GMTI Episode 16
In this episode, the team dissects the action from last week's Wyndham Championship, particularly Michael Brennan's impressive victory, but also coverJordan Spieth's wild week and Brooks Koepka's ongoing struggles.The panel also break down the 'bubble' for the top 70 players qualifying for the FedEx St. Jude Championship, debate the playoff format and discuss whether a match-play overhaul could be on the horizon. Finally, the team shares their best bets and top picks for this week's FedEx St. Jude Championship as part of their ongoing season-long Tipster Challenge.
Video Transcript
Hello, and welcome to another episode of "Golf Monthly Tour Issue," your look back at and forward to the very best tour golf around the world.
With the regular PGA Tour season now done and dusted, we look ahead to the FedEx Cup playoffs.
And joining me this week to talk through everything you need to know about the final three events of the season, and to give their predictions on the business end of the season, are Matt Craddock and Elliot Heath.
Elliot, welcome back.
How are you, sir?
Hey, Baz.
Good to be back on the pod talking golf.
I'm very good, thanks.
Yeah, looking forward to the playoffs.
Good stuff.
Matt, did you manage to catch much of the golf this weekend?
Yeah.
Managed to watch a lot of it on the Sunday.
It was quite entertaining, in parts.
A real mix, I would say.
So, yeah, we've kind of got the last three weeks out the way, and, looking forward now to having all the big names back on the, on the PGA tour for the FedEx Cup.
Yeah, we certainly have got some stellar fields, coming up over the, the back end of this season.
I actually watched most of the golf on my phone, surrounded by millions of people it seemed like, in 35 degree heat at Disneyland, this weekend.
Which is, one of the places, one of the more surreal places I've ever tried to watch a bit of golf.
But I did my best to keep up to date.
I may be leaning on you guys slightly, for your expertise and input, on, on the analysis of last week's event, the Wyndham Championship, which was won by Michael Brennan.
Matt, talk us through Michael Brennan's, impressive run of form leading into this, I suppose.
But also, how he sort of, he's persevered this season, hasn't he?
He's managed to get over the line, and we should congratulate him for doing so.
Yeah.
Not to bring up the Tipster challenge just yet, but I remember backing him and him missing a cut, and then since then he's been on fire.
So that's been really good to watch.
But no, he was, I think as we've seen with the last two winners in Koeven and, Fabiansen, he's sort of one of those players where we were kind of waiting for him to, to make a statement and really go out and get the win.
I believe he won back in 2024, and he's sort of been a bit, a bit, not lackluster, 'cause he's still produced some good results, but he hasn't pushed on as well as we thought.
But no, that performance at the Wyndham, he was, you know, he played, he was really solid.
Just didn't really seem to make too many mistakes.
And yeah, I think overall it was a, it was a good win for him.
I, I think perhaps it was marred a bit by the, the final round.
There was a bit of slow play within the final group, which people were calling out, but, you know, that's kind of something that we seem to be talking about every week at the minute.
But, overall, it was a really good performance from Brennan, and again, he's a, I think he's the third player under 24 to win on the PGA tour in the last three weeks.
So, you know, there's some, there's some interesting names making some momentum towards these, these upcoming, upcoming playoff tournaments.
So, it was a really, really good week for him and, and not a bad tournament.
I mean, it wasn't, wasn't the most exciting watch in the world, but, you know, he did the job and that's all he needed to do.
Yeah, there's some exciting talent coming through on the PGA Tour at the moment.
It's a, a great time to be, to be watching that tour golf.
But Elliot, there's one name that's been around for quite a while, but has yet, he perhaps has struggled actually for quite a period of time to actually get over the line and win, and that's Bo Hosler.
Bo Hosler was, you have to feel for him, unfortunately needed the win to get through to the playoffs, and didn't quite manage to do so.
What is it that's not going right for Bo Hosler that means that he, he's just always that sort of nearly man?
Yeah, it was really good to see him up there actually.
I remember him, back at the US Open, when would that have been?
2011 maybe, when he was 17.
I think he was leading on the Friday.
And to be honest with you, I haven't actually watched much of him in the previous years obviously, 'cause he hasn't been, you know, like a cerebral winner or, or a winner at all, on the PGA Tour, which is a surprise.
He looks incredibly talented, just like a phenomenal golfer who's having some struggles in the head, I would say.
Saw quite a lot of the time where, you know, he's standing over the ball for a significant amount of time, looks a bit twitchy.
And then obviously when, when he needed to hole those putts in the final round when it really mattered, they weren't going in, which is very understandable when he's not in contention every week.
And it's obviously a massive monkey on his back now.
And he looked like he had a bit, bit of a temper issue as well.
So, I think talent-wise, it's obviously all there.
I mean, he does look like he only hits a draw, which, is probably fine, but he, he he's not clearly like a, a shot maker, I guess, that hits a little fade or can draw it on, on demand.
But yeah, a phenomenally talented player who, who I really enjoyed watching actually.
