A miniature remote-controlled FedEx delivery truck rolled across the tee box at TPC Southwind this week, creeping toward unsuspecting pros as they set up their opening shots.
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The two-time Super Bowl champion returned to the $20 million FedEx St. Jude Championship with a new gag for the PGA Tour’s official comedy series, and it wasn’t a costume this time. Manning’s FedEx-themed bits play off the tournament’s title sponsor, making the courier angle a natural fit year after year. Manning came up with a miniature remote-controlled FedEx delivery truck and used it as a moving tee marker. Unsurprisingly, he rolled it towards unsuspecting pros as they set up to hit their opening tee shots. The result was a string of golfers doing a double-take at the toy creeping across the tee box. In fact, several of them were convinced someone had left it unattended before realizing Eli Manning was the one behind the wheel the entire time. Nevertheless, the encounters with each pro were hilarious!
Collin Morikawa was Manning’s first target for the bit. As Morikawa got ready, Manning pushed the truck toward him, almost eerily silently. But Collin Morikawa doubled over laughing the second he clocked what was happening. Curiously, at one point he reached down towards the truck before Manning cut in with a mock serious voice: “Please, no touching the FedEx truck.” Tom Kim even needed less time to work it out, pointing and cracking up as he called Manning out by name almost on sight.
Even Ludvig Åberg wasn’t prepared for the gag. As he came onto the course, ready to take his first swing with utmost seriousness, a small truck came right by his feet. He looked at it warily, treating the truck like a genuine tournament hazard, before he realized what was going on. He admitted the moving object triggered a real flashback to his caddie’s warning about standing too close to the bunkers. “Joe’s always on me because I tee up so close to the bunkers, but I’m always like, sometimes wheeled it in front of it. I got flashbacks,” Åberg said, laughing.
Justin Thomas also wasn’t far off when the stunt caught up with him. He was standing casually with his caddie, perhaps discussing something, when the small moving toy touched his feet. Thomas was visibly startled and jumped. He looked around, realizing who the real culprit was, and scooped the little truck up. Thomas then pretended to stuff the truck in his golf bag, pranking Manning right back.
Ben Griffin greeted the truck with a confused “Hello? Anyone home?” Manning leaned into Griffin’s pre-tour resume as a mortgage loan officer, asking him half-seriously for refinancing advice. Aldrich Potgieter got the most visceral reaction of the group, visibly startled when the truck suddenly lurched towards him mid-routine. It prompted a deadpan response from Manning: “Be the ball, very nice.”
Between the bits, Eli Manning stayed in character as a FedEx courier chasing “18 million packages” a day, even at one point warning bystanders not to touch his truck.
That said, it’s not the first time Eli Manning has pulled this kind of stunt at TPC Southwind. At last year’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, he ditched the golf gear entirely and went full undercover as an actual FedEx courier. He completed his attire with a uniform, sunglasses, and a bucket hat, hiding fake packages around the course. Rickie Fowler had no idea what hit him when Manning walked up to him and said, “A package for Mr. Fowler.” Even Keegan Bradley‘s reaction became the highlight of the whole video. “I didn’t know that was you. I’m like, who is this freak over here? Oh my God.” It has become an annual bit for Manning at FedExCup Playoff openers.
Scheffler 61 headlines a wild weekend at TPC Southwind
The prank arrived in the middle of a tense playoff opener. Amid the stakes of the FedExCup bubble, Manning’s antics offered the field a rare moment of levity before the pressure of the cutless weekend set back in. World number one Scottie Scheffler tied the TPC Southwind course record with a Friday 61 to seize a three-shot lead over Sungjae Im and Viktor Hovland. Elsewhere on the leaderboard, Grand Slam winner Rory McIlroy has struggled to find any rhythm, sitting four over through two rounds.
The rest of the field is in just as much of a tussle, with no cut and only the top 50 in FedEx Cup points advancing to the BMW Championship. At the time of writing, Scottie Scheffler is at the top of the leaderboard, with Sam Burns, Sungjae Im, and Viktor Hovland all in close contention near the top.
Even Tom Kim has lived that bubble pressure firsthand. He opened the week 26th in the standings, then slid down the leaderboard after a rough back nine on Friday. He made four straight birdies early Saturday and is now tied for ninth on the leaderboard, steadying his BMW Championship hopes. Where the standings shake out next remains to be seen.