The 2024 PGA Tour regular season has come to an end. It is now time for the 70 best golfers in the world to tee it up in the FedEx Cup Playoffs. There is a lot of money on the line ($3.6M to the winner this week), so I expect every golfer in the field to be dialed in for the playoffs.
The only good thing to come from the LIV Tour is that it forced the PGA Tour to award its top golfers with more money. The field for the St. Jude Championship had 125 golfers before the LIV Tour and now it has 70 golfers in the field. That means more there are fewer golfers to split the huge purse Sunday.
The top-50 golfers will advance to the BMW Championship next week and the top-30 golfers will advance to the Tour Championship. There is no cut in the playoffs, so we can take a risk with the cheaper golfers in our DFS lineups.
Here is the recent form and course history for each golfer this week: History and Form
COURSE BREAKDOWN
TPC Southwind will be the first course in the playoff rotation. The course is a par 70 which plays 7,245 yards. Accuracy from tee to green will be important this week because there is a lot of water on this course. No course on tour has seen as many balls in the water since 2003 as TPC Southwind. Golfers who can bomb it off the tee can take some of the water out of play. Scoring is usually down here so we want to fill our lineups with golfers who are accurate off the tee and accurate on their approach shots. Bogey Avoidance will be a key stat this week.
This course plays long. There are eight holes which are par 4s and play over 450 yards. Length off the tee is important but keeping it straight is the key to keeping the ball out of the water. Shots Gained Off-the-Tee is another key stat we need to focus on this week.
The greens this week are Bermuda grass. I will be looking at Stoke Gained Putting-Bermuda Grass this week.
Click here to see the course: TPC Southwind
KEY STATS FOR ST. JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP
– Strokes Gained Off the Tee
– Strokes Gained Approach
– Par 4 Scoring 450 – 500 Yards
– Strokes Gained Putting-Bermuda
– Birdie or Better %
TOP 20 GOLFERS
CORE GOLFERS FOR ST. JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP
JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP STRATEGY
There is no cut this week or for any of the tournaments in the FedEx Playoffs. That means we know we will get four rounds from each golfers. The field is stacked, since only the top-70 golfers on the PGA Tour are playing the St. Jude Championship. That means, even the lowest priced golfers are in play this week.
This tournament is very top heavy. It may be hard to win without a couple of the golfers priced over $10K in your lineup. My strategy for both Cash Contests and Tournament Contests this week is to build “stars and scrubs” lineups. Even the cheapest golfers in this field are some of the best golfers in the world. That means you will essentially be building “stars and stars” lineups, even though three of your golfers will be very cheap.
I am not worried about the price this week. I am focused on performance. I want golfers who rank highly in the key stats and are in good form. I will jam as many of these golfers into my lineup as possible and if there is some salary left on the table, so be it.
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST
RORY MCILROY ($11,100): The 2024 season has been all about Scottie Scheffler and Xander Shauffele. I doubt that Rory is going to go away quietly. He won the FedEx Playoffs in 2016, 2019 and 2022. He needs a good start to gain some points on the two golfers listed above. McIlroy finish 3rd in the St. Jude Championship last year. He should finish in the top-five again this week.
SAHITH THEEGALA ($8,600): Could Theegala come out of nowhere and win the FedEx Playoffs? He starts 7th in the Points Standings. That is the same place where Viktor Hovland started last year when he won the championship and the same place Justin Thomas started when he won in 2017. His accuracy off-the-tee should keep Theegala out of the water and in the top-10 this week.
BILLY HORSHEL ($8,500): Horschel is in great form and he has as much course history as anyone in the field this week. This will be the 13th trip to Memphis for Billy-Ho. He is coming off of a 7th-place finish in the Wyndham Championship last week and a 2nd-place finish in the Open Championship. He is playing some of the bes golf in his career, so I will use Horschel in my Cash Contest lineup.
ADAM SCOTT ($7,700): Scott needs to play well this week in order to advance to the BMW Championship next week. I am not worried about the pressure on Scott. He is a veteran who can handle it. Two of the best finishes for Scott this year came in his last two starts. He finished 2nd in the Scottish Open and 10th in the Open Championship. Scott has two finishes in the top-10 in his last two starts at TPC Southwind. I will trust the veteran golfer in my Cash Contest lineup in Memphis.
DAVIS THOMPSON ($7,400): Well, well, well…. Look who ranks No. 1 in the key stats this week. I was shocked to see Thompson rank No. 1 over Scottie Scheffler and Xander Shauffele, but it is Thompson on top. He ranks No. 3 in SG Tee-to-Green, No. 1 in Scrambling, No. 2 in SG Putting (Bermuda) and No. 1 overall in the key stats. Thompson has finished 4 of his last 6 tournaments in the top-12. He is just too cheap to pass up based on his recent form.
ERIC COLE ($6,700): Cole started off the season playing good golf and then he went into a slump. It looks like he has regained his form and ready to show up at the top of the leaderboard again. Cole finished 6th in the Rocket Mortgage, 7th at the John Deere Classic, 31st in the Open Championship and 7th last week at the Wyndham Championship. That is some pretty good golf over the last eight weeks. Cole is by far my favorite golfer from the $6K price range this week.
