WGC FedEx-St. Jude Invitational preview: Golf’s best, minus Tiger Woods, begin the stretch run

All times Eastern. All odds taken Wednesday from DraftKings Sportsbook.

Thursday-Friday: 2-7 p.m., Golf Channel.

Saturday: 12-2 p.m., Golf Channel; 2-6 p.m., CBS.

Sunday: 1-3 p.m., Golf Channel; 3-7 p.m., CBS.

Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Rickie Fowler (Thursday, 12:40 p.m.; Friday, 1:40 p.m.): Rahm is playing his first tournament as the world’s top-ranked golfer, and it’ll be interesting to see how the temperamental Spaniard meshes with the deliberate DeChambeau. Fowler has missed the cut in three of five tournaments since the coronavirus restart.

Webb Simpson, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth (Thursday, 12:50 p.m.; Friday, 1:50 p.m.): Simpson has a win since the restart and finished second here last year. McIlroy was supplanted as world No. 1 by Rahm. Spieth has been fine when near or on the green; it’s the other aspects of the game that keep giving him trouble.

Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Hideki Matsuyama (Thursday, 1:40 p.m.; Friday, 12:30 p.m.): Since the inception of the FedEx Cup playoff system, Thomas has led the points race for 38 weeks, the fourth most all-time. He’s the current leader heading into this tournament. Morikawa has a win and a runner-up since the restart. Matsuyama is the Bizarro Spieth: He’s great off the tee and awful on the green.

TPC Southwind is a par-70, 7,277-yard track that annually ranks among the PGA Tour leaders in balls finding the water. While not the longest course, it also features enough trees and doglegs to keep the game’s bigger hitters on their toes, and the smaller-than-average greens will favor those who can keep things accurate on approach.

Jon Rahm (+850 to win), the newly minted No. 1 golfer in the world after his win at the Memorial, led this tournament last year after a first-round 62 before dropping back to a seventh-place finish. … Justin Thomas (+1000) leads the PGA Tour in strokes gained: tee to green and is third in strokes gained: total. If he can get his putting going, watch out. … Rory McIlroy (+1150) has finished no better than a tie for 11th since the restart, shooting a combined 7 over par in his four final rounds. He led at Southwind after three rounds last year before faltering with a 1-over 71 on Sunday. … The newly hulked-up Bryson DeChambeau (+1200) went T-3, T-8, T-6 and 1 in his first four tournaments after coronavirus hiatus, overpowering courses with his moonshot drives. But TPC Southwind might not prove susceptible to his bulky charms, and DeChambeau was last seen melting down during his missed cut at the Memorial.

There’s something about Xander Schauffele (+2000) and these star-filled, no-cut WGC tournaments. Here’s how he’s done at the past six, starting with the most recent one in February: T-14, 2, T-27, T-24, T-14, 1. Schauffele hasn’t missed a cut since the restart and has finished in the top 20 in four of five tournaments. … Englishman Tyrrell Hatton (+2200) has finished T-6, 1, T-3 and T-4 at his last four PGA Tour events, the latter two coming after the restart. … Tony Finau (+3500) has to win his second pro title at some point, right? Right? He was in the mix on each of the last two Sundays but came up short both times. … Hear me out: While Phil Mickelson (+15000) has become more of an entertaining sideshow than competitive PGA Tour threat, with his bombs and his calves and his on-course coffee mug, he’s actually played pretty well at Southwind: Take away last year’s tie for 57th, and he finished no worse than 12th in his previous six tournaments there dating to 2013. I’m not saying he’s going to win, but a top 20 finish isn’t out of the question.

Defending champion Brooks Koepka (+3000), Daniel Berger (+3000) and Dustin Johnson (+3500) are the golfers playing this week who have won at TPC Southwind, with the latter two winning twice each on the course. Of those three, the best bet might be Berger, who has a win and a tie for third since the restart. Koepka has struggled mightily with his putter of late — a change from last year, when he putted the lights out to win by three strokes at Southwind — and hasn’t been a factor in four of his five tournaments since the restart. Though Johnson has a win since golf returned from its coronavirus hiatus, he has shot 80, 80 and 78 in his last three rounds, with the latter leading to a withdrawal after the first round of last week’s 3M Open. Johnson cited a back injury in leaving last week’s tournament early.

Read more: