A brand-new event standing in for the John Deere Classic this year, the Workday Charity Open picks up the slack during the restart. Muirfield Village will be set up slightly easier this week -- most notably being stimped at 11 instead of 13+ -- then toughened up to its normal condition for the Memorial next week.
For the players, this must be a dream come true. Jack has a reputation for taking care of them -- the milkshakes are legendary, among other things -- and playing at Muirfield for two weeks, with no need to travel or worry about testing in yet another new venue, has to lighten the mental and emotion burdens COVID-19 has added to their prep.
With a full field of 156 players and seven of the Top10 in the OWGR, the most notable fact about the Workday may be the absence of Bryson DeChambeau. Bryson is taking his first week off since the restart, so we'll have to wait and see how the Kraken fares at Muirfield -- which should be interesting since Bryson won the Memorial back in 2018.
Of course, that means the rest of that field has a week to make their own plan of attack. So who has the best chance to make their mark at Jack's Place this week?
- Patrick Cantlay is in the field, and he's the defending champ at the Memorial next week. He's only played one event since the restart -- he was at Travelers -- but he shot four rounds in the 60s (his lowest came on Sunday) and he's putting well. He's fresh and he's hungry, a great combination when coming to Jack's Place.
- In an odd sort of flier move I'm going to take Brooks Koepka. His last appearance at the Memorial was a T31 back in 2017. This is not a venue he plays much and his past history there isn't great, but then he didn't pick up his first major until later in 2017 so he's a bit of an unknown this week. Still, in his two events since the restart he has four rounds in the 60s. That's gotta count for something!
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