Tommy Fleetwood has long stood as the consensus "best player without a win on the PGA Tour," and the English star once again finds himself in position to finally get that breakthrough win after two rounds at the 2025 FedEx St. Jude Championship. Fleetwood followed his opening-round 63 with another strong performance on Friday, posting a 64 to reach 13 under and open up a four-shot lead over Collin Morikawa, Akshay Bhatia and Justin Rose.
Rose still has two holes to play in his second round as play was suspended late Friday amid dangerous weather in the area. He will come back at 8:30 a.m. ET with others who failed to complete their rounds, all attempting to inch closer to the lead. No matter how those final second-round holes play, Fleetwood will enter the third round in Memphis, Tennessee, as the 36-hole leader.
After his effort Friday, Fleetwood was asked whether this would finally be his time to find the winner's circle, especially given Cameron Young broke his own drought last week. Fleetwood was happy to give himself another chance but made clear there's a lot of golf left to play.
"Well, we'll see. I'm happy to put myself in with a chance over the weekend," Fleetwood said. "I think this is exactly where you want to be and keep testing yourself. And, yeah, it hasn't happened for me yet out on the PGA Tour, but I would much rather be up there and not quite get it done than not there at all. And who knows, maybe this week is the week and we'll see and we'll crack on from there. But, you know, look forward to tomorrow first."
Fleetwood has taken the lead thanks to some all-world ball-striking; he's leading the field in driving accuracy (24 of 28 fairways), greens in regulation (29 of 36) and strokes gained on approach (5.991). He's rolled the ball well -- 10th in strokes gained putting -- which has always been a question for him, and the challenge on the weekend will be avoiding the trap of getting too tentative both with his irons and his putter.
The last time we saw Fleetwood held a late lead, he lost it in gutting fashion at the Travelers Championship as Keegan Bradley beat him with a birdie on the 18th as Fleetwood made a bogey. This week, Fleetwood will have to stare down some of the biggest names in the sport to get his first win. Morikawa is playing the best golf we've seen from him since the start of the season, and Scottie Scheffler lurks menacingly at 7 under, six back but certainly in striking distance.
Scheffler posted a 66 on Friday, even as he grew frustrated with bad lies in the Bermuda grass rough at TPC Southwind, to climb into the top 10 and stay within reach of Fleetwood and the lead.
1. Tommy Fleetwood (-13): It'll be a white-knuckle ride all weekend for Fleetwood fans, as they know better than anyone how fragile a lead is with Fleetwood at the top. That said, the Englishman has looked phenomenal so far this week, and he seems to be in fantastic form. His putting is the most encouraging part of his game so far, as we see the ball-striking pretty regularly, but the new greens in Memphis appear to be agreeing with him. How the weather impacts the course remains to be seen, but another round in the mid-60s on Saturday might be enough to create even more cushion on the field. Given his history, Fleetwood needs as big a lead as he can manage should the nerves come rolling through Sunday.
T2. Collin Morikawa, Akshay Bhatia, Justin Rose (-9)
T5. Kurt Kitayama, Andrew Novak (-8)
T7. Scottie Scheffler, Bud Cauley, Jacob Bridgeman, Maverick McNealy (-7)
T11. Ludvig Åberg, Si Woo Kim, J.J. Spaun (-6)
If Fleetwood can stay on track and continue posting rounds under par, it'll be tough for anyone outside of this group to make a real charge in Memphis. Should he comes back to the field, it would open the tournament up considerably.
Rose, Bridgeman and McNealy will be back early Saturday to finish their second rounds, so they still can move up (or down) this leaderboard before the third round begins. Bhatia couldn't back up his opening 62 with another low round, but he has made a habit of hanging around leaderboards early in the week. He will need to shake off a brutal final round last week to realize he can contend down the stretch, but Bhatia just needs to give himself a chance to follow through at TPC Southwind.
From a FedEx Cup perspective, the big winners so far this week are Kitayama and Cauley, as they are in position to move from outside the top 50 into the field next week at the BMW Championship if they can stay where they are on the leaderboard through the weekend.
