[Photo: Andrew Redington]
10 THINGS is a collection of words that runs prior to each week’s PGA Tour event, mostly ABOUT that event. Reach out with your hottest takes on absolutely anything at [email protected]. We’ll publish the best emails here.
Welcome to Memphis, the hottest place on this or any other planet! It’s playoff time, so let’s boogey.
1. 90% OF THE TIME, THIS TOURNEY DELIVERS AN A+ FINISH
I feel there is something sort of … uninspiring, might be the word, when it comes to my gut reaction to the FedEx St. Jude Championship. I can’t even quite explain it, and maybe you feel differently, but even though it’s the first playoff event, the lead-in feels kind of anticlimactic. Maybe it’s the course, maybe it’s spiritual exhaustion from a summer of majors and the playoff chase, or maybe the collective golf world still isn’t sure how to feel about the playoffs in the first place. But I’m here to tell you that when you put all that ennui aside, Sundays at Memphis are usually scintillating. In the past five years alone, we’ve had:
— Justin Rose beating Spaun in a playoff after the latest Fleetwood collapse (’25)— Hideki Matsuyama winning a barnburner over Hovland and Schauffle (’24)— Lucas Glover finding the fountain of youth just in time to beat Patrick Cantlay in a playoff (’23)— Will Zalatoris getting his first (and thus far only) Tour win in another playoff over Sepp Straka, despite having to take an unplayable from against the stones on the third playoff hole (’22)— Tony Finau in a playoff over Cam Smith the last time they played it at Liberty National (’21)
So that’s four playoffs in five years, which I’m pretty sure no other tournament can come close to matching, and a decent amount of drama each time. In other words, you have permission to be excited about Memphis.
2. FIELDS DON’T GET MUCH BETTER THAN THIS
Everyone from the OWGR top 25 is here except the two guys who can’t be, Rahm and Hatton. Outside of the majors, it feels like a long time since that’s happened. Which, of course, is mostly Rory McIlroy’s fault, but nevertheless, this is a little taste of what Rolapp is dreaming up for the Tour come 2028, when we have our Championship Series and everyone crosses their fingers hoping that a sense of duty or threat of lost points or whatever will make the Rorys of the world actually show up. It’s happening now, and that makes this an ideal week to turn on the featured groups on a Thursday or Friday morning—a routine that has become one of my favourites while I work—and just watch some extremely good players do their thing.
3. SPEAKING OF RORY, WHAT’S HE DOING HERE?
It’s been a weird time for Rory and the PGA Tour, with the relationship clearly having frayed a bit in the time since he was their knight in shining armour against LIV. At the Open, he asked the rhetorical question, “why would I care about the first two?,” referring to this week’s event and the BMW next week, and it’s hard to argue with him. Everyone starts off on level footing at the Tour Championship, so as long as he stays inside the top 30—which he can do without ever teeing it up before East Lake—there’s nothing to be gained from playing. It’s a definite structural weakness of the current system, and another thing Rolapp is fixing, but the fact that he’s showing up this week looks meaningful. If anything, he’s shown a reluctance to play at these bigger tour events this year, and based on his recent remarks, this one looks very skippable.
This is one of those questions without an answer, but clearly the tour holds some sway over his decisions, and I hope this week someone asks him that exact question: Why are you here? If there’s some influence being exerted by the tour, that’s a potentially great sign for things to come in 2028 when the legitimacy of the Championship Series depends on guys like Rory showing up.
4. A MEMPHIS STALWART IS MISSING
Daniel Berger has had a rough 2026, especially in the latter half. He’s made one cut since the PGA Championship, he withdrew from the Wyndham Championship last week, and now he’s decided to skip the playoffs too. Berger is ranked 60th in the standings, and with only the top 50 making it on to the BMW Championship, that means his year is effectively over. There are a couple of interesting things here. First, two of his four wins on Tour have come at TPC Southwind, so it’s a big deal for him to miss it. Second, he hasn’t given a reason yet, and didn’t last week either, so we don’t know if this is about an injury or what. Third, it’s an important year to make the top 50, because if you don’t get into 2027’s Signature Events, it’s even harder to get into the Championship Series in 2028. All of which means that it’s a big sacrifice for Berger to miss out.
