Sam Burns Headlines Fantasy Golf Picks (DraftKings) 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 (-15)
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 (DraftKings)
Matthew Fitzpatrick ($9,900)
Fitzpatrick remains arguably the best golfer on the PGA Tour this season, alongside Scottie Scheffler. His season features 3 wins, and among his last 4 starts, Fitzpatrick has 3 top-4 finishes. When playing at TPC Southwind, Fitzpatrick has also finished in the top 6 on 3 occasions in his 6 total starts.
We are dealing here with a player who ranks 17th in driving accuracy. He is only 91st in putting, but counteracts it by being 2nd around the greencounteracts Fitzpatrick then ranks 5th in greens-in-regulationgreen;. and plans to take full advantage. Meanwhile, Fitzpatrick is salaried as the 5th choice in favoritism and is $3,600 cheaper than Scheffler.
Sam Burns ($9,500)
We need a golfer who knows this golf course. We need a golfer who can putt. We need a golfer who can embrace hot conditions. Burns? Well, he fits all three asks.
Burns has played TPC Southwind 6 times in his PGA Tour career. One time was well before his career got underway, back in 2015. That time, Burns missed the cuts. In his 5 starts since, Burns averages a finish of 20.6; not elite, but certainly not awful.
As for the putting, which is of paramount importance, Burns is the best putter on the PGA Tour. As for the heat, Burns is from Louisiana, and the man loves the outdoors, as seen often on his social media. Louisiana is the 2nd-hottest state in the United States and a short drive from Memphis. The environment will be very familiar to Burns, who is not just from Louisiana, but from North Louisiana; not the coastal bayou.
Russell Henley (8,600)
There may not be a single golfer in this event whose Skill Profile more closely aligns with the Relative Importance Model, as shown earlier in this article. Henley's setup, alongside formidable recent form, including 3 straight top-20 finishes and a recent victory at the Charles Schwab, is bolstered by.
Over Henley's last 3 starts at this event, his average finish is 9.0. That is right around the top 10% of the entire field size, which is 70 golfers this time.
If you really want a unique statistic, Henley can handle the high-90-degree heat. Why? He hails from Georgia, which is the 6th-hottest state in the United States and the4th-hottest east of the Mississippi River. The man is bred for this... or so we hope.
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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.