Youth movement

The last eight PGA TOUR sanctioned tournament winners are all under the age of 30. Credit to Preferred Lines host Joe Idone for looking past the 3M Open and Jackson Koivun's incredible win. Considering all of the major championship winners were in their 30s this season, the TOUR is showing signs of an impressive youth movement. Those who follow RTL content closely know I have been asking the question: who are America's next generation of golf stars? The next wave of Jordan, JT, and Rickie? The summer of 2026 has shown serious signs of life. The reason for asking that question all winter was Ryder Cup biased, who is going to lead this team as Scottie, Xander, and Patrick start to age out. Much like many in the media center, I'm all in for our Team USA youth movement. Bring on Young, Gotterup, Koivun, Brennan, Bhatia, Thorbjornsen, Russell, and more! Should these guys be chosen for Medinah in six weeks? No. BUT, they should be invited and shown what to expect when (and if) the Adare call comes. The upcoming playoffs will have their moments, but what we have witnessed this summer is super cool and a great sign of what's to come for Team USA!
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The FedEx Cup Playoffs once again kick off at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Sixty-nine of the 70 players who qualified are in the field for the first elimination leg. Why Daniel Berger chose not to play must be injury (or personal) related? Of Berger's four career wins, two have taken place at TPC Southwind. Whatever the case is, let's hope we see Daniel again soon. Those 69 players are vying for a spot in the top 50 of the FEC points race. While the playoffs never captured a large majority of fan intrigue, the cutline is where your attention should be. Similar to a Friday afternoon at a regular PGA TOUR event, the next two Sundays close with high drama. Get inside the top 50 and you earn Signature status for 2027. A huge edge on your touring competitors looking ahead to 2028. Arrive at East Lake in the top 30 and there's an invite awaiting for all four majors.
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The "Hey Jude" has been exciting in recent years. Four of the last five editions have ended with a sudden-death playoff. I also recommend you watch the second scoring bug on the screen. A playoff win is one thing, but an invite to 2027's Signature Series will take one's career to the next level. Lock in and enjoy the theater; it's true elimination time on TOUR.

FedEx St. Jude Championship starts in...

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Back to back Bermuda

For the fifth year in a row, we head to sweltering Memphis, Tennessee, and TPC Southwind for the first leg of the FEC Playoffs. Now in its twentieth year, we are a long time away from 2007 and Tiger Woods taking home the first season-long cup. One of the more difficult ball-striking layouts on TOUR, the average winning score after four years as a playoff event and another three years as a WGC tournament is 15 under par. A big part of that has to do with the scorecard: par 70 now stretching 7,288 yards. I say it all the time, but remove those extra par 5s, and it gets difficult to go low. If you recall, TPC Southwind went under a massive renovation between the 2024 and 2025 editions of this tournament. All 18 greens were renovated, and approximately 50 yards were added to the scorecard. The average green size increased about 200 sq/ft, raising the average to 4,500 sq/ft. With a second year to grow in, I expect the newly added Zoysia surrounds and Bermudagrass green surfaces to be a little more receptive. Although the forecast may preclude it.

The dry conditions will only increase the difficulty of this venue. Annually one of the tougher fairway accuracy and approach layouts on the PGA TOUR, I doubt very many players (if any) will shed a tear when the TOUR takes their tournament and moves it elsewhere for the new schedule format. Which is unfortunate, because TPC Southwind is a great test of ball striking skill. Players are faced with 22 acres of fairway to find and 75 bunkers. Eleven holes have water in play, and there are a bunch of great elevation changes on this property. The event needs to be played in April or October! With a year to watch the field react to the renovation, officials did an excellent job of updating a tired layout. Past champions of the WGCs and FEC Playoffs are a who's who of TOUR talent. Rose, Matsuyama, Glover, Zalatoris, etc. are all impact kings. Modern professionals major in recovery and physical conditioning, so I'm curious to watch how the conditions affect play. Coming down the stretch on Sunday is already a significant sweat on the PGA TOUR. Now you add the element of 100+ degrees, Signature status, and Scottie Scheffler breathing down your neck. Sounds great to me as I love watching the world's best step up and perform.