Apart from, apart from the slow play.
When he's hitting the ball, he's very enjoyable to watch.
Just ignore the stuff that comes before it for now.
Yeah.
Yeah, I agree with you 100%.
We hate slow play.
Stop doing that right now.
Anyway, let's move on.
Matt, Jordan Spieth.
I really enjoyed watching Jordan Spieth this week, mainly because as ever, he is completely box office.
You know, you see him more actually clipped up on social media than you do on the actual coverage nowadays, making pars.
That par he made from absolutely nowhere, seemed like he was barely even on the golf course, was just insane.
What's going on with Jordan Spieth?
How is he putting these decent performances together when he clearly can't drive the golf ball?
I mean, for me- You know, like how they always do a top five compilation of best shots of the week.
You could have just done that for Jordan Spieth at the Wyndham Championship.
He I think his first tee shot of the day on Thursday, he hit it out of bounds with an iron.
Then the final hole on Friday, he pretty much just needed to make a par and he's safely through to the weekend, has to hole a 25-footer to do that.
He's the only player that hasn't got a top 10 in the FedEx Cup playoffs, and everyone else has at least one top 10, and he doesn't.
So look, I mean, he's entertainment and he's box office.
It's just you've got to give him respect more if anything, because he's obviously battling something off the tee, because some of the tee shots were just off the planet, and he's obviously got struggles because pre-tournament he seemed to be working with three or four different drivers trying to get it sorted out.
And yeah, he's I mean, you've just got to give him a bit of respect, I suppose, because he managed to make the playoffs without, with all these problems going on.
You've seen it with other players like Nick Dunlap, for example.
He's another one that seems to be struggling off the tee, and it's, you know, it's really horrible to see.
I mean, I couldn't think of many worse things than having yips with your driver because, you know, it just cripples you for the rest of the round.
So I think with Jordan Spieth, he's obviously making some changes, whether he's got too technical, whether, you know, he's relying on trying to get the perfect data numbers compared to what he was doing when he was winning all those majors when he was young.
You know, it's something, I mean, we've seen players turn their form around, but when you've got a caliber name, a high caliber name like Jordan Spieth, you just, you do wonder what's going on because he was unbeatable for the, through the period between 20, was it 2014 to '16 and '17, and then since then he's won one PGA Tour event.
You're kind of going, "How?
What's, what's happened?
What's..." You know, is it literally just because he's trying to change his swing or he's trying to get, you know, perfect data?
We just don't know.
But the fact he's still battling and grinding away, especially after the injury and coming back from, from that and recovering, he's obviously still got the passion and the drive to do it, but something's just not clicking at the minute and what that is, only he or the people he's working with knows.
Yeah.
It's one of the many mysteries of tour golf, but clearly the bookies are still scared of him and his potential, you know, ability to turn up and win golf events because he still comes in every week a, a, you know, a 50 to one or whatever.
You could arguably say he's worth being double or triple that price because he's just not winning, and he hasn't won for a long time.
But they're obviously still a bit scared of him because as we all know, Jordan Spieth could turn up any week he wants, sort the driver out and win easily because he's phenomenally talented and we would all love to see that happen, but doesn't seem very likely at this moment in time.
Another player who doesn't seem likely to win at any sort of moment in time, and I, I hate to say it, and I will come back to this in a little while.
I hate to say I told you so, but I did tell you so, is Brooks Koepka.
Elliot, no, Matt, I'm gonna come to you for this.
Sorry, Matt.
Brooks Koepka was a little bit hard on himself, let's say, after his performance this week.
Talk us through the comments that he, he made about his own performance this season, and then we'll have a bit of a look into why we think Brooks has struggled coming back onto the PGA Tour.
Yeah.
I mean, essentially, after the final round, he called it pathetic.
You know, his performances haven't been what we expect or perhaps what most were expecting.
I think he's had-- his best finish was a T-9 for the Cognizant Classic, but since then, nothing's really happened.
We know he's had struggles on the green with the putter, and I think probably more than anything, he was just a bit cheesed off, I think, because he came into the weekend, he needed a solo four for better to qualify, and he was in a good position.
He was only five off the lead.
He was just around the top 20, and you know, with Brooks, he's, we've seen what he's capable of.
He can make a charge, and then all of a sudden he's up near the top again.
But I think he shot, was it rounds of like 74 and 70, and that's not gonna do it over the weekend.
And I think rightly so, he was hard on himself.
He hasn't won since 2024 on Liv.
Again, it's just another one.
It's, it's, his, his stats are really good apart from on the greens, and that's, it's such a big confidence thing that he's not able to get over it.
And, I think for me, I thought he would make the playoffs pretty comfortably.
I thought he'd maybe get just outside top 50, top 60.
Admittedly, he's had his problems on, on Liv, but you know, it's, I thought it'd be like a new lease of life for him being back on the PGA Tour and it just, just hasn't transpired.
