Power rankings: the Memorial Tournament
The PGA Tour is in Jack Nicklaus’ home state of Ohio this week for the annual Memorial Tournament.
Muirfield Village will play host to many of the PGA Tour’s best, including defending champion Hideki Matsuyama and Jordan Spieth. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, looking to get ready for the U.S. Open in two weeks, are in the field as well.
With an Augusta National-inspired layout, length matters somewhat, but par-5 scoring is absolutely crucial to success.
Here are our top five for this week:
1. Jordan Spieth — Spieth was in the top 20 here last year, in his second Memorial appearance. He kind of soaked it all in last week — the praise, not rain — in his hometown event at the Nelson, but still did OK.
2. Hideki Matsuyama — Behind Spieth, the defending champion is the standard for consistency on Tour this season. He’s missed one cut all year, has a slew of top 10s and has been in the top 20 in his last four PGA Tour starts.
3. Matt Kuchar — Have to love Kuchar at this course. He’s not only a former Memorial winner, but he’s also been in the top 15 here in his last seven starts. A modest T-39 at the Nelson is good enough to show that he has some form.
4. Kevin Na — Na has been a mark of modest consistency all season. He had himself in a playoff here last year before finishing runner-up to Matsuyama.
5. Bill Haas — Haas has made seven of nine career cuts at Jack’s place, including top-eight efforts the last two years. Followed a T-4 at The Players by barely cashing a check at Quail Hollow.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
