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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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St. Jude Classic
Jul 15, 2015; St. Andrews, Scotland, GBR; David Duval chips on the 17th hole during the Champion Golfers Challenge for the 144th Open Championship at Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports /

5. David Duval, Seung-Yul Noh, Rory Sabbatini

Round 1: 1st tee, 7:00 a.m.

Round 2: 10th tee, 12:00 p.m.

Yes, I should be focusing on a few of the players that have a chance to sneak their way into the U.S. Open — and I will get to one of those guys in a few minutes — but how often do we get to talk about David Duval actually playing in a tournament? Duval, who spends most of his time as Golf Channel analyst, is at the St. Jude Classic on a sponsor’s exemption and poses no real threat to the other 155 players in the field but I, for one, am going to enjoy seeing him out there on the course where he belongs.

This isn’t the place to dive into detail about how he was once the top-ranked player in the world and a real threat to Tiger Woods and how his game unraveled after he turned 30 and all of that. This is a time to enjoy two rounds (four if we’re lucky) from a 45-year-old — I really hope he tries the Champions Tour in five years — former world number one and major champion. He’s played just one tournament this season, missing the cut at Pebble Beach, the same result that he had when he last played the St. Jude Classic two years ago. His group is first off the tee so we’ll see how he does pretty early on.

I do not want to disrespect Rory Sabbatini and Seung-Yul Noh here. Sabbatini has six wins on the PGA TOUR but hasn’t had the greatest season. He did tie for 14th at the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year but since then, he’s played in seven tournaments and has only played four rounds in two of them with four missed cuts and a withdrawal.

World No. 194 Seung-Yul Noh is the best player in this group right now. He didn’t have a lot of luck in Texas at the Byron Nelson and the Dean & Deluca but he tied for 22nd at THE PLAYERS and tied for fifth at the Wells Fargo Championship, which was his second top-10 finish of 2017 after a T-8 at Pebble Beach.

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