Look, I took some, some grief at the start of the season on social media and actually from my own colleagues as well actually, in, in saying that I was unsure whether Brooks Koepka strengthened the PGA Tour from a playing perspective.
I get the commercial aspect of it, but from a playing perspective, I didn't feel that him rejoining the tour was gonna strengthen the tour because he's not the same player that he was that we sort of think about nostalgically of when he was winning all those majors.
His period of time on Liv wasn't hugely successful at the end, and then he came onto the PGA Tour, and I was quite confident that he wasn't gonna be able to then get a massive upturn in his form to compete in what I would say is stronger fields.
Now, if you look at the fact that he's only had one top 10 this season, and that was backdoored at the Cognizant Classic with a 65 in the final round.
And if you look at the fact that obviously his official world golf ranking, once he started getting regular world golf ranking points, did come down from I think when he joined the PGA Tour again, he was something like world number 252.
And it did come down, reached a low of 105.
We expected that to happen.
I got real grief for saying I wasn't sure whether Koepka wasn't, was a player that was sort of a top I think I said top 75 player in the world.
It might even have been top 100 player in the world.
He's- he reached 105 at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, and his, his world ranking is now going the wrong way again.
He's back up to 117.
His form recently has not been, not been good, as I mentioned.
I think a, a strong PGA Tour, a strong Brooks Koepka makes the PGA Tour better.
A strong Brooks Koepka playing well improves the Tour, and I would love to see that happen.
This is not about bashing Brooks, 'cause I think he's a phenomenal character.
He's a great, golfer when he's, when he's on form.
But at the moment, something's not quite right.
Most of the time it's on the greens.
And I think that if we, next season, want to see the best of Brooks, that's probably where he's gonna have to spend most of his time working on the off-season.
And maybe missing the FedEx Cup playoffs isn't the worst thing in the world, although I'm sure he won't see it that way.
But some time away to go and really work on the things he needs to work on, because, we, we wanna see Brooks back to playing his best golf, don't we, Elliot?
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, I do wonder when we'll see him next actually, 'cause he's not going to play, for the USA's Presidents Cup team.
He's probably not gonna have any interest in the FedEx Cup full.
So yeah, I wonder maybe he'll play the, the BMW PGA at Wentworth.
I mean, that would be amazing, but potentially quite unlikely as well.
So maybe that's him done for the entire year now.
But yeah, I, I'm sad to say that you're right, Baz, with, with your prediction at the start of the year.
I thought having to grind and having to worry about missing a cut this year in stronger fields would really focus him, and he would thrive in that again.
And I'm surprised that it just hasn't happened.
Obviously the putting has been dreadful, and if your confidence goes, I mean, you're gone.
I know it.
I've Not that I'm a, a tour player or anything, but I've had like semi-yips now for like two years, and I cannot score anywhere near as low as I used to.
And I cannot imagine ever being good at putting ever again, honestly.
So yeah, putting is just, is so hard i- if you lose your confidence.
And hopefully he'll get that back because he is probably the best iron player in the world on his day, and he's good at everything else.
So, yeah, I'm sure he'll be back.
But, you know, look at Jordan Spieth.
It, it is hard to get it back once you've been up there, world number one, winning majors.
So there's definitely no guarantee.
Yeah.
I think for me with Brooks, I mean, we did see when he was going through all his injuries, and then he went on to win the PGA Championship.
He's capable of just pulling a random result out the bag.
And I think from what I believe, 'cause I believe he mentioned it in his trans- when I was checking over transcripts over the weekend, he said that he probably will play a couple of DP Tour events and come back and maybe play some PGA Tour.
I think last year we saw him at the FedEx French Open, I believe it was, where he's finished inside the top five, and that seemed to perhaps give him a little boost.
I mean, if he can have a good result over in Europe, as we've seen a couple of players who come back from- onto the DP World Tour after not great PGA Tour seasons, perhaps that might give him a confidence booster.
He's obviously still experimenting.
His putter this weekend, he went back to a Tour AD insert, which is the one he used with his Newports when he was winning all the majors.
So, you know, that one aspect for me is also equipment.
He doesn't seem to tinker that much apart from with putters.
Perhaps going back to a, a blade might actually suit his game more.
You know, he's familiar with it.
He's won all his majors with one.
Perhaps there's a, an aspect there.
I think, you know, there's the whole mallet hype at the moment where everyone seems to be going into one, but there are some players who are specifically designed just for a blade.
So he'll keep tinkering.
He's too good, I think, to, to not start getting his game back.
I think, you know, he's probably I think from what we've heard, he's had personal problems away from the course as well.
So hopefully if they clear up, he'll be, he'll be back to it.
Perhaps golf isn't one of the main priorities at the moment for him.
But for me, I feel that he's mentally so strong that he will be back.
It's just a matter of when.
He's only in his mid-30s, so it's just a matter of when as opposed to if, if I believe.
Yeah, and there's no two ways about it.
You, you mentioned about him coming over and playing on the DP World Tour and looking for a bit of form to give him that boost.
There's no two ways about it.
