The PGA Tour heads to Memphis to begin the 2023 FedExCup Playoffs.
It’s a three-week race to crown the champion and it starts this week at TPC Southwind.
This is a familiar course that has been used for decades so we can lean on course history, recent form, or course fit when looking at the betting board this week.
Here are a few tournament matchups that caught my eye.
Corey Conners over Si Woo Kim - Tournament Matchup (-125)
Kim limps in with two missed cuts and a T-33 in his last three starts. For Conners, he’s twirled top 20s in three of his last five starts.
Over the course of the season, Conners also has the edge. These two have played 16 crossover events and Conners has edged out Kim in 10 of them.
Lastly, we can look at course history and see that Kim has nothing better than a T-42 finish in three tries at TPC Southwind. Conners has bettered that finish in each of his last four trips to Memphis.
Add it all up and it looks like Conners has quite the leg up on Si Woo Kim this week.
Sam Burns over Tom Kim - Tournament Matchup (-118)
There are two angles that draw me toward this matchup.
First, Sam Burns has a close call at the course, posting a runner-up finish at the 2021 WGC St. Jude Invitational. Last year he had this to say on his way toward a T-20 finish, “It’s a golf course that I really like. It’s grass that I’m used to playing on, I grew up on bermuda, so I feel comfortable around here.”
The second angle is Kim’s health. He played admirably through a sprained ankle at The Open but withdrew last week ahead of what would have been an attempted title defense at the Wyndham Championship. He called into the broadcast and left this nugget, “The ankle has gotten a lot better. Obviously it’s just not going to heal right away. I got a thumbs up from my trainers and my doctors, so hopefully I’ll be ready to tee it up on Thursday.”
If you’re an optimist you may point out him saying the ankle is better and note that he’s gotten the okay from his doctors to tee it up in the playoffs. On the flip side, you could point out “it’s just not going to heal right away” and note the fact that he used the word ‘hopefully’ when talking about his ability to play in Memphis.
I like Burns over Kim at full health so to potentially get him at less than his best makes than an easier decision to pull the trigger.
