2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship: PGA Tour Golf Betting Odds
Rory McIlroy is the favourite on the golf odds.
Like most weeks, we have to address the LIV Golf Series as the PGA Tour’s postseason begins. In theory, the Top 125 in FedEx Cup points all qualify for this week’s tournament, but a few guys who have qualified points-wise have been suspended by the Tour for playing on the LIV series.
It’s possible those guys get a restraining order to tee it up as 11 golfers filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour last week. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Northern California, requested relief that would allow Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones to compete in the postseason. Guys who resigned from the PGA Tour have no recourse. The next LIV event isn’t until early September. The PGA Tour has asked the federal judge to deny the temporary restraining order for that trio. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in San Jose, Calif.
Three players who qualified aren’t participating in the first leg of the playoffs: Tommy Fleetwood (personal), Daniel Berger (back injury) and Lanto Griffin (back surgery).
The Top 70 points after the St. Jude move on to the BMW Championship next week and then the Top 30 to the season-ending Tour Championship. Starting next year, only the Top 70 will make the first event of the playoffs and then 50 to the BMW Championship and 30 per usual to the Tour Championship.
TPC Southwind in Memphis is the host course and a par 70 at approximately 7,230 yards. The defending champion is Mexico’s Abraham Ancer (now on LIV series). He beat Hideki Matsuyama and Sam Burns with a 6-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole last year. Burns’ 5 1/2-foot putt — on the same line as Ancer — lipped out. Harris English, the leader after each of the first three rounds, faltered on the back nine on Sunday and shot 73 overall.
Only 66 players competed in 2021 because it was a limited-field World Golf Championships tournament. It was upgraded to that level following the 2018 St. Jude Classic. Now, it replaces the Northern Trust as the first playoff event. Tony Finau won that last year.
The first event of the 2022 #FedExCup Playoffs gets underway this week.@ZeeManGolf from ‘Off the Deck” previews the tournament by offering his picks to win. ⛳️#PGATour pic.twitter.com/PLBRHYP2fe
— Sports Interaction (@SIASport) August 10, 2022
FedEx St. Jude Championship Golf Odds
Rory McIlroy is the +1100 favourite. He was T43 here last year and hasn’t played on the PGA Tour since a third-place finish at the British Open. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Smith, Patrick Cantlay and Justin Thomas are each +1600. Scheffler, who also leads in FedExCup points, was 14th at TPC Southwind last year. Smith plays for the first time since winning the British Open. He was T5 last year here. Cantlay was T23 and Thomas T26. Thomas won at the course in 2020.
Tony Finau enters having won his past two events, the first golfer on the PGA Tour to win two weeks in a row since Brendon Todd in 2019. Finau is +2200. Rickie Fowler was the last player in at No. 125 points and is +21000 this week.
The only Canadian who played last year was Corey Conners, and he was T33. He sits 30th in points so he will advance regardless and is +5000 to win. Taylor Pendrith (60th in points) is +9500, Adam Hadwin (50th) is +10000, Adam Svensson (90th) is +16000, Mackenzie Hughes (46th) +32000 and Nick Taylor (123rd) is +50000.
FedEx St. Jude Championship Golf Predictions
Will Zalatoris made the unusual decision to fire his caddie mid-tournament last week but still finished T21 in North Carolina and shot 66-66-68 in his final three rounds. He was T8 at Southwind last year and we like him at +2600 to win. Zalatoris is overdue this season with three runners-up.