The, the f- the fields on the DP World Tour are weaker.
It gives him a much better chance of going to, to take an event which could give you that confidence to then push on, next season.
So yeah, I mean, we all hope that Brooks finds it and gets back to the player that he was.
But, if you gave me some grief on Instagram, if you wouldn't mind dropping me a, a message just to apologize, I would be very grateful.
Thank you.
Anyway, moving on.
Elliot, the FedEx Cup, we've been talking a lot over the last week or so about the term bubble, which, for those of you who don't know what that means, it's that sort of line around whether or not you're gonna make the top 70 or whether you're not, and the, the potential, sort of swings that can happen within that.
Just talk us through, Elliot, a bit of a roundup of who actually made it in and who maybe narrowly missed out on, a place at the FedEx Cup St. Jude, this week.
Yeah.
Matt might be best to say who made it in.
Obviously Michael Brennan had a massive jump up.
Matt, did anyone else make any good jumps last week?
There were a couple of significant ones, but I wouldn't There weren't any real massive changes.
I know Jackson Kovin, there was potential that he was gonna be dropping out, but he had a pretty strong finish, so there wasn't as much drama as what we're used to seeing.
There weren't any significant moves from other players.
Keegan Bradley was, you know, he was on the cusp, but there wasn't an awful lot like we're used to seeing every year.
Yeah.
So yeah, Koepka's in with just five starts, which is just incredible.
Yeah, Bradley dis- did miss out.
Now he's, not a Ryder Cup captain.
He's, not playing as well.
Don't have that dilemma this year.
Hosler finished 72nd, so, not only did he miss out on the title, he also missed out on the playoffs.
Matt Wallace came 73rd.
That's quite, quite agonizing for him.
I saw him miss quite a short putt late on.
Jason Day misses the playoffs for the first time in 18 years, which is quite a surprise.
He obviously has had back injuries this year, but he's had back problems for a long time.
That just shows like the incredible longevity he's had for 18 years making it.
That was also Bradley's first ever time missing the playoffs.
Koepka was down in 94th.
Tony Finau not even close at 98th.
Another big name who's really struggled this year.
And then probably another surprise would be Marco Penge.
I think at the start of the year, after winning three times on the DP World Tour, we thought he could potentially carry that on, maybe win once or twice this year, and it just hasn't happened.
He's obviously had personal issues, moved his whole family over to Florida, then he's had, some, some quite confusing injury issues or, you know, health problems it seems that he hasn't quite, got a hold on.
So yeah, 112th in the standings.
I don't know if he could potentially even lose his card.
I know he's gonna have to carry on playing the FedEx Cup full and finish in the top 100.
So that'd be a, a massive shame if he, if he lost that.
So yeah, lots, lots went on last week.
Another player to shout out as well for, for the wrong reasons, would be Johnny Keefer, the world- the, the number one from the Korn Ferry Tour last year, who I had really high hopes for this year, and he only finished 78th.
So, should keep his card, but, surprised not to see him win this year.
Yeah, there were a few surprising names in that list that you, you mentioned there earlier.
I mean, f- Tony Finau could definitely fall into that bracket of what on earth happened.
A- and again, another one of another popular, popular golfer that I'm sure lots of golf fans would like to see, work out what's going on and, and find his form again.
But what we have got now is a, a top 70 of really strong players, a really strong field heading into the FedEx and Jude.
And before we talk about that, let's do a little bit of chat about our FedEx Cup predictions and also a bit of a chat about what we think about this season ending playoff series, because I know it's, it's quite a divisive topic.
And some people like it, some people really don't like it.
Where do you sit on that, Elliot?
It's a tricky one.
I, I've never been a massive fan.
I guess playoffs work quite well in, in US team sports, but for individual, individual sports, it's quite difficult because if someone's been the best player for the season, then they should just be awarded the, the best player of the season title.
And that obviously doesn't happen.
Like we saw Tommy Fleetwood being crowned FedEx Cup champion last year after an amazing, well-deserved tour championship victory.
But that didn't suddenly mean that Fleetwood had had, had been the best player that year.
And I think that was probably like a m- a moment last year where we were-- everyone was like, "Hang on a minute, Fleetwood hasn't been the best player this year."
and maybe it got people thinking slightly differently about the FedEx Cup.
It's just a silly season really, isn't it, to, to create some contrived drama to reward the players with even more money.
So if I'm being honest, it's not something I love.
I think the DP World Tour, even LIV Golf get it a lot better where it's like, you know, your Race to Dubai champion or your individual champion is the player who was consistently the best throughout the year.
And I, I hope that's kind of where we're going in the future, albeit the playoffs are still gonna remain.
Yeah.
And I, you know, I think they have improved the, FedEx Cup by removing those stupid starting strokes from the, the tour championship.
You know, why, why you would start someone at 10 under par in a golf tournament?
It basically just takes out most of the field, especially when that person is Scottie Scheffler.
It makes it something, you know, most people don't even wanna watch.
