Stacy Revere

The first event of the 2023 PGA Tour FedEx Cup Playoffs is here. The FedEx St Jude Championship will feature a smaller field with less room for error. Only 70 tour pros make the trip to TPC Southwind in Memphis, down from the 125 in previous years. After the tournament, the top 50 golfers in the FedEx Cup points list move on to the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields, with the top 30 after that event advancing to East Lake in Atlanta for the Tour Championship and the chance to win the $18 million first-place prize money payout.

After a cruel chip shot on No. 18 at the Wyndham Championship did everything but fall, Justin Thomas finished his season in the No. 71 spot. However, even without JT, the field at TPC Southwind will be (of course) loaded featuring the top 10 golfers in the world. Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Max Homa, Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Viktor Hovland, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler and Tony Finau will all be partaking in this first playoff tournament with McIlroy looking to defend his FedEx Cup title from a year ago. Lucas Glover also will be playing this week after his Wyndham Championship win last week catapulted him into the top 70. The 43-year-old jumped from No. 112 to No. 49.

The points will be quadrupled for the first two playoff events with 2,000 going to the winner all the way down to just 12 points going to 70th. Unfortunately, last year’s FedEx St Jude winner, Will Zalatoris, will not have a chance to repeat as he’s still recovering from an April back surgery. Willy Z won last year with a seven-foot bogey putt in the third playoff hole to best Sepp Straka.

The winner also earns a $3.6 million share of the $20 million purse.

There are the pairings and tee times for Thursday’s first round

First tee (all times EDT)
8.50am Thomas Detry, Taylor Montgomery, Davis Riley
9.02am Tom Hoge, Mackenzie Hughes, Cameron Young
9.14am Patrick Rodgers, Adam Hadwin, JT Poston
9.26am Sahith Theegala, Lee Hodges, Matt Fitzpatrick
9.38am Taylor Moore, Tommy Fleetwood, Denny McCarthy
9.50am Collin Morikawa, Kurt Kitayama, Adam Schenk
10.02am Patrick Cantlay, Tom Kim, Sepp Straka
10.14am Viktor Hovland, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler
10.26am Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy
10.38am Brandon Wu, Hayden Buckley, Hideki Matsuyama
10.50am Stephan Jaeger, Cam Davis, Sam Ryder
11.02am Matt NeSmith, Vincent Norrman
11.20am Lucas Glover, Nick Hardy, Alex Smalley
11.32am Eric Cole, Andrew Putnam, Harris English
11.44am Byeong Hun An, Adam Svensson, Brendon Todd
11.56am Jordan Spieth, Sungjae Im, Justin Rose
12.08pm Chris Kirk, Seamus Power, Corey Conners
12.20pm Sam Burns, Russell Henley, Emiliano Grillo
12.32pm Xander Schauffele, Tyrrell Hatton, Si Woo Kim
12.44pm Tony Finau, Jason Day, Nick Taylor
12.56pm Max Homa, Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman
1.08pm Keith Mitchell, Mark Hubbard, Matt Kuchar
1.20pm Sam Stevens, Aaron Rai, Beau Hossler