OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Golf fans will be engrossed by two separate points chases at this week’s BMW Championship: the top 30 in the FedEx Cup race and the top six of the U.S. Ryder Cup standings.
When the penultimate leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs tees off Thursday at Caves Valley Golf Club, the Scottie Schefflers of the world will feel secure where they sit but a host of other big names will have everything to play for.
The Tour Championship will no longer utilize a staggered “starting strokes” format, so the race for second or third in the standings is de-prioritized this week. The top 30 players after the BMW will advance to next week’s season finale, their points wiped clean so that the winner after 72 holes claims both the tournament and the season-long cup.
For three-time FedEx Cup champion Rory McIlroy, it meant skipping last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship had no material effect on his second-place standing, though it ruffled a few feathers on tour. McIlroy on Wednesday suggested that the PGA Tour will need to consider making each playoff leg mandatory or convert to a true playoff system where regular-season points don’t carry weight.
“I mean, if you want to try to make it straight playoffs and elimination, I think that would be a good way to go,” McIlroy said. “You’re trying to balance a lot of different things. You’re trying to balance the competitive integrity of what the playoffs are, but you’re also trying to keep the media rights partners happy, you’re trying to keep the sponsors happy.”
Sitting in 30th place entering the week is Lucas Glover, with players like Scottish Open winner Chris Gotterup (26th) and Norway’s Viktor Hovland (28th) also on the bubble. Notable names hoping to leap from the 40s into the top 30 this week include England’s Matt Fitzpatrick (40th), Xander Schauffele (43rd), Australia’s Jason Day (44th) and Rickie Fowler (48th).
Also Sunday, the top six Americans in the Ryder Cup standings will automatically qualify for the team that will compete next month at Bethpage Black. Scheffler, J.J. Spaun and Schauffele are mathematically locked in, and Nos. 4-6 are currently Russell Henley, LIV Golf’s Bryson DeChambeau and Harris English.
A victory in Maryland would be enough to propel a number of contenders into that top six, such as No. 7 Justin Thomas, No. 8 Collin Morikawa, No. 9 Ben Griffin … or No. 10 Keegan Bradley, the U.S. captain.
If Bradley isn’t an automatic qualifier, he’ll have to consider using one of his six captain’s picks on himself, the subject of months of speculation.
“I’ve been saying all year, you can’t expect to be on the team unless you’re in the top six,” Bradley said. “My goal is to go out there, whether I was Ryder Cup captain or not this week, and play well and play well next week at the Tour Championship as well.
“I still have a lot to prove, just as well as everyone around me on the list.”
The best players on the PGA Tour will attack a Caves Valley venue that hosted this event in 2021 and yielded low numbers all week. At the time, Jordan Spieth said, “You have to really kind of screw up to make a bogey.”
Seven players finished the week 20 under or lower, and Patrick Cantlay had one of the best putting performances in recent tour history as he outlasted DeChambeau in a six-hole playoff. It was the apex of his career, as he received the nickname “Patty Ice” and won the FedEx Cup the next week.
“Yeah, I was surprised when I first heard (the nickname), and I kind of heard it on the weekend for the first time really that tournament,” Cantlay said. “I think it had to do with me making all those putts. Some of them I even surprised myself with how many putts I was making.”
With all this going on, it might be the rare week that the spotlight isn’t squarely on Scheffler. The World No. 1 is focused on working with substitute caddie Michael Cromie, who usually loops for Chris Kirk. Scheffler’s caddie, Ted Scott, remains away to attend to a personal matter.
“I think there’s a lot of little stuff that caddies do that go kind of unnoticed throughout a round, and Michael is doing his best to try and figure those things out,” Scheffler said.
–Adam Zielonka, Field Level Media
