FedEx St. Jude Championship
Course: TPC Southwind (7,288 yards, par 70)
Purse: $20,000,000
Winner: $3,600,000 and 750 FedExCup Points
Tournament Preview
2026 marks the fifth straight year that the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind opens the FedExCup Playoffs. Now only the Top 70 in the standings after 34 regular season tournaments will be eligible to begin the playoffs in Memphis. Only 69 will tee it up, however, as Daniel Berger (No. 60) decided not to play and will see his 2026 season end.
TPC Southwind has been a staple on the PGA Tour for years. From 1989 to 2018 it hosted the FedEx St. Jude Classic which was primarily played in late spring/early summer and was a full-field regular PGA Tour event. It then fell under the WGC umbrella for three years (2019-21) where it hosted elite fields of the best players in the world. Starting in 2022 and up until now it has been the kickoff to the FedExCup Playoffs. TPC Southwind is slated to host in the same capacity again in 2027 but after that, it was announced recently that the Memphis course and FedEx would not receive a Championship Series event in 2028 when the PGA Tour's new competitive model goes into place. FedEx's role as the title sponsor of this event and the season-long points race is up after 2027. There's a chance Southwind could return as a Challenger Series event in 2028, but there is still lots to be determined with that second-level circuit.
Big changes are coming in 2028 to what the postseason looks like. The Tour has tried several things throughout the years since the implementation of the FedExCup Playoffs, but nothing has seemed to really bring the perfect blend of the players wants of a respectable season-long points race and the fans wants of a dramatic late-season finish right before the football season begins. As of now the winner of the season-long race for the FedExCup is determined solely off who won at East Lake of the 30 players who qualified for the TOUR Championship. People did not like the starting strokes format, but at least that did reward players and give advantages to those who played the best throughout the season. Now there's really no incentive if you are a top player high up in FedExCup points to compete in either of the first two legs of the playoffs. That's why it is quite impressive that everyone (minus Berger) is here this week competing and is ready to grind out the brutal August heat of Memphis that awaits them. St. Louis next week for the BMW Championship won't be much better in that department.
Scottie Scheffler, despite only having one victory on the season that came in his first start at The American Express, leads the FedExCup standings by nearly 800 points. The World No. 1 owns 11 top-5s this season, five of which are runner-up finishes. 2026 could have truly been something special for Scheffler with a couple shots different here and there, but nevertheless he is still likely the frontrunner for PGA Tour Player of the Year and in position to make it a memorable finish in the playoffs. The four other multi-time winners this season in Matt Fitzpatrick, Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark and Chris Gotterup round out the rest of the Top 5 in the FedExCup standings heading into Memphis. Clark is the only one of that group that won a major in 2026, but Young did take home THE PLAYERS Championship. You'd have to think a fourth FedExCup title for Rory McIlroy would also put him in the Player of the Year discussion after he successfully defended his title at the Masters Tournament in April.
Close finishes have become a common theme at TPC Southwind. Four of the last five PGA Tour events at this course have gone to extra holes, including last year when Justin Rose outlasted J.J. Spaun in a playoff. 15-to-17-under has also been the range that all five of those tournaments fell between. The forecast is very much what we have come to expect from Memphis in August, so similar scoring and hopefully another tightly packed leaderboard on late Sunday afternoon is in the cards this week.
Recent Champions
2025 - Justin Rose (-16)
2024 - Hideki Matsuyama (-17)
2023 - Lucas Glover (-15)
2022 - Will Zalatoris (-15)
2021 - Tony Finau (-20)
2020 - Dustin Johnson (-30)
2019 - Patrick Reed (-16)
2018 - Bryson DeChambeau (-18)
2017 - Dustin Johnson (-13)
2016 - Patrick Reed (-9)
Key Stats to Victory
- SG: Approach/GIR Percentage
- SG: Off-the-Tee/Driving Accuracy
- SG: Around-the-Green/Scrambling
- Par 4 Scoring/Proximity 150-200 Yards
Champion's Profile
TPC Southwind is one of the biggest ball striking tests of the season. The fairways are narrow, the rough is penal, there's plenty of water hazards and the greens are the third-smallest on the PGA Tour. You absolutely have to be dialed in from tee to green to have a shot to win this week. Distance helps, but it is not needed at this course, and on many holes the driver will stay in the bag for the longer hitters. There is a lot of target golf at TPC Southwind where the most accurate players both off the tee and into the greens are going to be able to separate.
Last season the field only averaged 58 percent of the greens in regulation, which also means that there will be plenty of opportunities for the best short game players to make up ground. Southwind is not the most difficult scrambling course on Tour as the course has Zoysia fairways as opposed to Bermuda, which is much easier to chip off of. That said, the Bermuda rough and bunkers around some of these greens are not the easiest. SG: Around-the-Green and scrambling will be much more impactful stats this week than they have in recent events where we have seen very high GIR percentages for the field.
This is one of the rare events where putting has had very little correlation with finishing position. Certainly making putts is going to help, but all the trouble lurking out there and the demands from tee to green will impact where you end up more than purely how well you are rolling it. Recent winners like Hideki Matsuyama, Lucas Glover and Will Zalatoris further emphasize the point of ball striking over putting. The best putters on Bermuda should come into the week with some confidence, however, especially coming off the Wyndham Championship which also featured Bermuda on the greens.
