Written by Stephen Moloney (www.twitter.com/TheCheeky9)
After taking a quick trip back across the Atlantic to see Renato Paratore put on a clinic at the British Masters for how to win a golf tournament, my focus is once again trained Stateside for the second World Golf Championship of the season in the FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
So, let me just slip into my blue suede shoes and we’ll take a quick power-walk around the former dairy farm-turned-golf course at Memphis’ TPC Southwind for this week’s trimmed-down preview.
Field Report
Below you will find the top 30 players in the world as of this week. If they have a ✅ alongside their name, they’re in the field this week; if they have an 🆇 alongside their name it means they’re not in the field this week:
| Jon Rahm | ✅ | Tony Finau | ✅ |
| Rory McIlroy | ✅ | Justin Rose | 🆇 |
| Justin Thomas | ✅ | Marc Leishman | ✅ |
| Webb Simpson | ✅ | Gary Woodland | ✅ |
| Dustin Johnson | ✅ | Matt Fitzpatrick | ✅ |
| Brooks Koepka | ✅ | Matt Kuchar | ✅ |
| Bryson DeChambeau | ✅ | Abraham Ancer | ✅ |
| Patrick Reed | ✅ | Sungjae Im | ✅ |
| Adam Scott | 🆇 | Hideki Matsuyama | ✅ |
| Patrick Cantlay | ✅ | Louis Oosthuizen | ✅ |
| Xander Schauffele | ✅ | Shane Lowry | ✅ |
| Collin Morikawa | ✅ | Paul Casey | ✅ |
| Tommy Fleetwood | ✅ | Daniel Berger | ✅ |
| Tyrrell Hatton | ✅ | Bernd Wiesberger | ✅ |
| Tiger Woods | 🆇 | Kevin Na | ✅ |
Other notable members of the field:
Rickie Fowler. Lucas Herbert. Haotong Li. Robert MacIntyre. Joaquín Niemann. Shaun Norris. Henrik Stenson. Nick Taylor.
The Yardage Book
(i) Below you will find the scorecard for TPC Southwind. For each hole I’ve listed its par and what shape best suits it off the tee (for right-handers):
| Front 9 | TPC Southwind | Back 9 |
| #1: Par 4 – Draw | Memphis, Tennessee | #10: Par 4 – Draw |
| #2: Par 4 – Fade | 7,230 yards | #11: Par 3 – Either |
| #3: Par 5 – Draw | #12: Par 4 – Fade | |
| #4: Par 3 – Either | #13: Par 4 – Fade | |
| #5: Par 4 – Fade | #14: Par 3 – Either | |
| #6: Par 4 – Draw | #15: Par 4 – Draw | |
| #7: Par 4 – Fade | #16: Par 5 – Draw | |
| #8: Par 3 – Either | #17: Par 4 – Either | |
| #9: Par 4 – Fade | #18: Par 4 – Draw | |
| Out: 35 | Par 70 | In: 35 |
(ii) With a fascination for the kind of “classic” golf architecture you’d see on older European courses and the architects who espoused such an approach when it came to building courses – Donald Ross, in particular – Ron Prichard, the architect of TPC Southwind, designed a golf course that very much reflects that passion as the once long-term home of the St. Jude Classic & now new home of the WGC-Invitational, is your quintessential classic golf course.
Tight, undulating fairways; tricky, contoured greens that keep you guessing with their varying sizes and quirky shapes; a lot of bunkers; a lot of water; and hole layouts that dictate an ability to shape the ball; TPC Southwind is a gem of course that harks back to a time when golf wasn’t just about power, and, even now, forces players to rethink their strategy about how to attack the golf course.
(iii) Like many courses that get the “classic” billing, TPC Southwind isn’t the longest of tracks, coming in shorter than Detroit Golf Club (home of the Rocket Mortgage Classic) and just narrowly beating out both Harbour Town Golf Links (home of the RBC Heritage) & Colonial (home of the Charles Schwab Challenge). What’s clever about TPC Southwind, though, is that because the vast majority of the driving holes have a dogleg of some description and the fairways don’t offer much room for balls to run out, it actually pulls the driver out of players hands on a lot of holes & forces them to pull 3-wood or long irons off the tee to play for position. So, to get an idea who might play well this week, look back to those tournaments mentioned above – in particular, the RBC Heritage & Charles Schwab Challenge.
(iv) The fairways at TPC Southwind (made up of Zoysia grass) handle the heat extremely well – which you’d expect to see in Memphis in July – and tend to get a lot of run on them, so even if players are only hitting those aforementioned 3-woods or long irons off the tee, they can still expect to have some pretty short clubs in their hands for second shots. As for the greens? Well, they’re made up of Bermuda (again, another grass that handles the heat well) and can run quite fast, but from what I’ve seen of TPC Southwind the greens tend to be very receptive and not overly quick, so good news for the sharpshooters.
