The regular season is officially in the rearview mirror as the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs take center stage this week at the 2025 St. Jude Championship. Welcoming the top 70 players from the regular season — minus Rory McIlroy, who has chosen to skip the first week of play in Memphis, Tennessee — the St. Jude Championship will be the grounds on which players jostle to climb inside the coveted top 50 to qualify for the second round of the postseason at the BMW Championship.
The top 50 has taken on added importance in recent years. Those who play themselves inside that mark not only get to continue competing for the FedEx Cup, they also qualify for eight big-money signature events in 2026. With the ability to personalize their schedules accordingly, competitors know just how valuable it is to finish inside the top 50 of the season-long race by the time 72 holes wrap up in Memphis.
That won’t be a problem for world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. The four-time major champion sits securely atop the FedEx Cup points standings heading into the postseason; he’s assured of a spot in the BMW Championship as no one in the field can catch him even with the FedEx Cup points distribution getting quadrupled (regular season wins give out 500 FedEx Cup points while postseason wins give out 2,000).
Others such as Russell Henley, Justin Thomas, Harris English and Sepp Straka find themselves inside the top 10 as well; they will certainly be in the field once the Tour Championship rolls around. With the switch in the format at East Lake, eyes shift to the top 50 bubble at Caves Valley and who may be making the trip to Maryland next week.
World No. 3 Xander Schauffele is in a state of flux as the former Tour Championship winner sits at No. 42 in the FedEx Cup standings. Despite collecting back-to-back top-10 finishes at the Scottish Open and The Open Champoinship, Schauffele is in need of at least a two-way tie for ninth to keep destiny in his own hands and secure his spot on the tee sheet in Baltimore.
Meanwhile, Jordan Spieth has gone from No. 50 to No. 48 following the Wyndham Championship, giving himself a bit more breathing room for TPC Southwind. If the three-time major winner finishes in solo third, there is nothing anyone in the field can do to knock him outside the magic number.
Wyndham Clark and Min Woo Lee round out the bubble boys, while Tony Finau (No. 60) and Rickie Fowler (No. 64) highlight those on the outside looking in. Finau and Fowler will need to respectively finish 22nd and 19th — or better — to create an opportunity at extending their seasons.
2025 St. Jude Championship schedule
Dates: Aug. 7-10
Location: TPC Southwind — Memphis, Tennessee
Par: 70 | Yardage: 7,288
Purse: $20,000,000
2025 FedEx Cup Playoffs bubble
|
51 |
J.T. Poston |
850 |
|
52 |
Kurt Kitayama |
842 |
|
53 |
Bud Cauley |
831 |
|
54 |
Joe Highsmith |
828 |
|
55 |
Aaron Rai |
811 |
|
56 |
Jhonattan Vegas |
783 |
|
57 |
Max Greyserman |
768 |
|
58 |
Stephan Jaeger |
726 |
|
59 |
Mackenzie Hughes |
704 |
|
60 |
Tony Finau |
690 |
2025 St. Jude Championship field, odds
Odds via FanDuel Sportsbook
- Scottie Scheffler (3-1): It has officially been three years since Scheffler has missed a cut as he returns to the site of his most recent early exit (2022). He has fared much better at TPC Southwind in recent years, including last season when he finished solo 4th for his best result at the par 70. Scheffler comes in having not finished outside the top 10 since The Players Championship and inside the top 25 in all 16 starts of his PGA Tour season.
- Xander Schauffele (16-1): The ball striking is beginning to mirror that of 2024 when Schauffele won not one but two majors. The world No. 3 has been the model of consistency since returning from injury as he has eight top-25 finishes in his last 10 starts, including back-to-back top-10 efforts. Despite steadily improving, Schauffele has yet to play himself into true weekend contention in a tournament this year. This could be the spot for him to remedy that situation as he finished runner up to Hideki Matsuyama last year thanks to a final-round 63.
- Justin Thomas (22-1): He has not done a whole lot at this venue since winning the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational back in 2020. The main reason has been the putter as Thomas has struggled on these surfaces, but he comes into this year’s tournament amid the best putting season of his career and with new greens to play on given the recent renovation of the property. The driver has been a sore subject in 2025, but Thomas has shown capable on golf courses where that club is not required consistently like this week.
- Matt Fitzpatrick (24-1): A lot of converging factors this week for Fitzpartick. The Englishman has finished inside the top 20 in five straight tournaments, four of which have doubled for top 10s including last week’s Wyndham Championship. The entirety of his game is buzzing in the right direction, and Fitzpatrick has flashed brilliance at TPC Southwind with three top-six finishes across six appearances.
- Tommy Fleetwood (25-1)
- Aaron Rai (30-1)
- Russell Henley (30-1)
- Collin Morikawa (30-1): It is a big postseason for Morikawa. His Ryder Cup positioning has worsened (down to No. 8 in the rankings) and his game has as well following two straight missed cuts at the Scottish Open and The Open. He will have a new bagman alongside as the Billy Foster experience was fruitless overseas. The new perspective is needed. Morikawa’s short game has been up-and-down all year, but now his ball striking is beginning to show the same pattern. Lucky for him, this golf course is right up his alley.
- Hideki Matsuyama (32-1)
- Ludvig Åberg (33-1)
2025 St. Jude Championship picks
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