The Majors are over and players are trying to adjust to a crammed 2019 golf schedule. The Open Champion Shane Lowry is sitting out this weekend in Memphis. Tiger Woods isn't playing either, which is rest related he says.
But there's excitement in Memphis as the biggest golf tournament ever in the Mid-South has arrived in the form of the FedEx-St. Jude World Golf Championship Invitational at TPC-Southwind.
Here's the release on Thursday's featured groupings at Southwind.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida – The PGA TOUR released today the four featured groupings for Thursday-Friday at this week’s World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis, Tennessee.
Friday’s PGA TOUR LIVE programming will include Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day in one grouping with a Twitter fan vote (@PGATOURLIVE) to determine the second featured grouping.
Featured Groupings (all times CT)
Thursday, July 25, 12:48 p.m. (Golf Channel)
Matt Kuchar, Justin Rose, Jordan Spieth
Following The Open, Kuchar relinquished the top spot in the FedExCup standings after a 16-week run and now sits 37 points behind Brooks Koepka
Rose is 11th in the FedExCup as he looks to become the first player to be crowned FedExCup champion in consecutive seasons
The 2015 FedExCup champion Spieth sits 69th in the FedExCup standings as he searches for his first PGA TOUR title since the 2017 Open Championship
Thursday, July 25, 12:59 p.m. (Golf Channel)
Friday, July 26, 11:53 a.m. (PGA TOUR LIVE)
Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day
With a T4 at The Open, Koepka – winner of two events including the PGA Championship this season – took over the top spot in the FedExCup standings for the first time in his career as he leads Matt Kuchar by just 37 points
THE PLAYERS Championship winner McIlroy enters the week No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking; in each of the last three seasons, the winner of the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational entered the week third in the OWGR
Day, 37th in the FedExCup standings, is a two-time World Golf Championships winner who has qualified for the season-ending TOUR Championships in eight of the last nine seasons
Thursday, July 25, 11:53 a.m. (PGA TOUR LIVE)
Friday, July 26, 12:48 p.m. (Golf Channel)
Gary Woodland, Xander Schauffele, Jon Rahm
U.S. Open champion Woodland’s best finish at a WGC event was runner-up to Rory McIlroy at the 2015 Dell Technologies Match Play
Schauffele, No. 4 in the FedExCup, has two wins in 2018-19, capturing the WGC-HSBC Champions and Sentry Tournament of Champions in back-to-back starts
With nine top-10s on the season, Rahm is 10th in the FedExCup standings with two weeks remaining in the race for the Wyndham Rewards Top 10
Thursday, July 25, 12:04 p.m. (PGA TOUR LIVE)
Friday, July 26, 12:59 p.m. (Golf Channel)
Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Paul Casey
Johnson holed out from 169 yards at the 72nd hole to win by six at the 2018 FedEx St. Jude Classic, the last PGA TOUR event at TPC Southwind
The 2017 FedExCup champion Thomas’ last PGA TOUR win came at the 2018 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational at Firestone CC
Casey, eighth in the FedExCup standings, is one of two players to successfully defend a PGA TOUR title in 2019 having done so at the Valspar Championship
Here's more from AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson, with permission through RADIO.COM and the Associated Press.
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland (AP) — Andrew Landry hit the opening tee shot at the Masters. Shane Lowry hit the final shot at the British Open.
All in 102 days.
The new major championship season in golf — one a month starting with the Masters in April — could take time before players can adjust. And that was just the start. Throw in the Olympics and the Ryder Cup next year, and the schedule will be relentless.
"I felt like majors were coming almost too far, one after the others," Francesco Molinari said. "And to add the Olympic Games, too, it's not going to be an easy year for anyone. ... So that's how golf is right now, and we just need to make the most of it."
It wasn't that big of a deal for Tiger Woods, who played only 16 competition rounds in those 102 days. Woods pledged late last year that he wasn't going to be playing as much, and he lived up to his word.
"It seems yesterday we were playing in Augusta and all of a sudden the four majors are gone," said Molinari, who is skipping the World Golf Championships event this week in Memphis, Tennessee. "So I think it's something that hopefully next year we will get more used to it. But this year it's been a big change."
The Italian wasn't alone in his thinking.
"The schedule has been tough this year," Tommy Fleetwood said. "If you're n/ot playing great, you actually don't have time this year to develop your game because you don't have that time to take periods off, really. You're constantly playing and you always have to turn up and perform with the way that it goes."
Justin Rose touched on this at the Wells Fargo Championship in early May. He said for years, the Masters ended and players didn't have to think about majors for nearly two months. He felt the schedule was too condensed, which he attributed to the FedEx Cup wanting to finish in August ahead of American football.
