{"id":594726,"date":"2026-08-16T05:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T05:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/594726\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T05:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T05:12:11","slug":"fedex-st-jude-championship-scottie-scheffler-retains-lead-ahead-of-final-round-as-rory-mcilroy-endures-another-tough-day-golf-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/594726\/","title":{"rendered":"FedEx St Jude Championship: Scottie Scheffler retains lead ahead of final round as Rory McIlroy endures another tough day | Golf News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Scottie Scheffler will take a two-shot lead into the final round of the FedEx St Jude Championship in Memphis as he looks to complete his first win since January.<\/p>\n<p>The three-stroke advantage the world No 1 had carved out at halfway after a second-round, course-record 61 was trimmed by one as he bogeyed his penultimate hole at TPC Southwind on Saturday before signing for a two-under 68 and closing on 13 under.<\/p>\n<p>Sam Burns carded a sizzling, bogey-free eight-under 62 while Sungjae Im shot a three-under 67 with those players the leader&#8217;s closest challengers on 11 under.<\/p>\n<p>But Scheffler is now just one good day away from his maiden trophy since The American Express in California at the start of the year, not that he hasn&#8217;t threatened in that time.<\/p>\n<p>\n        How do the FedExCup Playoffs work?\n      <\/p>\n<p class=\"sdc-article-factbox__text\" data-testid=\"article-factbox-text\">Only the top 70 in the season-long FedExCup standings have reached the FedEx St. Jude Championship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sdc-article-factbox__text\" data-testid=\"article-factbox-text\">The top 50 then progress to the BMW Championship (August 20-23) and then only the top 30 make it to the Tour Championship (August 27-30).<\/p>\n<p class=\"sdc-article-factbox__text\" data-testid=\"article-factbox-text\">Winners of the first two play-off events earn 750 points apiece before the points reset to zero ahead of the Tour Championship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sdc-article-factbox__text\" data-testid=\"article-factbox-text\">In the closing event, all players begin at even par, with the starting-strokes model based on FedExCup placings at that point axed in 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sdc-article-factbox__text\" data-testid=\"article-factbox-text\">The winner of the Tour Championship becomes FedExCup champion for 2026, earning $10m (\u00a37.4m) and a five-year PGA Tour exemption.<\/p>\n<p>The 30-year-old has recorded five runners-up finishes, including at the 3M Open in his previous event, and nine top-fives in total in the intervening months.<\/p>\n<p>In his third round in Tennessee, Scheffler bogeyed his fourth hole before birdies at two, 11, 12 and 16 preceded that dropped shot at 17, which came after he picked out a left-hand bunker with his second shot at the par four.<\/p>\n<p>Defending FedExCup Playoffs champion Tommy Fleetwood remains in the hunt after a two-under Saturday &#8211; the highlight of which was a monster birdie putt at 13 &#8211; leaving him five strokes adrift of Scheffler on eight under and in a share of fourth with Jake Knapp.<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" loading=\"lazy\" intrinsicsize=\"768x432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/skysports-rory-mcilroy-pga-tour-golf_7322797.jpg\"   alt=\"Rory McIlroy has not shot a round under par at TPC Southwind this week\" data-testid=\"article-image-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Image:<br \/>\n        Rory McIlroy has not shot a round under par at TPC Southwind this week<\/p>\n<p>Rory McIlroy, though, is languishing in tied-67th place on six over &#8211; 19 shots off Scheffler &#8211; after shooting a two-over 72 on Saturday, with the world No 2 yet to post an under-par round this week.<\/p>\n<p>McIlroy, a three-time FedExCup Playoffs champion, was even par on the day heading to the 18th in his third round, only to then finish with a double bogey after finding the water off the tee.<\/p>\n<p>The 37-year-old picked up back-to-back birdies at nine and 10, while his bogeys came at two and 13 before his gory final hole.<\/p>\n<p>Watch the final round of the FedEx St Jude Championship live on Sky Sports Golf from 4pm on Sunday. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nowtv.com\/membership\/watch-sky-sports?DCMP=ilc_skysports_nc_articlelink\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stream golf with NOW.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/golfnow-logo.png\" class=\"sdc-interactive-golfnow__branding-image\" alt=\"Golf Now logo.\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"sdc-interactive-golfnow__branding-text\" class=\"sdc-interactive-golfnow__branding-text\">Get the best prices and book a round at one of 1,700 courses across the UK &amp; Ireland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scottie Scheffler will take a two-shot lead into the final round of the FedEx St Jude Championship in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-594726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}