
Justin Rose defeated J.J. Spaun on the third playoff hole to win the 2025 FedEx St. Jude Championship. This is his 12th career win, but first since 2023.
After three rounds, Tommy Fleetwood was in the lead, one stroke ahead of Rose and two ahead of Scottie Scheffler, who sat at 12-under. But after the first nine holes of the final round, Spaun surged ahead to lead Scheffler and Fleetwood by one stroke. Meanwhile, Rose arrived at the turn after a 36 (+1) on the front.
Scheffler birdied the 10th to join Spaun atop the leaderboard. After 10 pars in a row, Fleetwood made back-to-back birdies on the 12th and 13th holes to take the lead, and after a birdie on the 15th was ahead by two. Spaun then tied the lead after back-to-back birdies on the 16th and 17th holes, and Rose joined him with a birdie on 17. After a bogey on the 17th and a chip to try to tie the lead, Fleetwood fell out of contention. Rose had a chance to win it outright with a birdie putt on 18, but his ball slid past the hole, forcing a playoff.
Spaun and Rose headed back to the 18th tee for the first playoff hole. This wasn’t the first playoff this season for either player—both have played and lost in a playoff to Rory McIlroy earlier this year; however, Spaun did win the U.S. Open this year.
Both Spaun and Rose made par on the first hole after narrowly missing birdie putts. After both birdied the second playoff hole, they headed onto a third, and the grounds crew moved the hole on the 18th to a new location in preparation. Rose went on to make birdie from 11 feet on the third playoff hole to defeat Spaun.
This week, Kurt Kitayama, Rickie Fowler, Bud Cauley, Jhonattan Vegas and J.T. Poston all moved their way into the top 50 of the FedExCup points list, while Aldrich Potgieter, Jordan Spieth, Jake Knapp, Wyndham Clark and Min Woo Lee all fell out of the top 50.
The BMW Championship is the next event in the FedExCup Playoffs. Keegan Bradley will look to defend his title against the top 49 players in the FedExCup points list.