What To Look For: FedEx St. Jude Classic

The Tour takes a trip to Memphis for the 59th St. Jude Classic:


The St. Jude Classic was originally set at the famous Colonial Country Club in Memphis which is now the site of many big Tennessee events and US Open qualifiers. Colonial CC was also where Al Geiberger shot the first 59 on Tour.


It’s a bit interesting that when I grew up in the game Geiberger was usually considered to have one of the greatest golf swings of all time. But as we reached the internet age that seemingly has been replaced by Hogan, Snead and Mac O’Grady while Geiberger’s swing is mostly forgotten.

Anyway, the Tour moved the St. Jude Classic to Cordova and then moved the event to TPC Southwind in 1989 which was designed by Ron Prichard with Hubert Green and Fuzzy Zoeller consulting on the project.

I generally don’t know a lot about TPC Southwind because most of the Tour players I’ve dealt with do not consistently play here due to the US Open being the following week. And with The Memorial the week before being such a huge purse a lot of players don’t want to go to Memorial, then put up with a week of sectional qualifying for the US Open, playing Southwind and then traveling to the US Open. However, now is a good time for many Tour players because between Memphis and Hartford (the week after the US Open), they can take advantage of weaker fields.

In general, the tournament and course appear to be well received. The course is usually in great condition, the layout isn’t too funky and doesn’t have too much of a bias towards one particular style of player. And it helps contribute to the great cause of the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital:


From a statistical standpoint, TPC Southwind is akin to Muirfield Village in the sense it’s very much an approach shot and short game around the green course. Unlike Muirfield Village, TPC Southwind has a low hit fairway percentage, but the ability for a long/inaccurate driver or a short/accurate driver to gain strokes off the tee is limited compared to superior approach shot play and the ability to clean up any mistakes.

The cool part of TPC Southwind is that the 17th and 18th holes are the last 2 ‘critical holes’ on the course.

Here’s a nice Google Earth overview of the layout of the course:

https://nebraskapga.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/nebraskapga11/course/tpcsouthwind/aerial.htm#


PROJECTED WINNING SCORE: -13


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