Twenty players will see their season end in Memphis this week. Nobody knows yet which twenty. That is essentially what awaits us at the next FedEx St. Jude Championship: 70 golfers qualified, only the top 50 move on to the BMW Championship, and there is no cut to hide behind for the ones who start badly.
The FedEx St. Jude Championship 2026 runs from Thursday 13 August to Sunday 16 August at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee, and opens the PGA Tour’s FedExCup Playoffs. Here we cover the full, updated FedEx St. Jude Championship schedule, the tournament format, the venue and course, the field, and the prize money on offer.
FedEx St. Jude Championship 2026 Overview
The FedEx St. Jude Championship is the opening leg of the FedExCup Playoffs, and it works as a straight elimination event. The top 70 players in the FedExCup standings after the regular season qualify. Only the top 50 after Sunday go on to the BMW Championship, and from there only the top 30 reach the Tour Championship in Atlanta.
TPC Southwind has hosted PGA Tour golf since 1989, first as the FedEx St. Jude Classic, then as a World Golf Championship, and since 2022 as the playoff opener. Memphis in the middle of August is punishing on its own, and the tournament adds a deadline to it.
Qualified players who withdraw are not replaced. Daniel Berger has opted not to play due to an injury, so 69 men will tee it up instead of the expected 70.
| Dates | Thursday 13 August – Sunday 16 August 2026 |
| Venue | TPC Southwind, Memphis, Tennessee, USA |
| Course | Par 70, approximately 7,288 yards (designed by Ron Prichard) |
| Event status | First of three FedExCup Playoff events |
| Field | Top 70 in the FedExCup standings (69 competing) |
| Format | 72-hole stroke play, no cut |
| Advancing | Top 50 after this week reach the BMW Championship |
| Total purse | $20 million |
| Winner’s prize | $3.6 million and 750 FedExCup points |
| Defending champion | Justin Rose (England) |
Full FedEx St. Jude Championship 2026 Schedule
The tournament is played over four days, Thursday to Sunday, with every player in the field completing all four rounds. There is no 36-hole cut.
| Date | Round |
| Thursday 13 August | Round 1 |
| Friday 14 August | Round 2 |
| Saturday 15 August | Round 3 |
| Sunday 16 August | Final Round |
Exact tee times and pairings are confirmed by the PGA Tour, usually the day before each round. Groups are staggered across the morning and afternoon, and heat or storms in Memphis can shift the schedule at short notice, so we recommend checking the official listings on the day.
Tournament Format
The FedEx St. Jude Championship uses standard professional stroke play with one significant difference: nobody goes home at halfway.
- 72-hole stroke play – four rounds of 18 holes, with every shot added to a running total.
- No cut – all qualified players complete four rounds, unless they withdraw or are disqualified. This is the same structure used for the Tour’s signature events.
- Lowest total wins – the player with the fewest strokes after 72 holes is the champion.
- Sudden-death playoff – if two or more players are tied at the top, they return to a nominated hole and keep going until someone wins outright.
Three of the four editions played at TPC Southwind have gone to extra holes: Will Zalatoris beat Sepp Straka in 2022, Lucas Glover beat Patrick Cantlay in 2023, and Justin Rose beat J.J. Spaun in 2025. Only Hideki Matsuyama, who won by two in 2024, avoided it.
Running alongside the tournament is the FedExCup Playoffs progression:
- Top 70 in the standings start the playoffs in Memphis.
- Top 50 after this week advance to the BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club, St Louis, from 20 to 23 August.
- Top 30 after that reach the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta, from 27 to 30 August, where the FedExCup is decided.
TPC Southwind Course Guide
TPC Southwind sits in a gated community south-east of Memphis, on land that used to be a dairy farm. Ron Prichard’s design opened in 1988, and a couple of the original grain silos are still standing on the property.
At par 70 and roughly 7,288 yards, it is not a long course by modern Tour standards. There are only two par 5s on the card, which strips out the easy birdies and puts the whole examination on par-4 scoring and iron play. Length off the tee is close to irrelevant here. Position is everything.
