The FedEx St. Jude Championship was a classic
Despite living in Memphis for almost a decade now, I had never made it to the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the annual golf tournament held at TPC Southwind in Germantown. I love playing golf, I love watching golf, I’ve even played at Southwind half a dozen times. But for whatever reason, whenever the pros were in town, I couldn’t make it.
That changed this past weekend, when my son and I attended our first FedEx St. Jude Championship. Considering that the temperature in Memphis lately has made life feel like the inside of that Trojan horse in The Odyssey, we decided to get out to the course early on Saturday morning. It also informed our decision that Rory McIlroy, who struggled all weekend, was given a 7:20 a.m. tee time.
By the time we negotiated the construction on 385 and made our way into the parking area, it was close to 8:00 a.m. Just one of the cool things I discovered about this tournament is that kids under the age of 15 are free. And so my ticket, which came with free food and drink, ended up costing me half.
We hit the merch tent to pick up a Hush Y’all hat and some ball markers, then wound our way to the front 9. We didn’t have the fancy VIP passes that allowed folks into the tents with refrigerated air, but we came prepared—sunscreen, shades, and unlimited bottles of cold water thanks to the free concessions.
My son and I ended up sitting on the grass in the shade atop the 9th hole, where we could watch golfers land their drives a hundred yards down the hill, then hit their approach shots and putt out. Seeing multiple golfers over-hit their drives into the thick rough served as a good reminder of how accuracy matters at Southwind.
Because I know. I’ve played golf regularly for a few years now, and worked hard to build myself into a moderately good golfer—I usually shoot in the low- to mid-80s. I’ve played all around the world, from Hawaii to Turks and Caicos, but Southwind is the hardest course I’ve ever played. Being able to smash your drive 300 yards like Rory is cool, but Southwind rewards accuracy and precision, especially around the greens.
I’ve tried to pass my love of golf on to my son, and we often play together at Memphis’s terrific public courses. So when we saw Rickie Fowler pitch a shot up near the hole and make it spin into a dead stop, he asked me how Fowler was able to do this. It was at this point I was forced to make a confession: I had no idea how to spin a ball to a stop, at least not intentionally. I might be pretty good at golf, but even my skill has its limits.
Which made it exciting to watch these guys up close, flexing their seemingly unlimited skills. The FedEx St. Jude Championship is the first round of the PGA Championships, after all, the best of the best fighting to move on to the next round. And with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as the beneficiary of the weekend, it adds a level of meaning to an already meaningful tournament.
By the time lunch rolled around, with the sun towering above, tournament leader Scottie Scheffler was teeing off, a huge crowd following him. Scheffler was in control all weekend, unfazed even by crazy things like bouncing a ball off a sprinkler and into the water. We hiked around to the back 9, where I traded a “Go Dawgs!” with Harris English and my son got a high five from Cory Conners. We watched Rory stand there in the heat and sign autographs for kids for a good fifteen minutes, and then, depleted of our electrolytes, made our way back to our car.
The FedEx St. Jude Championship was a big event that felt small in all of the best ways. I appreciated not having to fight huge crowds to be able to see the best players in the world, and anytime you can see greatness up close, it’s always incredible.
This year may have been my first FedEx St. Jude Championship, but it won’t be my last—on Monday morning, we got an official announcement with the dates for the 2027 FedEx St. Jude Championship. Nobody is certain what happens to the PGA Championship series in 2028. I just hope we get to continue to see championship-level golf here in Memphis, right in our backyard.