FedEx St. Jude Championship
Memphis, Tennessee
TPC Southwind - Par 70 - 7,288 yards
Field - 69 entrants
Purse - $20M
The Preview
The first leg of the FedExCup Playoffs invites those within the top 70 of the FEC standings to extend their 2025 campaigns in Memphis, with a trip to Caves Valley for the following week's BMW Championship now on the line. The strongest field since The Open Championship will tee it up at TPC Southwind, where narrow fairways and tight doglegs guide these players into newly-renovated bermuda greens.
Although the dance floors may have increased in size, attention-grabbing rough and penalizing water hazards should keep GIR percentages well shy of the average PGA Tour venue. Roughly 48 percent of all approach shots come from the 150-200 yard range, though ample driving distance allows for a greater portion of short irons and full wedges. The course probably sounds tougher in written description than it actually is, however, remaining fairly gettable if you're able to keep the ball in play and handle both the mental and physical tolls of painfully muggy conditions.
Recent Champions
-- FedEx St. Jude Championship --
2024 - Hideki Matsuyama
2023 - Lucas Glover
2022 - Will Zalatoris
-- WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational --
2021 - Abraham Ancer
2020 - Justin Thomas
2019 - Brooks Koepka
-- FedEx St. Jude Classic --
2018 - Dustin Johnson
2017 - Daniel Berger
2016 - Daniel Berger
2015 - Fabian Gomez
Key Stats to Victory
SG: Off-the-Tee
Prox: 150-200 yards
Par-4: 450-500 efficiency
Scrambling
Yahoo Value Picks
Based on $200 salary cap
Cream of the Crop
Scottie Scheffler - $45
His outright odds are shorter than 3/1 everywhere you look, but Yahoo's maximum salary still hasn't budged from the $45 mark for the best player in the world, so Scheffler remains a massive value in this format and his lofty ownership will reflect that. It's Scheffler's first start since winning The Open Championship where he especially excelled with his irons and putter.
Xander Schauffele - $44
Schauffele lands in the No. 2 spot on the board with Rory McIlroy electing to avoid the Memphis heat, and the former tied for second here at TPC Southwind last year when he gained 5.1 strokes on approach and another 4.4 strokes with the flat stick. Schauffele is coming off back-to-back top-8s across the pond.
Russell Henley - $42
Pairing his accurate driver with precise iron play and currently enjoying a streak of four consecutive top-10s since the Memorial Tournament, Henley is the perfect blend of course fit and recent form this week. He's third on Tour in Distance from Edge of Fairway and fourth in proximity this season.
Glue Guys
Viktor Hovland - $36
Hovland is second to none in both Prox: 150-175 and Prox: 175-200 over his last 24 measured rounds, guiding him to the No. 2 spot in SG: Approach within this same time frame. If I was computing the salary pricing, Hovland would be swapped with Collin Morikawa ($41).
Ludvig Aberg - $35
Much like Hovland, Aberg lends an affordable path to an awesome ceiling. The 25-year-old Swede gained strokes on approach in each of his last six outings from the Memorial Tournament through The Open Championship, and Aberg's Total Driving prowess will come in handy at TPC Southwind.
Tommy Fleetwood - $34
The win equity concerns aren't as meaningful when he's priced down here near the $33 average salary, so Fleetwood remains a target to return value after a string of great SG: OTT performances from the Travelers Championship through The Open. Despite notching just a T22 result at the 2024 FedEx St. Jude, he actually paced the field in SG: Tee-to-Green last year, and he finished T3 here in 2023.
Bargain Bin
Aaron Rai - $26
Not only is Rai No. 2 on Tour in driving accuracy this season, but he also led the Wyndham Championship field in both SG: APP and GIR percentage en route to a T5 result last week in Greensboro. The Englishman might as well be walking up and placing his ball in the fairway off the tee right now.
Matt Fitzpatrick - $24
This is a complete miscalculation on Fitzpatrick's salary, considering he's placed no worse than T8 across his past four starts dating back to the Rocket Classic. He averaged five birdies per round while gaining strokes across the board at Sedgefield C.C. last week, impressively converting 13 of 17 scrambling opportunities as well.
Cameron Young - $20
We finally witnessed Young land upon the top of a PGA Tour podium for the first time in his career this past Sunday at the Wyndham, giving him a real shot at becoming a captain's pick for the U.S. Ryder Cup team if he maintains this positive momentum through the FEC Playoffs. Any potential for a post-victory hangover stings less with four guaranteed rounds at the $20 stone minimum.
Looking for the best golf picks on Yahoo? Find the top Yahoo PGA DFS picks and value plays for every tournament from RotoWire golf expert Bryce Danielson.