Lakes, ponds and streams are in play on 11 of the 18 holes, and over recent seasons Southwind has produced more balls in the water than any other course on the PGA Tour by a comfortable margin. Add thick Bermuda rough and small, firm Bermuda greens, and a slightly loose tee shot turns into a dropped shot very quickly.
The holes to watch:
- The par-3 11th, a short iron to a small island green, often compared to a scaled-down version of the 17th at TPC Sawgrass.
- The par-3 14th, the hole that consistently plays hardest all week. In 2025 it yielded just 23 birdies across four days, and only two on the Sunday.
- The par-4 18th, with water down the entire left side. All three playoff holes in 2025 were played here.
Then there is the weather. Mid-August in Memphis regularly means temperatures in the mid to high 30s Celsius with heavy humidity.
Field & Featured Players
The field is set by the FedExCup standings after the Wyndham Championship, so there are no invitations and no qualifying. You either played well enough over eight months, or you watch.
Defending Champion
Justin Rose returns to Memphis as defending champion, and his win last year was one of the better Sunday afternoons of 2025. He was three behind Tommy Fleetwood with five holes left, birdied four in a row, closed with a 67 to tie J.J. Spaun, and then birdied the third playoff hole to win. At 45 years and 11 days old he became the Tour’s oldest winner since 2021, and the win took him back into the world’s top 10 for the first time since 2020.
Leading the FedExCup Standings
Scottie Scheffler begins the playoffs at No. 1 in the FedExCup standings, having locked up the top seed before the regular season even finished. Matt Fitzpatrick and Chris Gotterup arrive with three wins apiece this season, while Cameron Young and Wyndham Clark have two each. Collin Morikawa, Si Woo Kim, Sam Burns and reigning FedExCup champion Tommy Fleetwood also start the week inside the top 10.
Rory McIlroy is back at TPC Southwind after skipping the event last season, and Xander Schauffele is among the other headline names in the field. Between them, Rose, Fleetwood, Fitzpatrick, McIlroy, Scheffler and Schauffele give the week a strong Ryder Cup flavour.
The Newcomers
Three of the last four regular-season events were won by players making their first real mark on Tour, and all three are here. Jackson Koivun, 21, won the 3M Open and qualified for the playoffs in only five starts as a professional, matching Tiger Woods’s record. Michael Brennan won the Wyndham Championship from No. 105 in the standings and vaulted to 47th. Michael Thorbjornsen also picked up a maiden win in the closing weeks.
On the Bubble
Maverick McNealy starts the week 50th, the last qualifying place for the BMW Championship, just 27 points clear of Harris English in 51st. Players around that line need a strong four days to keep their season alive, and with no cut, everybody gets all four days to try.
Koivun, at 70th, shows how quickly the maths can move: a win in Memphis is worth 750 points, which would lift him from last man in to somewhere around 25th in a single week.
Tee Times & Leaderboard
Once the tournament week starts, the official FedEx St. Jude Championship schedule of tee times and pairings is published by the PGA Tour, generally the day before each round.
WHERE TO FOLLOW EVERYTHING
- Official tee times and pairings: published on the PGA Tour website and app, and on the tournament’s official site, ahead of each round.
- Live leaderboard: updated shot by shot on the PGA Tour platforms and by the major golf broadcasters during play.
- Round-by-round scoring: full scorecards and round summaries appear after each day’s play on the official sites.
- FedExCup standings updates: the PGA Tour publishes projected standings that move live during the tournament, which is the number to watch if you care about who reaches the BMW Championship.
In the UK, all four rounds are live on Sky Sports Golf.
Prize Money
The FedEx St. Jude Championship 2026 carries a total purse of $20 million, with $3.6 million going to the winner, matching the BMW Championship as the joint-richest of the first two playoff events.
The 750 FedExCup points attached to the win are arguably worth as much as the cheque. Regular-season points carry over into the playoffs, and 750 is the largest single haul available this week. For someone sitting around 50th or below, one good week in Memphis makes all the difference.
The points also decide how the wider FedExCup bonus money is shared out. The standings after the BMW Championship determine a large portion of the pool, and the top 30 who reach the Tour Championship play for a $40 million purse, with $10 million to the FedExCup champion. What happens over four rounds at TPC Southwind sets up all of it.
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