Read The Line media ⤵️

How to win?

Right back to a par 70 scorecard on Bermuda grass, let's take a look over the last three years who performs best when you remove a couple of par 5s and add the element of grain on the greens in this field!

• Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Tommy Fleetwood, Hideki Matsuyama, Viktor Hovland, Harry Hall, Aaron Rai, JT Poston, Ben Griffin, Ludvig Åberg, Alex Noren, Sam Burns, Eric Akshay Bhatia, and JJ Spaun (minimum 20 rounds)

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Not many surprises on that list when you consider the best comp venues for TPC Southwind. Starting with Sedgefield CC last week, Southwind requires a very particular set of skills. The St. Jude played as the seventh most difficult approach course on the PGA TOUR in 2025. Part of that was due to the fresh green complexes. Recent winners of the WGC and playoff editions have gained an average of five strokes on the field with their iron game. Prior champions of the St. Jude Classic gained an average of eight strokes on the field on approach. A par 70 scorecard and an average green size of 4,500 sq/ft add up over 72 holes. Most think when you make the greens bigger, the course gets easier. For the average golfer, yes. On the PGA TOUR, more putting surface area means more room to hide hole locations. Considering the firm conditions, if you go after a tucked pin and miss, get ready to scramble. A good week with the wedge and you can save a bunch of pars, but by increasing potential hole locations, it can measurably make the course more difficult on TOUR.
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Approach play was going to be a factor even if the renovation did not happen. TPC Southwind requires 20+ subpar scores to win, and with very little wind and hot, heavy air, the guys will be making birdies. Twelve par 4s and you know where I'm going next. I love par 4 scoring on par 70 scorecards. The leaders gain an average of nearly nine strokes on the field each year on the 4s. The five toughest holes relative to par are all par 4s. Two of them, 12 and 18, aren't very long. They require the players to hit the fairway, avoid the penalty areas (water), and navigate a tight approach shot. TPC Southwind has one of the highest water ball counts on the PGA TOUR. Even with a playoff caliber field, balls find the water. Knowing when to attack new (and old) hole locations gives some an edge. Alongside par 4 scoring, I'm also considering course and comp history. TPC Southwind is not the stickiest spot on the scoreboards, but those players who have contended at PGA National, Country Club of Jackson, Innisbrook, Colonial, and Sedgefield catch my attention.
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Looking to increase the birdie-to-bogey ratio, then find the fairway. Much like Wyndham, the Bermuda grass rough at TPC Southwind penalizes players for missing the short grass off the tee (+0.5). In 2025, TPC Southwind ranked as the second most penal course for missing fairways. Out of 40+ ranked courses, that's significant. Throw in this elite field, and there's a separation factor for those who can use a driver off the tee, not lay back to the wider sections of the fairway, and attack on approach. We will see plenty of these guys play aggressively off the tee to gain that advantage. When you walk the course, you see it. There are two landing areas on every hole. There's a positional landing zone and then an aggressive route. The top finishers on the last two leaderboards are all point-and-shoot players. Justin (Rose), Hideki, JJ, Xander, Tommy, Viktor, Scottie, Cam, and Sam (Burns) use the driver as a scoring weapon.
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For years, it seemed as if there was an advantage if you played a left-to-right ball flight off the tee, and that collection of names validates that trend. Schauffele, Fleetwood, and Young play a draw, but those are some elite drivers. The rest of them hit a right-handed fade, and it fits this landscape. Walking the course, you can see it. These fairways are annually ranked in the top 10 tightest on TOUR. The narrowest driving holes bend that way, and those that don't, you can play over the trees with a fade or fit something in. These little edges I observe on-site make a difference over four days. Zoysia fairways (and surrounds) are another small detail some might miss. The ball sits higher on Zoysia grass. The best approach players love it because it allows them even better contact. An average iron player will lose some trajectory control and just launch the ball higher. We will be taking players who have a proven record on the Z-fairways!
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The same holds true around the green. In the recent renovation, Zoysia grass was added to the green surrounds. SG: ARG was not a strong consideration at Southwind, but now the ability to chip and pitch better than your opponent will add up. The ball was literally teed up around the green last year. Players kept talking about it. The best short game guys have a distinct advantage. Players can make putts at Southwind. Outside of five feet, the make percentage is greater than the PGA TOUR average. All 18 greens have been adjusted, but looking at the surfaces, you don't see a noticeable difference. The challenge at TPC Southwind comes from T2G. Back a good putter, and he can score if he’s consistently in play. We will weigh Bermudagrass putting stars as they historically have a little advantage, but brand new surfaces will still be very firm and not have nearly the grain influence they used to possess. It takes time for the greens to grow in. PGA TOUR courses continually make these 12-month renovation projects work, but the greens are never quite ready even after 24 months! Remember the greens at the CJ Cup in May, or the last couple of years at East Lake?
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Overall, this is an iron fest. To get inside that top 10 late on Sunday afternoon, you MUST hit your targets on approach. This is the fifth most difficult course on the TOUR for accruing GIRs. The fourth hardest when it comes to approaches under 150 yards. Six of the last eight winners on this property are also major champions. The hot weather and years of average fields have given TPC Southwind a lackluster reputation on TOUR. Truth is few venues can hold these guys under 18 under par over four days. Since Tom Kim at the Scottish Open, we continue to contend. Burns, Grillo, Gerard, Thompson, Thompson again, and Kim have all been there on Sunday. It's time to shed the bridesmaid moniker and take home a title in the Memphis heat!

