Inside the Field: FedEx St. Jude Classic

After a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hero World Challenge returns to Albany Golf Club in The Bahamas. Hosted by Tiger Woods, the event features a top-tier field of FedExCup champions, TOUR stars, and global notables. FIELD NOTES AND STORYLINES: Past FedExCup champions Rory McIlroy (2016, ’19), Jordan Spieth (2015), Justin Thomas (2017), Justin Rose (2018) and Henrik Stenson (2013) are teeing it up… Collin Morikawa, fresh off a victory at the DP World Tour Championship that made him the first American to claim the Race to Dubai, is the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 2 in the world ranking… Spieth will tee it up for the first time since becoming a father (a son, Sammy, was born Nov. 14). He won this event by 10 shots in 2014 when it was contested at Isleworth, setting the stage for his historic 2015 that saw him win two majors and the FedExCup… Viktor Hovland is teeing it up globally for the first time since his repeat win at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba… The past three winners of THE PLAYERS – Thomas, McIlroy and Webb Simpson – are in the field. Also present are the past two Olympic gold medalists (Rose and Xander Schauffele); former Masters champion Patrick Reed; Abraham Ancer, winner of the World Golf Championship-FedEx St. Jude Invitational and two-time TOUR winner Sam Burns (who didn’t finish outside the top 15 in any of his four starts this fall)… Burns is the highest-ranked player in the FedExCup in the field. He’s second in the season-long race behind Talor Gooch. Hovland is ranked fifth, while McIlroy, winner of THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT, is ninth… Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau are both in the field after Friday’s match in Las Vegas, which Koepka won handily… While Woods is not playing, he will likely command a lion’s share of the attention if he is on-site as host. He has not appeared at a tournament or addressed the media since his accident. He recently posted on social media a video of himself swinging a golf club with the caption “Making progress.” FEDEXCUP: No FedExCup points are awarded at the Hero World Challenge; however, four past FedExCup winners are in the field, along with Sam Burns who sits second in the current standings. World-ranking points will be awarded. COURSE: Albany Golf Course, par 72, 7,309 yards (yardage subject to change). Now in its sixth year as host, the Ernie Els-designed Albany GC boasts a linksy look, windswept dunes, and strategic water hazard placements. The average winning score over the last five Hero World Challenge events at Albany has been a hair short of 20 under. 72-HOLE RECORD: 262, Jordan Spieth (2014). Albany record: 263, Bubba Watson (2015) 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, Rickie Fowler (fourth round, 2017) LAST TIME: Henrik Stenson won in 2019 to become the third non-American winner of the Hero World Challenge in the past four years. The event — cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic — saw Stenson top defending champion Jon Rahm by one shot. Stenson’s victory was his first since the 2017 Wyndham Championship. He delivered the knock-out blow with an eagle on the par-5 15th. Four golfers had a share of the lead on the back nine in the final round before Stenson ripped a 5-wood from 259 yards to within 8 inches of the cup. Rahm was looking to become the first back-to-back winner of the Hero since Tiger Woods (2006-07) but finished one shot back. Patrick Reed finished third, while Woods – the tournament host – finished fourth. Eleven of the Americans in the field, including Woods, would go on to board a charter flight to Australia to compete in the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne, which the U.S. Team won after a spirited comeback in Sunday Singles. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 1:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 12 p.m.-2:30 p.m. (Golf Channel), 2:30 p.m.-5 p.m. (NBC). Sunday, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. (Golf Channel), 1 p.m.-4 p.m. (NBC)

