Sleeper Picks: Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide

Doc Redman … The strength of the fields since play has resumed has generated an unusual dynamic; that is, I’ve left a couple of Sleepers on the cutting-room floor to honor the cap of five per tournament. For instance, in the discussion thread beneath this space for the Travelers Championship and later in the same day that it published, I cited Redman as one of three others who deserved consideration for that tournament. Lo and behold, he finished a season-best T11. (Mackenzie Hughes, who finished T3, and Brice Garnett, who missed the cut, were the other two.) Redman led the field at TPC River Highlands in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and finished second in proximity. That’s his profile, but he’s flashed good putting at times, too, including slotting 17th in Strokes Gained on the greens en route to a T21 at Detroit GC two weeks ago. He’s 4-for-4 in the restart with three straight top 25s running. Lucas Glover … Only he, Bryson DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland recorded a top 25 in each of the first four events of the restart. (Only Hovland competed in the Workday Charity Open, placing third.) Suffice it to say that the hiatus did Glover good given that he connected on only one top 35 prior to it this season (T9, Shriners). Since a T8 in his debut at Muirfield Village way back in 2005, he hasn’t finished inside the top 30, but he hasn’t skipped a trip. The long-hitting sharpshooter arrives having survived his last six cuts on the course. Troy Merritt … As one of three co-leaders at the midpoint of last year’s Memorial before settling for a share of 17th place, he’s back for redemption in what is his fifth career start since his rookie season of 2010. Throughout his career, he’s done just about everything well at times and on average, but like many of his brethren, his weakness is inconsistency in the crosshairs of a projection. However, primarily because he finished inside the top 15 in greens in regulation in his last two starts, the strong putter logged a T8 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and a T22 at the Workday Charity Open. Matthias Schwab … The 25-year-old from Austria remains on the prowl for his first victory on the European Tour where he’s in his third season. He placed 17th in the Race to Dubai in 2019 with a pair of runner-up finishes and a third among 10 top 10s. He opened 2020 by going 5-for-5 with a pair of top 25s, but he hasn’t played anywhere in over four months. A T4 at the co-sanctioned World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions last fall and a T42 at the WGC-Mexico Championship yielded the aggregate equivalent of 133.317 FedExCup points. That would rank the PGA TOUR non-member 155th among members. While he’s only a little over 63 points shy of slotting inside the top 125, he needs another 155 points to qualify for Special Temporary Membership this season. The only golfer to achieve STM in 2019-20 is his former teammate at Vanderbilt, Will Gordon. Andy Ogletree … The irony of the pandemic that affects all of us is that it impacts each of us uniquely. Positioned within their sliver of sport and society are highly talented amateur golfers for whom competition has been close to impossible to find what with the cancellation of the spring sports at the college level. When Ogletree prevailed at the 2019 U.S. Amateur Championship, little did he know that his only action for a giant block of 2020 would emerge as a result of that title. With that honor, he earned exemptions into the RBC Heritage and this week’s Memorial. A sponsor exemption into the Charles Schwab Challenge also was extended. He’s 11th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and plans to retain his designation so that he can compete in the Masters in November. In the meantime, the Georgia Tech product will settle for making his first cut on the PGA TOUR. NOTE: Sleeper is a relative term, so Rob uses unofficial criteria to determine who qualifies. Each of the following usually is determined to be ineligible for this weekly staple: Winners of the tournament on the current host course; winners in the same season; recent major champions; top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking; recent participants of team competitions.

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