BMW Championship: The Punter's Preview

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BMW Championship tournament history

The BMW Championship was introduced to the PGA Tour schedule in 2007 when it replaced the Western Open to become the third leg of the brand-new FedEx Cup Playoff Series. The Western Open dated all the way back to 1899 and only the Open Championship and US Open date back further.

The format of the Playoff Series changed in 2019 with only three events instead of four so following the FedEx St Jude Championship at TPC Southwind, the BMW Championship is restricted to the top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings only and following this event, the standings are recalculated again and only the top 30 advance to the series deciding Tour Championship at East Lake next week.

The BMW Championship is a nomadic event and this year we return to the 2008 venue, Bellerive Country Club in St Louis, Missouri, which also staged the US PGA Championship eight years ago. 

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Venue

Bellerive Country Club in St Louis, Missouri.

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Course Details

Par 70 - 7,448 yards 

Originally known as The Field Club and later renamed in honour of Louis St. Ange de Bellerive, North America's last French governor, Bellerive Country Club dates right back to 1897.

The club relocated to its current site in 1960, when Robert Trent Jones Sr. was hired to select the land and build the course. The U.S. Open was played here just five years later, when Gary Player became just the third man to complete the career Grand Slam

Since then, Bellerive has hosted the US PGA Championship in 1992, the 2004 US Senior Open, this event in 2008, the 2013 Senior PGA Championship and the US PGA Championship in 2018, won by Brooks Korka.

It was also due to stage the 2001 WGC-American Express Championship but that was cancelled after the 9/11 atrocities.

The course was built around a large creek which comes in to play on half of the holes and it was extensively redesigned by Robert Trent Jones Sr's son, Rees Jones, back in 2005 and 2006. Having lengthened and toughened US Open venues, Torrey Pines and Winged Foot, Rees Jones was nicknamed the Open Doctor.

Bellerive play as a par 72 for the members but the fourth and 10^th holes plays as par fours for the pros and the whole course will play 131 yards linger than it did eight years ago.

Bellerive has zoysia grass fairways and large bentgrass greens that have all been renovated since the 2018 US PGA Championship.

The old strain of bentgrass has been changed with a more robust modern strain to cope better with the St Louis weather and to provide a smoother, faster surface.

There have also been some subtle changes to the slopes on the greens to provide more pin placement options.

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Weather Forecast

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TV coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 15:15 on Thursday.

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Last 10 BMW winners with pre-event Betfair Exchange prices

2025 - Scottie Scheffler -15 4.57/2
2024 - Keegan Bradley -12 220.0219/1
2023 - Viktor Hovland -17 21.020/1
2022 - Patrick Cantlay -14 22.021/1
2021 - Patrick Cantlay -27 (playoff) 27.026/1
2020 - Jon Rahm -4 (playoff) 12.011/1
2019 - Justin Thomas -25 16.015/1
2018 - Keegan Bradley -20 (playoff) 210.0209/1
2017 - Marc Leishman -23 55.054/1
2016 - Dustin Johnson -23 11.010/1 

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Power off the tee could again by key

At the 2008 BMW Championship here, Camilo Villegas amassed a 15-under-par winning score and despite the course's length, other more accurate types prospered along with Villegas.

Jim Furyk, Stephen Ames, Tim Clark, and K.J Choi all made the top eight and ties and renowned putter, Dudley Hart, finished runner-up.

Villegas only ranked 27th for Greens In Regulation but the eight players to fill the places immediately behind him ranked fourth, 11th, seventh, third, first, tied 14th, fifth and tied 14th.

Hart had a slow week with the putter for him but the other three to fill the first four places had a Putting Average ranking of first, second and third.

A decade later, at the US PGA Championship, Stewart Cink, who finished tied for third ranking tied fourth for GIR, was the only player inside the top five to rank any better than 15^th for GIR but the first two home, Brooks Koepka and Tiger Woods, ranked third and fourth for PA.

That suggests putting was again key, but 10^th (Woods) was the highest any of the top 10 and ties ranked for Strokes Gained: Putting.

With eight of the first nine home being major winners, the cream really did rise to the top here eight years ago and length off the tee was far more important than it had been 10 years earlier.

The leaderboard was packed with players that give it a good whack off the tee and the winner, Koepka, ranked second for Driving Distance and second for SG: Off the Tee.

The primary rough was set to 3.5 - 4.25 inches eight years ago and that didn't stop the big hitters from prospering, and I suspect we'll see a similar outcome this time around now that the course has been lengthened further.

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Strong recent form almost essential

Keegan Bradley wasn't in great form when he won two years ago, or in 2018 when he won the event for a first time, and Patrick Cantlay had current form figures reading 13-MC-23-11 before he won in 2021, although he had won the Memorial Tournament three months earlier, but being in fair recent form has been almost essential in this event.

In his first start since winning the Open at Royal Portrush, Scheffler had finished third in the FedEx St Jude, where he traded at a low of 1.68/13, before he won this event at Caves Valley and the first 11 tournament winners had all finished inside the top ten in one of their two previous starts.

Last year's three Playoff Series events were won by Justin Rose, Scheffler and Tommy Fleetwood and the three winners in 2024 were Hideki Matsuyama, Keegan Bradley and Scheffler but Viktor Hovland won both this event and the Tour Championship in 2023 and we've now seen someone win two FedEx Cup Playoff events in nine of the last 13 years, and on 12 occasions in total so siding with last week's FedEx St Jude Championship may make sense. 

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Not a great event for long-shots

Keegan Bradley was very much a surprise winner eight years ago, when the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings still qualified, and he was readily dismissed before the off again two years ago, going off at 210.0209/1, but he's the only big outsider to take the title so far.

Looking back over the events history, with the possible exception of Villegas here 17 years ago, whose price I can't recall or find, we hadn't seen any wild outsiders before Bradley and eight of the last 11 winners have been very prominent in the market.

Marc Leishman was matched at 55.054/1 before the off nine years ago but the two winners before him were first and second favourites, Justin Thomas was the third favourite in 2019, the second favourite, Jon Rahm, beat the favourite, Dustin Johnson, in extra time in 2020.

Scheffler was the 7/24.50 favourite 12 months ago and the three winners before Bradley in 2024 were priced at between 21.020/1 and 27.026/1.

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In-running history at Bellerive

Gary Player sat tied for fourth and just two off the lead after round one at the US Open here in 1965, but he led all the way after that.

Nick Price was four adrift in a tie for 12^th after round one of the 1992 US PGA Championship here, he was tied seventh and four back at halfway and he was tied second through 54 holes before going on to win by three.

Peter Jacobsen led after rounds one and two and he sat second after round three before going on to win the US Senior Open here in 2004 and Villegas won the BMW Championship wire-to-wire in 2008.

Brooks Koepka was tied for 33^rd and five back after round one in 2018 but he was up to third at halfway (trailing by two) and he was two clear with 18 to play.

All that suggest we shouldn't scan too far down the leaderboard from the start, but Kohki Idoki throws a spanner in the works. He trailed by five strokes after rounds one, two and three before going on to win the Senior PGA Championship here in 2013. The spanner might only be a small one though. The first-round leader, Jay Haas, and Kenny Perry, who led after rounds two and three, finished tied for second so it looks like concentrating on the early pacesetters could be a sensible way to play the event.

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