The first leg of the 2026 FedExCup Playoffs gets underway with the first round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis on Thursday.
There are no cuts in playoff events, so the four-day race will be on to qualify for the next leg at the BMW Championship. Our golf experts preview the event and provide their favorite prop picks along with their best bets to win at TPC Southwind this week.
FEDEX ST. JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP
Location: Memphis, Aug. 13-16
Course: TPC Southwind (Par 70, 7,288 Yards)
Purse: $20M (Winner: $3.6M)
Defending Champion: Justin Rose
FedEx Cup Leader: Scottie Scheffler
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Thursday-Friday: 2-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday: 1-3 p.m. (GC); 3-6 p.m. (CBS)
Streaming: Thursday-Sunday: 7:45 a.m.-6 p.m. ET
X: @FedExChamp
PROP PICKS
–Si Woo Kim to Beat Viktor Hovland (-130 at DraftKings): At No. 7 in the FedExCup standings, Kim is the highest-ranked player without a win in 2026. His quietly strong season has included 10 top-10s in 21 starts, including a pair of runner-ups. Kim is coming off a T42 at the Rocket Classic following a T6 at The Open. However, Hovland hasn’t teed it up since missing the cut at the final major of the year.
–Hideki Matsuyama Top 20 Finish (-125 at BetMGM): Matsuyama only needs to finish better than 49 players in the field for this prop to pay. He enters the week with three consecutive top-10 finishes following a pair of T14s at The Open and the Travelers, making it five consecutive top-20 finishes. Matsuyama is also BetMGM’s third-biggest liability to win this week, having been backed by 4.7% of both the total bets and money wagered at +2500.
–Wyndham Clark to Beat Min Woo Lee (-122 at DraftKings): Clark’s outstanding run that included a second U.S. Open triumph has stalled out with consecutive missed cuts. Lee did finish runner-up at the Scottish Open, but hasn’t fared better than T59 — including a pair of missed cuts — in his other four most recent starts. Clark typically is the more consistent of the two, which is the impetus for this play against one of the year’s deepest fields.
BEST BETS
–Scheffler (+460 at DraftKings) has not won since the American Express. His T3 last year was Scheffler’s best career finish in six starts at TPC Southwind. Scheffler is being offered at +450 at BetMGM, where he is the book’s biggest liability while being backed by a field-high 12.2% of all outright winner bets and 36.8% of the money.
–Rory McIlroy (+1025) also has a career-best finish of T3 in this event, coming back in 2023. The only three-time FedExCup champion, McIlroy skipped this event last year.
–Cameron Young (+1900) finished solo fifth here last year and is looking to rebound from a T61 at the Wyndham.
–Xander Schauffele (+1900) hasn’t won in 2026 but is coming off a runner-up at the Rocket Classic in his most recent start.
–Tommy Fleetwood (+2050) tees it up for the first time since his T4 in his hometown at The Open.
–Sam Burns (+2200) also returns for the first time since his solo third at The Open. That followed a runner-up at the U.S. Open and a T12 at the Travelers. He is the second biggest liability at BetMGM, where Burns has been backed by 6.4% of the total bets and 8.3% of the money.
NOTES
–The top 70 players in the final regular-season standings qualified for the opening leg of the three-event playoffs. Daniel Berger qualified but is not playing this week due to injury. The top 50 players in the standings after this week will qualify for the BMW Championship, and then the top 30 after the BMW will advance to the Tour Championship.
–Michael Brennan’s victory last week made him the only player to vault into the top 70 after the Tour Championship. Steven Fisk was bumped out. Rookie Jackson Koivun claimed the 70th and final spot.
–Fleetwood is seeking to become the first player to successfully defend a FedExCup title.
–Xander Schauffele holds the longest active streak in having qualified for the playoffs in eight consecutive
–Hideki Matsuyama holds the tournament scoring record at TPC Southwind of 263 set in 2024.
