Watch live: DJ chasing down Tour Championship win

Put on your blue suede shoes, board the plane as it’s time for a walk in Memphis. TPC Southwind is on deck for the 32nd-consecutive season and second running as host of the WGC FedEx St Jude Invitational. Ron Pletcher’s test served as the warm-up for the U.S Open since 2007 but this year will be the tune-up before the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco next week. TPC Southwind lines up 40 yards deeper this year with the addition of two new tee boxes but length hardly bothers these elite players. New bunker positioning and re-shaping will make the pros think twice as the choice of sand (76 bunkers), water (11 penalty areas) or dealing with 2.5 inches of Bermuda rough. Defending champion Brooks Koepka is the only winner of the last five to finish top 10 in fairways so accuracy isn’t a premium. The focus this week will be second shots into the well-protected, undulating 4,300 square foot Bermuda greens. Small targets will require scrambling skills if missed and conversions of birdie chances with the flat stick when found in regulation. Walking off with par will not be a bad score this week. Taking advantage of the two Par-5 holes won’t hurt either. Returning to Bermuda greens for the first time since Harbour Town will take a quick recalibration. The heat of Memphis won’t bother anyone who has been practicing in Florida or playing on TOUR the last few weeks. A field of 78 will feature 17 players making their course debut but plenty of familiar names are on site. Of the 50 OWGR top players, 45 are on property as they prepare for the first major of the season with a major-like purse. Nothing gets the attention, just check the winners all-time of WGC events, of the best of the best than a big field on a big-time course. There’s no exception this week as the total purse of $10.5 million will see the winner take $1.82 million of that plus 550 FedExCup points. The good news is there isn’t a cut so everyone will get four rounds of prep before heading to San Francisco. RELATED: Power Rankings | Sleepers | Expert Picks 2019 WGC-FESJC Invitational: Top 25 (* – course debut) 1 Brooks Koepka 2 Webb Simpson 3 Marc Leishman 4 *Tommy Fleetwood 4 Rory McIlroy 4 *Matthew Fitzpatrick 7 *Jon Rahm 8 Ian Poulter 9 Billy Horschel 9 Bubba Watson 11 *Justin Rose 12 Rafa Cabrera Bello 12 *Patrick Cantlay 12 Patrick Reed 12 *Cameron Smith 12 *Jordan Spieth 12 *Justin Thomas 20 Dustin Johnson 20 *Haotong Li 20 *Louis Oosthuizen 24 *Matthew Wolff (1st WGC event) Recent Winners 2019: Brooks Koepka (-16) Started in the final group one back of McIlroy and fired 65 to win by three … Bogey-free effort beat McIlroy by six. … Fifth straight winner top 10 GIR (T8). … First winner in five NOT to lead in Strokes-Gained: Tee-to-Green (6th). … Led the field in Bogey Avoidance, Par-4 scoring, Scrambling and Bogey Avoidance. … Only winner of last five NOT to finish in top 3 in Par-5 scoring (T48). … Only winner in the last six to finish top 10 in driving accuracy. … Fifth player to win a major and a WGC event in the same season. … Entered off T4 The Open Championship week prior. … Sick most of the week. Notables: Webb Simpson posted the round of the day on Sunday, 64, to take second. … Marc Leishman closed 63-67 for solo third. … Tommy Fleetwood closed 65-66 for T4. … Matthew Fitzpatrick (T4) led after 36 holes. … McIlroy (T4) matched the course record on Saturday to lead after 54 holes by one. Jon Rahm (7th) tied the course record, 62, to lead after the first round. …… Top 10 players 10-under or lower. … Only 14 bogey-free rounds. … The top 23 players posted just 13 rounds above 70. … Last three winners of this EVENT have been either Nos. 1, 2 or 3 in the OWGR AND FedExCup at the time. #Chalk. 