Pat Mayo and Geoff Fienberg preview the course and run through the odds while making their 2020 WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational Picks. The guys give their fantasy golf picks, provide their one and done strategy for the event from TP Southwind. Plus, a breakdown of the betting odds for the 2020 Barracuda Championship.
2020 WGC St. Jude — Wednesday Update | Video | Apple | Spotify
2020 WGC St. Jude — Picks + Preview | Picks/Field/Course | Picks Video | Stats/Tools
2020 WGC St. Jude DraftKings — Research | Picks & Preview | DK Cheatsheet | Video | Own% Projections
2020 Barracuda Championship — Picks & Preview | Podcast
The DraftKings main slate locks on Thursday morning, July 30th, so set your lineups here: PGA TOUR $1.75M Southwind Special [$500K to 1st + ToC Entry].
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2020 WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational Field
Field: 78 Players | No Cut
First Tee: Thursday, July 30 at 10:00 a.m. ET
Defending Champion: Brooks Koepka
1. Of all the players who qualified for this event, Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, Francesco Molinari, Justin Rose, Papa Shugo Imahara and Lee Westwood will not be in the field. Scott and Molinari have yet to play a tournament since golf has returned, but are expected to be in the field next week for the 2020 PGA Championship. After hosting the British Masters this past week, it appears like Westwood will not only skip this week, but the year’s first Major, as well.
2. Henrik Stenson (World Rank No. 35), Shaun Norris (No. 69), Lucas Herbert (No. 71), Robert MacIntyre (No. 76) and Sebastian Söderberg (No. 173) are making their first starts since the PGA TOUR resumed play. Michael Thompson received the last spot in the field after winning the 2020 3M Open, bumping Chan Kim out of the field.
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2020 WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational: Course
Course: TPC Southwind
Yardage: 7,238
Par: 70
Greens: Bermuda
3. Previous to hosting the WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational, TPC Southwind was the host course for the St. Jude Classic. All of the “history” prior to 2019 for this tournament is actually from the WGC Bridgestone Invitational, which was played at Firestone CC. Memphis has now been a PGA Tour stop every year since 1958.
4. After adjusting for par, TPC Southwind is covertly one of the longer courses on TOUR.
5. Since the 2004 course overhaul, more than 5,000 balls have taken a dip the water. That’s a serious number, by the way. Five thousand. That’s the most water balls of any course and almost 1,500 more than second-place TPC Sawgrass. Most of the wetness will be absorbed by holes 12 and 18. No. 12 has seen more than 850 balls get wetter than Ethan Hawke in Training Day.
2020 WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational: Past Winners
WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational
2019: Brooks Koepka
St. Jude Classic
2018: Dustin Johnson -19
2017: Daniel Berger -10
2016: Daniel Berger -13
2015: Fabian Gomez -13
2014: Ben Crane -10
2013: Harris English -12
2012: Dustin Johnson -9
2011: Harrison Frazar -13
2010: Lee Westwood -10
6. In the past nine years at TPC Southwind, only one winner has finished worse than 16th for the week in SG: OTT. And, for approaches, no winner has finished outside the top 20 the year they hoisted the trophy. Two of the past four champs, Berger (2016) and Gomez (2015), topped the list for SG: APP that week; Dustin Johnson was second to only Robert Garrigus two years ago with the irons when he won by six strokes, while (against a far stronger field), Brooks Koepka finished fifth off the tee and 11th in approach last season. The Fantasy National “Strokes Gained: Ball Striking” stat combines both these numbers together.
2020 WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational: Key Stats
Strokes Gained: Ball Striking
Par 4s Gained: 450-500 Yards
Opportunities Gained
Strokes Gained Putting
Mayo’s Key Stats powered by FantasyNational.com
7. Average Driving Accuracy (54%) and Greens in Regulation (58%) are almost 10 percentage points lower at TPC Southwind than at the average PGA tournament. With those thin fairways, you want to be long and straight off the tee. Over the past 36 rounds, only Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Paul Casey and Viktor Hovland rank inside the top 30 of both distance and accuracy in this field.
8. Rory McIlroy, Webb Simpson, Sungjae Im, Xander Schauffele and Paul Casey have the most Strokes Gained: Total on Par 70 courses over their past 24 rounds.
9. In a minimum of eight rounds, Daniel Berger, Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Paul Casey, Webb Simpson, Billy Horschel, Brooks Koepka and Henrik Stenson are averaging the most SG: T2G per round of the players in the field. In less than eight rounds, Tommy Fleetwood, Joel Dahmen, Shane Lowry, and Joaquín Niemann would also rank inside the top 10 per round too.
2020 WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational Picks — Early Week Leans
Xander Schauffele
Continuously the victim of one terrible round per event — aka Tommy Fleetwood syndrome — Xander’s overall performance since the restart has been very solid. X has now posted four top 20s in five starts, and he has historically done his best work in loaded, no-cut events. Of his four career wins, three of them have come at no cut, limited field tournaments (2017 TOUR Championship, 2018 WGC-HSBC, 2019 Tournament of Champions).
Viktor Hovland
Despite his lack of wins, Vik has been the most consistent player since the restart. He’s first in this field in ball striking, approach and opportunities gained, while sitting fourth in SG: OTT, third in GIRs Gained, and 12th in Par 4 scoring. Like usual, Hovland’s upside will rest on his putting, but his ball-striking base gives him a higher floor than most of the elite options even.
Other notable names appearing near the top of stat models and the win simulator at FantasyNational.com: Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Webb Simpson, Joaquin Niemann
The DraftKings main slate locks on Thursday morning, July 30th, so set your lineups here: PGA TOUR $1.75M Southwind Special [$500K to 1st + ToC Entry].
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Pat Mayo is an award-winning video host and producer of long and short-form content, and the host of The Pat Mayo Experience daily talk show. (Subscribe for video or audio). Mayo (@ThePME) won the 2020 Fantasy Sports Writing Association Daily Fantasy Writer of the Year and Golf Writer of the Year awards, along with the Fantasy Sports Trade Association Best Sports Betting Analyst award, and was finalist for four FSWA Awards in 2020 (Best Podcast, Best Video, Daily Fantasy Writer of the Year, Golf Writer of the Year). His 21 FSWA nominations lead all writers this decade and are third-most all-time. Mayo has been recognized across multiple sports (Football, Baseball & Golf), mediums (Video, Writing & Podcasting), genre (Humor), and game formats (Daily Fantasy and Traditions Season Long). Beyond sports, Mayo covers everything from entertainment to pop culture to politics. If you have a fantasy question, general inquiry or snarky comment, ship it to Mayo at ThePatMayoExperience@gmail.com and the best will be addressed on the show.
I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is ThePME) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.
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