Fifty golfers remain alive in the FedEx Cup playoffs, but when the BMW Championship tees off Thursday, the individual star power of Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele or Rory McIlroy will draw less focus than the uniqueness of the course itself.
The PGA Tour has taken the penultimate playoff event to Castle Pines Golf Club in Castle Rock, Colo., the first time the tournament has been held in the altitude of Colorado since 2014.
Just as baseballs hit at the Colorado Rockies’ Coors Field fly further, golfers’ drives figure to sail through the thin air — so Castle Pines checks in at a tour-record 8,130 yards long this week.
“There’s a little inconsistency in the thin air and altitude depending on how high you hit it,” said Wyndham Clark, a Colorado native. “If anyone seems to err, go long or short, it’s probably because of trajectory. That’s going to be the challenge. Everyone is going to have a good idea of how far they’re hitting the clubs, but you can sometimes just hit one forever in Colorado.”
The opening hole is a 662-yard par-5. Another par-5 hole is listed at 655 yards, and all four of the par-3s are 200 yards or longer. The course, which formerly played host to The International on the PGA Tour, also throws 400 feet of elevation change at players.
Scottie Scheffler said he was grateful to have experienced the elevation for a while when he took a family vacation to Colorado earlier this year.
“I’m kind of glad I got it out of the way then, because I have struggled with (elevation) from time to time,” Scheffler said.
Scheffler enters the week with a commanding lead over No. 2 Xander Schauffele in the FedEx Cup points race. Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama jumped into third place by winning last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship. Collin Morikawa and Northern Ireland’s McIlroy round out the top five, with Clark in sixth.
The top 30 players after the BMW Championship will qualify for the Tour Championship next week in Atlanta. While those players at the top jockey for positioning, there’s no guarantee that big names like Justin Thomas (No. 22) or Australian Jason Day (No. 25) stay in the top 30.
Thomas doesn’t want to be told his playoff-clinching scenarios during the week.
“I’d rather definitely just try to play as well as I can,” Thomas said. “I know if I put myself in contention to win the tournament and have a good chance, I’ll be more than OK.”
The first man out as of now is England’s Tommy Fleetwood. Norway’s Viktor Hovland began the playoffs in 57th place, but a tie for second at the St. Jude catapulted him into 16th because playoff events are worth four times as many points as regular-season events.
Hovland is both the defending FedEx Cup champion and the reigning champ at the BMW, played last year at Olympia Fields near Chicago.
“Kind of squeaked by in Memphis,” Hovland said, “and showing up that week and just knowing that, âOK, if I have a couple good weeks, we can still win this thing,’ that gives you a little bit more motivation than just kind of showing up and if this was all over and there wasn’t that much I could do to improve my position, that would be a little different. I think that’s a little exciting.”
