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Tournament Preview: FedEx St. Jude Classic (June 7th -10th)

Published

12 years ago

June 6, 2012

The Course:

TPC Southwind in Memphis, TN will host the 24^th annual FedEx St. Jude’s Classic this week; the last stop before the U.S Open. Southwind holds a distance of 7,200 yards with a par 70 and believe us, it is not an easy track for even the most skilled golfer.

Driving accuracy on this course has proven to be challenging and over the last 8 years it ranked within the top 10 most difficult Greens-in-Regulation (7 times)!

With small greens and tight fairways, it will be a challenge this week and an appropriate tune-up for the big stage at Olympic Club next week. It is truly, not a place to score.

The weather has been awful around Memphis over the past few days, softening up the grass significantly, but it does look to be a rain-free event. The temperature is expected to rise back to the mid to upper 80’s with little wind around the course.

Players:

Recent tour winner Zach Johnson is back in the field this week following his victory at Colonial and a pair of runner-up finishes. Zach has two top-15s at Southwind, and is arguably the best player in the field this week.

Don’t discount other notables like Graeme McDowell who finished T7 here in 2009, Spencer Levin who held a 54-hole lead at the Memorial last week before Tiger took over, and Ryan Palmer who has made 3 out of the last 4 Top-10s in tournaments he has competed in.

Rory McIlroy, despite missing three straight cuts and searching for answers, enters the field at Southwind looking to turn things around before the US Open. You can’t count him out just yet – he does have four top-3 finishes this year with a PGA Tour win. Still ranking No. 2 in the world, look for Rory to bounce back this week…we don’t see him missing the cut for a 4^th straight week.