Another winning week in the PGA Tour (albeit by the smallest of margins) makes it three in a row and we’ll look to continue the momentum as we head to the Wilmington Country Clun in Delaware for the 2nd event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, the BMW Championship.
As always, we have you covered with a full preview and betting tips for the event, as well as a few bonus picks for the European Tour event this weekend, the D+D Real Czech Masters.
BMW Championship Betting Tips
FedEx Cup Playoff – Event 2
Thursday 18th – Sunday 21st August
The Field
125 were whittled down to just 70 last week at the St. Jude Championship, the 1st event in the three-pronged FedEx Cup Playoff series. The event was won by Will Zalatoris, who catapulted himself to the top of the FedEx Cup standings and given he is coming off an already impressive season, he’s now in the box seat to be the low marker when players tee it up at the Tour Championship next week.
Closely following on the leader board is a star-studded list of players including Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Smith, Sam Burns, Tony Finau, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Sepp Straka, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas.
Players who were outside the top 70 in the lead up to the St. Jude but were able to play well enough to earn a trip to Wilmington this week include Andrew Putnam, Adam Scott, Trey Mullinax and Lucas Glover. Those four players came in at the expense of Alex Smalley, Matt Jones, Anirban Lahiri and Hudson Swafford.
The Course
Wilmington Country Club, Wilmington, Delaware
Par 71
7,534 Yards
Designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr.
An absolute behemoth of a track, the composite golf course at Wilmington is one of the longest on the PGA Tour schedule. The course needs the extra length as a defence as in 2021 a tornado ripped through the area, instantly removing over 300 trees which had previously shielded the fairways
The composite course has never hosted a professional event, but it has seen elite level golf in the past with the US Junior Amateur making a stop there twice before. The greens are large by tour standards averaging just over 8,100sq feet and are well protected by bunkers.
The majority of the Par 4’s and 5’s throughout the course feature strong doglegs, but with the immaturity of the trees at Wilmington, the longer hitters may be able to bite off a lot on the corners to make holes extremely short. Putting surfaces aren’t extremely difficult at Wilmington, so we’ll be hunting strong ball strikers and leaders in SG from tee-to-green this weekend.
Power Rankings
1 – Tony Finau ($15 at Ladbrokes)
Has been the in-form golfer on the PGA Tour for the better part of month now. Back-to-back wins and a T5 finish at the St. Jude last week means he’s No.1 on our power rankings this week.
2 – Will Zalatoris ($15 at Ladbrokes)
Finally broke through for his first PGA Tour victory on the weekend and now you feel like the flood gates might open up. Elite ball striker who is suited to most parkland courses and his putting weakness shouldn’t be exposed at Wilmington.
3 – Rory McIlroy ($11 at Ladbrokes)
Had a very uncharacteristic poor ball striking week in Memphis but Rory has been arguably the most consistent player throughout the PGA Tour season this year and thus has to rank highly on our power rankings. Memphis was just his 2nd missed cut of the year, should bounce back.
4 – Matt Fitzpatrick ($15 at Ladbrokes)
Fitz played well at Memphis, finishing T5 on the back of four scores below 69. Has been a ball striking god since he claimed the U.S. Open and Wilmington seems to set up perfectly for him.
5 – Justin Thomas ($15 at Ladbrokes)
Feels like JT has just been waiting in the wings and preparing to strike for the past few months in the PGA Tour. Since a win at the PGA Championship, he has played five events with four made cuts and two top 15s. Is a beast in the playoffs.
Betting Tips
Win Bets
Rory McIlroy (0.5 Units at $11)
Tony Finau (0.5 Units at $15)
Patrick Cantlay (0.5 Units at $15)
Place Bets
Rory McIlroy Top 10 (3 Units at $2.10)
Tony Finay Top 10 (3 Units at $2.50)
Cameron Young Top 20 (3 Units at $1.70)
Russel Henley Top 30 (3 Units at $1.79)
Taylor Moore Top 30 (4 Units at $2.50)
Bonus Tips (D+D Czech Masters)
Thomas Pieters Win (0.5 Units at $7.00)
Thomas Pieters Top 10 (5 Units at $1.91)
Scott Jamieson Top 20 (2 Units at $2.88)
