The 2012 Memorial Tournament will be played from May 31 to June 3 at Muirfield Village Golf Course in Dublin, Ohio. The event is known for having great fields year in and year out, and this year is no different with eight out of the top ten golfers in the world playing this week. What follows are the top three players to at this week's event.
Watson has been on sort of a whirlwind ride ever since he won the Masters a few weeks ago, and there is really nothing preventing him from being able to continue the success heading into this week. His worst finish on the PGA Tour this year is T18 at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions and the Zurich Classic, which really says something about how consistent his golf game has been. The one area of his golf game, though, that continues to cause him some trouble is his putting. In his last event at the Zurich Classic, Watson finished T66 in the field in putts per round at over 30, and while it didn't hurt him for the most part at that event it certainly will this week, especially considering how talented the field is.
Which Tiger Woods will we be seeing at this week's event? Will it be the one who won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and finished in the top five in three out of four weeks or the one who hasn't finished better than 40th over his three most recent events? It is really hard to say, as inconsistency has plagued Tiger through much of the year. He can still drive the golf ball with the best of them on Tour, but it doesn't do him any good if he can't hit a lot of greens in regulation and make putts when they matter. With the time off and everything I would expect Woods to finish in the top 25 this week, but for him to finish within the top 10 Tiger will need to get off to a decent start, as he hasn't broken 71 in the first round of his past three events played.
Last but not least, there is Rory McIlroy, who missed the cut in his last PGA Tour event at the Players Championship after shooting 72-76. He never really had a good history at that event to begin with, but that shouldn't take away from the fact that he looked awful with his iron play that week, ranking 112th in the field in greens in regulation at just over 50%. McIlroy is too good of a player not to make the adjustments and come into this week firing on all cylinders, but one thing that concerns me about his game is his performance on par 5s, where he ranks 115th on Tour in the category. Is it odd that someone who hits it as far as McIlroy does can't take advantage of par 5s, and with four generally easy ones to go at this week I wonder if he will be able to stay with the pack heading into the weekend.
Ryan Kekoufski is a scratch golfer who has both played and watched the sport for well over a decade.