2018: Dustin Johnson (-19) Walk-off eagle to win by six. … Last regular TOUR event played here. … Won here in 2012. … Led after 36 and co-led after 54 holes. … Missed the tournament record by a shot. … Clinic in all phases minus Driving Accuracy. … Led the field in Par-4 scoring and Strokes-Gained: Tee to Green; Second in Bogey Avoidance, Strokes-Gained: Approach the Green and Proximity. Notables: Chez Reavie (T6) and Brandt Snedeker (T6) were the only others entered this week that finished in the top 10, just 12 shots back! … Snedeker tied the course record (62) in Round 2, his only round below 70 of the week. … Phil Mickelson closed with 65 for T12. … CT Pan and JT Poston shared T18. … Only two players double digits under-par. … Only 10, bogey-free rounds on the week. Key stat leaders Top golfers in each statistic on the 2019-2020 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete this week. Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green (* – previous WGC event winner) 1 *Justin Thomas 2 Sergio Garcia 3 *Rory McIlroy 4 *Hideki Matsuyama 5 Tyrrell Hatton 6 Collin Morikawa 7 Bryson DeChambeau 8 Patrick Cantlay 9 Jon Rahm 10 *Xander Schauffele 11 Tony Finau 12 Viktor Hovland (first WGC event) 13 Paul Casey 14 Webb Simpson 15 Joaquin Niemann (first WGC event) 18 Daniel Berger (won FESJC 2016-17) 19 Corey Conners 21 Abraham Ancer 23 Tommy Fleetwood 24 Scottie Scheffler 25 *Jason Day Bogey Avoidance 1 Tyrrell Hatton 2 Bryson DeChambeau 3 Webb Simpson 5 Jon Rahm 6 *Justin Thomas 9 Abraham Ancer 10 *Xander Schauffele 11 Daniel Berger 12 *Rory McIlroy 14 Brendon Todd 15 Gary Woodland 16 Brandt Snedeker 20 Kevin Na 25 Adam Hadwin Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee 1 Bryson DeChambeau 2 Cameron Champ (debut) 3 Sergio Garcia 4 *Rory McIlroy 6 Jon Rahm 7 *Xander Schauffele 8 Viktor Hovland 9 Paul Casey 10 Scottie Scheffler 11 Jason Kokrak 12 Tommy Fleetwood 13 *Bubba Watson 14 *Dustin Johnson 15 Matthew Wolff 16 Corey Conners 17 *Brooks Koepka 18 Sungjae Im (debut) 20 Ryan Palmer 21 *Justin Thomas 23 Collin Morikawa 25 Billy Horschel Heat Checks Brooks Koepka: In six starts, he’s found the podium three times and is the defending champion; happy hunting ground. Dustin Johnson: Won on debut in 2012 and won the last TOUR event here in 2018 with two more top 10s squeezed in between; T20 last year and WD last week. Daniel Berger: Won on debut in 2016 and backed it up in 2017; mc last visit 2018. Billy Horschel: In seven paydays, five have produced top 10s, including four straight trips (2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017); six straight weekends before adding T9 last year. Phil Mickelson: Annual attendee to tune up for the U.S. Open saw him rattle off T12 or better in six straight before 57th last year. Rafa Cabrera Bello: T4 debut in 2017 included 65-66 sandwich; T12 in his second visit last year included 67-66 weekend.

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Rory McIlroy said the PGA Tour and DP World Tour should hold talks with the Saudi-funded LIV Golf series as the escalating tension between the circuits is “splitting the game.”