But Matt, even though they've done that, is it now a bit bizarre that someone can turn up in the top 30, win the tour championship like Tommy Fleetwood did last year, and suddenly we're expected to believe that because, for example, with Fleetwood winning one PGA Tour title, suddenly su- means that they supersede the likes of Scheffler and McIlroy, who, who are multiple winners.
Yeah.
It's sort of just manufactured basically.
Like you saw it with, who was it?
Billy Horschel won two events, and then suddenly he's, he's the top one in the PGA Tour and you I think the problem is, and it's always gonna come down to broadcast and TV, it's li- it's one of the perfect opportunities to do a match play style event.
But because it won't work well with TV producers and broadcast, they're not gonna do it, so they've gotta try and find another way to make it fairer.
And it's I'm, as you said, I'm glad they've got rid of the staggered shot system.
I think they're really shooting themselves in the foot a bit by not doing it.
Th- they- there's no match.
Match play is probably one of the best formats you have in golf, and they're not doing it, and you just think, "Why?"
Like- It creates so much drama.
Like, I, I mean, I'm, I'm not the biggest LIV fan, but often their team championship at the end of the season was always the highlight of the, of the calendar basically.
And, you know, they changed the system last year because Rob didn't win a single tournament, yet he beat Neiman out for the individual title.
And how many wins did he have in the season?
So, the case is, is you're not gonna get it correct, but it's trying to make sure that you have the right format that's gonna appeal to the widest range of golf fans.
And I think the way you can do that is by doing a match play style event and just do first v 32nd or second v 31st, et cetera.
Like that's, that for me is gonna be the best way of doing it and the best way of watching it.
But it- I think it's the case of they always need to have a winner and, you know, by having a player just win one event at the end of the season, he's crowned the best player is just not the way to do it because it sort of makes the remaining 49 events before that completely irrelevant, basically.
It's sort of like the, the new format, isn't it, in the Champions League in football, is that, you know, getting higher up the league table in that group phase thing gives you a better draw, when you get to the knockouts.
And I think having something like that, if there was a match play element, as, as you said, as you said, that surely motivates players to get as high up the FedEx Cup rankings as they can so that they get a better draw in the early stages of the knockout.
And then we whittle it down to, you know, who, who's got the, the ability to win the most matches from the best players in the world on, on the course of, you know, one week's play, for example.
Elliot, is, is match play something that we could see come into the Tour Championship moving forwards?
Well, yeah, it is coming.
That has been proposed.
Big changes for 2028 under the new two-tier structure.
We've already seen some of the tournaments, that will be part of that.
And, as well as match play, it's gonna be on sort of supposedly better, amazing golf courses.
So it does sound exciting.
But I, I think they should just have a match play event sort of mid-season, just mix the calendar up a little bit.
Yeah.
The, the more I think about the playoffs, the more I, I just don't get them.
I think August should be the time for the PGA Championship.
Just finish the PGA Tour season a little bit later.
Most of the, like, casual golf fans sort of switch off after The Open anyway, so it's like, as much as the PGA Tour wants to build it as the, you know, a really exciting climax to the season, that's the final major of the year really, which is the real climax.
And we saw last month at The Open what a fantastic week that was.
And now it just sort of like peters out a little bit, I guess.
But, maybe I'm just being a bit too harsh.
I don't know.
What do you think?
No, no, I 100% agree with you.
I think they haven't got it right for a long time.
They're still not getting it right, although it's slightly better.
I think there's a way to go.
If we're getting towards match play in 2028, I think that is a great step in the right direction, but I'll be interested to see how that looks in terms of how it's set out, where it's played, and the format.
But yeah, that, that hopefully is a, a positive signal.
Maybe we're looking at a situation, chaps, where Jordan Spieth finds himself somehow in the top 30 under East Lake, and he goes and wins a Tour Championship.
In which case, I think the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup is the greatest thing that's ever happened in golf.
But, well, let's, let's wait and see.
Before we move on, i- into this week's golf, let's talk a little bit about our predictions then for the FedEx Cup.
We now know who the top 70 players are.
One of those players is going to win, at the Tour Championship.
Obviously to do that, they've got to progress through into the top 50 at the end of this week, into the top 30 at the end of next week, and then obviously, they battle it out, in those 30 names in the final event at East Lake.
Matt, let's start with you.
Out of those 70 names in the list, who do you think is gonna win the FedEx Cup this year?
I mean, it's a good question because I feel that there will be some surprise names who will make that top 30.
Or when I say surprise names, it'd be rookie debutants who'll be there, especially like a couple of the younger guard that are coming through.
But I think, you know, I, I, I had a thought about this with terms of who would be PGA Player of the Year this year because you've got Scheffler's arguably leading all the t- all the stats, but he's only won once, and you've got Fitzpatrick winning three times, Gotterup winning three times.
But I think given the caliber of the events that he's won, I think Cameron Young for me.