Outright Winners - FedEx St. Jude Championship

LPGA

Evening entertainment

From the western shores of England to the Pacific Coast of the United States, the LPGA must earn a zillion frequent flyer miles every season! Portland, Oregon, is the next stop for the Standard Portland Classic. Five of the top 10 ranked women in the world are part of the 144-player field. The top 65 and ties will play the weekend for a $2 million purse and $300,000 for first place. This return to the United States officially marks the start of the second half of the season. I'm not going to mention season-ending CME points; we'll save that for the St. Jude, but 10 events remain on the LPGA's regular season schedule. Many in the media world claim the major championship season is a sprint, but once those elite events are over, not much time remains in 2026! We have had tons of success over the years in Portland. Who could forget hitting Andrea Lee (+4500) in 2022? Another first-time winner at the time, RTL turned that Portland Classic into a nice profit. The ladies are on West Coast time and a couple of hours behind the small field in Memphis. Enjoy the evening event coverage, and let's get our next women's winner.

Hall pass

The first Portland Classic took place in 1972. Fifty plus years later, we are visiting Columbia Edgewater Country Club for the 38th time. A stereotypical northwest style parkland layout, CECC is defined by narrow fairways and small green complexes. The scorecard has been lengthened a little (+63 yards) since Aki Iwai won 12 months ago at 24 under par. The average winning score of the Portland Classic over the last decade is 19.8 under par. A shootout by definition, many of these women have little trouble with the 6,541-yard par 72 layout. The par 5s remain the same, but the average par 3 jumped four yards and the average par 4 by seven yards. Tournament officials have tried to add a little extra challenge to Columbia Edgewater. The par 4 third, ninth, and fifteenth display the biggest difference. The Portland region has received very little rain. CECC is five inches behind for the year, and the rain gauge reads 0.00" for the month of August and we are 12 days in!

Only 30 acres of fairway across 18 holes is one of the primary tests at Columbia Edgewater. Evergreens provide a hall-like look to these fairway corridors. Seven holes have water in play, and the course features 54 bunkers. The green complexes are small. The average green size is 5,500 sq/ft. West coast Poa annua covers the surfaces, and CECC has been quite predictable when it comes to performance. A specific player contends at this tournament. One other important course note is the routing. Those familiar with playing this particular event host will see the nines are flipped. Players start on the tenth hole and finish 18 holes later on hole 9. A scoring length approach over water, the ninth green is protected and provides a reasonably entertaining conclusion. There have been two repeat winners since 2002 (Annika Sorenstam and Brooke Henderson). Those two also give you an idea of the leaderboard diversity we have seen this century. Five United States winners and four from South Korea, there have been seven other countries represented on the wall of champions since 2000. It's not a major, and that's a good thing. The Portland Classic always provides some great theater. Enjoy the evening golf, and let's get another outright across the finish line.

