This article is part of our Yahoo PGA DFS Picks series.
FedEx St. Jude Championship
Memphis, Tennessee
TPC Southwind - Par 70 - 7,243 yards
Field - 70 entrants
Purse - $20M
The Preview
The first leg of the playoffs invites those within the top 70 of the FedExCup standings to extend their 2022-23 campaigns in Memphis with a trip to the upcoming BMW Championship on the line. The strongest field since the Open Championship will tee it up at TPC Southwind, where narrow fairways and tight doglegs guide these players into small, but simple bermuda greens. Due to the minuscule green sizes, funky bermuda rough and penalizing water hazards, GIR percentages fall nearly seven percent shy of the average PGA Tour venue. Roughly 48 percent of all approach shots come from the 150-200 yard range, though ample driving distance allows for a greater portion of short irons and full wedges. The course probably sounds tougher in written description than it actually is, while it remains fairly gettable if you're able to keep the ball in play. Relatively calm, albeit muggy weather should help produce favorable scoring conditions throughout the week, so expect plenty of birdies despite only two par-5s appearing on the scorecard.
Recent Champions
FedEx St. Jude Championship
2022 - Will Zalatoris
WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational
2021 - Abraham Ancer
2020 - Justin Thomas
2019 - Brooks Koepka
FedEx St. Jude Classic
2018 - Dustin Johnson
2017 - Daniel Berger
2016 - Daniel Berger
2015 - Fabian Gomez
2014 - Ben Crane
2013 - Harris English
Key Stats to Victory
SG: Off-the-Tee
Prox: 150-200 yards
Par-4: 450-500 efficiency
Scrambling
Yahoo Value Picks
Based on $200 salary cap
Cream of the Crop
Scottie Scheffler - $48
Second to none in SG: Off-the-Tee, SG: Approach and Proximity from 175-200 yards over his last 36 measured rounds, a sub-$50 Scheffler remains an easy click atop the board as he continues to search for his first win since March. A missed cut here at TPC Southwind last year hopefully keeps Scheffler's ownership from ballooning as the nearby Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy also carry strong projections.
Viktor Hovland - $44
Hovland has yet to place top-15 at TPC Southwind through his first three trips to Memphis, but he's finished top-30 in seven consecutive starts dating back to a runner-up effort at the PGA Championship. Over his last 24 rounds, Hovland is second in Prox: 175-200 and fourth in SG: OTT. Concerns about Hovland's wedge play arise on a track with such small small greens, but he's actually in the top tertile on Tour in scrambling this season, and he's gained an average of 1.2 strokes around the green per event throughout his last five measured tournaments.
Glue Guys
Rickie Fowler - $36
The recent Rocket Mortgage Classic champion, who racked up 27 total birdies and an eagle in Detroit, appears much higher than 18th on the list of other DFS and betting markets, so Yahoo provides a nice discount if you're looking for some Fowler exposure. Across his last 12 rounds, Fowler sits top-10 in both SG: APP and SG: Putting.
Tommy Fleetwood - $36
It's not easy touting the winless Englishman in a no-cut structure where ceiling easily outweighs floor in the DFS streets, but Fleetwood produced four top-10 finishes in his last five starts and ranks sixth among the field in each of SG: OTT, Par-4 Efficiency and scrambling over his past 24 rounds. He placed fourth at TPC Southwind in 2019 when he hit the second most fairways in regulation while pacing the tournament in SG: Tee-to-Green.
Collin Morikawa - $34
Morikawa has finished no worse than 26th in three visits to TPC Southwind, notably tying for fifth here last year when he averaged 5.5 tweeters per round en route to three scores of 67 or better. His playoff loss at the Rocket Mortgage Classic is sandwiched by missed cuts at the Travelers Championship and the Open Championship, but $34 is too cheap for someone who ranks fifth in Opportunities Gained, seventh in SG: APP and ninth in driving accuracy over his last 24 rounds.
Bargain Bin
J.T. Poston - $21
These next three selections could be fairly chalky given the inflated number of stars and scrubs lineups this week, but it'd be a disservice not to highlight their recent form at or near the minimum salary. Beginning with Poston, he's placed seventh or better in four of his last five starts dating to the John Deere Classic, and he's coming off a top-10 effort at the Wyndham Championship where he gained a season-high 7.5 strokes from tee to green. Over his last 24 rounds, Poston is first in scrambling, third in P4: 450-500 Efficiency and ninth in SG: Putting. His short game carried him to a 20th-place finish in Memphis last year, gaining a collective 7.1 strokes on and around the greens at TPC Southwind.
Lucas Glover - $20
Glover's salary takes a $7 dive back down to $20 despite notching his first win in just over two years last week at Sedgefield Country Club, where he posted the third-best SG: Approach performance of his entire career. He and the aforementioned Scheffler are the only two players to rank top-10 in both SG: OTT and SG: APP over their last 24 rounds, but Glover doesn't need a podium finish to justify his price tag like Scheffler probably does. Seventy-two guaranteed holes boost the value of a ball striker like Glover as well, given an occasional cold stretch with the putter is slightly less harmful.
Byeong Hun An - $20
An continues to absolutely mash the ball off the tee, but he's also 10th in scrambling and 13th in Prox: 175-200 over his last 24 measured rounds, which has helped guide him to finishes of T3-T23-T2 from the Genesis Scottish Open through the Wyndham Championship. He poured in 22 total birdies and two eagles this past week in Greensboro, amassing a season-high 119.7 fantasy points in the process.
Preview the top Sports Betting Apps before wagering on the playoff opener!