Speaking of that race for the top 50, which earns not only a spot in next week's second playoff event but also all eight signature events on the 2026 calendar, there are some big names that'll be sweating it out all weekend. While Kitayama and Cauley have moved solidly into the top 40 with their play, Min Woo Lee and Jake Knapp are the two that have dropped out. Below you can see the current projected standings for the top 50 bubble, as well as where those players started the week.
Clark has improved his status by getting to T14 right now at 5 under, but everyone else just inside the coveted 50th spot is battling right now: Hoge at T67 (+7), Schauffele at T48 (E), Potgieter at T61 (+3) and Spieth at T39 (-1). They'll want to get it in gear for the weekend because they're all in danger of getting jumped by a hot round by those on the outside looking in. Poston is T39 (-1) and Kirk is T14 (-5) with the latter standing as the biggest threat right now to pick up major points and shake up the top 50.
It's tough to side with Fleetwood at such a significant number given his history. Scheffler is in the thick of it, and at 9/2, he's got better odds than what he held at the start of the week, so I wouldn't fault anyone that wanted to take a chance on him tracking down Fleetwood. Of the other chasers, Morikawa at 9-1 and McNealy 18-1 are the two with the best value. Morikawa's looked solid and much more like himself so far, while McNealy's playing well and still has a chance to climb the leaderboard further in the second round.
The weather has forced play to be suspended for the rest of the day. Players will return to finish their second round on Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m. CT, with the third round planned to start at 9:50 a.m. CT. in threesomes off split tees.
We're now over 90 minutes into the delay and there's been no official word on when play might resume as what they hoped would be a fast-moving storm has not moved on as quickly as anticipated. It's now in question whether the second round can be completed tonight, and they might have to finish Saturday morning.
Play was stopped at 4:31 p.m. ET due to lightning in the area. A storm popped up in southeast Memphis and while it doesn't look particularly large, it produced lightning in the area and has halted play. Hopefully it won't be too lengthy a delay and they can finish the second round today, as every player on the course is on their back nine currently.
The only man on the course with a chance to trim Tommy Fleetwood's lead to fewer than four strokes is Justin Rose, who has had an adventurous back nine. He got to 10 under briefly after back-to-back birdies on Nos. 10 and 11 before giving both of those back with bogeys on the next two holes. He got a bounce-back birdie on the par-5 16th to rejoin Collin Morikawa and Akshay Bhatia in second at 9 under, and will look to find another on the closing two holes to try and pull a little closer to Fleetwood.
The race for the top 50 will be a story all weekend at the St. Jude, and as we near the end of the second round there are some notable names right on that bubble.
Kurt Kitayama and Bud Cauley are currently the two biggest movers up the board, as they started 52nd and 53rd, respectively, and are projected to move up to 30th and 36th with their current top 10 positions. Si Woo Kim and Wyndham Clark both started just inside the top 50 and have improved their cause through the first two rounds, with Kim moving inside the top 40 and Clark moving from 49th to 46th as he's currently T13.
On the other end of the spectrum, Jordan Spieth has slipped from 48th to 50th as he's just 1 under after his first two rounds, adding even more pressure for the weekend as he tries to play his way into the BMW next week and holds out hope of a Ryder Cup selection. Xander Schauffele and Aldrich Potgieter have also fallen back onto the bubble in 48th and 49th after they started the week solidly inside the number at 42nd and 43rd.
Jake Knapp and Min Woo Lee are the two that have dropped out of the top 50 at present, with Knapp falling from 47th to 53rd as he's +2 for the tournament, while Lee has gone from 50th to 56th at +8.
Six shots behind Tommy Fleetwood is the world No. 1, as Scheffler is lurking with menace on the first page of the leaderboard through two rounds in Memphis. Scheffler had moments where it looked like he might charge even closer to Fleetwood, but he also had some serious frustrations with lies he drew in the bermuda rough at TPC Southwind -- and a bare lie in a bunker that led to a big miss. Even with a couple bogeys and some ranting and raving at the golf course, Scheffler walked off the 18th with a 4-under 66 that has him T7 at 7 under and in position to apply pressure to Fleetwood on the weekend.
