Signature Scroll: Dreamers out front, bubble watch begins at FedEx St. Jude Championship

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Let’s try to stay calm (and cool), folks …

Dare to dream?

There’s always so much hope on Thursdays. Even more so on this Thursday. It's the first of 12 postseason rounds over the next three weeks. So much is at stake. So much can change. If you made it to Memphis, you have a chance to be crowned the FedExCup champion in 17 days at East Lake Golf Club.

That hope is also fleeting.

By this weekend, more than a dozen golfers will see their seasons end. Another 20 will head home after next week's BMW Championship in St. Louis. The mental and physical toll of this three-week stretch, all forecast to be played in incredibly muggy conditions, will grow by the day. Optimism will turn into survivalism – the adrenaline of the opportunity slowly giving way to the weight of it.

But thisThursday was a day to dream, and oh, did the dreaming feel quite good.

Jordan Spieth, the headliner of the top-50 bubble, surged into the lead at 5-under and shared it alongside Michael Thorbjornsen, Kurt Kitayama and Jake Knapp. Spieth looked comfortable and in control (as much as the fidgety, wild Spieth can), navigating through 18 holes without a bogey.

Tommy Fleetwood, a year removed from his heartbreaking loss here at TPC Southwind, put himself squarely in the mix again, one back of Spieth, ready to climb the mountain or be crushed by it again.

Viktor Hovland, the ever-volatile but recent TOUR winner who just reunited with an old coaching friend, Joe Mayo, is right there at 4 under, with whiffs of his 2023 Playoffs form that vaulted him into the conversation as the best player in the world.

Yes, the dreamers were out in full force in the first round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

There’s possibly no more popular trio of potential winners than those three. Spieth trying to return to prominence. Fleetwood trying to validate his TOUR Championship victory. Hovland trying to officially turn the page on his lost years.

It all sounds so great, doesn’t it? Maybe too great?

Spieth has flashed like this before this year. Yet he’s still searching for his first top 10. Fleetwood will be defined by his final 18, not the first. The hard part is still a few days away. Predicting Hovland is a fool's errand. He missed the cut at the PGA Championship, U.S. Open and Open Championship despite taking good form into all of them.

So pace yourself – this week and for the next few. If we’re lucky, we will still be dreaming by the end of it. If you believe in precedence, reality isn’t far away.

Speaking of that, let’s look at the reality of the bubble. We’ll track this every day. Here’s who is projected to move in and out of the top-50 after the first round.

IN: T1. Spieth (52nd ➡️ 22nd); T1. Michael Kim (61st ➡️ 24th); T6. Sungjae Im (53rd ➡️ 44rd)

OUT: T60. Matt McCarty (48th ➡️ 53rd); T26. Keith Mitchell (49th ➡️ 52nd); T17. Maverick McNealy (50th ➡️ 51st)

Playing through

• 📺 Catch up on Round 1. Full highlights here ...
• 🪄 More on Spieth’s fight for top 50 from my colleague Jake Lazarus …
• 📊 Here’s what everyone outside the top 50 needs to have a chance to make the BMW Championship …
• 📹 Coverage is back on ESPN again on Friday, starting at 9 a.m. ET ...

The forgotten man

My head was buried in my computer, unearthing myself from a morning of emails when a statement made on PGA TOUR LIVE on Thursday morning made my ears perk. Ludvig Åberg had just rolled in his third straight birdie, and one of the commentators said they believed Åberg would win multiple majors and double-digit TOUR events in his career.

This isn’t about that claim. It very well may come true. Åberg has the talent to make it so.

Instead, it just made me sad. Because it made me think about another player who I vividly recall lighting it up at TPC Southwind four years ago – who I’m sure announcers were making similar declarations about but who is now out of our collective consciousness: Will Zalatoris.

Zalatoris, now 29, has made only five starts in the last 15 months. His last came at the Valero Texas Open in April. He hasn’t played since and hasn’t publicly said why. He’s dealt with back injuries for several years and earlier this season missed time with an ankle injury. Whenever he returns, he will be playing on a medical exemption, trying to cling to full status.

When Zalatoris won the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship, he was younger than Åberg is now. Zalatoris had already finished runner-up in three majors with three other top-10 finishes. Ask anyone then, and Zalatoris would have seemed like a lock to play in the next several Presidents Cups and Ryder Cups, as Åberg has done. It’s a reminder that success in pro golf is often fleeting and that long-term declarations are hard to live up to.

I spent part of Thursday afternoon rewatching some of Zalatoris’ Memphis win. He holed a gutsy putt on the 18th to force a playoff with Sepp Straka and outlasted him in a nervy playoff to earn his first PGA TOUR win.

“Man, this guy could’ve won multiple majors and double-digit TOUR events,” I thought to myself.

Maybe he still will.

Parting shots

• 📈 Scottie Scheffler hit just four of 14 fairways, but missed only one green. Since the FedEx St. Jude became a Playoffs event, Scheffler has improved every year. After a missed cut and T31 in his first two years, he finished fourth in 2024 and third in 2025. Is a win coming?
• ❄️ Rory McIlroy admittedly hasn’t played much golf since The Open. That tracked with his first round, which wasn’t sharp. He shot 4-over 74.
• 👶 Five rookies made the FedExCup Playoffs after only one made the postseason last year. That has created a spirited Rookie of the Year race between Alex Fitzpatrick, Jackson Koivun and Kristoffer Reitan.
• 🏃 Speaking of Koivun, with the odd number of players in the field, he’s playing solo for the first two rounds. He was first off and played in three hours and six minutes, and you can watch every shot.
• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Robert MacIntyre had one of those rounds he will hope to never think about again. He shot 82, eight strokes worse than anyone else. Statistically, he was worst in driving and second worst in approach play and putting. He’s comfortably into the BMW Championship, but right now he projects to drop six spots to 37th. That’s valuable real estate with only the top 30 making it to the TOUR Championship.