BMW Championship 2022

Event Info

Starts: 18th August 2022
Course: Wilmington Country Club
Par: 71
Length: 7,534 yards
2021 Champion: Patrick Cantlay

Preview
In-play

Preview

Course Info

Designer: Robert Trent Jones Sr. in 1959, re-worked by Andrew Green in 2021.
Used Since: First time hosting
Fairways: Bentgrass, fairway bunkers guarding landing zones.
Greens: Bentgrass, large, divided into multiple sections.
Rough: Primary, Secondary and Fescue.
Premium on: Recent Form/Momentum

Significant Info

Continue to exercise caution in relation to Covid-19 related withdrawals.

The club has hosted six USGA events in the past, along with the 2013 Palmer Cup competition between Europe and the United States. That American team featured Justin Thomas.

Only 70 players tee it up this week and only the top 30 in the FedEx rankings will progress to next week's Tour Championship.

The automatic qualifiers for the Presidents Cup teams will be determined after the BMW, as well, with six Americans and eight Internationals securing spots on their respective teams.

There is no cut this week.

Weather

Thursday
Sunny intervals with a max wind speed of 8mph.

Friday
Sunny intervals with a max wind speed of 9mph.

Saturday
Showers with a max wind speed of 10mph.

Sunday
Scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon with a max wind speed of 9mph.

Trends and Stats

With this course yet to host a PGA Tour event, we do not have any trends or stats to draw upon.

Quotes

“The South Course presents challenging tee shots with fairway bunkers guarding the landing zones, very large putting surfaces divided into multiple sections and flash-faced bunkers.” Michael Shank - Director of Golf at Wilmington.

"It looks like there's some length to it, sloped greens, thick rough and narrow fairways where you have to hit it well. It's a difficult setup where, if the weather doesn't get bad, you still have to shoot a low number out there, like we saw last year." Jon Rahm

"I mean, this golf course is definitely just like last year, extremely distance biased. 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. A good recipe is top of the way in driving and top of the way in putting. These greens are in really good shape, and if you get the ball on line and read it right, it should go in almost every time". Patrick Cantlay

"I don't think there's too much strategy to this golf course. I think it's pretty right in front of you and similar to last year. The venues between last year and this year are actually really similar, I think, in style of golf". Patrick Cantlay

In-play

BMW Championship In-Play Blog

21 August 2022, 12.10pm (UK time)

Player	Total
Cantlay	-12
Schauffele	-11
Stallings	-11
Scott	-10
Scheffler	-10
Morikawa	-9
Wise	-9

Round 3 Summary

Patrick Cantlay has taken over at the top of the leaderboard and is now in pole position to win the BMW Championship for the second year in a row.

Notable Round 3 Quotes

"I think maybe in the bigger tournaments it's easier to kind of narrow your focus, and I've done a good job of staying in the moment and trying to get in the right frame of mind and good attitude. I like this golf course. I like the grasses that it's played on. I like bentgrass, and this golf course is in really pure shape. It was even better before they burned out the greens." Patrick Cantlay

" It's just a comfortable pairing. We've played so much together, with each other and against each other, that I can club off him (Patrick Cantlay). I know how he hits the ball, he knows how I hit the ball. If I flush one or he flushes one, it sort of is extra information that we can use. I like to use that as an advantage, and we're good friends, so it's a very sort of easy going pairing even though we're trying to beat each other." Xander Schauffele

How do we expect the market favourites to perform?

Patrick Cantlay is 9/4 favourite. He tops the SG: Tee to Green stats this week and has to be considered the most likely winner. However, given the quality of chasers, the 9/4 makes little appeal from a betting perspective.

Xander Schauffele is 2nd favourite at 4/1. He is also playing well tee to green, ranking 2nd in that category for the week. We're regretting not taking the plunge and backing him at 12/1 yesterday and the value has arguably now gone.

Scottie Scheffler is a best price 11/2 and is considered a threat. Should the final pairing get off to a slow start, he is capable of a low final round.

Round 4 Bet

No bet

Cantlay or Schauffele are the most likely winners in our eyes but with Scheffler lurking, we don't see much value in either price.

+ - Round 2 Bets Click to collapse

20 August 2022, 8.10am (UK time)

Player	Total
Scott	-8
Young	-7
Scheffler	-7
Conners	-7
Spieth	-7
Davis	-6
Stallings	-6
McIlroy	-6
Cantlay	-6
Schauffele	-6

Round 2 Summary

It looked like Adam Scott was going to lead by three shots going into the weekend but a double bogey at his 17th hole has thrown the tournament wide open.

