FedEx St Jude Championship third-round predictions and free betting tips

Golf tips, best bets and player analysis for the third round of the FedEx St Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Where to watch

Live on Sky Sports Golf, 5.30pm

Best bets

Trey Mullinax to beat Lucas Glover in 5.50pm twoball
2pts Evs general

Denny McCarthy to beat Troy Merritt in 6.50pm twoball
2pts Evs bet365, BoyleSports

JJ Spaun leads by one from Sepp Straka and Troy Merritt going into the third round of the FedEx St Jude Championship, but the sharks are circling with Open champion Cameron Smith and Tony Finau, the winner of his last two tournaments, three shots off the pace.

There is a massive incentive for players to ensure they finish in the top 70 of the FedEx Cup rankings in order to qualify for next week's BMW Championship, so that should ensure no one is slacking off even if they are well off the pace set by this week's leaders.

TPC Southwind is a new venue for the FedEx Cup playoffs but has been a regular stage for WGC and PGA Tour events and, with that in mind, it is notable that five of the last seven winners topped the charts in the strokes-gained: tee-to-green category.

Trey Mullinax heads that particular metric after the first two rounds and he should be able to push on and perform better than 5.50pm playing partner Lucas Glover.

Mullinax won the low-grade Barbasol Championship last month but that was enough to earn him a late entry to The Open and he performed admirably at St Andrews, finishing 21st without the ideal preparation.

That should have boosted his confidence that he can perform well in strong field, while Glover, who was 57th when the WGC event was played here last year, has had a difficult campaign.

The former US Open champion has posted just one top-20 finish since he was fifth at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January.

He won the John Deere Classic a year ago but it has been a while since he has been in the running so his challenge could slip away.

At 6.50pm, Denny McCarthy, who is fourth and two shots off the pace, could overhaul Merritt.

His playing partner has been in storming form with the putter this week, gaining 3.73 shots on the greens, and it is a tough ask to maintain such strong figures.

Merritt was 14th at the Rocket Mortgage Classic a fortnight ago, but his top top-ten finishes this year came at the Texas Open in April and at Pebble Beach in February.

McCarthy may just be the better bet to stay the course.

He has missed his last two cuts but in the last three months he has been fifth at the Memorial, seventh in the US Open and sixth at the John Deere Classic.

He ranks fourth tee-to-green this week and may be able to stay in the hunt.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER

Not got a bet365 account? Bet £10 & get £50 in free bets

Open account offer. Minimum deposit requirement. Free Bets are paid as bet credits and are available for use upon settlement of bets to value of qualifying deposit. Minimum odds, bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude bet credits stake. Time limits/T&Cs apply. 18+ begambleaware.org

CLAIM OFFER HERE

MORE FREE BETS

Sign up to emails from Racing Post Sport and get all the latest news and tips

Today's top sports betting stories

Follow us on Twitter @racingpostsport