The FedExCup Playoffs have reached the second of three events, with the top 50 players in the standings teeing off at Bellerive Country Club outside St. Louis for the BMW Championship.
The four-round, no-cut tournament runs Aug. 20-23, offering 750 FedExCup points, a $20 million purse, and $3.6 million to the winner, as the field competes for one of just 30 spots in next week’s TOUR Championship.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler leads the way after an eight-stroke dismantling at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, his 21st PGA TOUR victory and second of the season.
Scheffler has been remarkably consistent this season, with 17 top-25 finishes in 18 starts, including 12 top-10s and only one missed cut. He also leads the TOUR in greens in regulation at 72.94 percent, scoring average at 68.61, and official money earned at more than $20.5 million.
The defending BMW champion has an exceptional record at this event, highlighted by last year’s victory at Caves Valley in Maryland, a tie for third in 2022, and a runner-up finish the following year.
Scheffler drives into the BMW with a commanding 1,447-point FedExCup lead over second-ranked Matt Fitzpatrick, who is enjoying one of the best seasons of his career.
The 31-year-old Englishman has victories at the Valspar Championship, RBC Heritage, and Zurich Classic of New Orleans with his brother Alex, and has added runner-up results at The PLAYERS Championship and RBC Canadian Open, plus a tie for third at the Genesis Scottish Open.
30-time PGA TOUR winner Rory McIlroy will make his 16th BMW Championship appearance, the most by any player since the FedExCup began in 2007. His 2012 victory is one of seven top-10 finishes in the event.
Bellerive hosts the BMW for the second time, the first since Camilo Villegas won in 2008 at 15-under-par. The Robert Trent Jones design also hosted the 2018 PGA Championship, where 14-time TOUR winner Adam Scott finished third. He’s the only player in the field to have competed at Bellerive in both 2008 and 2018. The 46-year-old arrives with seven top-10 finishes in 14 BMW starts, including a tie for fifth in 2022 and a runner-up finish in 2024.
This course presents a different test from last week’s TPC Southwind, and the pressure of securing TOUR Championship positioning intensifies across the leaderboard.
2023 BMW winner Viktor Hovland is carrying momentum into the Travelers Championship after defeating Scheffler in a playoff.
Others to watch include Ryan Fox, fresh off his Open Championship triumph, as he seeks his first trip to the TOUR Championship. Si Woo Kim, fourth in the FedExCup standings, is the highest-ranked player without a TOUR victory this season, despite 11 top-10s and three runner-up finishes. Meanwhile, reigning FedExCup champion and current No. 8 Tommy Fleetwood aims for a strong performance in St. Louis before advancing to Atlanta next week to defend the season-long title.
In total, seventeen players are seeking their first trip to the East Lake finale, including Fox, Min Woo Lee, Alex Noren, Jake Knapp, Michael Thorbjornsen, and PGA TOUR rookies Kristoffer Reitan and Alex Fitzpatrick. Sungjae Im was the only player to move into the top 50 after last week in Memphis, rising from 53rd to 40th and displacing Keith Mitchell, who slipped from 49th to 51st.