Notable Round 2 Quotes

"Overall, I felt really in control today. When you're playing that way, it always could be a couple better, and a poor shot on 17 was quite costly. It's a good reminder for the weekend that I've really got to keep it under control and don't want to have too many get off the map and get out of position around here. But I kept it in position really well all day and had so many good looks and was cruising there for a while. But I'm in great shape going into the weekend. I don't even know when the last time I led a tournament was." Adam Scott

" Yeah, outside of Thursday last week, Thursday I just had an out-of-body experience. Other than that, I haven't really played too many bad rounds of golf so far this year other than I think first round at the Scottish and first round here are really the two that stick out to me as just bad rounds. Outside of that I've been really patient and just played solid golf." Scottie Scheffler

"Yeah, it's funny, I probably didn't play quite as well today as I did yesterday but ended up shooting the same score. I'm probably coming off the golf course a lot happier than I was last night after dropping a few those last few holes and today picking a couple up. Yeah, really happy with how I played today. I bounced back well. I made an early bogey, was able to bounce back after that, made a bogey on the par-5 14th, bounced back with two nice birdies the last four holes. Yeah, good. It's getting tricky. It's getting firm. It's only going to continue to get that way over the weekend, so it's nice to be in position." Rory McIlroy

Round 3 Weather

Sunny and hot with the wind expected to peak around 10mph in the afternoon.

How do we expect the market favourites to perform?

Scottie Scheffler has taken over as 6/1 favourite and is considered a worthy favourite. He described his opening round at last week's Fed Ex St Jude Championship as an "out of body experience" and appears to have put that firmly behind him.

Rory McIlroy is 2nd favourite at 15/2. He ranks 3rd in SG: Off The Tee so far this week but has been mediocre with his approach play and we're happy to consider others.

Adam Scott and Cameron Young are the only other players priced up at single figure odds. We tipped Young pre-event at 28/1 and he's the player we are looking to make a move over the weekend. He ranks 3rd SG: Tee to Green and is seen as more of a danger than Scott. The Aussie has gained the majority of his strokes on the green and that isn't always a strong suit for him.

Where is the value?

Xander Schauffele was strongly considered given he ranks 2nd SG: Tee to Green (1st for SG: Approach) and is priced up at a more than fair 12/1. However, we've opted for a player we liked pre-tournament who is also striking the ball well.

Round 3 Bet

1pt Each Way Joaquin Niemann 28/1 @ Skybet (1/4 1-4)

If you watched our BetRivers preview show, Fore The Win, you'll know that we were keen on Niemann before the event started. He just missed out on the staking plan then but we're happy to get him onside now at odds that are only slightly below his starting price. He ranks 7th over the opening two rounds in SG: Tee to Green and with conditions becoming increasingly firm and fast, that plays nicely into his hands. He's yet to take advantage of the par 5's (-1 for his opening two rounds) so there's plenty of scope for him to improve.

+ - Round 2 Bets Click to collapse

19 August 2022, 10.10am (UK time)

Player	Total
Bradley	-7
Scott	-6
Varner	-5
Lowry	-5
Thomas	-5
Seven Players Tied	-4

Round 1 Summary

It looked likely Rory McIlroy was going to catch morning pacesetter Keegan Bradley, however a triple bogey six on the 15th hole halted McIlroy's charge and he finished four back. In the end, all of the top five came from the morning starters as the course firmed up throughout the day.

Notable Round 1 Quotes

"Well, I think any time you play a course where hitting a lot of drivers is going to be good for me, I feel like that's one of the things I do best. I think on this course in particular if you hit the ball in the fairway, there's a lot of opportunities. If you miss the fairway you're kind of scrambling a lot of the holes. I did that today, hit a lot of fairways, and the ones that I missed I was able to manage." Keegan Bradley

" I knew once I got here last weekend, I knew it was a golf course that was going to suit me better than last week. I think my game suits a golf course like this. I can hit driver a lot. I can take some of the trouble out of play if I drive it well." Rory McIlroy

" I think I played pretty well. I definitely putted better than I have been. I think the golf course got tricky in the afternoon. It was difficult to hold some fairways. The first cut is incredibly penal. I had a couple times I struggled with that." Cameron Young

Round 2 Weather

Sunny and hot with the wind expected to peak around 9mph in the afternoon. Early starters should get calm conditions.

How do we expect the market favourites to perform?

Despite being two behind, Justin Thomas is the new favourite at 7/1. Thomas has good memories of this course, scoring 3.5pts here in the Palmer Cup over a decade ago. He gained strokes in every department yesterday and should be a feature over the weekend but the price is doing nothing for us.

Rory is next in the betting at 10/1 but it will take a lot to recover from that mistake on 15 yesterday and we can happily swerve him. We are usually happy to take on Bradley when he is leading and the same can be said today. He ranked 1st for putting yesterday and will do well to maintain anything close to that level today.

Where is the value?

With the leader there to be taken on, we're looking at the outright market

Round 2 Bets

1.5pts Each Way Will Zalatoris 50/1 @ Bet365 (1/5 1-5)

Zalatoris has got off to another slow start which he has been doing for much of the season but the majority of the time he has recovered to challenge. He actually played well tee to green yesterday, ranking 11th but had an extremely poor day on the greens. He did the exact same last week before bouncing back on Friday gaining 3.6 strokes on the greens, so will take positive memories into today. He knows he is one good round from getting himself back into this and with a nice morning start he can make his move today.

0.5pts Each Way Chez Reavie 125/1 @ Bet365 (1/5 1-5)

Reavie was on our shortlist pre-event and has done nothing to put us off him at a very generous price. He ranked 2nd for approach at FedEx last week and ranked 1st yesterday - in other words his irons are dialled in currently. He will need to improve with the putter to have a chance this week as he missed several chances coming. He hit's more fairways than most which is a big bonus this week with a penal first cut of rough.

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