Value Report: FedEx St. Jude Championship

The Wyndham Championship typically leaves room for end-of-season theatrics, but Michael Brennan took the wind out of everyone’s sails with his Sunday front nine, with birdies on five straight holes that sealed the deal for his second win in a year. It was well deserved for Brennan after being in contention the previous two weeks, so I’m really happy for him to cap off his rookie season like he did. Brennan is one of the more intriguing prospects we have on Tour, and I think it’s a decent Presidents Cup discussion to have, along with Jackson Koivun and Michael Thorbjornsen, after three early 20s winners in a row. The movement around the FedEx Cup line was minimal, as Koivun nervously locked up the 70th spot in the rankings, which will absolutely inject more life into the playoffs. I can understand how people might not be as excited for the few weeks ahead, as it’s basically three Signature Events in a row, but DraftKings won’t be slowing down the prize pools, especially as we’ll wrap these up before football season. It’s time for a big three-week stretch to close out the 2026 summer!

It was a better week for the Value Report compared to the Rocket Classic, but there were still not enough high-upside finishes for my liking. For the better results, we’ll start with Davis Chatfield. Looking through his approach numbers, you do have to be frustrated with how it only resulted in a T25, but at the same time, he made the turn at +4 in the first round, having a five-under stretch to set up another made cut. The rest of the way he was excellent; it’s just that Chatfield is such a unique course fit with his accuracy and lack of distance, so we’ll really have to keep him in our pocket for the shorter courses the rest of the year. Up next is Rico Hoey, who keeps showing signs of his old self. A couple of eagles, a bunch of birdies, similar to the week before, but the ball striking is still lacking consistency, so he’s definitely one to keep an eye on for the fall swing. Matt McCarty shot out of the gates hot on Thursday and looked like Cody’s flag plant was going to break the curse. He ended up backpedaling a bit, but after his run of poor results, settling for a top-30 finish isn’t too shabby. Patrick Fishburn was mediocre at best, but the one I was disappointed in who actually made the cut was Adrien Saddier. The Frenchman has had a brutal rookie season, but the last two weeks have shown an immense amount of flashes. He was well within the mix heading into the weekend before disaster struck, but for those that follow the DP World Tour, I’m likely to bet him early on once he jumps into the end-of-season events across the pond. The missed cuts for Luke Clanton and Hank Lebioda had no real life out of either of those two. I thought the leap was near for Clanton after the motivation angle, but it’s clear he’s got room to grow over the next three months, or it could be off to Q School, which is something he hasn’t had to test in his career yet.

Now, let’s turn the page over to the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Players have to hate the 100-degree heat that is going to beat down on them all week long, but it’s actually one of my sneaky favorite courses on Tour. I’m a little sad that it won’t represent the same playoff-caliber field moving forward, but it’s been such a straightforward test through the years, allowing the best ball strikers to separate. Just looking at the winners, you see some of the best in the world and often those who have struggled with their putter. Will Zalatoris most notably over Sepp Straka in a playoff, Hideki Matsuyama, Justin Thomas at his peak, and then last year the playoff battle of Justin Rose and J.J. Spaun, who, at the time, were near the top of the entire field in approach play. Water is absolutely in play everywhere, so we will likely see a course fit push toward accuracy, but overall, it’s really been pure ball-striking ability, and even players who can be a disaster on the greens have had no problem winning here.