Each week, including this week's 2023 the Memorial Tournament, Golf News Net offers PGA Tour betting picks and daily fantasy sports (DFS) lineups using our proprietary model, which is weighted toward longer-term performance.
However, we don't just use our model when making these picks. We also need to look at current form, course fits and horses for courses. This data can and should help inform our decision making, including validating things we see in the model. If everything lines up, then a player can become an auto-play. If only some parts of the equation suggest a player will perform well this week, then we may look more tepidly at investing in a player.
2023 the Memorial Tournament history and current PGA Tour finish trends
Finish Trends
Recent PGA Tour Trends
We start by looking at the recent past, back at players who have finished inside the top 15 in the last five individual PGA Tour events.
- Eric Cole - 2 - T-5 Mexico Open, T-15 PGA Championship
- Corey Conners - 2 - T-8 Wells Fargo Championship, T-12 PGA Championship
- Harris English - 2 - T-3 Wells Fargo Championship, T-12 Colonial
- Rickie Fowler - 2 - T-14 Wells Fargo Championship, T-6 Colonial
- Emiliano Grillo - 2 - T-5 Mexico Open, WIN Colonial
- Tyrrell Hatton - 3 - T-3 Wells Fargo Championship, T-5 Byron Nelson, T-15 PGA Championship
- Harry Hall - 2 - T-5 Byron Nelson, T-3 Colonial
- Max Homa - 2 - T-8 Wells Fargo Championship, T-9 Colonial
- Justin Rose - 2 - T-9 PGA Championship, T-12 Colonial
- Scottie Scheffler - 3 - T-5 Byron Nelson, T-2 PGA Championship, T-3 Colonial
- Adam Scott - 2 - T-8 Byron Nelson, T-5 Wells Fargo Championship
- Jimmy Walker - 2 - T-15 Mexico Open, T-14 Wells Fargo Championship
Event Finish History
We like to look for potential horses for courses with most PGA Tour events, particularly those with regular host courses. We're typically looking at players who finished in the top 15 in this particular event in the last five years, regardless of venue.
- Patrick Cantlay - 4
- Rickie Fowler - 3
- Billy Horschel - 3
- Si Woo Kim - 2
- Hideki Matsuyama - 2
- Jon Rahm - 2
- Justin Rose - 2
- Xander Schauffele - 3
- Jordan Spieth - 2
- Kevin Streelman - 2
- Aaron Wise - 2
Course Fits
A player is a course fit -- or a potential course fit, at least -- if their Strokes Gained breakout when they finish in the top 25 is similar to the average for top-25 finishers at this week's event.
Here's the breakdown:
Putting: 29%
Tee to Green: 70%
Off the Tee: 17%
Approach: 37%
Around the Green: 16%
Fits include:
Adam Scott
KH Le
Chris Kirk
Rickie Fowler
Emiliano Grillo
Matt Wallace
Patrick Cantlay
Kevin Streelman
Find course fits using our member-only tool which shows this week's course numbers relative to the field.
I've also created a new listing which helps you find correlated courses by looking at the course fit breakdown for each recurring host course on the PGA Tour.
This week's model
Check out the 2023 the Memorial Tournament generic model, which is available to GNN members.
My model weighs performance over multiple time frames (the last five events, 1 year and 2 years) with different weighting to strokes gained based on quality of competition.
We also have a tool for members which lays out the last field, our model and their results in the last five PGA Tour events and last five years of this week's event. Check it out!
We have also dramatically updated all of our tools with better data presentation, export and more to come soon!
Good luck this week!