Golf
Memorial Tournament preview: You Can’t Lay Patrick for the hat-trick
After a one-stop shop in Canada, the PGA Tour doesn’t have far to travel as the players hop over the border to Ohio for the Memorial Tournament.
This year’s edition is the penultimate Signature Event of the 2024 PGA Tour calendar, with the $20,000,000 purse and 700 FedExCup points attracting a strong field.
19 of the OWGR Top 20 will be on show at the Nicklaus-designed Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio and 18 of those will be aiming to overcome one man… Scottie Scheffler.
We’ve picked two from the 73-strong field whom we think could provide good value for their odds and make a strong challenge for the trophy.
Find our picks for the 2024 Memorial Tournament below.
Patrick Cantlay 25/1
You can’t talk about the Memorial Tournament without mentioning Patrick Cantlay. The American has finished atop the leaderboard on two separate occasions here, most recently in 2021 – not to mention his T3 and fourth-place finishes in 2022 and 2018 to go alongside those two victories.
This form is almost impossible to ignore and shows that this event could be exactly what Cantlay needs to get his 2024 back on track.
With just two top 10 finishes, Cantlay has not been up to his usual tricks this year, but having made every cut he certainly hasn’t been completely underwhelming. T4 and T3 finishes at the Genesis Invitational and RBC Heritage show that he has more than enough class to find himself in the 6 places available with William Hill this weekend.
He has failed to set himself apart from the rest in any of the key areas but, around this testing course, it is consistency and the ability to perform well with almost every club that will separate the wheat from the chaff.
Cantlay is a steady enough performer from tee-to-green and put on an absolute stripe show with his irons throughout his 2021 victory. He knows the course like the back of his hand and at 25/1, if he has his game face on, could provide brilliant value to land a hat-trick of wins in Ohio.
Will Zalatoris 60/1
Our second selection once again puts faith in an upturn in recent form, with past Memorial Tournament performances offering hope that Will Zalatoris can secure a second PGA Tour victory of his career this weekend.
At 60/1 Zalatoris sits around the middle of the market and injury worries, which have seen him drop to 39th in the OWGR, are the likely reason as to why he is not up there with those at shorter prices.
However, the American came into this season hot after missing the back end of 2023 through injury, with T13, T4 and T2 finishes in his first five starts which show that he is able to bounce back quickly.
That T4 finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was the last time he finished in the 6 places available with William Hill, but he did manage that feat in his last Memorial Tournament appearance, finishing T5 here in 2022.
Well-rested and hopefully raring to go, tough tests such as the one presented by Muirfield are where Zalatoris tends to excel. If that’s the case, any improvement on his 2022 finish will see him make great value of his longer odds.