FanDuel Value Picks
The Chalk
Tommy Fleetwood ($11,900)
Many thought the floodgates would open for Fleetwood after finally breaking through on the PGA Tour last August at the TOUR Championship, but it hasn't quite happened yet. That said, Fleetwood has still had a very nice season and comes into the playoffs off six straight top-15 finishes. Perhaps TPC Southwind is the perfect course for him to get back in the win column. Fleetwood is one of the most accurate off the tee, one of the most controlled into the greens and has an incredibly sharp short game. It is really no surprise he has three top-4 finishes in six career starts in Memphis.
Collin Morikawa ($11,400)
Morikawa ranks No. 1 in this field in both SG: Approach and GIR percentage on courses with small greens over the last 12 months. He is also No. 1 in this field in SG: Off-the-Tee on courses with a high missed fairway penalty over the last 18 months. TPC Southwind as I stated earlier has very small greens and is very penal once you get off the fairway. The demands on ball striking is probably a reason why he has never finished worse than T26 here in six prior stats. One other thing to watch is the putter with Morikawa. He has gained the fourth-most strokes putting in this field over the last 20 rounds. That is a dangerous combination.
Matt Fitzpatrick ($11,100)
I actually think Fitzpatrick's ownership will be lower than usual after he burned so many people with his missed cut at the Open, myself included. That said, Fitzpatrick checks every box we are looking for this week. He ranks top 5 in this field in both SG: Approach and SG: Around-the-Green this season. He is also top 10 in both driving accuracy and distance from the edge of the fairway. The kicker could be that Fitzpatrick is second in this field in SG: Putting on Bermuda over the last 18 months. It would not surprise me at all to see him pick up win No. 4 this season on a course where he owns three career top-6 finishes.
The Middle Tier
Viktor Hovland ($10,100)
Hovland is coming off a recent win at a similar type of positional course in TPC River Highlands when he bested Scottie Scheffler in a playoff. Hovland is gaining the third most strokes in this field over his last 20 rounds. He is also No. 1 in this field in proximity from 150-200 yards this season, a key bucket at Southwind. Hovland has sacrificed some distance over the last year or so off the tee to try to become more accurate and this is a course where that will certainly be rewarded. He owns three top-20s in four career starts here, including a T2 in 2024.
Tom Kim ($9,700)
I've preached about the importance of iron play a lot, so why not take a shot with Kim who ranks No. 1 in this field in SG: Approach over the last six months. He is also No. 2 in this field in scrambling over the same timeframe. Kim is not a long hitter, but he is one of the most accurate teeing it up this week. He is also coming off a strong T5 showing at Sedgefield where he putted very well on similar Bermuda greens.
Michael Thorbjornsen ($9,100)
Sometime it is dangerous to take a player who is coming off their first win, but Thorbjornsen is such an excellent course fit and feels undervalued this week. He has been one of the top ranked players in terms of total driving since he turned professional and thrives in that 150-175 yard range where we should see a lot of approaches come from at Southwind. Thorbjornsen's short game should also really come in handy as he ranks 17th in SG: Around-the-Green and seventh in scrambling on the PGA Tour this season.
The Long Shots
Corey Conners ($8,100)
It hasn't been a great season by his own standards, but Conners is starting to trend in the right direction with four top-25 finishes in his last six starts. When ball striking becomes a main focus, Conners always has to be in the conversation. He is one of the most accurate off the tee and ranks 14th in SG: Approach in this field over the last 20 rounds. I'm also encouraged by the fact that Conners has gained strokes with the putter in his last five events. He finished T6 in Memphis back in 2023.
Aaron Rai ($8,100)
Rai is a very similar type of player to Conners. He is one of the best out there in terms of finding fairways and hitting GIR's. At a course with so much trouble, being that consistent from tee to green certainly raises his floor quite a bit compared to a lot of the other players in this range. Rai has finished inside the top 25 in his last two starts at TPC Southwind, ranking very high for the week in SG: Approach, driving accuracy and GIR's on each occasion.
Ryo Hisatsune ($7,300)
Hisatsune might be the best ball striker below the $8K range this week. He ranks 25th in total driving, eighth in GIR percentage and 27th in proximity on the PGA Tour this season. The missed cut he had last week was his first since the season-opener in Hawaii, snapping a streak of 21 straight made cuts. Hisatsune has shown the ability to spike on several occasions both off the tee and on approach. He has top-15 finishes this year on some other very demanding tee to green courses like TPC Sawgrass, TPC San Antonio and Torrey Pines, as well as a T8 on another course with very small greens in Pebble Beach.
Strategy Tips This Week
Based on a Standard $60K Salary Cap
It was a bit of a surprise to me to see FanDuel add a $6K range this week, but that will certainly offset the risk of taking Scottie Scheffler at ($14,200). Scheffler was the clear top player in my model this week, and given the fact that all players will be guaranteed four rounds, it feels like FanDuel is pushing for a "Stars and Scrubs" build. That said, I did find it difficult to find many quality options among the 21 players who fall below the $8K threshold this week. That will likely push me to lineups with more balance and really maximize the amount of players who I can realistically see contending at TPC Southwind. Two players I am completely out on this week are Rory McIlroy ($12,800) and Xander Schauffele ($12,100). Both checked in at 14th and 15th in my model, respectively. There are much better options on this course sitting there in the $11K range.
For up-to-the-minute updates on injuries, tournament participation and overall golfer performance, head to RotoWire's latest golf news or follow @RotoWireGolf on X.