I think he's, his game, okay, he didn't play well last week, but he's just capable of suddenly having a two or three-week stretch where he just goes on fire, sets courses alight.
He can s- score low, as we've seen multiple times throughout.
You know, he's won the Players, he's won the Cadillac, which is a signature event.
So I mean, based on the caliber of the events that he's winning and the fact that he, he is just capable of suddenly turning it on and he's got experience, he's gaining more and more every single year.
I think Cameron Young for me.
I think Scheffler will be up there.
That's, you know, that you can't argue with that.
But I feel that Cameron Young, he's just, he's just got c- the capability of overpowering courses, and I think that he'll suddenly start firing and suddenly, you know, he'll, he'll be the winner by the end of the East Lake.
Yeah.
And it's probably worth noting obviously, that there's a difference between the FedEx Cup, which is the season-long competition, and the Tour Championship, which is that final event, which often there can be some confusion between.
I think if we're looking at who's gonna win the FedEx Cup, you are sort of looking at a player that's maybe, am I fair in saying they're probably in the top 10 already maybe?
Depending on how their playoffs go.
Obviously, you could go and win a couple of playoff events and be right up there and in with a chance in the final event.
But, Elliot, who do you think, is gonna be the FedEx Cup champion, at the end of, East Lake?
Well, the FedEx Cup champion will be one of 30 players in the Tour Championship field, so it's just whoever wins the final tournament.
And if I'm picking, the, a guy that probably comes to mind would be Collin Morikawa.
He actually, he, he kind of won this tournament two years ago.
He won the What?
On his official world golf ranking page, he won the tournament that was called Tour Championship 72 Hole Scores.
So he shot the lowest score that week.
Won the tournament, got all the OWGR points, but then he didn't get to actually win the tournament.
So he's got, yeah, good form round East Lake.
He's kind of won here in the past.
And he's been very good this year despite his, his back injury scuppering him at the, the Players.
He's had quite a good summer and, yeah, I can, can see him hoisting that famous FedEx Cup trophy, in a couple of weeks' time.
Yeah.
I, I like Morikawa a lot actually.
I think he has really sorted out the flat stick this year, which has been a big issue for him in the past, and I think that makes him very dangerous.
But I'm gonna go with a man that should have a major championship already under his belt after his performance this season.
I've been banging on about Sam Burns for months now, and I don't think we've seen the last of him this season.
I think he's got a great chance this week, and I'll get onto that in a little while.
But I think currently ranked eighth in the FedEx Cup, he's not too far away, meaning that he could after, you know, a, a decent playoff run, get himself up into contention.
His, his major form this year was ridiculous.
Obviously, second at the US Open, narrowly missing out to Wyndham Clark, you know, had that putt to potentially what would've been a playoff for him.
But then also third place at the Open Championship, again, looking like he probably could have won, but just couldn't quite get over the line.
He's had a great season, five top tens.
In these final events, you need to be an elite ball striker.
You need to be someone who's good both distance and accuracy off the tee, and you need to be someone who putts well, and Sam Burns does all of those things exceptionally well.
And I think that sometimes you do get that, like, interesting player, like Tommy Fleetwood, for example, who has maybe been there or thereabouts, but doesn't quite get over the line in some of the bigger events earlier in the season, that then gets over the line at the Tour Championship, and I think that that player this year is Sam Burns.
So he is the guy for me, for the FedEx Cup.
But I mean, we're all kidding ourselves 'cause Scottie Scheffler's gonna win it obviously.
But, you know, let's, hope and pray that, we get a decent, performance from somebody else to make it a little bit interesting.
Let's talk about the FedEx St. Jude.
I really like this event.
TPC Southwind is a really interesting course.
It's a tough course, and it's one that you need to be able to control your golf ball on.
It's, one where strokes gained approach is paramount.
It's, greens in regulation almost always top 10 for the winners.
If you are not able to hit these tough-to-hold small putting surfaces, you're going to really struggle to score well round here.
Total driving is important.
Y- you can't just overpower this, by being incredibly long.
You need to be able to find the fairways.
They're fairly narrow.
But also a bit of If you can do both, if you can send it out there but also find these fairways, you're going to be, way ahead of par, for the field because it's not hard, it's, it's not easy to do.
Par four scoring is incredibly important.
If you're looking at par four scoring average, there's only two par fives.
So I think for par fours, you're looking at somebody who traditionally scores well, on these.
I would call them long, tough, you know, you're not gonna get many gimmies, for the ones that you've got out there, and obviously scrambling as well.
With any, anywhere you go where there's small greens that are hard to hold, you're gonna have to scramble well.
Plenty are gonna miss those greens and, yeah, that, that's what we're, we're looking at as a model, I suppose, for the winner of the FedEx St. Jude.
I think Hideki Matsuyama is interesting this week.
He's not someone I've tipped, but I wanted to give him a, a notable mention.
His form has massively spiked in the last few weeks.
He's a previous winner here.
I think he's one to watch.
