No history this week
Favorite Plays by Tier
BMW Championship
Olympia Fields CC: Olympia Fields, IL Par 70: 7,353 Yards
WEDNESDAY UPDATE
Weather
Temperatures will be in the 90s the first two days of the tournament. Winds will be around 10 mph but gusts could get up to 20 mph both days. There could be rain throughout the day on Friday. With everyone teeing off within two hours of each other, there's no need to worry about tee time waves for weather.
Ownership
In a tournament of 69 players (Webb Simpson withdrew), ownership is more concentrated than most weeks. Looking at Fantasy National and FanShare Sports, here is who is expected to end up near 20% in ownership: Daniel Berger, Collin Morikawa, Russell Henley, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, and Xander Schauffele.
Betting Cards
James Adams:
Matthew Wolff and Jason Kokrak for sure. He will have others and I'll post them here when he is done making his final selections.
Skeeter Robinson (First time making golf bets):
- Daniel Berger, Harris English, Adam Scott, Kevin Na, and Jason Kokrak (Top 10 only on Kokrak)
- First Round Leaders: Kevin Na, Jason Kokrak, Brendan Steele, and Tyler Duncan
- Exacta: Dustin Johnson with Justin Thomas and Justin Thomas with Dustin Johnson
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Opening Thoughts
The second round of the Playoffs returns to Illinois and Olympia Fields CC for the BMW Championship. There isn't much history at this course for the current pros playing this week. The last three professional golf events Olympia Fields hosted were the 2017 U.S. Women's Open, the 2015 U.S. Men's Amateur, and the 2003 U.S. Men's Open. If you really want to do some digging, the University of Illinois hosts a yearly tournament at the course, having some of the major college powerhouses come. But, the narrative you will hear about this week is around Bryson DeChambeau, as he won his U.S. Amateur at this course.
For the course itself, I retweeted an interview done by The Golf Shop Radio Show (@TheGolfShopShow on Twitter) where they talked to the golf director of Olympia Fields. Summary of the interview: Rough will be nearly 5 inches tall, greens are complex, and a predicted winning score of -10 to -12. Tree lined fairways with some forced layups due to water running through some holes. In other words, this is screaming TPC Harding Park as a comparision course. It's a second shot course so with the premium on hitting fairways and 5-inch rough to make golfers have to scramble, SG: Tee-to-Green, Approach, and Scrambling are big for me. I'm also looking at SG: Par 4 from 400-500 yards, and proximity numbers from 175+. Some combination of Birdies or Better and Bogey Avoidance will also be factored in. Lastly, this is a no-cut event. The bottom of the field is better than similar styly WGC events. Stars and Scrubs builds should be easier and popular. Some sort of balanced build may be a little more contrarian this week than usual.