Bolton: Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Cantlay among fantasy plays for chasers at FedEx St. Jude Championship

Welcome to the season within the season within the season. You know it better as the FedExCup Playoffs that conclude Segment 3 of PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf.

All good things don’t necessarily have to come to an end, but the fantasy season absolutely must. Without it, we wouldn’t celebrate league champions and eventually tell tales of the closest of calls at the buzzer. However, until then, there’s work to be done to reach your goal.

The obligatory reminders as we dig into the FedEx St. Jude Championship are two-fold.

First, there are no cuts in the Playoffs, so barring withdrawals, disqualifications and extremely poor scores, all golfers will contribute positive values to all gamers in all rounds. The weeks of hoping that your opponents’ captains miss the cut or settle for three or fewer charges on the weekend ended with the Wyndham Championship.

The other refresher is that the FedEx St. Jude and the BMW Championship will reward FedExCup points based on the same structure used for THE PLAYERS Championship and the four majors. This means that both winners will receive 750 points. That converts to 75 FedExCup bonus points in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. The TOUR Championship does not yield FedExCup points, but FedExCup bonus points will be scored the same as the first two legs.

No doubt everyone participating in a league wants to be leading at any time, but especially with the Playoffs on tap. However, with very little fear of absorbing zeroes in any round, chasers can be more angular with their approach. I’ve been in both situations, and I’ve succeeded and failed in both, but it’s more stressful to try to defend a lead than it is to map out potential starts (and captains) with a specific target. It’s the kind of dynamic that helps fantasy golfers understand why PGA TOUR golfers struggle to hold leads on Sunday while their peers in pursuit can seem more locked in. It’s valuable advice to have a goal even if you’re all but mathematically certain to prevail in fantasy golf.

The Playoffs also present as proof of why monitoring remaining starts for your opponents is so important. As you navigate the cat-and-mouse of stymies and potential slingshots, that data sets the foundation for your last three lineups. It begets the logic necessary to determine your captain, for whom the role never has been as critical because of the timing. Beyond that – and, well, any luck that falls your way – chasers are resorted to tipping visors in defeat. By then, you’ll have given it your best, but it’s not always the best.

Holding on for a league championship is extremely rewarding because it means the long-range planning paid off, but it hits more as a relief because front-runners have everything to lose right now. Because of their strategy that’s lifted them to where they are, they’re going to play more carefully than they have all season. Yet, just like the rest of us, they still need their guys to deliver. Some will and some won’t. Don’t take either for granted.

TPC Southwind is a commodity, so rely on course history per your typical tendency. Last year’s debut of the TifEagle Bermudagrass greens didn’t turn anyone on his ear to the point that he should be avoided at all costs. It’d have been a big story if it had happened, but it rarely does, anyway, so the course modification was more fact than fiction. If you’re down to two starts for guys who are on a trajectory to advance to the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club – another annual staple – burn one of them on the walk in Memphis.

Because next week’s BMW Championship will be contested at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis. It hasn’t hosted PGA TOUR membership since the 2018 PGA Championship, so it’s the wild card of the trio in the Playoffs. Treat it as such.

My lineup blends charges for whom I have two starts remaining for each, while holstering ball-strikers who will plug the gap at Bellerive. (More on this below.) This always is a smart default when greens are unfamiliar. And because league leaders will continue to play it safe, the edge will tilt toward gamers who are not propped atop leaderboards right now. In Texas hold ‘em parlance, that’s when you’ll want to raise on the turn. Apply pressure when you have leverage, even if contrived, because perception is reality.

We’ll deal with the finale when we get there, but there’s still a lot of golf to let the chips fall where they may.

Captains

Hideki Matsuyama ... The poster boy of converging trends (and No. 2 in my Power Rankings) at TPC Southwind, but he’s also entirely useful for my purposes in third place in my little league. I don’t expect my nearest competition to designate him, and I refuse to worry that his current torrid stretch and choice not to rest will suddenly backfire on a track where he won just two years ago. If anything, it feels like the 34-year-old has decided to go all-in to capture his first FedExCup title in his prime, and he’s leaving nothing to chance.

Other considerations

• Scottie Scheffler ... The No. 1 in the Power Rankings is the automatic selection for front-runners. They deserve it. It’s a fruit of the labor. And assuming that they will have only one remaining, that will be saved for the TOUR Championship. If they’re going to get beat, they’re not going to get cute in the process.
• Patrick Cantlay ... Here’s where things get really interesting. The likes of Matt Fitzpatrick (No. 3 in the Power Rankings), Sam Burns (No. 4) and Xander Schauffele (No. 6) all will attract considerable attention, but Cantlay (No. 7) possesses the kind of reliable track record at TPC Southwind that fits perfectly for this assignment, but also because he’s 42nd in the FedExCup and starts remaining likely aren’t a headwind like previous seasons. Not only does he spell any of those guys for whom a start could be more impactful in the next two weeks, he’s also rested since a T8 at the Rocket Classic, his fourth top 10 of the year, so his form is just good enough to assuage concern. And if he thrives this week and puts himself in a position to advance to East Lake, then you’ll have been on board for it.