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Strive to be average. Phil Mickelson laughs when asked about his de facto rallying cry for 2018, at least where his historically erratic driving is concerned. “It sounds bad, it sounds funny,� Mickelson said in a recent interview with SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio, “but what a great step up that would be for me just to get to average.� True, that wouldn’t look great on a T-shirt. But the fact remains, Mickelson doesn’t need to magically transform into Dustin Johnson or Rory McIlroy, two of the best drivers in the game. Nor does he expect it. Mickelson just wants to not hurt his cause off the tee, which would mean going from a worse-than-average PGA TOUR pro to an average TOUR pro. If he can do that, Mickelson believes, he could not only win for the first time since 2013, and make his 12th consecutive U.S. Ryder Cup team. He could be due for multiple good years. As is his wont, Mickelson will come off his holiday break with a much-anticipated start at this week’s CareerBuilder Challenge at La Quinta Country Club, the Nicklaus Tournament Course, and the Stadium Course at PGA West. He won the tournament in 2002 and ’04, but hasn’t won anywhere since his stirring victory at the 2013 Open Championship. Since then, he has enjoyed a stellar run of play in the Presidents Cup and the Ryder Cup, leading the U.S. to convincing victories at Liberty National (2017) and Hazeltine (2016), respectively. He has racked up top-10 finishes (five last season), and in any given round has looked perfectly capable of winning again. He just hasn’t. According to Mickelson, his driving is mostly at fault. There are two big changes, though, as he embarks on his 27th year as a pro. After parting ways with his longtime caddie, Jim (Bones) Mackay, last summer, Mickelson has hired his little brother, Tim, to take over the bag fulltime. Phil calls him “great energy,� a surprisingly good green-reader, and, as a former college golf coach, a shrewd student of the game. “It’s been very rejuvenating for me,� Phil Mickelson said. Mackay got one veto per year. Tim Mickelson will have another avenue available to him, Phil said. If and when Phil is on the verge of taking an unwise risk, Tim has been asked to say, “The math doesn’t add up.� Translation: the potential for disaster isn’t worth the potential reward. Phil’s other big change this year has been his recent switch to Callaway’s new Rogue driver, which Mickelson cites for its bigger sweet spot, and which, he believes, has been adjusted to a more optimal swing weight for him.  Mickelson is a legendary equipment junkie, and hope always springs eternal at the outset of the CareerBuilder Challenge. But if anyone has been around long enough, and experienced enough success—42 TOUR wins, including five majors—to know his game, it is him. He says he spent much of his off-season in the gym, getting stronger for stability and speed, and planned to rejoin his coach, Andrew Getson, last week to start sharpening his skills for his 2018 debut in the desert.      As always, getting sharp starts with the driver. In 2013, when Mickelson won the Waste Management Phoenix Open, the Scottish Open and the Open Championship, he was .021 in strokes gained: off-the-tee, which was 102nd on TOUR. For him, though, that wasn’t terrible; at least it was a positive number. In 2011, when Mickelson won the Shell Houston Open and finished 15th in the FedExCup, he was at a respectable .140 (72nd) in that stat. But lately? Um. Well. Not great. In two starts so far this season, at the Safeway Open (T3) and World Golf Championship-HSBC Champions (T15), Mickelson is -.434 (194th) in strokes gained: off-the-tee. Last season he was at -.058 (119th) and narrowly missed qualifying for the TOUR Championship, a hiccup for which his Presidents Cup teammate Matt Kuchar teased him mercilessly. To put it mildly, Mickelson has work to do. “What’s funny is when you’re good at something, chipping, putting, wedges, distance control, all that stuff, it’s easy,� he said. “It takes me a day or two of practice to get back to kind of an elite level. But to become just an average driver when you’re not good at it, it takes a lot of work. And that’s what I’ve been spending the last few years on, really trying to figure it out. Get the swing plane right, get shallower into the ball, get the weighting of the driver right. The whole mental approach to the driver. Just to get everything dialed in just to be average.� It’s a strange rallying cry, partly because no one has ever accused Phil the Thrill of being average at anything. But maybe that’s what it will take for him to get back to hoisting trophies again. He certainly still looks like a winner, as when he went 3-0-1 to lead the U.S. at the Presidents Cup, his 12th straight, at Liberty National last fall.     There would be no better place to restart the victory count than the CareerBuilder.  “I just don’t want to give away shots off the tee,� Mickelson said. “I don’t need to gain shots off the tee; I’ll gain them elsewhere. I feel like the short putting has been addressed. I feel like, and believe, that I’ve had a bit of a breakthrough with the driver. And if that happens, I think 2018 could be a remarkable year, a year where I can win multiple times.�

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