FedEx St. Jude Championship
|Fantasy Advice
FedEx St. Jude Championship DFS picks 2025: This Ryder Cupper is going under the radar
The top-70 players in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs will tee it up this week at TPC Southwind in Memphis for the FedEx St. Jude Championship. TPC Southwind, which has hosted a PGA Tour event since 1989, features narrow Zoysia fairways, the third tiniest greens on tour, sticky, unpredictable Bermuda rough and water hazards galore. It is target golf in its most extreme form. This event has unsurprisingly been dominated by elite iron players over the years. Hideki Matsuyama will return to defend his title, and Lucas Glover, Will Zalatoris, Daniel Berger and Justin Thomas are all other tremendous approach players who have triumphed at TPC Southwind.
One player who has surprisingly not triumphed at TPC Southwind is Scottie Scheffler, who will be making his eighth appearance at the Ron Prichard design. Xander Schauffele, who sits second in pricing on the DFS slate to Scheffler, will also be looking for his first career victory at TPC Southwind. Schauffele finished runner-up last year alongside Viktor Hovland. Players who sit outside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings will really need to make their mark, as only the top 50 will advance to next week’s BMW Championship at Caves Valley. Let’s dive into the DraftKings slate.
$10,000 range
Play: Scottie Scheffler, $13,000:
Christian Petersen
There’s no need to over-complicate this one. Despite Scottie Scheffler never having won at TPC Southwind, the Ron Prichard design features many of the staples that I look for when deciphering the extent of Scheffler’s advantage. Southwind favors accuracy over distance off the tee, and features a higher-than-average missed fairway penalty, all features that generally play into hands of the recent Open Championship winner. There’s no reason to believe that Scheffler will take his foot off the gas.
Fade: Justin Thomas, $10,200:
Justin Thomas has certainly found his fair share of success at TPC Southwind, but I simply have little faith in his ability to find the fairway. Thomas just lost over four strokes off the tee at the Open Championship, and he has now lost strokes to the field in driving accuracy in 10 straight starts.
$9,000 range
Play: Ludvig Aberg, $9,500:
Ludvig Aberg is playing far better than his results would suggest and is on the precipice of some outstanding golf. The young Swede has gained over a stroke in both ball-striking categories in six straight starts, and he is now traveling to a golf course with extremely flat greens where short game isn’t too much of a challenge. This is an underrated course fit and spot for Aberg, who is still flying under the radar this week.
Fade: Patrick Cantlay, $9,000:
Michael Miller/ISI Photos
I think I’m just about tired of waiting for Patrick Cantlay to go out there and win a golf tournament. Cantlay has significantly under-performed this season, despite displaying albeit fleeting moments of greatness. While the FedEx Cup playoffs have been extremely kind to him in the past, I struggle to justify this price tag for a player with only three top-10 finishes on the season.
$8,000 range
Play: Sam Burns, $8,900:
Alex Pantling/R&A
Sam Burns has already recorded two top-five finishes at TPC Southwind, and this is the perfect venue for him to collect his first victory of the PGA Tour season. Over the past three years, Burns has been the top-ranked Bermudagrass putter in this field, and his ball-striking has improved significantly over the latter half of the season.
Fade: Keegan Bradley, $8,600:
TPC Southwind just simply doesn’t seem to fit Keegan Bradley’s eye, as he has recorded just one top-25 finish in six appearances, which came in 2011. Bradley also has a ton on his mind as the captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, including in the implicit pressure of whether his own play justifies a spot on the team. I’ll be looking in another direction this week.
$7,000 range
Play: Daniel Berger, $7,800:
Icon Sportswire
With two career victories already under his belt at TPC Southwind, Daniel Berger should be more than eager to make his return to Memphis. Berger’s course fit makes all the sense in the world on paper, as TPC Southwind emphasizes accuracy off the tee, stellar short to middle iron play and Bermudagrass putting—all staples of Berger’s game.
Fade: Jake Knapp, $7,500:
As we saw last week, Jake Knapp can certainly struggle on golf courses where finding the fairway is paramount, and I far prefer him on golf courses with a lower missed-fairway penalty. Once we get into the lower end of the DFS slate, I’ll be focused on players who rate out higher in middle iron play and accuracy off the tee.
Flier: Lucas Glover, $7,000:
Christian Petersen
Despite a disappointing missed cut last week at the Wyndham Championship, I’m going right back to the well on Lucas Glover at another golf course he has performed well at in the past. The price drop is incredibly intriguing for a former champion who remains one of the best overall approach players in this field.
$6,000 range
Play: Emiliano Grillo, $6,600:
Eakin Howard
Emiliano Grillo is always a strong sleeper candidate given his approach upside and accuracy off the tee. Grillo has also delivered with top-35 finishes in all three of his appearances at TPC Southwind. The Argentine continues to play some steady golf, with six top-25 finishes in his last 10 appearances.
Andy Lack is a PGA Tour writer and podcaster from New York City who now resides in Los Angeles. Andy is the founder and CEO of Inside Sports Network, a website devoted to the predictive quality of advanced analytics and golf course architecture. He came to Golf Digest’s betting panel after previously writing for Run Pure Sports, RickRunGood.com, the Score and GolfWRX. In his free time, Andy can likely be found on a golf course. Follow him on Twitter: @adplacksports
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