Week 23 Approach Shots: St. Jude Classic

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SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER: Jordan Spieth just finished his junior year at Jesuit College Preparatory School in Dallas, but he's not so sure how well he fared on his final exams.

"I have no idea. I haven't gotten the scores back," he said Wednesday. "I did as well as I could given that I missed the last two weeks of information. So they're not going to be as pretty as they would have been."

TV/Radio (all times ET)

TV: GOLF CHANNEL (Thu.-Fri., 3-6 p.m.); CBS (Sat.-Sun. 3-6 p.m.) RADIO: PGA TOUR NETWORK - Sirius 209, XM 146, PGATOUR.COM (Thu.-Sun. 12-6 p.m.)

Key links

• Expert picks | Tee times • Rankings | Fantasy Insider • Inside the Field | Course

Weather

Scattered thunderstorms are expected on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Temperatures in the high 70s, low 90s. Winds will be from 5-10 mph. Updated weather info

His mom and dad will probably forgive him.

After all, that time off from high school included making his PGA TOUR debut, as he tied for 16th at the HP Byron Nelson Championship. Spieth caused quite a stir in his hometown of Dallas, becoming the sixth-youngest player in TOUR history to make a cut. But the 16-year-old isn't letting the success get to his head.

"You know, it's taken some getting used to," he said. "I'd just as soon get out there, get off the first tee and get going, but the interviews and photo shoots, it all comes with it. It's all part of the experience, so I try to enjoy it as much as I can."

Spieth is preparing for his second TOUR start this week at the St. Jude Classic presented by Smith & Nephew in Memphis. Playing on a sponsor's exemption, Spieth said he's already learned a great deal in such a short amount of time.

"I think I'll be able to get settled down and get into the zone, get into my game earlier than I was at the Byron just because of the experience," he said. "I need to get settled down as quickly as I can because I felt like I was running on adrenaline for almost half of the round sometimes at the Byron Nelson. I'd like to get in there and just start going and just start playing my game."

Spieth, the reigning United States Junior Amateur champion, is set to tee off at 9:54 a.m. ET Thursday with Spike McRoy and Garth Mulroy.

BREAKING THROUGH: With last week's win, Justin Rose became the seventh first-time winner on the TOUR this season. The St. Jude Classic has seen five first-time winners hoist the trophy in the tournament's 53-year history. The most recent was Dicky Pride, who won a playoff to take the 1994 title.

OTHER NOTABLE PLAYERS AT TPC SOUTHWIND: Brian Gay's victory last year was his third top-10 at the St. Jude Classic in 11 career starts. Gay will look to become the first player to successfully defend at the St. Jude Classic since David Toms in 2003-04... Lee Westwood, No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking, makes his first appearance at the St. Jude Classic via a sponsor's exemption... Camilo Villegas -- who collected his third PGA TOUR title at The Honda Classic earlier this year -- and his brother Manny will be competing in their first TOUR event together. Manny has played in the Puerto Rico Open presented by Banco Popular in 2009 and 2010 in his only previous TOUR starts... Toms will make his 19th start at the St. Jude Classic. The two-time winner has posted seven top-10s in Memphis, tied for sixth-most in tournament history.

Predictions: Columnists vs. Interns

With PGATOUR.COM's interns starting this week, we decided to make a slight change for the summer. Our columnists will continue making their picks as usual, but now our interns will try to outpredict the experts. We'll keep tabs and see how they do at the end of the summer. Here are their picks for the St. Jude Classic presented by Smith & Nephew. Columnists Pick Comment Stan AWTREY FREDRIK JACOBSON: With three top-10s, including second at the Valero Texas Open, Jacobson is due for a breakthrough. Memphis could be the place, where he finished in the top 10 from 2003-2005. Craig DOLCH DAVID TOMS: With seven top-10s in his last eight starts in this event, this is a no-brainer. He always seems to play well in Memphis. Melanie HAUSER DAVID TOMS: Former winner here who knows the course and knows his game. So our choice is the former PGA champ with that bum shoulder over Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy. Interns Pick Comment Chris DUNHAM DAVID TOMS: Has notched seven T-10 finishes in his last eight starts at TPC Southwind and should be in the mix again this year. His T-13 finish at Colonial showed he can battle through the pain in his shoulder and still compete. Todd HOSKINS ROBERT ALLENBY: He has been playing solidly all year. He's the type of guy that you would expect to sneak in and win a tournament like this. Ryan PIERCE HEATH SLOCUM: Accuracy is king at TPC Southwind, and Slocum is fourth in driving accuracy and seventh in GIR on TOUR this year. His 63 in last year's second round offers further proof that he can go low in Memphis.

Bolton's Yahoo! selections

Fantasy columnist Rob Bolton will provide his Yahoo! picks as a starting point for you every week. Use the advice and opinion from his Power Rankings and Fantasy Insider to assist in determining lineups changes throughout each tournament. Group Starters Bench Group A Heath Slocum Zach Johnson Group B Fredrik Jacobson, Camilo Villegas Robert Allenby, David Toms Group C Ben Crane Paul Goydos

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Widest margin of victory at the St. Jude Classic

7 strokes John Cook 1996 6 strokes Raymond Floyd 1982   David Toms 2004 5 strokes Cary Middlecoff 1961   Bert Yancey 1966   Gene Littler 1975   Woody Austin 2007   Brian Gay 2009

Did you know?

No winner of the event the week prior has ever gone on to win the U.S. Open. Only eight players have won the week prior to a major championship and then gone on to win the ensuing major, most recently Tiger Woods at the 2007 PGA Championship (World Golf Championships-Bridgestone).

What the winner gets

A victory this week at the St. Jude Classic presented by Smith & Nephew will earn the following benefits: • Fully Exempt for the remainder of 2010 and all of 2011 and 2012. • 500 FedExCup points. It took 354 points to qualify for the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup in 2009 and 494 to reach the Deutsche Bank Championship. • A spot in the following events in order of play: 2010 AT&T National, 2010 PGA Championship, 2010 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. • A spot in the 2011 SBS Championship, 2011 Masters and 2011 PLAYERS. • If a U.S. player, 1,080,000 points towards making the 2011 Presidents Cup team.