A stellar field of 48 out of the top 50 players in the world will compete at TPC Southwind in Memphis for the World Golf Championships-Fed Ex St. Jude title and the $1.8 million winning share that goes with it. It’s competitive out there, but it’s not a bad way to make a living. There will be 66 players in the field.

The defending champion is Justin Thomas. He won by 3 shots over Brooks Koepka, Daniel “Whata” Berger, Tom Lewis and Philip Alfred Mickelson. JT played pretty well at the Olympics shooting a final round 65 and finishing 8 back of Xander, who won the Gold. Justin tied for 22nd out of 60 players. He looks to be getting back into his usual stellar form.

TPC Southwind will play 7,233 yards and a par 70. The only 2 players from the top 50 in the world missing are World No.1 Jon Rahm, who is still recovering from his second COVID positive case. Talk about some hard luck. And the second positive was after he was fully vaccinated. The Johnson and Johnson vaccine has had some breakthrough cases. The New York Yankees can attest to that. The other player missing is Christiaan Bezuidenhout. Chore in itself spelling that guy’s name. So, Rahm will be back for the Fed Ex playoffs which start in 2 weeks at the Northern Trust, Aug. 19-22nd at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, N.J. That’ll be followed by the BMW Championship Aug. 26-29, at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mill, MD. New course on the rotation. Will be interesting. Finally, the top 30 will play at the Tour Championship at East Lake Sept. 2-5 to crown the Fed Ex champion who will take home a cool $10 million check. The Northern Trust takes the top 125 in the Fed Ex Standings, the BMW takes the top 70 and then the Tour Championship takes the top 30. Next week’s tournament is the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C.

Weather this week looks like typical Memphis days in August. Thursday 90, mostly sunny, winds NNE 5 MPH. Friday, 90, winds SSE 5. Little chance of rain. Saturday, 93, Winds SSE 8 MPH. Sunday, 94, Winds SSW 11 MPH, so a little more of a factor on Sunday. Humidity is 48% Thursday, 52% Friday, 55% Saturday, and 57% Sunday, so not too bad there. Rain chances look minimal all weekend.

TV

Thursday-Friday, 11 AM-4 PM CT, Golf Channel. Saturday-Sunday, 11 AM-1 PM CT Golf Channel. 1-5 PM CT, CBS.

Odds

Brooks Koepka, 11/1

Collin Morikawa, 12/1

Xander Schauffele, 14/1

Jordan Spieth, 16/1

Justin Thomas, 16/1

Rory, 18/1

Dustin, 20/1

Daniel Berger, 22/1

Viktor Hovland, 22/1

Louis Oosthuizen, 27/1

Paul Casey, 29/1

Scottie Scheffler 31/1

Matthew Fitzpatrick, 34/1

Cam Smith, 34/1

Webb Simpson, 34/1

Patrick Reed, 34/1

Tony Finau, 40/1

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Winner

I was going to take JT going into this column, but I feel like he, Xander and Patrick Reed may have some jet lag. I’ll take the 28 year old from Plantation, Florida by way of FSU. He has 4 victories on tour, with his last victory coming at Pebble Beach in February. He’s been trending well. He finished tied for 8th at the Open Championship shooting a 70, 67, 68, 68. I’ll go a bit out of the box here, but not really anymore, and take,

Daniel Berger

Darkhorse

If you can call this guy a darkhorse. He seems to be in the hunt every week these days. I’ll go with the 25 year old from Ridgewood, New Jersey by way of the University of Texas. As Walter says, beam me up

Scottie Scheffler