It is time for the first tournament of the 2025 FedEx Cup playoffs, as the top 70 players on the points list head to Memphis, Tennessee, and the St. Jude Championship.
The best golfers on tour will fight to avoid elimination by finishing in the top 50 in points after Memphis. Next week, those who qualify will move on to the BMW Championship at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland. That field will then be cut to just 30 players for the Tour Championship, which is played August 21 to 24 at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia.
Event Information
TPC Southwind in Memphis has hosted some version of the FedEx St. Jude Championship since 1999. The course was designed by Ron Prichard and first opened in 1988. It has ranked as high as ninth on the list of courses on the PGA Tour (2011), with the par-3 fourteenth consistently playing as one of the toughest par-3s on tour.
TPC Southwind is set at a 7,244-yard, par-70 course.
FedEx St. Jude Championship Odds
FedEx St. Jude Championship to win with BetXchange:
- Scottie Scheffler – 33/10
- Xander Schauffele – 18/1
- Tommy Fleetwood – 25/1
- Russell Henley – 25/1
- Matthew Fitzpatrick – 28/1
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is at short odds of winning this event. His price of 33/10 is miles ahead of second favorite Xander Schauffele, who sits at 18/1.
Part of the reason that Scheffler is so short, and that his nearest challenger is so long, is that Rory McIlroy is not playing in this event. McIlroy has enough points in the bank that not playing at TPC Southwind will not compromise his ability to play in the following two FexEx Cup events, so he is taking it off to manage his workload amid a gruelling season.
FedEx St. Jude Championship Leading Contenders
This course suits golfers who control their distance into the greens. That is one of Scheffler’s greatest assets as a player, and it makes him the man to beat here. He has also cultivated this aura that seems to put him strokes ahead of his rivals just by showing up. The fear factor is huge in any sport, but it manifests itself in an even more important way in golf. Schefler has his rivals pleading for second.
Matt Fitzpatrick is a golfer with a hot hand. He has five top-8 finishes in his last eight starts and is peaking at the right time for a successful FedEx Cup run.
A player to watch out for is Viktor Hovland. He is the sixth favorite at 35/1 and is worth a punt. His iron play is up there with the best on tour, and if he can control his short game, he has the tools to succeed on this course.
FedEx St. Jude Championship Prediction
There is no value in Scheffler, but I still expect him to win here. It would be mad to go against the American great in any strokeplay event at this point, let alone one that suits his game so well.
Go with Schauffele if you want to pick an outright winner. Second favorites in golf shouldn’t have this value, so take the guy that should win if Scottie has a back weekend.
Pick: Xander Schauffele at 18/1
