The PGA Tour FedEx Cup Playoffs are here, and the tour's top 70 players will go toe to toe this week in the 2023 FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tenn. The tournament tees off Thursday and is the first of three FedEx Cup Playoffs events. The top 50 finishers at FedEx St. Jude Championship 2023 move on to next week's BMW Championship. The 2023 FedEx Cup champion will be decided when the top 30 compete at the Tour Championship, set for Aug. 24-27.

Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are the top three golfers in both the Official World Golf Ranking and FedEx Cup Standings. Scheffler is No. 1 in the world but Rahm leads the FedEx Standings, 174 points ahead of Scheffler. McIlroy is No. 2 in the world but third in the standings, 1,016 points behind the leader. However, with points quadrupled from the regular season -- the winner gets 2,000 -- any PGA Tour player in the 2023 FedEx St. Jude Championship field can make a run at the title. 

Lucas Glover seized his spot in the top 70 with his victory at last week's Wyndham Championship, while 2017 FedEx champion Justin Thomas fell one spot shy of qualifying. Will Zalatoris won the FedEx St. Jude Championship in 2022 -- his first PGA Tour victory -- but had back surgery in April and won't be able to defend his title.      

Scheffler is the 13-2 favorite in the latest 2023 FedEx St. Jude Championship odds, followed by McIlroy and Rahm, who are both listed at 8-1. Patrick Cantlay, the 2021 FedEx Cup champion, is one of three other players shorter than 20-1. Cantlay is 14-1, ahead of Xander Schauffele (16-1) and Viktor Hovland (18-1). (For the latest golf coverage any time, head over to SportsLine)

TPC Southwind is one of the toughest tests on the PGA Tour, with doglegs, tight fairways and water forcing players to strategically attack the 7,244-yard, par-70 layout. Last year was the FedEx Cup Championship's first at TPC Southwind.  Zalatoris and Sepp Straka both went 15 under at the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship, with Zalatoris prevailing in a wild three-hole playoff.

McIlroy won his third career FedEx Cup championship last year with his dominant performance at the Tour Championship. The Northern Irishman entered the playoffs sixth in the FedEx Cup standings but went 17 under par at East Lake Golf Club to finish 21 under, including his starting strokes. Scheffler finished one stroke back after going 3 over on the final day in Atlanta.      

In this 2023 FedEx St. Jude Championship betting guide, we'll take you through what you need to know about the rest of the field of competitors, the course itself and any projected weather considerations before diving into SportsLine's full slate of expert picks for the event. That includes outright winners with top longshot plays, as well as first-round leader, matchup and finishing position best bets. 

You'll also find our projected leaderboard, One and Done picks, DFS picks and Fantasy rankings from our stable of experts, including Mike McClure, Sia Nejad, Eric Cohen, Patrick McDonald and Jim Holliman.

• Mike McClure is a professional DFS player and SportsLine predictive data engineer, specializing in advanced statistical analysis. His golf proprietary model is up almost $9,500 on its best bets since the PGA Tour resumed in June of 2020, nailing tournament after tournament.
  
• Sia Nejad specializes in betting and DFS in golf, among other sports. He's had incredible success in the outright and first-round leader markets. He also has been on fire on head-to-head matchups since the Charles Schwab Challenge, going 22-10-1 (+9.87 units) over that span.
• Eric Cohen is an avid golf bettor who correctly predicted the winner of three of the past four majors and nailed Scottie Scheffler's first career victory in Phoenix last year. He is a regular guest on "The Early Wedge" SportsLine golf show on YouTube.
• Patrick McDonald joined CBS Sports as a golf writer in 2022 and still likes to dip his toes into the betting pools on a weekly basis on the PGA Tour. He was up almost 17 units this season before the Masters -- a haul of nearly $1,700 for $100 bettors -- and now he's back to cash more tickets for SportsLine readers.
• Jim Holliman is a longtime writer and editor who has played the game for nearly three decades, and he has a strong feel for how the players fit each course. He has nailed four winners since the Masters and has a knack for finding longshots who can contend and help fantasy players.    

2023 FedEx St. Jude Championship full picks: Model | Fantasy | DFS | Nejad | McDonald | One and done

So, which players are our experts backing in fantasy golf and betting for the 2023 FedEx St. Jude Championship? Who should you be counting on to cash in on outrights, head-to-head matchups and finishing-position wagers? ... Join SportsLine right now to see the best bets and analysis from SportsLine's top experts for the 2023 FedEx St. Jude Championship!