The PGA Tour rolls into Dublin, Ohio this week for the time honoured Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club, commonly known as Jacks Place.

Muirfield Village GC was designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in 1974. It is a Par 72, 7265 yard course with 73 sand bunkers and 13 water hazards. Last year it ranked 19th most difficult from 51 courses played on the tour. The greens are Bentgrass.

The Memorial Tournament was established in 1976 and has seen many great winners over those years. Tiger Woods has won here on four occasions which includes three in a row from 1999-2001. His win in 2001 was by a whopping 7 strokes. Kenny Perry is next with 3 Victories in 1991, 2003 and 2008. Jack himself has been successful here on two occasions. His first win was in 1977 then again in 1984.  His 1977 win gave him a winners cheque of US$45,000. This year the winner takes home US$1,116,000 from a prize pool of US$6,200,000. Other two time winners have been Hale Irwin, Tom Watson and Greg Norman.

This years field is once again choc full of World Class players. The field would stand up well in any Major. There are Eight of the Top 10 ranked players in the World- Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson, Hunter Mahan, Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose. 

Eighteen winners from this season will be out to claim another victory for the year with the likes of Rickie Fowler, Ben Curtis, Steve Stricker, John Huh and Mark Wilson teeing it up. Then you have the experience of Major winners like Davis Love III, Charl Schwartzel, Geoff Ogilvy, Vijay Singh and Ernie Els.  

This week also sees the return of two of the games big names in Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson. Bubba is back after his Masters victory and the welcoming of a new baby into the family while Dustin is back from injury. Both golfers are sure to have their fans out in force to cheer them on.

A lot of the crowd is sure to be found on the 18th hole which has room for 20,000 spectators around the green. It is the most difficult hole on the course and has 4 bunkers surrounding it. Two to the front of the green and two to the rear so you dont want to be missing the green on your second shot.

So what does it take to win here?  Looking at the past winners of the tournament they have all had one thing in common.. Experience. The Top players all play well here. You don’t find first timers fairing to well. 

Look at the last 5 winners- Steve Stricker, Justin Rose, Tiger Woods, Kenny Perry and KJ Choi.  All great players and all with experience on the big stage. These guys are all great ball strikers as well.

Keeping the ball in play is also very important. Driving accuracy will take you a long way in this tournament. Past winners have all ranked highly in driving accuracy and ball striking. Past winners have also ranked highly in Greens in regulation stats, so keep this in mind when looking for the winner.

So now we come to our selections. There are several players who are coming into this tournament with good form and have also got good course form. None more so than our first selection.  Our second and third selections are guys who are about to hit their straps and this could be the week to get them at good odds.

JUSTIN ROSE 18/1

If its a play in form you want, then look no further than Justin Rose. On the PGA Tour this year he has had 10 starts and made all 10 cuts. The World No.6 has also recorded four Top 10’s and a Win. Notable results have been T13th Northern Trust Open, T5th Honda Classic, 1st WGC Cadillac Championship, T15th Arnold Palmer Invitational, T8th Masters and T10 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. 

After the Players Championship (T51st) he headed back to the European Tour where he posted another two Top 10 finishes with a 9th at the Volvo World Match Play and last week a T2nd BMW PGA Championship. 

He now tees it up at Muirfield Village where he had his first PGA Tour victory in 2010. Add to that a T2nd in 2008, T14th in 2006 and 4th in 2004. It must be something to do with even number years as his results in the odd number years have been 2011= Cut, 2009=Cut, 2007=DNP, 2005=T45th.  For a guy in stellar form he is sure to make his 2012 appearance another good even number result!

His current stats have him ready to produce his best this week on a course he knows all to well. He is 25th in Driving accuracy, 4th in GIR’s, 6th in Scoring average, 14th in Scrambling and 7th in Ball striking.

I expect Justin to be knocking on the door for his 5th PGA Tour victory come Sunday afternoon in Ohio.

RYAN MOORE 60/1

With One win from 177 starts on the PGA Tour, you may be wondering why I have selected Ryan Moore this week. The same could of been said about Jason Dufner only a few weeks ago!  I’m not saying Ryan is about to go on a winners streak like Dufner, but I do believe he is about to enter a purple patch of form. 

From 13 starts this season he has made 10 cuts and had three Top 10’s. Those were a T4th Arnold Palmer Invitational, T8th Valero Texas Open and T5th Wells Fargo Championship.  Last week he had three good rounds at the Crowne Plaza Invitational before coming unstuck with a final round four over par 74.

His GIR stats for last week were very good. He was hitttng the ball well according to a friend who was at the course and he faired well on the Par 4 and 5’s. It was the par 3’s that let him down. He was +4 on them for the week.

With a bit of tinkering I believe he can fair better this week at a course he enjoys playing on. His record here is 2011=T22nd, 2010=T5th, 2009=Cut, 2008=T10th, 2007=2nd, 2006=T31st.  Most players would be envious of that record.

If he can continue his good GIR stats from last week along with his current Driving accuracy ranking of 35th then we can expect to see him challenging at odds that are sure to temp each way backers.

GEOFF OGILVY 60/1

If you want a player this week who has the experience on the big stage then Geoff is your man. The 2006 US Open Champion is having a quiet year on tour according to some people. But look closer and you will see that he is playing good competitive golf without setting the world on fire. From 12 starts this season he has made 11 cuts. And that was back in February at the Northern Trust Open.

Since then he has put together some good results like T16th Transitions Championship, T19th Masters, T21st Wells Fargo Championship, T12th Players Championship and T19th Crowne Plaza Invitational.  So you can see he is playing well. He just needs to convert those good results into a win now. And by all accounts he has been practising well with his coach in the last few weeks.

So this week could be the week to grab those big odds on offer as he strives for his first victory of the year. He has had seven starts at The Memorial and made all seven cuts. His best results have been 2009=T10th, 2008=9th and 2007=T9th, 2005=T17th.

Another positive note is that from his last 16 rounds of golf he has been over par on only 3 occasions.  He is currently ranked 6th in Scrambling, 2nd in Par 3 performance, 17th in sand saves and 36th in strokes gained putting.

Good Luck and Good Punting.