FedEx St. Jude Championship: Best Bets, Course Info, and Key Stats

The FedExCup Playoffs begin this week with the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee.

The top-70 in the FedExCup Standings are in the field, and the top-50 after this week's event move on to qualify for the BMW Championship next week.

Here's all you need to know.

All golf odds come from FanDuel Sportsbook and may change after this article is published.

FedEx St. Jude Championship Info
TPC Southwind Course Info

Data from GCSAA, PGA Tour, and data golf's course table unless otherwise noted.

• Par: 70
• Distance: 7,243 yards (average)
• Average Fairway Width: 29.2 yards (narrow)
• Average Green Size: 4,300 square feet (small)
• Green Type: Bermuda
• Stimpmeter: N/A
• Recent Winning Scores: -15, -15
• Recent Cut Lines: N/A

TPC Southwind Course Key Stats

• Strokes Gained: Approach
• Strokes Gained: Off the Tee
  • Emphasis on Driving Accuracy
• Strokes Gained per Shot (100 to 200 yards)
• Strokes Gained: Putting

TPC Southwind has hosted this new version of the FedEx St. Jude event for two years in the playoffs with the winners being ball-strikers who don’t putt great: Will Zalatoris and Lucas Glover.

The FedEx St. Jude Invitational was a no-cut WGC event prior to that, and prior to that, it was the FedEx St. Jude Classic, a full-field event

With that said, we have a lot of prior data we can dig into in terms of the course fit.

Narrow fairways comprise the course with some penalizing misses, and the tiny greens (4,300 square feet) are a bit hard to hit (26th of 90 courses in GIR difficulty per datagolf), but accuracy isn’t the most vital stat despite that.

There is an added emphasis on mid-range approach shots from 100 to 200 yards, and the putting is relatively easy, which helps to explain some of the winners.

Tight fairways, small but easy-to-putt greens make for a ball-striker’s type of setup.

FedEx St. Jude Championship Best Bets

These picks stand out relative to their FanDuel Sportsbook golf betting odds at FanDuel Sportsbook. All stats cited below originate at datagolf and reference ranks relative to the field over the past 50 rounds unless otherwise noted.

Hideki Matsuyama

• FedEx St. Jude Championship Odds (+2800)
• To Finish Top 10 (+220)

I'm not seeing enough value among the favorites to want to get there early in the week. That can change, of course, but I doubt Scottie Scheffler gets to +500 or Xander Schauffele gets to +1000, so I'll be building in the mid-range, which isn't the worst approach -- historically -- for TPC Southwind.

Hideki Matsuyama checks the box of being a great ball-striker whose putting isn't his strength, and he has used that same long-term profile to finish T20, T2, and T16 at TPC Southwind in his last three starts. He's also putted neutrally on these bermuda greens while striping the irons.

Matsuyama just won bronze in Paris and has three top-10 finishes in his last six starts, including the U.S. Open and the Memorial, as well.

Russell Henley

• To Win (+3500)
• To Finish Top 10 (+260)
• To Finish Top 20 (+100)

Henley is really interesting this week.

He's a top-six driver in terms of hitting fairways over the last 50 rounds among this field, and his irons rank him 12th in strokes gained: approach in that span.

As far as the putting goes, he's 13th in the field over the last 50 rounds, he's an 81st-percentile putter from within 15 feet on Tour this season, and he's a top-10 bermuda putter in the field over the last 12 months.

Corey Conners

• To Win (+3500)
• To Finish Top 10 (+280)
• To Finish Top 20 (+105)

Ball-strikers who don't necessarily putt well? That sounds like Corey Conners to me.

Conners ranks fifth in the field in ball-striking over the last 50 rounds but 44th in putting. He's also not a great putter on bermuda.

It's still a tall task to beat a field like this, but it's worth noting that Conners enters with a T10 at the Genesis Scottish Open, a T25 at The Open, and a T9 at the Olympics.

Conners also has a T6 here from a year ago and has finished T36 or better in five straight years at TPC Southwind. He putted really well on the greens last year while gaining in all four strokes gained areas.

Aaron Rai

• To Win (+5000)
• To Finish Top 10 (+330)
• To Finish Top 20 (+125)

Yes, Rai won the Wyndham last week, but we also have seen Lucas Glover go back-to-back at the Wyndham and FedEx St. Jude during a hot streak just last year.

While I'm mostly interested in a finishing position market for Rai, he's still worth highlighting.

Rai is 2nd in accuracy and 16th in total ball-striking over the last 50 rounds while also sitting 7th in strokes gained per shot from 100 to 200 yards.

He's played relatively well here (T12, T26, T51, and T49) in four starts and is having a career year.

Sam Burns

• To Win (+5500)
• To Finish Top 10 (+360)
• To Finish Top 20 (+150)

Burns has quietly finished top-12 in four of his last six starts and is on bermuda greens, where he tends to play his best.

His approach play isn't quite where we should want it, but his short game is on fire lately, and that aforementioned iron play has been good enough for him to finish well.

While there's enough here to see him winning at this setup (he's finished T2, T20, and T52 in his last three starts at TPC Southwind), finishing positions are logical given his imperfect profile.

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