This week on the PGA Tour, Wilmington CC hosts the second stop of the FedEx Cup playoffs – the BMW Championship. This will be the first PGA Tour event held at the venue, but it’s not a golf club without any history. The South course has hosted the 1913 US Women’s Amateur, the 1965 and 1978 US Junior Amateur, 1971 US Amateur, the 1978 U.S. Girls’ Junior and the 2003 U.S. Mid-Amateur. The 2013 Palmer Cup was also held at Wilmington, where the US beat Europe, 20.5 to 9.5, with Justin Thomas on the winning team.
Last week, the first event in the playoffs, the FedEx St. Jude Championship, was won by Will Zalatoris in a thrilling playoff against Sebb Straka. Willy Z finally gets the Monkey off his back, so we’ll see this week if he can follow in the footsteps of Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele and win back-to-back on tour this year.
Last year the competition was held at Caves Valley CC and Patrick Cantlay took home the spoils, beating Bryson DeChambeau in a playoff, after the pair finished on -27 after the regulation 72 holes.
Looking forward to this year’s renewal, the course itself is fairly long and narrow. Cantlay was quoted during the week saying, “You’ve got to hit it as far as you can and hit a lot of fairways…This course is a little narrower than last year, and I think most times you see when guys win they just got hot with the putter, which I did last year. A good recipe is top of the way in driving and top of the way in putting.”
Alright, enough about the course and history of the event. You came here for one reason and one reason only. Player previews and bad tips. LFG.
Current Betting is as follows:
- Rory McIlroy 10/1
- Jon Rahm 12/1
- Patrick Cantlay 14/1
- Scottie Scheffler 14/1
- Tony Finau 14/1
- Justin Thomas 14/1
- Will Zalatoris 16/1
- Matt Fitzpatrick 16/1
- Collin Morikawa 20/1
- Xander Schauffele 20/1
- Cameron Young 22/1
- Sam Burns 22/1
- Sungjae Im 22/1
- Viktor Hovland 25/1
- Joaquin Niemann 28/1
- Joohyung Kim 33/1
- Jordan Spieth 35/1
- Shane Lowry 40/1
- Corey Conners 40/1
- Max Homa 50/1
- Hideki Matsuyama 50/1
- Adam Scott 50/1
- Tyrrell Hatton 50/1
+50/1
Aaron Wise, Billy Horschel, Russell Henley, Cam Davis, Davis Riley, Keith Mitchell, Brian Harman, J.T. Poston, Sahith Theegala, Taylor Pendrith, Seamus Power, Maverick McNealy, Si Woo Kim, Denny McCarthy, Mito Pereira, Keegan Bradley, Harold Varner III, Alex Noren, Brendan Steele, Kevin Kisner , Sepp Straka, Troy Merritt, Trey Mullinax, Taylor Moore, K.H. Lee, Scott Stallings, Emiliano Grillo, Chris Kirk, Wyndham Clark, Sebastian Munoz, Tom Hoge, Andrew Putnam, Chez Reavie, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Marc Leishman, Lucas Glover, Adam Hadwin, Alex Smalley, Lucas Herbert, Matt Kuchar, J.J. Spaun, Kurt Kitayama, Cameron Tringale, Luke List, Mackenzie Hughes.
Strokes Gained Driving
- Jon Rahm – 1st
- Cam Young – 2nd
- Corey Conners – 4th
- Rory McIlroy – 5th
- Matt Fitzpatrick – 7th
- Sungjae Im – 9th
- Will Zalatoris – 11th
- Taylor Pendrith – 12th
- Tony Finau – 13th
- Justin Thomas – 15th
- Viktor Hovland – 18th
- Patrick Cantlay – 21st
- Collin Morikawa – 30th
Strokes Gained Putting
- Denny McCarthy – 3rd
- Tyrrell Hatton – 5th
- Billy Horschel – 9th
- Kevin Kisner – 10th
- Rory McIlroy – 11th
- Patrick Cantlay – 12th
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout – 14th
- Sam Burns – 16th
- Viktor Hovland – 23rd
- Alex Noren – 26th
- Xander Schauffele – 27th
- Matt Fitzpatrick – 29th
Past Results – Notable Form
- Jon Rahm – T5, T34, T55
- Rory McIlroy – MC, 3rd, T19
- Matt Fitzpatrick – T5, T21, T6
- Sungjae Im – T2, T2, T2
- Will Zalatoris – WIN, T21, T20
- Tony Finau – T5, WIN, WIN
- Patrick Cantlay – T57, T2, T8
- Collin Morikawa – T5, MC, MC
My Picks:
Sungjae Im – 22/1: 1.5 Points EW
The disrespect being shown to Sungjae Im by the bookies is crazy. A top ten driver of the ball (9th SGD), solid putter (41st SGP) and a man in red hot form (three T2 in a row) should not be outside the top ten in the betting. Im has also performed extremely well in this event the past few years as well. He finished T3 in 2021 and T11 in 2019. While they were played on different courses, it can’t be understated being able to perform year in year out at this stage of the season.
Patrick Cantlay – 14/1: 1 Point EW
In the top 25 in both SGD and SGP, the American has burnt it up in this tournament the last two years. He won the renewal in 2021 and was second in 2019. Cantlay is methodological in his thinking and play, and for a course that is not one on the usual PGA Tour circuit, he won’t leave a stone unturned in his preparation and will likely put himself at a slight advantage.
Tony Finau – 14/1: 1 Point EW
A T5 and two wins in his last three starts. Yes please.
Other: Will Zalatoris
No bet here, but he should be buzzing and full of confidence after last week.
J.
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