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Bailey Jessop’s first love was – and still is — baseball. The 14-year-old can’t really play anymore, though. Running the bases is awfully hard when you’ve got a titanium bone in your left thigh and a brace on your left foot. But Bailey, who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in 2017, is now cancer-free thanks to the nearly year-long treatment he received at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. So, he’s playing some golf now instead of baseball. It’s a great way to walk and get exercise – and still swing a bat, of sorts, at a little white ball. Graphic art classes five days a week have replaced PE classes now that he’s back in school. And earlier this summer, when St. Jude and FootJoy were looking for someone to design a pair of golf shoes for Justin Thomas to wear this week at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, Bailey was the perfect choice. On Tuesday, the teenager was at TPC Southwind to give the shoes to the defending champ. Thomas liked the shoes so much he plans on wearing them all four days of competition. “I had seen a picture of them, but just, I mean the creativity that Bailey had was tremendous, and also how good of an artist he is,â€� Thomas said. “I don’t think I could draw that, anything close to as good as that. And he did the box, he did the sole, or the insole. It all was tremendous.â€� The shoes feature many things close to Bailey’s heart – his two Boston terriers, the Memphis Pyramid, fish (he loves to cast a line out in the water) and a golf ball on a tee – across the saddle. Bailey’s name is on the tongue of the shoes. Bailey, who lives in Germantown, Tennessee, also drew a landscape of Memphis featuring the Pyramid and the Hernando de Soto Bridge that FootJoy used for the footbed of the shoes. The box the shoes came in even features the company’s FJ logo as imagined by Bailey, as well. “It was cool to see the shoes,â€� Bailey said shyly. “I think they turned out really good.â€� Bailey, who used to enter the teen art contests when he was a patient at St. Jude, met with the FootJoy designers on June 17 and did the original drawings. They weren’t sure they had quite enough material after that original session, so they left sketch pads and pencils and markers with him, along with a FedEx box for a quick return. Three days later, the package of Bailey’s “homeworkâ€� arrived. Once FootJoy had the additional sketches, the designers set about converting them to computer images, a process that took several days. Those images were then dispatched to the company’s team in China who sent them to a sublimation vendor who printed the designs on the leather. Since the shoe being used was the existing FJ ICON Shield Tip that Thomas normally wears, the entire process was completed in a little over two weeks. “I have been in the footwear industry for 22 years and this by far has been the highlight of my career,â€� Jonathan Bacon, the design manager for FootJoy, said in an email. Bailey’s mother, Kimberly, was the one who first suggested her “bionic manâ€� start playing golf. He loves being outdoors — fishing is another favorite pursuit – and Bailey now plays or hits balls about three times a week. On Monday, he even added a hybrid to his collection of golf clubs. Bailey, who starts high school in several weeks, has been through a lot in the last three years. He had 40 weeks of chemotherapy at St. Jude. His femur was replaced by the titanium femur and knee joint in what is called a limb-sparing procedure designed to save the use and appearance of the leg. In a few weeks, he will undergo a procedure on the prothesis to lengthen the leg. The 17-inch incision made to insert the titanium bone and joint didn’t heal properly, though, after all that chemo. So, Bailey had to undergo nearly a dozen surgeries in a six-month period to help that process along. He was using crutches and a knee brace the first time he went to TPC Southwind to see the pros play. For the last year, though, Bailey has been able to walk on his own. He has a slight limp due to some nerve damage but otherwise is cancer-free and 18 months removed from his last treatment. “He can get around really well for a kid with a titanium leg,â€� Kimberly said. “He makes it look pretty easy.â€� But Bailey couldn’t play baseball like he used to do. So, last summer on a whim, his mother, who is not a golfer, suggested he go to the local country club and play. She even caddied for him in his first match. “Now he’s got obviously different physical abilities than he did before,â€� Kimberly explained. “He can walk really pretty well, but he can’t run. His endurance isn’t as good, and obviously he’s got a limp. So, when you’re faced with those challenges — cancer does that to you — you kind of have to reroute and you know, just start over again in a lot of ways. “And that’s kind of what we’ve done as a family and just try to figure it out. The things that we used to do, even vacation and sports and things like that are totally different now. Everything’s sort of based around what he can participate in. “And so, this is a really good outlet for him. He gets to swing a club at a ball and that’s a great thing.â€� Kimberly says playing golf has been good therapy for Bailey. His leg is getting stronger and told her recently that he was surprised at how much he liked the game. “I never thought that I would be interested in golf and looking out and thinking that like a golf club is cool, but you just never know,â€� Kimberly remembers him saying. “And I said you just never know. It’s something can do for the rest of his life. “And I think that’s really cool.â€�

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2022 John Deere Classic, Round 1 Scoring Conditions: Overall: +0.29 strokes per round Morning wave: -0.06 Afternoon wave: +0.65 Current cutline (top 65 and ties): 67 players at -1 or better (T47) Top 3 projected cutline probabilities: 1. 2 under par: 43.2% 2. 3 under par: 24.4% 3. 1 under par: 23.4% Top 10 win probabilities: 1. J.T. Poston (1, -9, 24.5%) 2. Chris Gotterup (T3, -6, 6.2%) 3. Denny McCarthy (T5, -5, 6.0%) 4. Michael Gligic (2, -7, 5.5%) 5. Charles Howell III (T19, -3, 4.9%) 6. Vaughn Taylor (T3, -6, 4.4%) 7. Scott Stallings (T9, -4, 3.2%) 8. Dylan Frittelli (T5, -5, 3.2%) 9. Adam Svensson (T9, -4, 2.5%) 10. David Lipsky (T19, -3, 2.2%) NOTE: These reports are based off of the live predictive model run by @DataGolf. The model provides live “Make Cut”, “Top 20”, “Top 5”, and “Win” probabilities every 5 minutes from the opening tee shot to the final putt of every PGA TOUR event. Briefly, the model takes account of the current form of each golfer as well as the difficulty of their remaining holes, and probabilities are calculated from 20K simulations. To follow live finish probabilities throughout the remainder of the John Deere Classic, or to see how each golfer’s probabilities have evolved from the start of the event to the current time, click here for the model’s home page.

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