The stars are out again this week for the start of the FedExCup playoffs, which begin at the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis. TPC Southwind will play host this week to its 1st playoff event.
Below, we search for the best value prop bets among the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship odds and make our PGA Tour picks and predictions.
Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world and the top-ranked player in the FedExCup standings, is near the top of the odds boards this week. Rory McIlroy, Cameron Smith, Patrick Cantlay and Justin Thomas are also in the field as they return from a little bit of a break from major golf season.
Though this is the 1st year of the FedEx St. Jude Championship being part of the playoff schedule, Abraham Ancer won the WGC edition of this tournament last year at TPC Southwind. He did not make this year’s field.
WATCH: PGA Tour is live on ESPN+! Get ESPN+
FedEx St. Jude Championship – Top-5 picks
Odds provided by Tipico Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports Scores and Sports Betting Odds hub for a full list. Lines last updated Tuesday at 2:49 p.m. ET.
Rory McIlroy (+270)
McIlroy has notched top-5 finishes in 5 of his last 8 starts, and those were some of the biggest tournaments on the schedule, too. He’s arguably the best ball striker on the planet right now and his putting has been great all year as well, even if it abandoned him at St. Andrews.
Cameron Young (+650)
You’re getting a major value on Young here in a star-studded field, which just happens to be the type of tournament he excels in. Like McIlroy, he also has 5 top-5s in his last 8 starts, giving him 7 total on the year.
He’s a good guy to bet on for a top-5 finish because while he’s failed to capture that 1st career win, he often finds himself near the top of the leaderboard in big events.
Will Zalatoris (+500)
Zalatoris tied for 21st at last week’s Wyndham Championship, a disappointing finish for 1 of the favorites to win. But it’s not as if his ball striking has suddenly gone by the wayside. He’s still driving it well and hitting a lot of greens, which should have him in position to record his 7th top-5 finish of the year.
Other T5 contenders:
- Justin Thomas (+330)
- Xander Schauffele (+330)
[tipico]
FedEx St. Jude Championship – Top-10 picks
Collin Morikawa (+330)
Morikawa’s odds are discounted because of his recent play, fighting to play a draw after he lost his fade just before the U.S. Open. He missed the cut at the Scottish Open and the Open Championship, but he tied for 5th in Brookline at the U.S. Open, his last start on American soil. Buy low on Morikawa here.
Shane Lowry (+350)
Lowry was on a tear before the U.S. Open, where he missed the cut. Since then, he tied for 21st at the Open and 83rd last week at the Wyndham Championship. Another buy-low candidate, Lowry should bounce back at a course where he’s won before and tied for 6th in 2020.
Tyrrell Hatton (+450)
Hatton comes in hot after firing a final-round 64 Sunday at the Wyndham, notching his 2nd straight top-11 finish. He has 3 top-10 finishes this season and is playing some of his best golf right now.
Other T10 contenders (in order from longest odds to shortest):
- Davis Riley (+750)
- Russell Henley (+450)
FedEx St. Jude Championship – Top-20 picks
Adam Scott (+320)
Scott’s odds as a whole this week should be shorter than they are, knowing he’s made 5 straight cuts and has 2 top-15 finishes in that span. He was up and down last week, but in strong fields at the U.S. Open and the Open Championship, he came in the top 15 each time.
Tony Finau (+115)
It’s somewhat risky to take Finau this week after he won his last 2 starts, causing his odds to be juiced into top-5 territory. But there’s less risk taking him to come in the top 20, which he’s done 5 times in his last 7 starts.
More FedEx St. Jude Championship coverage:
FedEx St. Jude Championship – Matchups
Suggested play is golfer in bold.
Tyrell Hatton (-120) vs. Corey Conners (+100)
Conners has been steady lately, firing 8 rounds between 66 and 71 in his last 2 starts. But Hatton is trending up and played really well last week at the Wyndham, so I like his odds of edging out Conners in Memphis.
Collin Morikawa (-110) vs. Viktor Hovland (-110)
Let’s not forget Hovland was playing pretty poorly heading into the Open Championship where he finished T-4. He missed his last 2 cuts and hadn’t recorded a top-20 in a stroke-play event since the Players in March. I’ll take Morikawa in this matchup.
Will Zalatoris (-110) vs. Jordan Spieth (-110)
Spieth missed the cut in his last start in the U.S. at the Travelers Championship, a shocking result at a course he’s won on before. Zalatoris should be fresher and in better position to take advantage of a ball-striker’s course.
FedEx St. Jude Championship – Top Canadian
Taylor Pendrith (+280)
Very quietly, Pendrith hasn’t finished worse than T-13 in his last 5 starts. He has the 2nd-best odds among all Canadians, behind Conners (+230), so I think there’s good value here.
FedEx St. Jude Championship – Top South American
Mito Pereira (+380)
Four straight missed cuts have Pereira’s odds plummeting, but 2 of those were in Scotland and another was at the U.S. Open. Prior to that poor stretch, he came in the top-27 in 7 straight starts, excluding 1 W/D. Joaquin Niemann (+190) has the best odds in this prop collection, followed by Emiliano Grillo (+350) and Pereira.
FedEx St. Jude Championship – First-round leader
Cameron Young (+5000)
Young is a popular pick to be the 1st-round leader every week because it seems more often than not, he goes low on Thursdays. At +5000, he’s a steal to lead after Round 1. And, he’s in the morning wave going off the 10th hole this week.
Rory McIlroy (+2000)
McIlroy has come out firing in recent starts, and even though he’s in the afternoon wave on Thursday, he’s been a great 1st-round play this season. There’s even more reward with this bet than taking him outright at +900.
More expert prop bet predictions
Winning margin: 2 shots (+400)
This should be a close tournament down to the end, but I think 1 player will pull away a little bit on Sunday. The winning margin in 2020 and 2019 was 3 shots each, and last year’s WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational came down to a playoff.
Want some action on the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship? Bet legally online with a trusted partner: Tipico Sportsbook, Sportsbook Wire’s official sportsbook partner in CO and NJ. Bet now!
If you’re looking for more sports betting picks and tips, access all of our content at SportsbookWire.com and BetFTW, or try out our USA TODAY Parlay Calculator. Please gamble responsibly.
Golfweek:
Follow @camdasilva on Twitter. Follow SportsbookWire on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
Gannett may earn revenue from Tipico for audience referrals to betting services. Tipico has no influence over nor are any such revenues in any way dependent on or linked to the newsrooms or news coverage. See Tipico.com for Terms and Conditions. 21+ only. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO).
[lawrence-newsletter]
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1364]