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Aug. 8 (UPI) -- World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, No. 2 Cameron Smith and No. 3 Rory McIlroy headline the 122-golfer field for this week's FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first leg of the FedExCup playoffs, the PGA Tour announced Monday. Thirty-five of the Top 50 golfers are in the field for the tournament, which will tee off Thursday and runs through Sunday at TPC Southwind in Memphis. Tournament coverage will air on CBS and NBC's Golf Channel.
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No. 4 Patrick Cantlay, No. 5 Xander Schauffele and a total of 22 of the Top 25 players in the Official World Golf Ranking are among those in the field. No. 18 Dustin Johnson, No. 23 Abraham Ancer and No. 25 Brooks Koepka are among the players absent because they are participating in the LIV Golf Series.
Phil Mickelson, a two-time Tour Championship winner, and 10 other LIV Golf competitors recently sued the PGA Tour, fighting for inclusion into PGA Tour events and the playoffs.
Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones, who joined the lawsuit, are seeking a temporary restraining order so they can participate in the FedExCup field.
The PGA Tour said Monday that No. 27 Tommy Fleetwood, No. 126 Lanto Griffin and No. 30 Daniel Berger are eligible, but not in the field. Fleetwood announced last weekend that he was taking time away from golf "to be at home" with his family. Berger and Griffin are injured.
The Tour did not mention any LIV Golf competitors in its announcement of the field for the first event of the playoffs. Rickie Fowler, who was No. 125 in the standings, received the final spot.
This week's tournament in Memphis is the first leg of the PGA Tour's playoff format, which ends with the Tour Championship from Aug. 25 to 28.
The Top 125 players from the FedExCup standings advanced to the field for the first tournament. but the field will be cut to 70 players for the Aug. 18 to 21 BMW Championship.
Just 30 golfers will battle in the Tour Championship for a first-place prize of $18 million. Players will compete for a total prize purse of $75 million throughout the playoffs.
The St. Jude Championship will include a third-round cut, while the other playoff tournaments are no-cut events. The PGA Tour will again use a unique scoring system for the finale, with the FedExCup points leader -- through the first two playoff events -- starting the Tour Championship at 10-under par.
The No. 2 player will start at 8-under, No. 3 at 7-under, No. 4 at 6-under and No. 5 at 5-under. The Nos. 6 through 10 players will start at 4-under and Nos. 11 through 15 at 3-under.
The players ranked from No. 16 through 20 will start at 2-under, while Nos. 21 through 25 will start at 1-under. The final five players in the Tour Championship field will start the finale at even par.
Cantlay is the defending champion. He claimed $15 million for winning the title last year at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, the same venue for this year's tournament.
McIlroy, No. 7 Justin Thomas, Cantlay, No. 10 Matt Fitzpatrick, Scheffler and Schauffele are among the favorites for the playoff opener.
