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Top 50 to be seriously tested by Olympia Fields
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Victor 18/119.00 looking good for second win of year
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Expect high-flyer Max 25/126.00 to contend this Sunday
Tournament Notes
• In what could be described as the semi-final stage of the FedEx Cup Play-Offs, the surviving 50 pros will be teeing-up over the North Course at Olympia Fields;
• Olympia Fields Country Club is approximately 30 miles south of Downtown Chicago;
• Founded in 1915, Olympia Fields has staged four major championships during its existence;
• These were the US Opens of 1928 and 2003, and the PGA Championships of 1925 and 1961;
• Since Jim Furyk won the US Open here 20 years ago, the PGA Tour has visited the club just once. This was the BMW Championship of 2020, when Jon Rahm emerged victorious.
Course Notes
• The North Course was designed in 1923 by two-time Open-winning Scot, Willie Park Junior;
• This lush parkland course has a naturally rolling terrain, with tight tree-lined fairways;
• There are plenty of bunkers to remain clear of, while the players will also need to take care with the layout's handful of tricky dog-legs;
• The Bentgrass putting surfaces and fairways are over-seeded with Poa annua;
• Butterfield Creek travels across a number of holes, although the only sizeable pond or lake arrives at 18;
• However, the world's best players should only be concerned by water hazards on five holes;
• When Rahm beat Dustin Johnson in a play-off to clinch the BMW Championship trophy three years ago, the winning 72-hole total was 276 (four under par).
Latest betting for this week's BMW Championship
Most World Ranking Points
Top 12 Points Scorers on PGA Tour (Last Six Months)
Points
307.34: Scottie Scheffler
253.00: Jon Rahm
243.99: Rory McIlroy
207.77: Viktor Hovland
206.46: Wyndham Clark
168.77: Patrick Cantlay
166.32: Brian Harman
154.14: Tyrrell Hatton
138.11: Tommy Fleetwood
130.41: Jordan Spieth
125.38: Rickie Fowler
124.92: Lucas Glover
For points collected in PGA Tour events only during last six months
Latest betting to win 2023 FedEx Cup title
BMW Championship Top Tips: Four to watch
Patrick Cantlay 12/113.00: Moving ever-closer to a first PGA Tour win of the season. Six T-4s since winning this event at a different venue last year.
Max Homa 25/126.00: The world No 7 is now part of golf's elite group of players. Five PGA Tour titles during the past two and a half years, with the 32-year-old looking well placed to secure a Ryder Cup debut in early autumn.
Viktor Hovland 18/119.00: The world No 5 from Norway has not missed a cut for over a year, since when he has won at Muirfield Village and finished runner-up in a major.
Rory McIlroy 15/28.50: His sequence of top-10 finishes continued at the opening FedEx Cup Play-Offs' event last week when he missed out on the sudden-death play-off by a single stroke. Last eight starts all T-10s. Tied-12th at Olympia Fields three years ago.