JUSTIN THOMAS ‘RESTED AND REFRESHED’ FOR START OF PLAYOFFS
Justin Thomas thinks he has had a nice season. He knows how to erase all doubts.
“I definitely know three ways I could make it a lot happier and feel a lot better about it,” he said Wednesday in Memphis as he prepares for the first of three FedEx Cup Playoff events this week.
Thomas arrived at TPC Southwind for the FedEx St. Jude Championship ranked No. 6 in the FedEx Cup standings and No. 4 in the world rankings.
“I’m definitely not going to make any judgments or assess anything for the time being with three big events left and three tournaments, I feel like I could have a good chance to go out and try to win and put myself in contention,” he said. “That’s the goal, just to try to do that each week. I’m teeing it up these next three, and hopefully we can try to get a couple of them and ultimately the FedEx Cup.
“It’s hard to say right now, but ask me again in three weeks, hopefully.”
Thomas, 32, won his 16th career PGA Tour title at the RBC Heritage in April and also has runner-up finishes this year at The American Express in January, the Valspar Championship in March and the Truist Championship in May.
He has not played since finishing T34 at The Open Championship in Royal Portrush, Northern Ireland, a nice bounce back after missing the cuts at the PGA Championship and U.S. Open.
“It was just nice to honestly take some time away, just relax a little bit, not do much and get back into it,” Thomas said of the past couple of weeks. “I think at least for me, the time off is nice to where I’m excited to go out to the course and practice and feel like I’m getting ready for something again because if not it can become a little — some days wake up and maybe not quite as motivated or excited as others.
“Honestly, just happy to be here and rested and refreshed.”
Thomas finished T30 in Memphis last year, 12 shots behind winner Hideki Matsuyama of Japan.
After playing the back nine on Wednesday morning, Thomas said he was impressed with the recent changes and updates made to the course.
“The course looks awesome,” he said. “Obviously having been closed with the changes and no play, it’s in unbelievable shape. The fairways are so perfect. The greens are brand new. They’re firm but they’re some of the best surfaces that we’ll ever putt on.”
Thomas said he wants to finish strong and earn his place on captain Keegan Bradley’s U.S. Ryder Cup team for September showdown at New York’s Bethpage Black.
“I want to be in that top six,” he said. “Just for me personally, it just would mean a lot to me to get that done because having been picked or having to rely on a pick a couple times, I definitely like the level of low stress and just the sense of calm knowing that you’re qualified versus waiting for that phone to ring.”
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER LEADS FAVORITES AS PLAYOFFS BEGIN AT ST. JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP
MEMPHIS — Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 golfer in the world, enters the FedEx St. Jude Championship — the first leg of the season-ending PGA Tour playoffs — on a successful stretch. Scheffler will be coming off 11 consecutive top-10 finishes.
With that momentum, which includes last month’s Open title, Scheffler has handled the FedEx Cup playoffs preparation a bit differently than he would have for an event earlier in the season. For Scheffler, at this stage of the golf year, he’s finding that less is better.
“That extra practice is maybe only going to be draining for me a little bit, and that’s something that I’ve learned to manage as my career has gone on,” he said Wednesday from TPC Southwind, site of the St. Jude Championship. “I would say my prep week last week definitely looked a bit different than it would have looked before the Scottish Open and definitely looked a little bit different than it would have looked if you go back to the beginning of the year when I was coming off injury.
“So making sure I’m rested, ready to play. My game is in a good spot, and I feel like some extra practice at this point in the year can almost be detrimental in terms of just physical and mental fatigue.”
The opening tournament of the playoffs features 69 of the top 70 golfers in the FedEx Cup standings, including Scheffler, defending champion Hideki Matsuyama of Japan and resurgent Justin Thomas. Reigning Masters champion Rory McIlroy decided to skip the first leg and is the only eligible golfer among the top 70 sitting out the tournament.