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT CONTEST LINEUP
XANDER SCHAUFFELE ($11,400): Schauffele does not have great course history at TPC Southwind, but he enters the tournament in the best form of his career and he has a $25M reasons to play well this week. The winner of the St. Jude Championship get 2,000 FedEx Points. Schauffele could leapfrog Scottie Scheffler with a win this week and take a huge advantage into the final tournament. Schauffele needs this win and I think he will get it.
HIDEKI MATSUYAMA ($9,300): Matsuyama just won the bronze medal in the Olympics and he finished 6th in the U.S. Open. He has proven that he can play well in these big tournaments and TPC Southwinds sets up well for his game. Matsuyama ranks No. 8 in SG Tee-to-Green, No. 3 in Scrambling and No. 10 in SG Putting (Bermuda). That puts him No. 7 overall in the key stats. Matsuyama could easily win this tournament if his putter gets hot this week.
JUSTIN THOMAS ($8,400): I cannot believe I am playing JT this week. His form has been poor for most of the year, but he has come out of nowhere to post a 5th place finish at the Travelers and an 8th place finish at the PGA Championship. Maybe he can do the same this week. He won this tournament in 2020 and JT finished 13th in 2022. He is a “horse for the course” so I will take a chance with JT this week.
SEPP STRAKA ($7,400): Straka could be a sneaky good play this week. He finished 2nd in the St. Jude Championship in 2022, so he has the ability to score well at TPC Southwinds. Straka ranks well in the off-the-tee and approach categories. He is one of the worst in putting, but he does putt better on Bermuda greens. All I need Straka to do is to sink some putts and this pick should work out well.
DAVIS THOMPSON ($7,400): I will have Thompson in both lineups this week. The key stats love him and his recent form is one of the best in the field. The only thing going against Thompson this week is course history. He has played many courses for the first time this year and scored well. I will trust the stats and play Thompson in the Tournament Contest lineup this week.
SEAMUS POWER ($6,100): It was tough choosing between Brendon Todd and Seamus Power as my “punt play” for the Tournament Contest lineup. I like both golfers, but the stats like Power a bit more, so he gets the spot. Power ranks No. 15 in SG Tee-to-Green, No. 15 in SG Approach and No. 32 in SG Putting (Bermuda). That is good enough to be ranked No. 18 in the key stats this week. That is not bad for $6,100.
Here are my lineups for Multi-Entry Tournament Contest: (Multi Entry Lineups)
FANDUEL CASH CONTEST LINEUP
FANDUEL TOURNAMENT CONTEST LINEUP
PGATOUR.COM FANTASY PICKS
This is the 10th tournament in Segment 3. This is the toughest segment to navigate. We had two signature events the third major (U.S. Open), the last major (Open Championship) and the three FedEx Playoff events. Just remember that only the top-30 golfers advance to the Tour Championship, so make sure you have some of the top golfers for that event.
FANTASY GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP ONE & DONE PICK: TOMMY FLEETWOOD (ST. JUDE CHAMP)
Players in Fantasy Golf Championship One & Done so far: Aaron Rai (Win), Cam Davis (19th), Ludvig Arberg (27th), Xander Schauffele (7th), Viktor Hovland (15th), Rory McIlroy (4th), Colin Morikawa (3rd), Books Koepka (26th), Wyndham Clark (47th), Tom Hoge (41st), Matthew Fitzpatrick (28th), Jon Rahm (45th), Hideki Matsuyama (7th), Will Zalatoris (74th), Maverick McNealy (45th), Justin Thomas (MC), Scottie Scheffler (Won), Russell Henley (41st), Tony Finau (13TH), Sahith Theegala (37th), Sam Burns (3rd), Max Homa (66th), Jason Day (MC), Taylor Montgomery (61st), Corey Conners (57th)
SEASON-LONG ONE & DONE PICK: BILLY HORSCHEL (ST. JUDE CHAMP)
One & Done picks used so far this season: Cameron Davis (MC), Jon Rahm (5TH), Taylor Pendrith (5th), Brian Harman (9TH), Hideki Matsuyama (6th), Byeong Hun An (22nd), Rory McIlroy (4th), Colin Morikawa (3rd), Bryson DeChambeau (2nd), Max Homa (8th), K.H. Lee (59th), Adam Hadwin (10TH), Patrick Cantlay (3rd), Jon Rahm (45th), Corey Conners (25th), Keith Mitchell (MC), Sam Burns (MC), Shane Lowry (19th), Matthew Fitzpatrick (MC), Eric Cole (MC), Nicolai Hojgaard (52nd), Adam Scott (19th), J.T. Poston (MC), Jordan Spieth (39th), Keegan Bradley (43rd), Andrew Putnam (47th), Russell Henley (4th), Sungae Im (5th), Alex Noran (Won), Beau Hossler (15TH), Min Woo Lee (6th), Adam Schenk (MC), Eric Cole (35TH), Sahith Theegala (Won)
JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP BEST BETS
HIDEKI MATSUYAMA (25-1)
SUNGJAE IM (35-1)
JUSTIN THOMAS (35-1)
BILLY HORSHEL (35-1)
SAHITH THEEGALA (40-1)
DAVIS THOMPSON (65-1)
Good Luck This Week!!!!
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