PGA Power Rankings: WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational
Welcome to my PGA Power Rankings for this week’s World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, taking place at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee.
This PGA Power Rankings article will cover the top 20 golfers for this event, and with each golfer will come a short blurb with some justification to their respective rankings. Before we do that, let’s touch briefly on the history of this event.
PGA Power Rankings: WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational – Course and History
The Open Championship is behind us, and a huge congratulations are in order to Shane Lowry on an incredible four days of golf at Royal Portrush. All aspects of his game were on point, and he was nothing short of dominant with his six stroke victory. Even though the four major championships of 2019 are now in the past, the best golfers in the world will now get right back in action this week at TPC Southland for the FedEx-St. Jude Invitational.
Although the FedEx St. Jude Classic may sound familiar to you, as this event has been around since 1958, that name is now a thing of the past. With the schedule changes and new events this year on Tour, this former full-field event with a cut that used to take place in June, is now a 64 man invitational with no cut, and the newest part of the World Golf Championships series.
With that being said, 46 of the top 50 golfers in the world along with a handful of other recent winners from around the world are scheduled to tee it up in Memphis at TPC Southland, as the venue will not change. With just two fairly easy par-fives compared to what we saw last week, the course will play at around 7,250 yards, and par is 70. Dustin Johnson dominated here last year with Andrew Putnam a distant second by six strokes, capturing his second victory at TPC Southwind by finishing 19-under par.
Winning scores aren’t always that low here, so what DJ did last year was rather impressive. Since 2010, the best winning score prior to last year was 13-under par, accomplished three times in that span. The worst winning score was nine-under par by Johnson once again when he won here for the first time in 2012. Because this used to be a full-field event and is now an invitational, Johnson is also the only past champion in the field.
Finally, before we get to the PGA Power Rankings for this week, because this event changed, it is a first time event for a lot of big names. Johnson could have a big advantage with his experience here, but being this is a WGC event, it will no doubt be very competitive, as it should be. First-timers include Jon Rahm and Justin Rose, and joining them will be rookie Matthew Wolff, who with his win at the 3M open is now eligible for FedEx Cup play. Without further ado, let’s rank the top 20.