With four wins this season, including two victories in majors, Scheffler is among the favorites. Expected to earn a fourth straight PGA Tour Player of the Year award, he is looking forward to playing on a TPC Southwind course that underwent renovation after last year’s St. Judge Championship concluded.
Each of the 18 greens was rebuilt and resurfaced. The tee boxes were also resurfaced, and Bermuda grass around the greens was replaced by tightly mowed Zeon Zoysia.
“They did a good job, I think, with the runoff areas around the greens here,” Scheffler said. “The new greens right now are really firm. I think this is a golf course that’s typically been pretty popular on Tour, so I appreciated they didn’t come in when they renovated it and just completely change the golf course.
“I think they had a really good base for a solid golf course where ball-striking is important. You’ve got to hit it well around this place. I think they did a really good job. The golf course is healthy. They kept the DNA of what’s made this course really good and then enhanced it with some of the pitching areas.”
Harris English, enjoying the best year of his career, returns to the site of his first PGA Tour victory. He won the event when it was part of the regular-season schedule in 2013.
“After playing (practice rounds) the last couple days, the improvements obviously with the new greens, the greens are really firm,” English said. “I feel like the rough is up from years past. Even (Wednesday), hitting some balls in the rough, it’s hard to find them. You get this gnarly Bermuda rough, it’s so hard to figure out if it’s going to jump, if it’s going to come out dead.
McIlroy’s absence has created some off-course controversy. He will easily qualify for the second stage of the playoffs next week at the BMW Championship at Caves Valley Golf Club near Baltimore, but PGA Tour officials are concerned he elected to bypass the first leg.
Those who finish Sunday ranked in the top 50 not only move on to Baltimore but are also eligible for each of the eight PGA Tour signature events in 2025.
–Phil Stukenborg, Field Level Media
2025 FEDEX ST. JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP: PREVIEW, PROPS, BEST BETS
The 2025 FedEx Cup playoffs officially tee off with this week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, which begins Thursday at TPC Southwind in Memphis.
Only the top 70 players at the end of the regular season qualified for this week’s event, and the field sits at 69 with Rory McIlroy opting to skip the first playoff leg. Our golf experts preview the tournament and share their favorite prop picks along with best bets to win this week.
FEDEX ST. JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP
Location: Memphis, Aug. 7-10
Course: TPC Southwind (Par 70, 7,288 Yards)
Purse: $20M (Winner: $3.6M)
Defending Champion: Hideki Matsuyama
FedEx Cup leader: Scottie Scheffler
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Thursday-Friday: 2-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday: 1-3 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (NBC); Sunday: Noon-2 p.m. (GC), 2-6 p.m. (NBC)
Streaming (ESPN+): Thursday-Sunday: 8 a.m.-6 p.m. ET
X: @FedExChamp
PROP PICKS
–Hideki Matsuyama to Beat Ben Griffin (-105 at DraftKings): Based on 2025 to date, this appears a mismatch in the wrong direction, with Griffin having twice as many wins as Matsuyama has top-10 finishes — the latter’s lone one coming in a victory at the season-opening The Sentry. But keep in mind that not only is Matsuyama the defending champion at TPC Southwind, he has also found far better form with three consecutive top-20s entering this week. Griffin is making his playoff debut, and while he posted a T11 last week, that did follow consecutive missed cuts.
–Sepp Straka Top 20 Finish (+148 at BetRivers): Considering we see Straka — a two-time winner already this season — as a pre-tournament threat, we certainly see a top-20 finish as well within reach. Remember, he only needs to beat 49 players in the field for this to pay out. Straka has been on a yoyo of late, mixing a win at the Truist, a solo third at the Memorial and a seventh at the Scottish Open with four other results of T45 or worse.
–Winning Score Over 262.5 (-120 at DraftKings): Granted, TPC Southwind has only played host to the event three previous times, and Matsuyama set the scoring record among those with his 263 total that beat Viktor Hovland and Xander Schauffele by two strokes.
