Tommy Fleetwood Tops Fantasy Golf Picks (FanDuel) at the FedEx St. Jude Championship
The FedEx Cup Playoffs will be getting underway on Thursday, August 13. TPC Southwind will play host in Memphis, Tennessee. The event name is the FedEx St. Jude Championship, which has been the title sponsor at the same venue for the previous four years. With all the top golfers showing up in the chase for $20 million, the opportunities are endless. Here is what we expect this weekend down in the Volunteer State.
Key Course Metrics
TPC Southwind is certainly a challenging golf course. What we note is that the heat runs rampant in the summer months down in Memphis. The course, thus, expects to play very firm. The rough will be less penalizing, but the approach shots and putting will be extra difficult. Of course, this depends on the weather situation, which is listed further down in this article.
The course is a parkland-style setup, meaning trees line many fairways. Luckily, the course is quite wide in spots, so missing the fairway should not be too penalizing. However, on certain holes, accuracy will be needed. Bogey avoidance and driving the golf ball well are ultimately stats that we will pay attention to; not make-or-break statistics, but none to be overlooked.
According to Datagolf's Relative Importance Model, TPC Southwind is favored by golfers who putt well and drive accurately. Given the fairway runouts, driving distance is the least important metric.
What we will definitely add to the weekly player analysis is good golf on both firm golf courses and good golf on zoysia grass and Bermuda-grass/zoysia-grass greens. The only two golf courses in the tour within this grass complex are TPC Southwind and East Lake, where the TOUR Championship is held. As for bermudagrass greens, we focus on the Florida swing.
Tournament History and Weather Report
TPC Southwind enters its 5th straight season hosting this event. Here are the past four winners:
2025: Justin Rose (-16)
2024: Hideki Matsuyama (--17)
2023: Lucas Glover (-15)
2022: Will Zalatoris
Clearly, there has been a mixed bag of winners, from top names like Matsuyama, who won the 2024 Masters, to less top-end names like Lucas Glover. Being "hot" in the lead will surely also be relevant to selecting a good fantasy golf pick. Zalatoris, while less relevant these days given a back injury, had been an elite tour player back in 2022.
As expected, the heat will be absolutely brutal down in Memphis. Both Tuesday and Wednesday lead in with heat indexes reaching over 105 degrees Fahrenheit. The entire weekend will have highs ranging right around 100 degrees and rain. Wind will be at a minimum. This will be among the hardest physically demanding tournaments of the entire PGA Tour season.
Fantasy Golf Picks (FanDuel)
Tommy Fleetwood ($11,900)
As the 4th choice in favoritism, we will rumble with Fleetwood as our top pick. The 2025 Tour Champion finished all three playoff events in the top-4. Fast forward to 2026: Fleetwood has 6 straight events finishing in the top 14, and 7 of his last 8. When checking Fleetwood's Skill Profile, he aligns perfectly with the course demands, with his best statistical categories being putting and driving accuracy.
Collin Morikawa ($11,400)
Morikawa has been statistically playing his best golf since late-2024/early 2025. In Morikawa's last 11 events, he has zero missed cuts, 6 top-7 finishes, and a win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
When we check back in on when the man was hot in the latter end of 2024, he flashed a 2nd-place finish in the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Having now been off since The Open, Morikawa's focus will be fully on the playoffs on their expected course setups. I expect Morikawa to be primed for his best golf of the season coming to TPC Southwind.
Rickie Fowler ($9,000)
Fowler is trending in the right direction, with a T-8 at the Rocket Classic, his most recent event, a T-18 at The Open, and a T-15 at the John Deere Classic, which also had very high temperatures.
When playing in this same event one year ago, Fowler finished T-6. We might as well take a shot on Fowler, whose two biggest strengths in his golf game align with the two most relevant metrics at TPC Southwind, as referenced earlier in our key course metrics. To hit 8x salary does not require Fowler to do anything beyond a top-10 finish and a handful of birdies in the process.
JT Poston ($8,600)
As a North Carolinian, he should have zero issues with handling this dreaded weekend heat. In fact, one of the hottest events each year is the John Deere Classic, which Poston has won.
Now, playing at TPC Southwind will be a place where Poston can thrive. He has played in every iteration of his playoff event, and despite being a lower-level name on the PGA Tour, his average finish here is 20.3. Not too shabby for a golfer earning less than $9,000. Much like Fowler, Poston's strengths also align with the demands of the golf course, featuring putting and driving accuracy.
Oh yeah, and Poston? Well, he won The Memoriial just a couple of months ago — one of the seasons hardest non-major events.
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Thomas Carelli is a sportswriter based on Northern New Jersey. He is a massive New York Jets and Mets fan, but that is not where is sports fandom stops. He loves to watch and play golf, all things football, baseball, and much more. If he can watch it, he will. Thomas graduated from William Paterson University in 2018 with a Bachelor's Degree in Sport Management. He spent 4 years working at a local golf course, volunteered past PGA events, and spent some part-time experience with the New York Jets events team. His passions for sport runs deep and his articles show for it.