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).