2025 Prop Pick Record: 21-24
BEST BETS
–Scottie Scheffler (+280 at DraftKings) is coming off a victory at The Open as he attempts to become the first back-to-back winner of the FedEx Cup. Despite his enormous pre-tournament favorite odds, Scheffler leads the field by a wide margin with 18 percent of the money and 22 percent of the total bets backing him to win.
–Schauffele (+1800) has yet to win this season, but he has consecutive top-10s entering this week and needs a solid result to advance to the BMW. He is fifth in the field with 5 percent of both the money and total bets backing him this week.
–Tommy Fleetwood (+2200) has yet to win a stroke play event on U.S. soil, but he does have 12 top-25s in 16 starts this season, including a runner-up at the Travelers. The Englishman ranks third in the field with 7 percent of the money supporting him to break through this week.
–Justin Thomas (+2500) has a win at the RBC Heritage among seven top-10s in 17 starts this season.
–Matt Fitzpatrick (+2800) has been in excellent form with a pair of T4s and a pair of T8s in his past four starts.
–Hovland (+3500) offers longshot odds despite finishing second here last year and winning the FedEx Cup in 2023. It has been a largely frustrating 2025 for Hovland, but he did win the Valspar and has been backed by 11 percent of the outright winner money wagered at the book.
–Straka (+4000) lost in a playoff here in 2022 and is already a multiple-time winner on tour this year. However, he has garnered just 4 percent of the total outright winner money thus far.
NOTES
–The top 50 players in the standings after this week will advance to the BMW Championship, with the top 30 after that event qualifying for the season-ending Tour Championship.
–Schauffele and Tony Finau are tied for the longest active streaks, having qualified for the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season.
–Daniel Berger qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2021.
–Aldrich Potgieter, at No. 43 in the FedEx Cup standings, is the only one of the 35 rookies this season to advance to the playoffs.
–Chris Kirk was the lone player to move into the Top 70 last week, jumping from No. 73 to No. 61 with a T5 at the Wyndham.
TOP 50 BUBBLE
Tom Hoge (No. 40), Matt Fitzpatrick (No. 41), Schauffele (No. 42), Potgieter (No. 43), Harry Hall (No. 44), Akshay Bhatia (No. 45), Si Woo Kim (No. 46), Jake Knapp (No. 47), Jordan Spieth (No. 48), Wyndham Clark (No. 49), Min Woo Lee (No. 50), J.T. Poston (No. 51), Kurt Kitayama (No. 52), Bud Cauley (No. 53), Joe Highsmith (No. 54), Aaron Rai (No. 55), Jhonattan Vegas (No. 56), Max Greyserman (No. 57), Stephan Jaeger (No. 58), Mackenzie Hughes (No. 59) and Finau (No. 60).
–Field Level Media
REPORT: TRUMP-OWNED COURSES TO HOST PGA TOUR, LIV EVENTS IN 2026
Courses owned by President Donald Trump will be hosting events on both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf for the first time in the same year in 2026.
LIV Golf has announced it will return to Trump National Golf Club Washington D.C. in Sterling, Va., next year. The Saudi Arabia-backed tour has had an event on a Trump-owned course every year since its inception in 2022. It last held an event at the Trump National Golf Club in 2023. The 2026 event, scheduled for May 8-10, will be one of 14 events on the tour.
The PGA Tour, meanwhile, has scheduled an event at Trump National Doral, just outside Miami, according to Sports Business Journal. The tournament is expected to be played April 30-May 3, which slots in three weeks following the Masters and two weeks ahead of the PGA Championship.
Per SBJ, the tournament could be a signature event that includes a $20 million purse.
Both LIV Golf and the PGA Tour have a history of hosting events at Doral. LIV tournaments were played there for the first four years of its existence, 2022 to 2025, before the circuit didn’t return to the Blue Monster this year.
That opened the door for the PGA Tour to return to Doral and add to its 54-year history of events there. The last one was the 2016 World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship.