How to win?

The conversation around selecting contenders at Columbia Edgewater CC has always started with finding the most accurate players. Notice I said accurate and didn't add length as a second qualifier. That's one of the unique aspects of Portland Classic week. Players with length and those without can win this week. If you keep it between the trees and bring a hot putter, you'll go places on the Portland leaderboard. So let's start there and include the forecast. The recent weather and forecast for this week will lead to a very specific style of player. Take into consideration the average winning score; these ladies are going to have to find a way to attack these small, firm greens. We know that starts with accuracy off the tee. Driving accuracy is by far the most vital statistic at CECC. We see it year after year; the top 10 leaderboards hit a ton of fairways. Again, if you can do it with ball speed, that's even better, but at the end of the day, all contenders will be playing from inside the evergreens.
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If you don't remember this venue, CECC will make you feel claustrophobic from what you see on the tee. The fairways are lined with thick pine trees. Terrible fairway borders; they are thick, have low limbs, and shallow root systems. All of that adds up to punching out if you get lost in the fir. With firm conditions, these hallways are going to become even narrower. Twelve of the 14 driving holes bend. Players must find the center as offline tee shots will roll through the short grass. Why are the fairways so important? Similar to the bounces players receive in the short grass, the green complexes will reject a mediocre approach. CECC green complexes are compact, and getting that first bounce to grab is vital. Iron play is an advantage, but getting back to my opening point, so is hitting a more lofted club into the putting surface. Not only will that club stop, but it should have a better overall proximity average. Approach play is my number one skill this week and for good reason.
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With firm greens, spin control by the better approach players will be the talent needed to score even more effectively against the average approach players. Not many LPGA players are high-ball hitters from the fairway, so spin and trajectory control are paramount to success. Another reason why speed gives you an advantage. Slower swing players generally have lower ball flights. I'm going with solid ball strikers who have also been trending. The average approach shot is not long at CECC. Most of the field will play a majority of their approaches from 120-160 yards. Get closer AND in the fairway and you'll be able to attack from close range, which will make a big difference when it comes to stopping the ball. How else are you getting to 20 under par?
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The top 12 players on the final leaderboard in 2025 were 15 under par or better. That's an average of 4 under per round, and you barely break the top 10! The tournament record is 26 under par (2023), and since the return to CECC in 2013, seven of the 11 winners have been 20 under par or lower. My cumulative scoring analysis does not include bogey avoidance or scrambling. Make any over par scores, and you'll be crossing the border to Canada on Saturday. Instead, I started with BoB%, par 4 and 5 scoring. This gave us a great baseline for who can go low on a course like CECC. Players need approximately a 30% birdie rate (or better) to win this week. Few players can go that kind of low. Measuring simple scoring skills is not enough. The secret sauce this week is rounds in the 60s. Who goes low more often? On tougher venue weeks, these ladies cannot keep up because they also tend to make mistakes. That ability to spike more often matters when you need 25+ sub-par scores in 72 holes.
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Thinking about interesting comp courses, I went back to the 2023 Canadian Open. It was played in Vancouver at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club the week before the Portland Open, and the leaderboards were very similar. Another fairway finder test on similar agronomy, I'm looking through that final scoreboard for more clues. This pocket of tour events up in the northwest will give us a great idea of who plays well in the region. Not many pundits will make this connection, and it is a great comp. Six players whose odds are under +5000 finished inside the top 22 are on my radar. Just three years ago, their skill set still applies. Generally speaking, on the LPGA, the better ball strikers are not great with their flatstick. I looked through the recent 2026 leaderboards for a couple of trending putters. I found one or two of the better tour flushers rolling the rock quite nicely and added them to the card.
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Our LPGA eyes are locked in, and I'm going to be aggressive with the top of this betting board. It is extremely top-heavy in talent. It will be a tight card and one I think will give us another Sunday sweat and a profitable card come Sunday evening.

Outright Winners - Portland Classic

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