(v) Below you will find the top 10 and ties for the last four years of tournaments at TPC Southwind. 2019 marked its first year as a WGC & the three years preceding that are from when it was just the FedEx St. Jude Classic:
| 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
| Brooks Koepka -16 | Dustin Johnson -19 | Daniel Berger -10 | Daniel Berger -13 |
| Webb Simpson -13 | Andrew Putnam -13 | Charl Schwartzel -9 | Steve Stricker -10 |
| Marc Leishman -12 | J.B. Holmes -9 | Kim Meen-Whee -9 | Brooks Koepka -10 |
| Tommy Fleetwod -11 | Stewart Cink -8 | Billy Horschel -8 | Phil Mickelson -10 |
| Matt Fitzpatrick -11 | Richy Werenski -8 | Kevin Chappell -8 | Dustin Johnson -9 |
| Rory McIlroy -11 | Retief Goosen -7 | Chez Reavie -8 | Brian Gay -8 |
| Jon Rahm -10 | Brandt Snedeker -7 | Braden Thornberry -8 | Russell Henley -7 |
| Ian Poulter -9 | Chez Reavie -7 | Rafa Cabrera-Bello -8 | Seung Yul-Noh -7 |
| Billy Horschel -8 | Trey Mullinax -7 | Phil Mickelson -7 | Shawn Stefani -6 |
| Bubba Watson -8 | Chris Kirk -7 | Stewart Cink -6 | Brett Stegmaier -6 |
| Austin Cook -7 | Adam Scott -6 | Ken Duke -6 | |
| Dominic Bozzelli -6 | |||
| Steve Wheatcroft -6 | |||
| Chad Campbell -6 | |||
| David Hearn -6 | |||
| Harris English -6 | |||
| Ben Crane -6 |
The Oracles’ Fourball
Webb Simpson
It’s been a good return from lockdown for Webb Simpson. From the four events he’s played in he’s missed two cuts (the Charles Schwab Challenge & Memorial), finished T-8 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and, of course, picked up that win at the RBC Heritage (Oracles be praised) – so, all in all, good going for the World No. 5.
So, with him heading to TPC Southwind, a course suited to Webb’s game and which requires a similar strategy to that which saw him triumph at Harbourtown, then with his focus sharpened after that missed cut at Muirfield Village, plus the fact his stats are still very strong (19th in ‘Driving Accuracy’; 12th in ‘GIR %’; 18th in ‘Strokes Gained: Putting’; 14th in ‘Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green’; 7th in ‘Strokes Gained: Total’ & 4th in ‘Scoring Average’), then you’d have to think Webb could, indeed, go one better than the 2nd place finish he managed in Memphis last year.
Xander Schauffele
After an opening +6 round of 78 at the Memorial, it would have been very easy for Xander to phone in his second round at Muirfield Village and regroup for this week’s event in Memphis. Instead, however, the American went out on Friday, racked up a -3 round of 69, made the cut on the number and, due to not shooting over par on the weekend, wound up sneaking a more-than-respectable T-13 finish. Like I said when I picked him to do well at the Memorial, however, that’s what Xander Schauffele does. If he turns up to a golf tournament he does everything he can to get into contention or, as a fortnight ago showed, grind out as best a finish as he can, regardless of whether or not he has his ‘A’ game.
So, with him in the field at Memphis this week – an event where he finished T-27 last year – if the weather winds up being as wet as it’s looking right now like it might be, then for someone currently 3rd on Tour in GIR % (72.78%), 10th in ‘Birdie Average’ & 8th in ‘Scoring Average’ (69.51), if Xander can get especially hot with the putter, there’s no reason why he can’t add another Wedgwood Trophy to his collection.
Matt Fitzpatrick
Following his mightily impressive final round 68 at the Memorial two weeks ago when the rest of the field was limping back into the scorer’s hut with scorecards more akin to the kind of horror shows I’d be handing in after a midweek open singles, Matt Fitzpatrick must be feeling massively confident heading to Memphis this week. I mean, he’s missed only one cut in the five events he’s played since the return and otherwise bagged finishes of T-32, T-14, T-27 & a T-3, the latter of which following that aforementioned 68 at the incredibly difficult Muirfield Village – like, that’s really good going.
So, at a course where he finished T-4 last year and which suits his tactical, surgical approach to the game, the Englishman could well bag the biggest win of his career and, in the process, truly announce himself on the global stage as one of the best young European golfers out there.
Ian Poulter
If the Ryder Cup had been going ahead as scheduled this year, then you’ve got to think that if by some mathematical anomaly he hadn’t earned enough points, Pádraig Harrington would surely have been tempted to use one of his picks to take the talismanic Poulter to Whistling Straits, for the Englishman has really upped his game this season – and especially so since the return from lockdown.
From the five events he’s played in since June, Ian has missed just the one cut (at the Memorial) and racked up finishes of T-29, T-14, 64th & T-5 at the Charles Schwab Challenge, RBC Heritage, Travelers Championship & Workday Charity Open respectively. The key to this resurgence? Well, his all-round approach game has been solid, but it’s mainly a renewed love affair with the club that made the Englishman famous, his putter, that’s seen his name get back up near the top of leaderboards. 1st in ‘Overall Putting Average’; 1st in ‘One-Putt %’; 1st in ‘Putts per Round’; 4th in ‘Average Distance of Putts Made’; 6th in ‘Putting Average’; 7th in ‘Total Putting; 8th in ‘Strokes Gained: Putting’; basically, whichever stat you look at in the putting category, Poulter has been filling up the cup.
So at a course in TPC Southwind where, like Harbourtown, it’s about taking a more cerebral approach to the game, if Ian can get the putts rolling in early in the week, then not only might he better his 8th-place finish last year, but the Ryder Cup legend could well grab his third World Golf Championship and get but one away from completing the ‘WGC Grandslam’.
Title Photo Credit: AP Photo/Mark Humphrey