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FedEx St. Jude Classic 2017: 5 groups to watch in Rounds 1 & 2

By Luke Norris

Apr 27, 2017; Avondale, LA, USA; Rickie Fowler (right) and Daniel Berger (left) set to tee off from the 10th hole during the first round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans golf tournament at TPC Louisiana. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 27, 2017; Avondale, LA, USA; Rickie Fowler (right) and Daniel Berger (left) set to tee off from the 10th hole during the first round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans golf tournament at TPC Louisiana. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports /
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Here are five groups to watch at the FedEx St. Jude Classic, the final stop on the PGA TOUR before the U.S. Open.

The FedEx St. Jude Classic, the annual PGA TOUR stop at TPC Southwind in Memphis, gets underway on Thursday and while the field certainly isn’t the strongest of the season, there’s still some firepower in the 156 players who are set to tee it up in the final stop before the U.S. Open.

Daniel Berger is the defending champion at the St. Jude Classic, formerly known as the Memphis Open, and if he were to emerge victorious once again, he would join Dave Hill (1969, 1970), Lee Trevino (1971,1972) and David Toms (2003-2004) as the only back-to-back winners of this event, which has been held annually since 1958. Berger hasn’t played since THE PLAYERS Championship.

Last year’s win at the St. Jude remains the only PGA TOUR win for the 24-year-old, who is currently ranked No. 43 in the Official World Golf Ranking and has already assured himself of a spot in the U.S. Open field, and he held off a number of big-name challengers to pick up his first victory. Following a three-hour rain delay in the final round, the 2015 Rookie of the Year went out and shot a 3-under 67 — he went 67-64-69 the first three days — to finish at 13-under, three strokes ahead of Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Steve Stricker.

Mickelson and Koepka are both in the field this week and will be playing in the same group the first two days. Stricker, who qualified for the U.S. Open on Monday, has chosen to take the week off.No. 12 Adam Scott is also here and he’ll be playing alongside Berger and Rickie Fowler, who is the highest-ranked player at TPC Southwind at No. 9. Rafa Cabrera-Bello, Charl Schwartzel, Kevin Chappell and Francesco Molinari are the other four players who currently reside in the top 30 in the world. The top 60 in the OWGR after this week are automatically qualified for the U.S. Open and there are eight players in the field that get in with a win, including Tony Finau, James Hahn and a former fifth-ranked player in the world that we’ll get to in a bit.

Fun fact: Nobody has won the week before the U.S. Open and gone on to win it.

Here are five groups to watch in the first two rounds at the 2017 FedEx St. Jude Classic.

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