The heat is on both figuratively and literally at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, beginning Thursday at TPC Southwind in Memphis.
It is the first leg of the three-week FedEx Cup playoffs, where the 69 players still alive will try to make it to the Tour Championship and win the season-long crown at East Lake in Atlanta.
A total of 70 players qualified for the playoff opener, although Daniel Berger did not enter due to injury. Berger was ranked No. 60 in the FedEx Cup standings.
For the remainder, keeping cool will be key. Memphis’ annual spot on the PGA Tour calendar means the field will be subjected to incredible heat, perhaps even more than usual. High temperatures during the tournament range from 99 to 103 degrees.
The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory at least through Friday with Thursday’s humidity creating a heat index of 110 degrees.
“You can only drink so much water out on the course without getting waterlogged,” World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler said. “That’s something that we actually experience at home (in Texas) depending on, if I take a break to eat lunch and go back out and chug a bunch of water, you can get waterlogged.
“A lot of the hydration is something you have to focus on beforehand, and it’s not necessarily water, it’s a lot of electrolytes and stuff like that. The heat is something you really have to prepare for ahead of time.”
Scheffler enters the playoffs No. 1 in the FedEx Cup standings despite just one tournament victory back in January. He placed second five times and third at two more events.
Behind him, the rest of the top five are Matt Fitzpatrick of England, followed by Americans Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark and Chris Gotterup, all of whom have won multiple tournaments this season.
Winning the St. Jude awards 750 FedEx Cup points, with the top 50 in the standings after Sunday qualified to play in next week’s BMW Championship at Bellerive in St. Louis.
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy did not play the St. Jude last year, and he didn’t have to, based on his place in the points standings. He’s 12th this season and comfortably in the zone to qualify for next week but will tee it up in Memphis this year.
McIlroy hasn’t played since the Open Championship, taking off the final three weeks of the regular season.
“I think having four weeks off going into the last two events of the year was probably going to be a little too much for me in terms of wanting to be competitive,” McIlroy said. “… Obviously I want to play well, but it’s also a good week to just see where my game is, do a lot of practice, or as much as I can in the heat.
“Yeah, I think it’s important to be here. It’s the Tour’s playoffs, and I think it’s important for all the players to be here. I’ve had some good conversations with (CEO) Brian Rolapp over the last couple weeks. Yeah, I think it’s important for me to be here and show support and looking forward to teeing it up.”
Last year in Memphis, Justin Rose of England defeated J.J. Spaun with a birdie putt on the third playoff hole after they tied at 16-under-par 264 at the par-70, 7,288-yard course.
“The course is, I think, not there for the taking this year, but I feel like the rough is possibly a little down, and greens at the moment are relatively soft,” Rose said.
While Rose remains elite at 46 years old, the PGA Tour has been a young man’s game in recent weeks. The final three regular-season events were won by Jackson Koivun (21), Michael Thorbjornsen (24) and Michael Brennan (24). All three qualified for the playoffs.
Koivun grabbed the 70th and final spot, while Brennan’s Wyndham Championship title on Sunday vaulted him from outside the top 100 to 47th in the standings.
