66%). His GIR is much higher inside 200 yards at 69%, 81% from 125 yards, and 89% from 100 yards. He's got to put himself in good position to hit greens as he has done the last two weeks. I'm betting on his recent form to carry him through.