Rahm begins FedEx Cup attack in St. Jude Championship

No Spanish player finished as the season’s best PGA Tourwhich since 2007 has maintained its current playoff system to determine the winner of the FedEx Cup. That historic match begins this Thursday Jon Rahm in Memphis, confirmed for Ryder Cup 2023 and ready to begin the attack on another of the great challenges that remain pending.

Until next Sunday FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first of three playoff events that will decide the final champion and will feature the seventy best players of the season on the circuit. The first fifty FedEx Cup finishers after this first tournament will qualify for the bmw championship next week in Chicago, while the top thirty on the list after the second tournament will play in the final event, the Tour Championshipfor two weeks in Atlanta.

Since Rahm has more than done his homework in terms of eligibility, his goal is even bigger: defend the first place he currently holds in the FedEx Cup to try to be the best player of the season in two weeks. A milestone he already touched in the 2020-2021 season, when he finished second in the circuit ranking after Patrick Cantlay. A milestone still pending for the new Augusta Masters champion.

Of course, the situation has changed compared to the last two years, because rahm came as the leader in these playoffs, although there is a strong threat in the figure of scottie scheffler. The Spanish top the annual ranking in 3,320 points after a meteoric season in which he won four titles (Augusta Masters, Sentry Tournament of Champions, The American Express and Genesis Invitational), twice as many as any other player on the circuit. However, his leadership is not certain, with Scheffler has been hiding from this very tournament with 3,146 points.

The first FedEx Cup tournament is in play 2,000 points for the winner (1,200 for the second, 760 for the third, 540 for the fourth and 440 for the fifth, as the most juicy prizes for the ranking), so the combinations are many and also the options to establish the leadership of the ranking of the PGA After this tournament (for example, the nineteenth, Sam Burns, has 1335 points). But that’s for sure a good result would allow Rahm to fight for the lead and arrive in a good position in the second event of the series, the BMW Championship, where the results will be decisive to start the final tournament with the best possible card.

To achieve this, Rahm will try to fight for victory from the beginning in the preliminary tournament in Memphis, in a FedEx St. Jude Championship which is debated in the field TPC Southwinda 70-par course that has hosted the inaugural FedEx Cup event since last year. In that first edition as a playoff tournament in 2022, Will Zalatoris was proclaimed champion along with a Jon finished in a tie for fifth and showed good adaptability in the field.

A position that the Spaniard will try to improve even this year, where the competition will once again be at its maximum where the entire front row of the PGA Tour will be present. Scheffler and McIlroy start with him as the main namesbut the decision system of the circuit gives so many possibilities that many players will want to fight for the trophy and for the leadership of FedEx Cup. Max Homa, Wyndham Clark, Viktor Hovland, Rickie Fowler or Jason Day are other big names appearing in the top 10 of the season standings, along with other players such as Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth or Justin Rose with the initial goal of passing consecutive cuts in the remaining playoff contests.

rahm will share a stellar match in the first and second rounds with Scheffler and with McIlroy, with a face-to-face duel with their two greatest rivals to attack the final lead. This Thursday, three will begin at 16:26 in Spanish peninsular time, in the first round of the quest for another of the PGA Tour’s great tournaments.