I, I will be putting him on my Baz's Best Bets column, later on today if you wanna go and head over to the Golf Monthly website to, to hear exactly why, and what price, you can get him at.
That's, that's gonna be on there later today.
But let's not delay any further, and let's talk about the tips to challenge, which is where we're gonna give our two best bets of the week at the FedEx St. Jude, one of which is gonna be a favorite, that can be at any price, one of which is gonna be an outsider, which has to be at 40/1 or above.
This all forms part of our season-long competition where we pick two golfers each week.
You can't pick the same golfer more than three times in the season.
You get the nu- the, the number of points for their finishing position in that tournament.
So if they finish second, you get two points.
If they finish 65th, you get 65 points.
The person, out of myself, Elliot, Matt, and Johnny, with the least points at the end of the season will be crowned champion and will get a lovely, prize, which is a round of golf at a top 100 golf course of their choice.
Chaps, there's only one of us out of the four that is currently under 1,000 points.
Can you guess who that is, Elliot?
Not a clue, Baz, no.
No, no.
Well, I'll let you know, it's me.
Because, you, you chaps aren't making it very difficult for me at the moment.
I had a great week last week.
Jackson Kovin, 29 points.
Ben Coles, 29 points.
I was the only one not to pick a missed cut as well, which was helpful.
But I'm gonna stop bragging for a second, because I'm gonna read out the, results.
Both Matt and Johnny picked Cameron Young 61st.
Very disappointing because I know that a lot of people were quite keen, on Cam Young's chances last week.
Matt also picked Emiliano Grillo, who missed the cut.
That's now one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11.
11 missed cuts for Matt in the last one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine events.
Oh, Matt.
Can I, can I, can I just put something in here?
I think if you were to look at the scores, it would be, well, I guess about eight of those players have missed the cut by one.
I mean, I know that's not much of an argument, but I've probably lo- lost about 250 points from that absolute rubbish.
Yeah.
And, and it's worth pointing out, as Johnny rightly mentioned last week, that Matt is, Matt is typically, at Golf Monthly, the outsider king.
He's the guy who picks the best value bets, the best value winners at some ridiculously big prices.
But as we know, in this game, you can go on a run, which for, for whatever reason, and it can seem extremely unlucky, things go this way for you.
So, we, we feel for you, Matt.
Keep going, mate.
Y- you're gonna get there.
Matt Misener missed the cut for Johnny, so that gave him 82 points.
Ria Satsane missed the cut for Elliot, which is 82 points.
But Elliot did have the best golfer of the week with Justin Thomas at 14 points.
So Elliot, considering you were the player who picked the best golfer last week, why don't you kick off and tell us who you like this week at the FedEx St. Jude?
Thank you, Baz.
Yeah, I've just actually been looking at the weather for, TPC Southwind this week.
Thought Memphis in August, that sounds quite warm.
It's gonna be touching 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which is gonna be 39 degrees Celsius.
So, something to bear in mind.
I guess we need, we need fit golfers this week that can handle what is gonna be a brutal week, surely.
Being out there for, you know, they take six hours these days, don't they?
So, yeah.
Incredibly, demanding.
My number one pick is gonna be Sungjae Im.
A lot of the, the golfers in the field this week are playing for the first time since the Open, like your, your McIlroys and Schefflers.
Whereas Sungjae Im, who, who basically plays every week, has played three times since the Open.
He's gone miscut, 15th, 14th.
So he is competitively sharp.
He's got a decent record here in the past with, I think like a, a 20th and a, a sixth place.
So yeah, I can see him going quite well.
And then my second pick is gonna be Harry Hall, who, did go miscut, miscut, miscut.
But last week he was fifth at the Wyndham, which was his best finish of the year.
And he played quite well here last year in his tournament debut.
So, a couple of, outsiders for you there.
Yeah, interesting tactic, that, Elliot.
Again, you've done that before where you've had the option to pick anyone in the field, and you've gone for two fairly long prices.
That's a ballsy move from you, but I like your style.
Matt, who's gonna miss the cut this week?
I'm gonna announce my retirement if my players miss a cut in a no-cut event.
So, no doubt they're gonna withdraw now I've said that.
I've gone with , Ludvig Aberg, he's not played since the Open, but prior to that he's been producing really solid results.
I know he hasn't gotten over the line, but this score seems to suit him well.
He finished tied ninth here last year.
Good ball striker, good all-round game.
I feel that he's, he's due a win.
You know, we keep saying the next step up.
Well, he's won a signature event.
I'll put a playoff event above a signature event.
That's the theory I'm going with.
But I've gone with Aberg as my favorite.
And then as my outsider, I went with Michael Thorbjornussen, who he's, he's just playing He's obviously won on his last start.
He's got some confidence.
I feel that it's the clich of once you get one win under your belt, opens the door, and I feel like he's one of those players, he's been due a win, he's now got one.
Again, really solid, tee to green, really good short game stats.
He just needs his putter to fire, which it was last time out when he won.
As I say, he's just similar to Aberg in that he's just very strong all-round game.
