The best golfers on the PGA Tour visit Maryland this week for a pressure-packed playoff event.
The BMW Championship, the second round of the three-event FedEx Cup Playoffs, will be held in Owings Mills from Thursday through Sunday with practice rounds earlier in the week. Fifty PGA Tour players — the top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings — will all play four rounds in Maryland this week with only the top 30 advancing to the Tour Championship next week in Atlanta. The winner of the Tour Championship receives a $10 million paycheck.
Here’s what you need to know about this week’s BMW Championship in Maryland.
Where is the tournament held?
The BMW Championship takes place at Caves Valley Golf Club, which was the host of the 2021 BMW Championship. The course has undergone a renovation since then.
Instead of a par 72, the course will play to a par 70. Don’t expect 27-under par to win the 2025 BMW Championship. The course will play over 7,500 yards. It’s a solid test of golf for the world’s top players. Here’s a quick overview of Caves Valley:
Par: 70
Course length: 7,601 yards
Course designer: Tom Fazio
2021 winner at Caves Valley: Patrick Cantlay, 27-under par
There’s no cut this week, meaning all 50 players are guaranteed four rounds of play.
Which players are in the field?
Fifty PGA Tour players will be in attendance at the event, with the full top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings expected to play. Rory McIlroy skipped the first playoff event, but is expected to play this week. Here’s the full field:
1. Scottie Scheffler
2. Rory McIlroy
3. J.J. Spaun
4. Justin Rose
5. Sepp Straka
6. Russell Henley
7. Ben Griffin
8. Tommy Fleetwood
9. Justin Thomas
10. Harris English
11. Andrew Novak
12. Cameron Young
13. Ludvig Aberg
14. Keegan Bradley
15. Maverick McNealy
16. Corey Conners
17. Collin Morikawa
18. Brian Harman
19. Patrick Cantlay
20. Robert MacIntyre
21. Hideki Matsuyama
22. Nick Taylor
23. Shane Lowry
24. Sam Burns
25. Sungjae Im
26. Chris Gotterup
27. Jacob Bridgeman
28. Viktor Hovland
29. Akshay Bhatia
30. Lucas Glover
31. Sam Stevens
32. Ryan Gerard
33. Daniel Berger
34. Ryan Fox
35. Taylor Pendrith
36. Thomas Detry
37. Kurt Kitayama
38. Denny McCarthy
39. Brian Campbell
40. Matt Fitzpatrick
41. Si Woo Kim
42. Michael Kim
43. Xander Schauffele
44. Jason Day
45. Harry Hall
46. Bud Cauley
47. Tom Hoge
48. Rickie Fowler
49. Jhonattan Vegas
50. J.T. Poston
The top 30 players will advance to the Tour Championship. For the other 20, their PGA Tour seasons end this week.
Scheffler, who has won two majors this season and is the No. 1 ranked player in the world, headlines the field. Other notables include McIlroy, Schauffele, Fowler, Morikawa, Justin Rose and Maryland native Denny McCarthy.
Missing notables
Several big-name players who competed in 2021 won’t make the field.
Jordan Spieth, a three-time major winner, won’t compete this week after just missing out on a top-50 spot in the FedEx Cup standings.
Also missing are a few high profile LIV golfers who played in 2021. Bryson DeChambeau finished second to Cantlay in 2021, losing out in a memorable six-hole playoff. DeChambeau no longer plays on the PGA Tour, as he instead competes on the LIV Golf tour. Count Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Sergio Garcia among the other LIV golfers who won’t be in Maryland in 2025 after performing well at Caves Valley in 2021.
What are the major storylines?
The top storyline of the week, outside of who wins the tournament, is which 30 players will advance to the Tour Championship. Players from 25-35 in the FedEx Cup standings, in particular, will jockey for positioning throughout the week. There’s a lot on the line, as players who qualify for the Tour Championship also receive entry into three of next year’s four major championships (Masters, US Open, British Open), a minimum of $550,000 for completing the Tour Championship and entry in next year’s signature PGA Tour events.
Additionally, the U.S. Ryder Cup team will have six of its 12 players finalized after this week. The annual event between the U.S. and Europe will be held in September, and six Americans will automatically qualify for the event at the end of this week based on the team’s point qualification system.
The final six players will be selected by captain Keegan Bradley later this month. Playing well in Maryland this week could be the difference for some players between automatically qualifying and not making the team. For others, a win or top-five finish could help convince Bradley to pick them for the team.
Young, Gotterup and Novak are among the players in this week’s field expected to be on the fringe of receiving a captain’s pick. It’s also possible Bradley picks himself to play on the team, depending on how he plays in the final few events of the year.
What would an amateur golfer shoot at Caves Valley?
There’s not an exact science to calculating this, but we can use the USGA’s “target score” calculation to get a general idea. To get this, we find a player’s course handicap and then add that to par.
The championship tees have a course rating of 77.2 and a slope of 144. A scratch golfer (0.0 handicap) would have a course handicap of 7.0 playing from Caves Valley’s championship tees, suggesting they’d likely shoot closer to 80 than 70. Their “target score” would be 77 on the par-70 course.
A 10 handicap has a course handicap of 20, making their target score a 90. Realistically, a 10 handicap would have a tough time breaking 90 from the tips at Caves Valley. A 20 handicap’s course rating would be 33, making their target score 103.
Expect the pros to shoot well under par this week. They make it look like they’re playing a different sport.
Have a news tip? Contact sports editor Bennett Conlin at bconlin@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/BennettConlin.
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