Connect with us

19th Hole

Vincenzi: FedEx St. Jude Championship First Round Leader picks

Published

on

With the PGA Tour’s regular season in the books, the top-70 players in the FedEx Cup standings will make the trip to Memphis, Tennessee to play the 2023 FedEx St. Jude Championship. This is only the second season in which TPC Southwind will host a FedEx Cup playoff event, but the course has been a mainstay on the PGA Tour since 1989.

In the past five tournaments at TPC Southwind, there have been six first-round leaders or co-leaders. Of the six, five have started their rounds in the morning wave, and one has started in the afternoon. Five of the six first-round leaders have started on the first hole, and one has started on the 10th.

With a 70-man field this week, starting times and weather will be less important to monitor.

2023 FedEx St. Jude First-Round Leader Picks

Hideki Matsuyama +4000 (DraftKings)

First-Round Tee Time: 9:38 a.m. ET

Despite his relative struggles, Hideki Matsuyama still ranks 1st in the field in Opportunities Gained in his past 24 rounds. The birdie chances have been there for Hideki, but he’s yet to capitalize. Heading back to a course where he lost in a playoff should stir up some positive vibes for the former Masters champion. The 31-year-old was in poor form prior to the event in 2021, but that didn’t stop him from gaining 8.9 strokes on approach.

Hideki also ranks 5th in the field in Bogeys Avoided, which is always important when trying to shoot the low score of the day.

Denny McCarthy +5000 (DraftKings)

First-Round Tee Time: 8:38 a.m. ET

Denny McCarthy has had back-to-back disappointing results, but I believe he faces a good bounce back spot at TPC Southwind this week. In his two starts at the course, he’s finished 18th and 20th, and now he heads to the course at the end of what was arguably the best season of his career.

I always love to back great putters for first-round-leader bets and McCarthy still ranks first in the field in his past 24 rounds in Strokes Gained: Putting.

Cameron Davis +5500 (BetMGM)

First-Round Tee Time: 9:50 a.m. ET

Cameron Davis is seemingly finding his form at the right time and comes into the week off back-to-back top-10 finishes. In those two starts, he gained 6.6 and 7.9 strokes from tee to green.

Last year, the Aussie finished 13th and shot a final-round 66, which is his best round to date at TPC Southwind. Seeing as he’s gotten progressively better at the course, I believe he could have a low one in store on Thursday.

Harris English +6600 (BetMGM)

First-Round Tee Time: 10:32 a.m. ET

Thing are setting up extremely well for Harris English as we begin the FedEx Cup playoffs. Last week at Sedgefield, English gained 5.8 strokes on approach, which is not typically how the former Georgia Bulldog gets it done. That’s an extremely encouraging sign for English, who finally seems to be in the form that made him a two-time winner on Tour in 2021.

English won at TPC Southwind back in 2013 and is the only former course winner in the field this week.

19th Hole

‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

Published

on

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

Continue Reading

19th Hole

How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Published

on

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

Continue Reading

19th Hole

Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Published

on

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

Continue Reading

WITB

Facebook

Trending