Rose won the FedEx Cup last year, along with the $10 million bonus.
"For me, a major championship should be the things that are protected the most," Rose said. "That's how all of our careers ultimately are going to be measured."
There are 263 days between the end of the British Open and the start of the Masters next year. That's the longest gap between majors since 1971, when the PGA Championship was held in Florida and moved to February. The British Open ended on July 15 that year.
MAKING THE CUT
Rickie Fowler missed the cut in the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont, the second straight major he had off for the weekend.
That was the last one.
Fowler was among 16 players who made the cut in all four majors this year, a list that includes the top two players in the world (Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson), along with Matt Wallace of England and Cameron Smith of Australia.
That was the highest number of players since 18 made all four cuts in 2015, and it was up from 11 players last year.
Koepka has the longest active streak of consecutive cuts made in the majors — 21 in a row — that dates to the 2013 British Open at Muirfield, when he qualified the morning after winning a Challenge Tour event in Europe. He wasn't eligible for the 2014 Masters, sat out the 2016 British Open with an ankle injury and missed the 2018 Masters with a wrist injury.
On the flip side was Shugo Imahira, who received a special foreign invitation to the Masters this year. He missed the cut at Augusta National, and by July had become the only player to miss the cut in all four majors. He received an invitation for the PGA Championship from being in the top 100 in the world, made it through the 36-hole sectional qualifier in Japan for the U.S. Open and was exempt for the British Open from the Japan Golf Tour money list.
BACK TO AUGUSTA
Lee Westwood was five shots out of the lead going into the final round of the 2017 Masters, closed with a 74 and tied for 18th. He had fallen out of the top 50 a month earlier and has yet to return, and returning at age 46 was not going to be easy.
Westwood went into the weekend at Royal Portrush one shot behind, only to trail by eight going into Sunday. And then he closed with a 73, which was enough for him to tie for fourth in the British Open. That was enough to send him back to Augusta National next April. The Masters invites the top four from the other three majors.
He had to wait when he finished to make sure Brooks Koepka or Rickie Fowler didn't do anything to knock him out.
"I never wish anybody ill, but it would be nice to play Augusta again," Westwood said. "I've missed it the last couple of years."
He had the 54-hole lead in the 2010 Masters and was runner-up to Phil Mickelson.
SPIETH'S PUSH
Jordan Spieth was three shots behind going into the weekend at Royal Portrush on the strength of his putting, which deserted him on the weekend.
He closed with rounds of 69-77 — he has broken par only twice in the final round this year — and fell back into a tie for 20th. Consider it another lost opportunity, not just to end his two years without a victory, but to make up ground in points.
Spieth moved up only three spots to No. 69 in the FedEx Cup and likely has only one event left — the FedEx St. Jude Invitational this week — to improve his position. He missed out on the Tour Championship last year, and only the top 70 get into the second of three FedEx Cup playoff events.
"I really want on an off day to finish top 10," Spieth said. "I'm pretty bummed right now. After three weeks off, a lot of times you make some kind of rusty errors. Certainly this weekend I wasn't patient with it. Going into a pretty heavy stretch coming, and hopefully it gets better."
It's not just the FedEx Cup. Spieth is at No. 29 in the Presidents Cup standings, and the top eight qualify after the BMW Championship.
DIVOTS
This was never on his mind, but British Open champion Shane Lowry joined the list of players who halted an American sweep of the majors, which last happened in 1982. The others were Steve Elkington in 1995, Vijay Singh in 1998 and Jason Day in 2015, all winning the PGA Championship when it was the last major of the year. ... Patty Tavatanakit has won back-to-back on the Symetra Tour, and the former UCLA star now has six top-15 finishes in her last eight starts. Four of those were on the LPGA Tour, two while still an amateur. ... According to the 15th Club, Bob McIntyre's tie for sixth in the British Open was the best by a Scottish player in his Open debut since Andrew Kirkdaldy in 1879. ... This was the fourth time in the last six years a European has won the British Open.
STAT OF THE WEEK
Keegan Bradley at the 2011 PGA Championship is the last major champion outside the top 50 in the world when he won. A PGA Tour rookie at the time, he was No. 108.
FINAL WORD
"Golf is a weird sport and you never know what's around the corner. That's why you need to remind yourself — and you need other people there to remind you — to fight through the bad times." — British Open champion Shane Lowry.
LIVE COVERAGE: 92.9 FM ESPN will have reports all week from 929's Geoff Calkins & Mark Giannotto from the golf tournament, plus live shows from Jason & John (11-2 p.m.) on Thursday (7/25) AND Friday (7/26).