It’s also especially brutal that nobody else gets to take his spot, and the field size just gets reduced, but that’s the cutthroat nature of the playoffs—you either make it or you don’t.
5. PLAYER OF THE YEAR HESITANT POWER RANKINGS
I forgive if your attitude toward the Player of the Year lands on the wrong side of the “something I care about” spectrum, but I do think this year is particularly fascinating, so I’m going to dump my thoughts.
First off, Scottie Scheffler has been the best pound-for-pound player, with the lowest scoring average, the most strokes gained and all that. But you can’t really give him POTY unless he completely goes off in the playoffs, because the only thing he’s won is the AmEx. Rory is in the mix, but he cooled off after the Masters, Wyndham Clark has two wins, including a major, and the trio of Cameron Young and Matt Fitzpatrick and Chris Gotterup have racked up multiple wins but no majors, although Young has the Players. They’re all in the mix, but unlike most years, nobody really stands out. Seriously, how do you possibly choose? If my hand was forced, here’s where I land: Fitzpatrick first, then Clark, then Scottie, then Young, then Rory, then Gotterup. But I swear, no matter which ranking I choose, when I look at it a second later, it makes no sense. The playoffs really do feel like the differentiator this year.
6. WHAT’S WORTH KNOWING ABOUT TCP SOUTHWIND?
This has been a mainstay on the Tour for a very long time largely due to FedEx being headquartered in Memphis, and while the course takes some flack for being a little boring—in conjunction with East Lake, you’re kind of dealing from the same deck for two out of three playoff events—the one interesting thing is that it favors accuracy and semi-effectively forces players to keep the driver in the bag. The last four winners, including Zalatoris and Rose, prove the point, and while birdies abound, they usually manage to keep the winning score below 20-under. In short, seek out the ball-strikers. Here’s a fun breakdown.
7. THE JORDAN SPIETH SADNESS INDEX (JSSI)
He’s back, baby! A T-19 finish at the Wyndham, including four sub-70 scores and this insane par save to make the cut, I can officially announce that all our troubles are behind us. It’s full steam ahead, and the Sadness Index is down to a 1.3. Nothing could go wrong!
8. ONE NORMIE PICK, ONE WEIRD PICK
My normie pick goes to a ball striker extraordinaire, Matt Fitzpatrick, who will navigate his way brainily around Southwind and secure POTY status with his fourth win. My weird pick? Alex Noren, a classic ball-striker who is now 44 but keeps putting up results. The Swede in Winter just won’t go away!
9. ROGUE GOLF TAKE: LET BLOCKIE BLOCK
You may have heard that Michael Block was DQed under odd circumstances when he walked off the course during the final round of the Staysure PGA Seniors Championship, and man, just that sentence alone is delicious. I was one of the original Blockie haters when he was gawping his way around Oak Hill, but I’ve come to love the man, largely because he’s so unpredictably weird. Nobody thought he’d still be around at this point, but not only is he around, he’s goofier than ever, and we need to keep this circus going well into the 2030s. Anybody who has a problem with this is just not chaotic enough.
10. ROGUE NON-GOLF TAKE: SCIENCE SHOULD HAVE PERFECTED SLEEP BY NOW
Why is sleep a struggle in 2026? Why can’t I just flip a switch and go off, to be woken exactly nine hours later, or whatever the optimal time is? Why do I have to struggle at night, brain racing with nonsense, when I’ve spent the entire day tired? Why are all the pills you could take basically terrible for you? Why does none of the advice work? Why am I constantly getting the not-quite-enough six hours? Why are all my dreams either terrifying or weird?
We have self-driving cars, for god’s sake! Somebody fix sleep!
