FedEx St Jude Championship Predictions and Betting Tips: Best bets for Tennessee event

Now that the Olympics are over, the attention in men’s golf turns to the FedEx Cup playoffs, which begin on Thursday at TPC Southwind.

Gold medal winner Scottie Scheffler is set to go off as favourite for the FedEx St Jude Championship as the top 70 players in the standings look to earn a top-50 berth so they will be invited to the next round at the BMW Championship.

The event in Memphis will be televised on Sky Sports Golf for the whole four days of the tournament.

It is little surprise to see Scheffler at the head of the market as he capitalised on Jon Rahm’s collapse at Le Golf National to claim gold with a closing round of 62.

Xander Schauffele finished in a tie for ninth as he defended the title he won in Tokyo three years ago, and the Open champion will be disappointed not to have claimed a medal after closing with a disappointing 73.

But it has not all been about the goings on in France as England’s Aaron Rai collected his first PGA Tour title at the Wyndham Championship last week, and he should be spurred on by the fact that last year’s FedEx St Jude winner Lucas Glover completed the same double.

Rory McIlroy has had his fair share of disappointments lately after allowing Bryson DeChambeau to snatch the US Open from his grasp and then missing the cut at The Open at Royal Troon.

However, there were signs in Paris that the man from Northern Ireland has put those experiences behind him and the fifth spot he gained at the Olympics was encouraging, especially as he finished the tournament with an excellent round of 66.

TPC Southwind has been a decent hunting ground as he has posted three top-ten finishes there, including third place last year when he stormed home with a 65 that was just one shot short of claiming a playoff place.

McIlroy looks geared to produce the goods this week and give himself a great chance of getting his FedEx Cup playoff quest off to an excellent start.

Canada’s Corey Conners also finished the Olympic tournament in fine fettle with a 66 that earned him a share of ninth spot and he has been showing strong consistency over the last couple of months.

Conners has not finished outside the top 30 in any of his last ten events and he should take some confidence from the way he has performed at TPC Southwind, especially last year when he claimed sixth place.

That finish could have been even higher as he carded a disappointing 72 in the second round, but two weekend 65s should leave him with plenty of happy memories and he looks capable of building on those efforts in Tennessee this week.