What To Look For: Workday Charity Open

The PGA Tour will return to Muirfield Village for 2 weeks in a row, one week for the Workday Charity Open and the following week for The Memorial.



The Workday Charity Open will feature a Muirfield Village that is shorter in length with slower greens.  I think this will bring shorter distance golfers that are good putters into the fold more because they can't get hurt by so much length and slower greens typically mean lower make percentages which means there's more room to gain more strokes on the green if a player putts well.

The big question in all of this is if the firmness of the greens get softer as the greens get slower.  If they do, then that helps the shorter hitters even more since they usually hit the ball lower into greens.  However, it will also make things easier for shots around the green which is where Muirfield Village terrorizes Tour players.

Muirfield Village is a Jack Nicklaus design and a very typical Nicklaus design feature is that it's about the approach shots.  Particularly if you miss the approach then the player is often in jail and only the extremely talented short game around the green players can save par.  It's wide open off the tee and the field average of hit fairway percentage is usually 70%+.

The 18th hole is typically the final Critical Hole on the golf course.

The hole actually plays from an elevated tee and then an elevated green. With the shallow, slightly angled green it makes for a high deviation in scores.

On average the drive on this hole will travel 300+ yards, but it is the most difficult fairway to find on the course (~53%). And about 4-5% of tee shots will find the water on the left.

The approach shot is about average in terms of difficulty for the given yardage. But since the average approach shot is about 190 yards, the average proximity to the hole is roughly 40-feet.

The hole is one of the most difficult short game shots around the green holes on the course due to the green being on a hill and it's an average hole in terms of putting difficulty. Thus, it's usually a par vs. bogey-double scenario type of hole.

If the hole plays shorter I would imagine that it's still a Critical Hole due to the difficulty of the drive and the elevation of the green.

Projected Winning Score: -22

3JACK'S FAVORITES

Justin Thomas +1,000
Patrick Cantlay +1,200
Hideki Matsuyama +1,600
Justin Rose +2,000

3JACK'S DARKHORSE PICKS

Jordan Spieth +4,000
Joaquin Niemann +4,000
Adam Hadwin +5,000
Byeong-Hun An +6,600
Shane Lowry +10,000
Branden Grace +12,500
Richy Werenski +20,000





3JACK