That was one hell of a finish to the BMW Championship.  You had two completely different players battling all through the back nine and six sudden death holes before a winner was crowned.  Patrick Cantlay’s putter was magical throughout the week in Baltimore and came through in the clutch when he needed it most.  It was nice to see a guy who doesn’t pummel the ball 300+ every single time come out on top of a masher like Bryson DeChambeau.  After the players had to battle U.S. Open style conditions at last year’s BMW Championship, they punished Caves Valley this weekend.  It was almost embarrassing to way these pros took it to this course. 

I will say that Bryson took a lot of heat from the Maryland crowds over the weekend, so much show the PGA Tour had to step in and ban people from yelling out “Brooksy” at him.  If you yell that out at a tournament, you can be kicked off the grounds.  I think that’s a little ridiculous but it’s the way of the world these days.  Let’s move onto the Tour Championship.     

The FedEx Cup Playoffs comes to a conclusion this week at East Lake Country Club in Atlanta, Georgia.  This tournament will be unlike anything we’ve seen this season.  Fans were not happy in 2018 when Tiger Woods won the Tour Championship but did not accumulate enough points to win the FedEx Cup which went to Justin Rose.  The PGA Tour changed the format to where the winner of the Tour Championship also wins the FedEx Cup and the $15 million dollar bonus.  In an attempt to appease the fans, the PGA Tour came up with a new format to play the Tour Championship.  The higher you are in the FedEx Cup standings, the better your starting position will be at the Tour Championship.  This weekend’s tournament will start with this leaderboard: 

Patrick Cantlay -10

Tony Finau -8

Bryson DeChambeau -7

Jon Rahm -6

Cameron Smith -5

Justin Thomas -4

Harris English -4

Abraham Ancer -4

Jordan Spieth -4

Sam Burns -4

Collin Morikawa -3

Sungjae Im -3

Viktor Hovland -3

Louis Oosthuizen -3

Dustin Johnson -3

Rory McIlory -2

Xander Schauffele -2

Jason Kokrak -2

Kevin Na -2

Brooks Koepka -2

Corey Conners -1

Hideki Matsuyama -1

Stewart Cink -1

Joaquin Niemann -1

Scottie Scheffler -1

Daniel Berger E

Erik van Rooyen E

Sergio Garcia E

Billy Horschel E

Patrick Reed E  

While Patrick Cantlay has a huge advantage this weekend, it is not the be all end all.  In 2019, the first year of this format Justin Thomas had top spot with the 10 under starting score but it was Rory McIlory who won the Tour Championship starting at 5 under.  Rory is a two time winner at East Lake but this year starting so far behind might be a stretch for him to come back and win it for a third time. I’ll be targeting a lot of guys in the four under and above range this weekend.    

East Lake is a Par 70 that measures out 7,346 yards.  This course was designed by Donald Ross who also created two similar courses: Sedgefield (Wyndham) and Detroit Country Club (Rocket Mortgage).  While a lot of the players in this field haven’t played those events, we do have some history to draw from this week.  For example, Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele have never finished outside the Top 10 at East Lake.  When you look at the stats which have correlated to success at East Lake, the ones I’ll focus on this week are Fairways Hit, Strokes Gained: Approach, Greens in Regulation, Strokes Gained: Around the Green, Sand Saves, and Par 4 Efficiency 450-500.  Golfers will need to keep out of trouble as we’ve got six water hazards and over 70 bunkers.  Fairways and greens as much as possible.

If I’m being completely honest, I’m going to play very little this weekend.  I’ll save my bankroll and use it in two weeks when the PGA Tour kicks off their 2021-2022 season with their first full field event at Safeway Open.  I’ve put together a core play article focusing more on the players who are starting from behind and have to catch Patrick Cantlay.  I feel like that’s the strategy to take down a big score this weekend but you can’t completely fade him.

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