The PGA Tour Is BACK With A Top Tier Field At The WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational

WGC time babayyy!! After a week off for Olympic golf festivities (shout out X), the PGA Tour is back in a big way with a WGC event in Memphis, Tennessee. 66 player field, including nearly all of the world's top 50. The end of the regular season has snuck up on us with only 2 weeks left in the season. We get the limited field event with no cut this week, and then all the drama next week at the Wyndham with guys jockeying for one of those top 125 playoff spots and more importantly…. retention of their PGA Tour cards.

This event is a weird one in that it was a continuation of the WGC-Bridgestone starting in 2019, but a full field event called the St. Jude's Classic at TPC Southwind was eliminated in the process. So there's a long history of the PGA Tour at Southwind, but only the past 2 years have been WGC status (I explained a bit about what WGC's are earlier this year HERE)

Justin Thomas took last year's edition by 3 strokes after firing a final round 65 and edging out Southwind horse Daniel Berger.

2020 Leaderboard

Recent Winners (WGC & St Jude's Classic)

The Course

TPC Southwind is a par 70 layout measuring about 7,244 yards. It was built in 1988 by Ron Prichard with help from PGA Tour pros Hubert Green and Fuzzy Zoeller, and has been a staple on Tour pretty much ever since. It ranks pretty highly on the scale of difficulty of courses on the PGA Tour, often ranking in the top 10 on Tour. A big piece of that puzzle is the water. There's 10 water hazards around here and no course gobbles up more golf balls than TPC Southwind. In fact, it's really not even close. A Tiger-proofing course re-design in 2004 added some length, and well over 5,000 balls have gotten wet in this tournament since. This graphic is a bit dated, but it just goes to show the magnitude of just how wet this place gets.

TPC Sawgrass can't even hold a candle to Southwind. Oddly enough, there's also more hole-outs at Southwind than anywhere else. Not sure why that would be, but it makes for a thrilling brand of golf. DJ's walk-off eagle to close out a W in 2018 was a great example of that.

Anyways, we've got Zoysia grass out there for a 2nd consecutive week after Kasumigaseki last week, and bermudagrass greens. Bunch of par 4's between 450 and 500 yards too, so the mid-irons will get a little bit of a workout this week. Should be fun.

Best Hole - Par 3 11th, 162 yards

Speaking of TPC Sawgrass, this right here is like an Island Green Lite. Very similar distance that will put a short iron in a lot of guys' hands and give them no room to breathe if they miss the green. Sounds simple enough until you're standing over your ball. Bunker front just like Sawgrass too.

TV Coverage

First tee times go off at 9:15 AM local time, 10:15 AM ET.

Thursday: Golf Channel 12-5 ET

Friday: Golf Channel 12-5 ET

Saturday: Golf Channel 12-2 ET, CBS 2-6 ET

Sunday: Golf Channel 12-2 ET, CBS 2-6 ET 

The Weather

Warm, but not much else to write home about. Sunday could be a scorcher. A real hot one.

The Trophy

I've said it before… the WGC trophies are gorgeous. Have a looksie…

This one right here is no different. It actually has a name, and this week they're playing for the Gary Player Trophy. I'll say it's not quite as ornate as some of the others, but I love that matte/clay looking design. WGC's just mean a little bit more. It's an 8.2/10.

Tiger's Silly Highlight of the Week

This event effectively replaced the WGC-Invitational at Firestone, so this is the week to run this one back. 2000 WGC-NEC Invitational on 18 in damn near pitch black darkness. Didn't matter that he was up TEN SHOTS or that he was battling the flu, Tiger was gonna give you a moment.

How about that, huh?

Bonus moment just because.

The Field

Former Champion Dustin Johnson and newly crowned gold medalist Xander Schauffele are the co-favorites at +1100 at the Barstool Sportsbook. This is a hotly contested betting board at the top. You love to see it. Southwind is a course with a strong reputation for upholding the mantra "horses for courses". There's simply guys that show up here in Memphis and play well year in and year out. 

Daniel Berger is one of those guys and that's my pick at +2200. I actually can't believe there's 10 names in front of him. Granted, those guys are all bona fide sticks, but Berger's won here twice and finished solo 2nd last year. And you would think that Berger has cooled off since his early season success, but his play has actually been sneaky solid all year. He quietly finished in the top 10 in both the US Open and Open, and has top 25'd in 7 of his 11 starts since that W at Pebble. Really nice value there in a limited field event.

Other Plays

Berger Top 10 +200

Justin Thomas Top 5 +335 - Defending champ and guy who seems to thrive in these no-cut, 4 day events.

Bryson Dechambeau to win +2800 - Back from the coco. Course sneaky favors long hitters. He's handicapped at +2800 because he's coming off the COVID but I think there's enough upside here.

Sam Burns +5000 First Round Leader - Guy has been the king of 1st and 2nd round leads this year. Don't hate him at +6600 to win the whole thing either

Viktor Hovland +102 over Louis Oosthuizen round 1 - Louis has had a great year but I also think he's gonna run out of steam here soon. The Hov is a stick and he's hungry. Love the plus value here.

Tony Finau +3300 to win - (WARNING: This is merely a FOMO pick. Been chasing that Tony win for like 5 fucking years and there's just no way I'm going to miss the boat. This pick will be a mainstay here for the foreseeable future, ride or don't.)