It took 18 holes, but Fleetwood did finally drop a shot on Friday after finding the fairway bunker off the tee and catching his second heavy and leaving an impossible up-and-down from right of the green. Still, a Friday 64 has him at 13 under, four shots clear of Collin Morikawa and Akshay Bhatia as he looks to finally capture that elusive first PGA Tour win. Bhatia still has six holes to play in his second round and could close that gap down some, while Justin Rose (-7) is the closest of the players that teed off late in the afternoon and are still on the front nine.
Fleetwood is now 14 under and five clear of Akshay Bhatia (thru 9) and Collin Morikawa (in the clubhouse with a 65) who are tied for second at 9 under. Fleetwood just keeps racking up birdies, rolling in four straight from 13-16 to get himself into a massive lead. His latest was on the lone par 5 on the back nine, as he found the green in two and cozied his eagle attempt up to tap-in range. He is setting himself up to have a huge cushion going into the weekend, pending a hot back nine from Bhatia, and that will only make things more fascinating to watch as his issue for a long time has been closing out tournaments.
After his hot start, Fleetwood made eight straight pars in the middle of his round, but has heated up again on the 13th and 14th at TPC Southwind, making back-to-back birdies to push his lead to three shots at 12 under. Fleetwood is leading Akshay Bhatia and Collin Morikawa, who have it to 9 under, with Kurt Kitayama in the clubhouse at 8 under after shooting the low round of the day with a 63.
The world No. 1 is now T6 at 6 under after a strong start to his second round. It is still extremely calm weather conditions out there in Memphis and Scheffler is taking advantage making 4 birdies and one bogey on his front nine to climb into the top 10. He's four shots back of leader Tommy Fleetwood and looks to be rounding into top form once again.
After an opening 62 on Thursday, Akshay Bhatia got into red figures quickly on Friday, making a birdie on No. 1 to get to 9 under. That moves him one back of Tommy Fleetwood, who is 3 under for his round thru 8 holes. Those two have separated a bit from the field, as Collin Morikawa is solo third at 7 under and there's a group of four players at 6 under.
The lad is off to a hot start to his Friday, going 2 under thru 3 to jump ahead of Akshay Bhatia for the solo lead at 9 under. Bhatia won't tee off until 11:50, so we'll see if Fleetwood can extend his advantage before then. Fleetwood, famously, is trying to win for the first time on the PGA Tour and could make it back-to-back weeks with a player capturing a long-awaited first victory.
The battle for a spot in the top 50 is the main focus of the St. Jude Championship, as most everyone in the field is trying to lock up a spot in next week's BMW Championship and get a guaranteed spot in next year's signature events. The standings are constantly changing and shifting as players climb and drop the leaderboard, and while it's too early to tell who will and won't make it in, we do know who has helped and hurt their chances early this week.
Kurt Kitayama is among those trending in the right direction, starting the week 52nd but currently projected 40th as he's off to a hot start on Friday and has himself in T7 at 4 under. On the other end of the spectrum is Jake Knapp, who began the week 47th but is 2 over for the tournament in T57, which has him down in 54th in the projected standings.
Others notables flirting with the top 50 include Rickie Fowler (up to projected 49th after starting 64th thanks to his 4-under 66 on Thursday) and Jordan Spieth (down to projected 51st after starting 48th after a 1-under 69 in the first round). Those two haven't even started their second round, as there's still a long way to go to determine who gets in next week.
There's no wind to speak of yet in Memphis, but that hasn't prevented TPC Southwind from posing a challenge for the first groups out on Friday morning. Some tougher pin positions on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th are making the start of the front nine a bit trickier to navigate and we've seen some early bogeys from the morning tee times. Xander Schauffele, Bud Cauley, Jason Day and Joe Highsmith have all moved backwards on the leaderboard to start their second round, and every position gained and lost on the leaderboard carries significant weight in the FedEx Cup standings race.
