{"id":4792,"date":"2022-08-08T16:20:32","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T16:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/?post_type=article&p=4792"},"modified":"2022-08-09T01:58:19","modified_gmt":"2022-08-09T01:58:19","slug":"2022-fedex-st-jude-classic-tpc-southwind-course-preview","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/article\/2022-fedex-st-jude-classic-tpc-southwind-course-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 FedEx St. Jude Classic \u2013 TPC Southwind \u2013 Course Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The top 125 golfers in the FedExCup standings will travel to Tennessee for the FedEx St. Jude Championship which is the opening playoff event of the PGA Tour’s season-long points competition. Nestled in the rolling countryside just southeast of Memphis sits TPC Southwind, which is hosting a playoff event for the first time. It is a course that is infamous for its “water balls” and one that historically rewards the best ball-strikers in the world. In the past six events played at this course, winners have included some of the best ball-strikers in the world including Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Abraham Ancer, and Daniel Berger (twice). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only the top 70 in the FedExCup standings after this week will advance to the BMW Championship. This is also the last tournament this season with a cut. Even with a smaller field, the top 65 and ties will advance to the weekend. Since this course has hosted a PGA Tour event every year since 1989 we have plenty of course history and data to rely on this week. With $15 million dollars in prize money on the line, there is plenty of motivation for the top players to not treat this week as a warm-up for the following two rounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, an entire host of prominent names will not be in Memphis this week. Players like Koepka, Johnson, Ancer, and Bryson DeChambeau are suspended from playing in PGA events after joining the rival LIV Golf tour. Three players, Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford, and Matt Jones are actually seeking a temporary restraining order that would allow them to play this week. With a court date set for Tuesday, if they are allowed to play after current Tour players have come out strongly against the notion, there could be some major drama throughout the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Course History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Designed with tournament in golf mind, TPC Southwind was built in 1988 and was designed by Ron Prichard, in consultation with Tour professionals Fuzzy Zoeller and Hubert Green. Prichard is well-known in golf architecture circles as the “father of restoration”, most notably with certain Donald Ross-designed courses. Though not a restoration, it is one of the more difficult “TPC” courses played on Tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TPC Southwind itself was first renovated in 2004 in order to modernize the course and make it more challenging. 11 new tee boxes were added along with 125 trees and 15 new bunkers. Three of the water hazards were also enlarged. Even more changes occurred back in 2020. This time, most of the upgrades were related to adding, resizing, and re-edging numerous bunkers. There were also a few holes such as the 3rd and the 7th that were extended fifteen-plus yards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1989, the course began hosting the Federal Express St. Jude Classic just one year after it was built, and would continue to do so through 2018. Over the past three years, the course hosted the World Golf Championship (WGC) FedEx St. Jude Invitational. This year’s playoff debut for the course is taking the place of The Northern Trust which was held at Liberty National Golf Club last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Course<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Built on the remnants of a dairy farm, TPC Southwind is a par-70, 7,243-yard tree-lined course that contains undulating narrow zoysia fairways, gnarly 2.5-inch Bermuda rough and Champion Bermuda greens. Many players that grew up in the South or that have become used to chipping and putting on Bermuda will be very comfortable here in the Florida-like climate. Players with past success here like Daniel Berger repeatedly talk about how comfortable they are in this environment. Much like at East Lake in Georgia, the zoysia grass used on fairways is very beneficial for the course due to the Memphis climate which has both sweltering heat in the summer and cold bursts in the winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A comprehensive course preview of TPC Southwind, host of the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4801,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"bs_types":[14,15],"bs_tags":[29,73,130],"class_list":["post-4792","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","bs_type-betting","bs_type-fantasy","bs_tag-golf-betting","bs_tag-golf-dfs","bs_tag-st-jude-championship"],"acf":false,"featured_image":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/southwinds9h2__L.jpg","tags_list":[{"id":29,"name":"Golf Betting","slug":"golf-betting"},{"id":73,"name":"Golf DFS","slug":"golf-dfs"},{"id":130,"name":"St. Jude Championship","slug":"st-jude-championship"}],"types_list":[{"id":14,"name":"Betting"},{"id":15,"name":"Fantasy"}],"bs_author":{"name":"Ron Klos","profile_image":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Ron-Klos-150x150.jpg"},"bs_term_name":null,"is_paid":"true","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/4792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"bs_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bs_types?post=4792"},{"taxonomy":"bs_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bs_tags?post=4792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}