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FedEx St Jude Championship Golf Tips
Will Zalatoris 25/1 - 2pt e/w 8 places
Sam Burns 40/1 - 1.5pt e/w 8 places
Billy Horschel 50/1 - 1pt e/w 8 places
Tyrell Hatton 55/1 - 1pt e/w 8 places
Boom! It was a winning week for myself with 40/1 tip Joohyung Kim shooting a 61 yesterday to win the Wyndham Championship by five shots over Sungjae Im and John Huh. He became the youngest winner since Jordan Spieth and the first player born in the 2000s to win on the PGA Tour. Kim ranked 1st on putting and was way clear of anyone else in the field, to win golf tournaments you need to putt well and that was proven at the Wyndham. I’m confident that 20-year-old Kim is going to have an incredible career on the PGA Tour. This victory means that he is now a full-time member on the Tour and is now eligible to play in the season-ending FedEx Cup playoffs which obviously start this week. Russell Henley also finished in a tie for 5th to get us full place money. One winner and one full each way place return, a very good week so let’s hope we can keep that going into the playoffs this week.
The FedEx St Jude Championship starts on Thursday and is the first event of the season-ending playoffs with the BMW Championship and the TOUR Championship following on after this. A 125 man field for this event with the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings to continue to the BMW Championship next week. The course this week is TPC Southwind as it was last year for the WGC FedEx St Jude Invitational, a 7,243 yard par 70. This is the first time TPC Southwind has hosted a FedExCup Playoffs event. Abraham Ancer won the WGC that was played here last season, the now LIV golfer beat Sam Burns and Hideki Matsuyama in a playoff to win his one and only PGA Tour event.
Will Zalatoris 25/1
For regular readers of my previews, this selection will be no surprise at all as I put him up most weeks because he will win soon, I’m sure of it! I think we’ll see something similar to what Scottie has done when Will lands that first one, this kid is that good. I feel he ticks a lot of boxes this week at a course that almost certainly favours solid iron play. Over the last 24 rounds, amongst this field, he ranks 10th in SG: T2G and 7th for SG: Ball Striking which are two key stats for this track. We’re sort of banking on him having a good putting week as when he does, he’s always posting good results, this can be backed up by the fact he gained strokes with his putter in the first three majors of the year and didn’t finish outside the top six in any of the three. Zal finished 8th on his debut at TPC Southwind last year. With a new caddie on the bag, I think 25/1 quotes about him with 8 places each way is fairly solid and he’s my favourite bet of the week.
Sam Burns 40/1
One of my favourite players on the PGA Tour. Sam Burns has everything and will end his career having won more than multiple major championships. He is currently third in the FedEx Cup standings so will want to try to put a run together before the TOUR Championship at the end of the month. Like I mentioned earlier, Burns lost at Southwind in a playoff last year so will be eager to put things straight. His recent loss of form isn’t to be of a concern in my opinion as he’s still posting good strokes gained numbers. 5th on Approach and 5th for Putting over the last 24 rounds are really encouraging. When Burns does win, he does usually pop up when unexpected too. The early 40/1 quotes were far too big for a player of his quality.
Billy Horschel 50/1
TPC Southwind specialist Billy Horschel just has to be in the staking plan this week. Billy has five top 10 finishes here in his career and he’ll probably feel quite aggrieved that he’s never actually won here. However, he has won three times since the start of 2021 and is a better player now than in previous years. Former FedEx Cup champion Horschel can go well at a decent price this week and back up his love for this course. Two solid top 30 finishes in his last two starts where he didn’t play too great are good efforts. I feel if he can hit his irons to the standard we know he can like he did in the Memorial back in June then he’ll be contending come Sunday as we know he has one of the best short games on Tour.
Tyrell Hatton 55/1
The last player in my portfolio is Englishman Tyrell Hatton who has impressed me over his last two starts, a top 12 finish at St Andrews in the 150th Open and a top ten finish at the Wyndham last week when shooting a 64 on the final day. He ranked inside the top 10 on Approach and T2G last week and just didn’t putt well enough to contend, something we can hope for this week as we know Hatton is a solid putter most of the time. It’s been a mixed season for Tyrell and he finds himself 49th in the FedEx Cup standings so he does have work to do to make sure he is eligible for the TOUR Championship. An added incentive which I think is definitely a positive for a player full of emotion every round he plays. I’m expecting a solid week from Hatton and I’d be very surprised to see him miss out in the final event of the season.
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