Many of the top golfers on the PGA Tour have been idle since the Open Championship on July 14-17th at St. Andrews but are back in action as the FedEx Cup playoffs get underway at TPC Southwind in Memphis. With an $18 million prize on the line during these playoffs, the FedEx St. Jude Championship odds board is loaded with all the big names.
It’s an interesting tournament this weekend, with the Northern Trust serving as the first leg of the playoffs in recent years. TPC Southwind is still a staple on the Tour, however, holding events for over three decades – but never with these stakes.
As with everything around golf right now, LIV is playing a role in this weekend’s FedEx St. Jude Championship. Not only are there late-breaking reports that Cameron Smith (14/1) and Marc Leishman (150/1) are going to be the latest defectors out of the PGA Tour, but Talor Gooch, Hudson Swalford, and Matt Jones are in court with the Tour to see if it’s illegal to have them banned from the playoffs.
It could be a wild weekend in Memphis; here are some other things to know about the first leg of the 2022 FedEx Cup Playoffs.
About TPC Southwind
With all due respect to the winners of the last three weekends’ tournaments (Tony Finau at 3M Open and Rocket Mortgage Classic, Joohyung Kim at Wyndham Championship), those fields were diluted, and the courses were some of the easiest on Tour, especially TPC Twin Cities and Detroit G.C.
TPC Southwind is no St. Andrews, but it is considered an average par 70 course. There are only two par-5s, but both are reachable in two, giving heavy hitters an advantage – but only on two holes.
What TPC Southwind does have is a lot of water, or difficult layouts, at least. There have been nearly 6,000 balls in the water here since 2003, the most of any course on Tour during that span.
Si Woo Kim (125/1) had a 13 on the 11th hole here last year – and it’s a par 3. While getting to the green can be an adventure, this course had the lowest three-putt percentage, and the best made putt percentage (5-10 feet) of any place on the Tour last year.
Field and Other Nuggets
A lot of the big favorites for this weekend have not played since the Open Championship. Rory McIlroy (11/1), Smith (14/1), Scottie Scheffler (14/1), Justin Thomas (16/1), and Xander Schauffele (18/1) are among those looking at a one-month gap since their last tournament.
Patrick Cantlay (18/1) is the defending FedEx Cup champion, and he also played in the Rocket Mortgage Classic (T2) two weeks ago to shake off some rust. Finau (20/1) is the defending Northern Trust champion for the first leg of last year’s FedEx Cup playoffs, and he’s also won two tournaments since the Open Championship.
Three players tied at -16 here last year in the WGC-St. Jude Invitational, with the since-departed Abraham Ancer edging out Sam Burns (26/1) and Hideki Matsuyama (45/1).
