Expert Picks: FedEx St. Jude Championship

Jordan Spieth gets his 2018-19 season underway in Las Vegas, while Rickie Fowler returns to TPC Summerlin after a two-year hiatus as the PGA TOUR reconvenes on U.S. shores for a three-event push to its fall finish. Bryson DeChambeau, third in last year’s final FedExCup tally, and THE PLAYERS Championship titleholder Webb Simpson also highlight arguably the best field to hit Vegas in recent years, as Patrick Cantlay embarks on his first career title defense. FIELD NOTES: The lineup features nine entrants who competed in last month’s TOUR Championship at East Lake. … Tony Finau, who finished 6th in the FedExCup last season, makes it five members of the U.S. Ryder Cup roster set to compete at TPC Summerlin. Captain and 2010 FedExCup champion Jim Furyk  also will tee it up, his first start since a share of fourth at the Wyndham Championship in August. … Davis Love III, who won the 1993 edition, is joined by two fellow Hall of Famers in Ernie Els and Vijay Singh. … J.J. Spaun tees it up for the fifth time in as many weeks to start the season, the only man remaining who has yet to take a week off. … Freddie Jacobson, who sat out all of last season after hand surgery, tees it up on TOUR for the first time since the 2017 AT&T Byron Nelson. The 2011 Travelers Championship winner made three starts in Europe this fall, making one cut. … Kenny Perry, 58, makes his first TOUR start of the season and just his third since 2015. He’s playing on a one-time exemption afforded the top 50 in career earnings. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points. STORYLINES: Spieth makes his first fall start since October 2015, getting an early jump after falling just below the cut line to qualify for East Lake. That left him with 24 starts last year, one shy of the minimum for players who didn’t add a new venue to their schedule. … DeChambeau and Fowler also make their first starts of the new season, with DeChambeau coming off two wins in last seaso’s FedExCup Playoffs. … Las Vegas has been prime territory for first-time winners, with Cantlay becoming the third in the past four editions and 11th in the past 16. … Former champions Ryan Moore (2012) and Kevin Na (2011) are among more than a half-dozen entrants with Las Vegas ties seeking to bring the trophy back to local hands. … Cantlay has a chance to join Furyk (1998-99) as just the second man to claim back-to-back titles in Las Vegas. … A total of 22 Shriners Hospital patients – one from each campus across the country – will serve as standard bearers during the final two days. COURSE: TPC Summerlin, 7,255 yards, par 71. Built on land in Las Vegas’ western reaches once owned by Howard Hughes, the Bobby Weed/Fuzzy Zoeller project opened in 1991 and begins its second decade as the sole locale for the TOUR’s annual visit. The layout winds through arroyos and canyons, building to four closing holes that make golfers weigh risk/reward – the drivable par-4 15th, the par-5 16th, the water-lined par-3 17th and a strong par-4 No. 18. Originally part of a three-course tournament rotation, a 2008 restructuring brought all rounds to a single site. 72-HOLE RECORD: 260, Ryan Moore (2012), Webb Simpson (2013). 18-HOLE RECORD: 59, Chip Beck (3rd round, 1991 at Sunrise GC). TPC Summerlin record: 60, J.J. Henry (1st round, 2013), Rod Pampling (1st round, 2016). LAST YEAR: Cantlay produced magic from behind a tree to make par on the second playoff hole, bringing a long-sought win to a career once derailed by injury and heartbreak. Cantlay, Whee Kim and Alex Cejka all bogeyed the first extra hole after surviving a windblown final round, and Cantlay appeared in jeopardy after his tee shot on the second replay at No.18 wound up in tree trouble. The former UCLA star, though, managed to thread a 4-iron under one tree and around another, his ball coming to rest at the back of the green. Cantlay nearly holed his putt from the fringe, too, brushing home the winner after Cejka missed his par save. Victory was especially poignant for Cantlay, pegged for early stardom as an amateur before a stress fracture in his back kept him off the course for more than two years. During that time he also lost his best friend and caddie, Chris Roth, in a hit-and-run accident as the two were crossing a busy intersection in Newport Beach, Calif. HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Saturday, 4:30-7:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Sunday, 3:30-6:30 p.m. (GC). PGA TOUR LIVE: None. RADIO: Thursday-Friday, 2-7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 3-7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 2-6:30 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).

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