Rounding out the roster

Explained in the opening, but I’ll add the detail that Ludvig Åberg, Russell Henley, Si Woo Kim and Collin Morikawa lead my preliminary considerations for the BMW Championship.

My starters

• Sam Burns
• Patrick Cantlay
• Hideki Matsuyama (C)
• Rory McIlroy

My bench

• Viktor Hovland (1)
• Xander Schauffele (2)

Careful

For almost every tournament, a usually impressive subset of the field warrants avoiding, and it might be represented in my Power Rankings which is not written in the context of any fantasy golf format. In this section, I single out who demands pause and why.

• Rory McIlroy ... Yes, he’s in my lineup, but note that he’s not my captain. That’s the context for his inclusion here. Ever since the captain was introduced (2025-present), I’ve died on the hill that either he or Scottie Scheffler should be your captain every time they commit. There’s a strategic advantage to having a short list of two over time, but they both deserve it objectively. Relative to so many other sites, McIlroy’s history at TPC Southwind is just OK. Heck, even if I were leading my league, I’d hesitate right now. I also want to learn what he shares in a scheduled meeting with the media on Wednesday morning.
• Cameron Young ... Will the real Cameron Young please step forward? Loyal followers and listeners have fielded my ongoing lament over his inconsistency amid impressive performances. He’s in my Power Rankings at No. 15, and I gave him a little grace for experiencing his first title defense at the Wyndham Championship, where he finished T61, but you tend to get bitten than you are fulfilled no matter how often he presents as a strong fit, which is often. So, because his skill set arguably is best on tests that reward ball-striking, save him for Bellerive.
• Akshay Bhatia ... No one he doesn’t know is a bigger fan than I am, and he’s finished a respective T12 and T6 the last two years at TPC Southwind, but I can’t advise going this deep into the field based on his recent form. He’s acknowledged the inconsistency amid uncharacteristically infrequent eye-popping performances – self-awareness that never goes out of style – but we need more reliable charges on the wall right now. All that said, I wouldn’t talk you out of him as a sixth-man contrarian given nothing but positive vibes on site and that he’s guaranteed to cash. That’s the aggressive send in my conservative world.

• Sepp Straka ... He’s way down there at less than one percent of ownership in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, but with a playoff loss in 2022 and a T17 last year at TPC Southwind, course-history buffs might toy with giving the big fella a go, knowing that he won’t miss a cut. However, he finished outside the top 60 in the two editions in between the sparkling bookends, and he arrived having cashed in just four of his last eight starts – two of which didn’t include a cut – and for no better than a T40.

Returning to competition

• Pierceson Coody ... Although the likes of Michael Brennan, Jackson Koivun and Michael Thorbjornsen present the best of possibilities as it concerns youths winning most recently on the PGA TOUR, there’s still considerable room for good things to happen for those who are willing to wait for it. A year ago at this time, Coody was in a catbird’s seat of sorts. Already conditionally exempt on the PGA TOUR, he moonlighted on the Korn Ferry Tour, through which he regained fully exempt status in the big leagues in 2026. Unlike his first two full seasons, he got off to a hot start this year. It laid the foundation for his Playoffs debut this week. At 56th in points, the 26-year-old needs no worse than a solo 17th-place finish to be in position to advance, but he’s hung up just one of those in his last 18 starts, and now he’s fresh off withdrawing from Wyndham after an opening 76. (An explanation wasn’t released.) Congrats if you rode him to riches this season, but don’t be shocked if he takes time to reset for what could be an even better 2027. Anything he yields in the FedExCup Fall would be a bonus.
• Parker Coody ... The older of the Coody twins is committed to this week’s Albertson Boise Open presented by Chevron on the Korn Ferry Tour. It’ll be his sixth start on the secondary circuit this year, but his first since early March. He hasn’t played the PGA TOUR since withdrawing from the 2024 Sanderson Farms Championship with an injured wrist but still has four starts remaining on his medical extension. Because he could serve as an unexpected find in the FedExCup Fall for drop-add leaguers or as a throw-in in DFS, keep an eye on him.
• Kevin Tway ... Also slated to play the Korn Ferry Tour in Boise. It’ll be his fourth start on it in 2026, all within the last six weeks. With the FedExCup Fall on the horizon, this is a good time to remind you that he has five starts remaining on his Non-exempt Medical Extension on the PGA TOUR, on which he hasn’t pegged it in 15 months.

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