If for no other reason, the world's best regularly flock to Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, OH out of respect for the tournament's venerable host, Jack Nicklaus. The Nicklaus-designed track is his crown jewel, and the tournament has produced a list of champions on par with any other event on TOUR. With a couple of exceptions, the big boys have all made their way to Middle America this weekend for a tournament that has plenty of fantasy golf implications.
The Favorites
We're this close to have a separate paragraph called "Tiger Woods Will Win This Tournament" just before "The Favorites," but for now suffice it to say that the three-time champ is the overwhelming favorite this week. As usual, the Memorial features a very strong field, so most of the usual suspects also fit into this category. Jim Furyk is also a former champion and should not be taken lightly coming off last week's playoff loss. Zach Johnson may be the hottest player on the planet and could solidify himself as one of the world's elite with another victory this week; it's not out of the question considering he tied for second at Muirfield Village a year ago. Ernie Els has had a lot of success at this event in the past, but the state of his game is unclear. He's been all over the map both here and in Europe this season, so time will only tell which Els shows up in Ohio. Vijay Singh has also contended on a regular basis at the House that Jack Built, so don't be surprised to see him lurking near the top of the leaderboard on Sunday.
The Best of the Rest
It's easy to hope that Adam Scott has momentum coming off a T6 at the Players Championship a few weeks back, but suffice it to say that consistency has never been one of his strong suits. He did tie for fourth at the Memorial last year, however, so don't count him out. Geoff Ogilvy and Luke Donald don't have a single top-10 finish at this event between them (nine total appearances), but both are capable of winning every time they tee it up. Defending champion Carl Pettersson isn't the type you'd assume would defend his title, but he has been playing better over the last few months after enduring an early-season slump.
Who's Hot?
Bernhard Langer: The venerable German has made the cut seven times in 11 events this season. On those seven occasions, he has five top 25s and four top 10s.
Jose Maria Olazabal: Could JMO be heating up? The Spaniard's two best starts of the season have come in the last two weeks, including an impressive T3 at the Players Championship last time out.
Who's Not?
Rocco Mediate: Rocco was a feel-good story after his runner-up finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in February, but since then he's dropped off the map; missing the cut twice and failing to finish better than T44 in his last five tournaments.
Bubba Watson: Bubba has two top-five finishes since the beginning of April, but he's also missed the cut or withdrawn three times in that same span ? including his last two events.
Player Trends
It's not a fool-proof indicator of future success, but golfers who fare well at a particular venue tend to do so time and again. With that in mind, we provide a list of players who have notable trends at this week's event (most recent results are listed first).
The Good
Bart Bryant (T18, Win, T66)
Stewart Cink (T12, T45, T40, 6, T9, 4)
Paul Azinger (one win and six top 10s in 19 appearances)
K.J. Choi (T62, T8, 5, T13)
Kenny Perry (T24, T6, Win, T60, T7, T39, T11)
The Bad
Steve Stricker (no top 10s, just one finish of better than T24 in eight tries)
Robert Allenby (just one top 10 in 10 attempts)
Luke Donald (Cut, T45, T52)
Rod Pampling (T18, T73, Cut, Cut, T49)
Jonathan Byrd (Cut, Cut T29, Cut)
The Ugly
Pat Perez (Cut, Cut, Cut, Cut)
Weekly Rankings
1. Tiger Woods
2. Jim Furyk
3. Zach Johnson
4. Phil Mickelson
5. Vijay Singh
They definately did not have 18 year olds like this when we were younger :com: 
