The Memorial: A preview and best bets for this week's event at Muirfield Village

The PGA Tour heads north from Texas to Ohio for this week's Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village.

Owned by Jack Nicklaus, the club was named after the famous Scottish links where the Golden Bear made his Walker Cup debut in 1959 and returned there seven years later to win his first Open Championship.

Live PGA Tour Golf

Muirfield Village has been a popular venue on the professional schedule for over 30 years, with the Memorial Tournament one of the more prestigious titles on the PGA Tour.

Co-designed by Jack Nicklaus and Desmond Muirhead, and opened in 1974, Muirfield went on to host the Ryder Cup 13 years later when Europe triumphed for the first time on American soil. It also staged the 2013 Presidents Cup back in October.

The field includes former champions Matt Kuchar (2013), Steve Stricker (2011), Justin Rose (2010), KJ Choi (2007), Carl Pettersson (2006), Ernie Els (2004), Jim Furyk (2002) and Vijay Singh (1997).

The course

Muirfield Village is a par 72 which measures in at 7,352 yards. It's well bunkered and has water coming into play on as many as 12 holes. Like most Nicklaus courses, there is room off the tee and a strong emphasis on rewarding accurate iron play. Indeed, the last two winners here, Tiger Woods (73.6%) and Matt Kuchar (75%) topped the greens in regulation stats when taking the title. 

Winning scores

This has varied considerably down the years with Matt Kuchar's -12 in 2013 ranking somewhere in the middle. Prior to that, Tiger was successful with -9 in 2012 while -8 was enough for Kenny Perry in 2008. By contrast, other winning scores in the last seven years include -18 (Justin Rose, 2010), -17 (KJ Choi, 2007) and -16 (Steve Stricker, 2011).

The leading contenders (and Sky Bet odds)

Rory McIlroy (15/2): After winning the BMW PGA at Wentworth on a course he hadn't shown great form on in a week when he was under the cosh fielding questions about his private life, it's hard to know what to expect from Rory here. Will he be firing on all cylinders and ready to win again or will he breathe out a little and slightly have his eye on the upcoming US Open? It's been rather a case of feast or famine on his previous four starts in this event (10th 2010, 5th 2011, MC 2012, 57th 2013) so that also adds to the guesswork. It is worth nothing though that he did win back-to-back on the PGA Tour in 2012 (Deutsche Bank and BMW Championship) so he's capable of beating high-class fields two weeks in a row.

Adam Scott (11/1): Scott also comes into the tournament on the back of a win after justifying his status as the new World No 1 by overcoming a poor start at Colonial to triumph in a play-off. Scott, who won the Aussie PGA and Aussie Masters back-to-back last November, has a fourth (2006) and a fifth (2007) at Memorial and was also 13th last year so has enough good course form for his backers to latch on to. Caddie Steve Williams also won this event numerous times with Tiger Woods so there is plenty to suggest that Scott could come up trumps again. 

Matt Kuchar (14/1): Kuchar won this event last year, was runner-up on his previous appearance in 2011 and prior to that was 8th, 5th and 10th. He was also joint second top scorer for the US in the Presidents Cup here six months ago so it's pretty clear he loves Muirfield Village. This year he's reeled off another string of big finishes, including a win at