So I've gone with, Aberg and Thorbjornussen as my two picks.
Yeah.
And obviously Johnny is in Canada this week.
Hello, Johnny.
I know you're listening.
Good job on the picks last week, mate.
Very good job.
143 points.
Good one.
Okay.
But we're gonna, we're gonna let Johnny do something which is unprecedented in Golf Monthly Tips Challenge because I'm feeling nice, because I'm winning by so many points that I wanna make things interesting.
Johnny hasn't sent over, as far as I'm aware, unless you're gonna correct me, chaps, he hasn't sent over his picks in time for the pod.
Which is terrible, terrible behavior, even if he's on annual leave.
But I am going to allow him to enter his, picks before Thursday.
So I won't be able to share them with you right now.
But, we will update you on how they got on, in next week's pod.
So Johnny, you're on the clock.
You've got until play starts on Thursday to get your picks into this spreadsheet.
Otherwise, you are having Jordan Spieth and whoever finished 69th in the FedEx Cup rankings, 'cause there's no way I'm giving you Jackson Koyven.
I'm now gonna talk about my picks.
I've already mentioned about how much I like Sam Burns.
He is my favorite for this week.
He's had an incredible season, as I mentioned, five top 10 finishes.
Missing a win, which does concern me a little bit.
He doesn't win as often as I'd like.
But he can rectify this, that this week.
He's, he's already finished runner-up on this course, and has been fifth before as well in his six appearances.
Obviously second place at US Open, third place at the Open.
In the last three starts, which also included a T12 at the Travelers.
And to win at TPC Southwind, I've mentioned you need a blend of distance, accuracy off the tee.
You need the ability to score well on long par fours.
Burns is a great driver of the golf ball.
He also ranks second for par four scoring average and ninth for strokes gained approach in the last three months.
He's in some of the form of his life at the moment, and after coming so close to a major win, I believe that we've still got something to see from Sam Burns this season, and I think this could be the sort of event he could go and win.
And, and I would be very pleased if he did so.
Tom Kim is my outsider.
He's, he's the man of the moment, really at the moment.
He's riding the crest of a wave after a great comeback win at the Genesis Scottish Open.
That win came just a few starts after an impressive third place finish at Shinnecock Hills, during the 2026 US Open, and that really appears no sh- no sign of slowing down considering he's just finished fifth at the Wyndham Championship last week.
At that price, which is I think around about 50 to one, he represents great value and, that's because he ranks in the last three months as the best player in the world for strokes gained approach.
His iron play is ridiculous.
He's flushing everything.
It's a crucial measure for success at TPC Southwind.
He also ranks sixth for par four scoring this season.
There are plenty of reasons to like Tom Kim, and I believe, he is a confidence player.
He looks confident at the moment, and that's dangerous for the rest of the field.
So Tom Kim is my outsider.
Chaps, are you confident you're gonna be able to catch me up this week considering the two picks I've just outlined there, Matt?
I don't know if I'm really in a position to comment at the moment, Baz.
Look, we'll see what happens.
I mean, I mean, this event was really good to watch last year, Justin Rose and JJ Spaun playoff, so hoping for much of the same.
Obviously, I'm hoping that Sam Burns and Tom Kim finish towards the bottom.
But given what I've, produced the last three months, I think I'm not in a position to really comment too much at the moment.
No, and we're running out of weeks, chaps.
I know we've still got a lot of the DP World Tour season end to, to cover.
Obviously this, this event, this little sort of tipsy challenge we've got is running all the way until the DP World Tour Championship at the back end of 2026, but we are running out of weeks.
You're gonna have to start catching up.
Elliot, maybe you should start picking some favorites.
Yeah, just, just trying to work them out in my head.
I reckon we've probably got maybe like another 12 tournaments to go, and you are about 175 to 200 points clear of second and third place, so, plenty of time for you to slip up and- I'm sure all the listeners are hoping that you do because, you're turning into a bit of a villain with, how smug you are.
Also, the only person on this, panel to pick two winners so far this year and three runner-ups.
So just saying, just saying, you know- Yeah, it's the most disappointing amount of winners picked from us this year.
We, we need to do better, I would say.
We do.
We do need to do better.
Well, I well, you and Matt and Elliot and Johnny need to do better.
I'm doing my bit.
Anyway, let's stop with the, the, the bashing of the rest of the panel.
I've had my, my say.
I feel like I've, sold myself in, in, in the right way to, to everybody listening, and I think we are in for a great week, at the FedEx St. Jude.
If you want to reach out to the pod, you can do at golfmonthly@futurnet.com.
Send us a message on socials.
We'll be doing some ask the pod questions throughout the playoff, so if you've got some playoff related questions, PGA Tour moving forward questions, anything, coming up for the rest of 2026, drop us a message and we'll discuss those.
Thank you very much for joining us this week.
Matt, Elliot, thanks again for your time.
I wish you all, a very pleasant rest of your week.
Goodbye.
