It’s that time of year again! The FedEx Cup Playoffs kick off this weekend with the St. Jude Championship from Thursday to Sunday at TPC Southwind. As always, we have you covered with a full preview and betting tips for the event below.
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PGA Tour St. Jude Championship Betting Tips
TPC Southwind, Thursday 10th – Sunday 13th August
It was a great result for Before You Bet golf followers at the Wyndham Championship on the weekend as both of our main player placement bets hit with Webb Simpson finishing T5 and Sung-Jae Im finishing T14.
We’ll be looking to carry on that form as we preview the star studded field for the first event of the 2023 FedEx Cup Playoffs.
The Field
PGA Tour players earn FedEx Cup points for their placements in events throughout the season, with the top 70 on the leader board after last weekend’s Wyndham Championship qualifying for this first event. Only the top 50 on the leaderboard after this event will qualify for next weeks BMW Championship, before the field is cut again to just 30 players to compete at the season ending Tour Championship.
Jon Rahm had one of the best seasons in the FedEx Cup era, finishing the year on top of the leaderboard, a whopping 3,320 points as the only player on the PGA Tour to win three events this year. Two time winners Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Max Homa trailed Rahm with the other two eligible major winners of the year, Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman, rounding out the top six.
Notable players to miss out on the top 70 include Adam Scott, Shane Lowry, Joel Dahmen, Billy Horschel, Gary Woodland, Webb Simpson, Will Zalatoris, Kevin Kisner and Justin Thomas, who missed out by just one place, finishing 71st after a solid week at the Wyndham Championship.
The Course
TPC Southwind has been a stop on the PGA Tour since all the way back in the 1989 season. The tournament was added to the FedEx Cup playoff schedule in 2011, and has since provided us with some massive events headlined by star studded fields.
The course plays as a Par 70 at just over 7,200 yards and provides a solid all-round test for golfers, as most TPC sanctioned courses do. The course will play as a Par 70 at just over 7,233 yards, so the long hitters will have a fair advantage off the tee, which is why bombers including Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm fair well there in the past.
We’ll be targeting strong players off the tee this week as well as strong putters, as the bookends of the game have proved to be super important at TPC Southwind in recent memory.
Betting Tips
Rory McIlroy ($10/Top 10 $2.00)
I’ve stayed away from Rory through the middle parts of this PGA Tour season but I think he is back playing somewhere near his best and ready to make a tilt at a record 4th FedEx Cup title. He is coming off a win at the Scottish Open followed by a strong T6 at The Open. Has finished in the top 10 of his last seven straight events.
Max Homa ($34/Top 20 $2.00)
Homa has been my kryptonite for a lot of the season so far. Usually when I predict him to play well he makes the cut and when I overlook him he performs well above average. I really like him in this spot though. He’s built form over his last three tournaments, finishing T21 at the Rocket Mortgage followed by a T12 at the Scottish Open and a T10 at The Open.
Harris English ($76/Top 30 $1.85)
The last player who I fancy this week is Harris English. The American hasn’t been in spectacular form of late but does boast a pretty solid record at TPC Southwind. Won the event all the way back in 2013 before two more top 10 finishes highlighted by a T4 in 2021.
