Rory McIlroy had a disappointing week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship to begin the postseason, but it’s been much better at the 2024 BMW Championship through 36 holes.
The Northern Irishman opened with a 2-under 70 on Thursday and followed it up with a 1-under 71 on Day 2 to sit at 3 under going into the weekend.
On the par-5 527-yard 17th at Castle Pines Golf Club, McIlroy pulled 3-wood off the tee and flared it into the right rough.
Unhappy with a bad tee shot on a scoreable hole, McIlroy gave his 3-wood a little toss on the tee box and it ended up going into the pond in front of the teeing area.
Matsuyama has dealt with reoccurring back and neck injuries for the past few seasons.
CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — Hideki Matsuyama withdrew from the 2024 BMW Championship prior to the start of the second round citing a lower back injury.
“I am disappointed to have to withdraw from the BMW Championship after experiencing lower back discomfort while warming up this morning, which made it impossible to play,” Matsuyama said in a statement provided to the media. “Thank you to BMW and the Western Golf Association for a great experience here at Castle Pines.”
The 32-year-old Japanese star shot 5-under 67 in the first round at Castle Pines Golf Club. He had to wait three hours and 10 minutes during a suspension of play to hit his second shot at 18 on Thursday. He stuck it to two feet but missed the putt to finish the day one stroke off the lead.
Matsuyama won the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Sunday and entered the week at No. 3 in the season-long standings.
Matsuyama also withdrew from the BMW Championship last year while warming up for the second round, and has dealt with reoccurring back and neck injuries for the past few seasons.
Hideki Matsuyama is a WD prior to the second round of the BMW Championship with a lower back injury.
Everything you need to know for the second round of the BMW Championship.
It was a good Thursday to be Keegan Bradley.
The 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup captain was the last man in the field at the 2024 BMW Championship at Castle Pines in Colorado, but he’s first on the leaderboard after his opening 6-under 66. Showers and thunderstorms caused a delay for the later-finishing tee times, but Bradley was able to get in the house before play was suspended, giving him the solo lead by one over Hideki Matsuyama and a chasing pack at 4 under.
Castle Pines is a par-72 track measuring 8,130 yards, the longest course in PGA Tour history.
The purse at the BMW Championship is $20 million with $4 million going to the winner. The champion will also earn 2,000 FedEx Cup points.
‘Maybe I hit a few too many balls yesterday or something. It was just a little sore.’
CASTLE ROCK, Colo. – It’s never good to see a professional golfer reaching for their lower back after hitting a shot. It’s even worse when that golfer is World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who is trying to win the FedEx Cup for the first time to cap off a spectacular season.
But on the 17th hole, Scheffler hit his second shot and touched his lower back with his left hand. PGA Tour XM Radio’s Mark McCumber described it as if “it took his breath away” and Scheffler leaned on his club for an extra second.
Scheffler finished with a couple of pars and posted three birdies and two bogeys for an opening-round, 1-under 71. After the round, Scheffler downplayed any potential injury, saying, “It’s fine.”
Scheffler did concede that he woke up with a sore back and had trouble loosening it up.
“It was hard for me to get through it, and I was laboring most of the day to get through the ball,” he explained. “On 17 I was trying to hit a high draw, and that’s a shot where I’ve really got to use a big turn, big motion.”
Asked to elaborate on what happened, he said, “Maybe I hit a few too many balls yesterday or something. It was just a little sore. I’m sure I’ll get some ice on it and stuff, and I’ll be totally fine tomorrow.”
Would he do any special treatment? “Just normal routine. Just like always,” he said.
Scheffler was paired Thursday with Xander Schauffele, who is second in the FedEx Cup and shot 69 to best Scheffler, the FedEx Cup leader, by two strokes.
Schauffele said he noticed that Scheffler’s back was stiff when he tried to turn his head but joked that it may be a bigger problem for the field than for Scheffler, noting that Scheffler needed treatment on his neck at the Players Championship and elsewhere when he won. “I guess it’s a bad sign for everyone else,” he said.
The Scheffler-Schauffele decision likely comes down to what you value more: majors or quantity of wins
CASTLE ROCK, Colo. – Justin Thomas has had the debate in a couple different group text chains that he’s on: Who’s year would you rather have, Xander Schauffele with the silver trophies of the PGA Championship and British Open on his mantle or Scottie Scheffler, who is sporting the Masters green jacket again and also claimed the Players Championship, a gold medal and four more signature events among his seven victories this season?
“It’s tough,” Thomas said. “I think it’s very situational of where you are in your career. For me personally, two majors sounds a lot cooler than one. But then again, winning six times, all of which being elevated events and Players and a gold medal sounds nice, too. Might be better to answer that question if something were to happen the next couple weeks.”
Indeed, it is tough and this week’s BMW Championship and the FedEx Cup, which will be determined next week at the Tour Championship in Atlanta, could still sway some opinions. But the Scheffler-Schauffele decision likely comes down to what you value more: majors or quantity of wins (and bundles of cash as Scheffler has banked $29M+ to Schauffele’s $17M+).
“For me, personally,” Thomas concluded, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I would take Xander’s just because of two majors. But yeah, talk about a no-lose situation, those are two pretty good ones.”
Majors are the currency that matters the most. To be a first-ballot Hall of Famer and receive golf’s highest honor, the major total is the biggest determining factor. Players with just one major such as Davis Love III and Fred Couples overcame their low total and even Colin Montgomerie got in without one due largely to his Ryder Cup record and dominance on the European Tour.
“I’m definitely not knocking Scottie’s year because it’s tremendous, it’s phenomenal, I think he is the Player of the Year currently right now, even though Xander has won two majors,” Jason Day, a former world No. 1 and winner of the 2015 PGA Championship, said.
But.“I would probably go more towards the majors just because I want to add more majors to my career,” Day explained.
Scottie Scheffler's scenario to clinch No. 1 spot @TOURChamp in Starting Strokes format: solo fourth or better @BMWchamps@XSchauffele would assume No. 1 spot with a win IF Scheffler finishes no better than two-way T4.https://t.co/Lodgfxo4sZ
Viktor Hovland is still seeking his first major but the Norwegian already is measuring a career by majors just as Jack Nicklaus (18) and Tiger Woods (15) did before him and set the bar high.
“Twenty years in the future, looking back at the year, I think I’d rather have won two majors, just personally,” Hovland said.
Billy Horschel, the 2014 FedEx Cup champion, took the easy way out.
“I’m going to be that guy and say I’ll take both of them because I don’t have a major. I don’t have a gold medal. I don’t have a Players Championship, so either one of them works for me,” he said.
But in a matter of a little over a week, he and the rest of the PGA Tour membership will have to determine who had the better year when voting opens for the Jack Nicklaus Award, the trophy awarded for the Tour’s Player of the Year as voted on by the players. So how will Horschel choose between this year’s two studs?
“I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t always voted for Player of the Year sometimes because I just think it’s too tough to make a decision,” he said. “Maybe that’s a bad thing and probably shouldn’t say that, but there’s a couple times I haven’t voted for Player of the Year because I couldn’t make a decision who I thought had the better season, so I just let it go.”
Gun to the head, Horschel said he’d side with Scheffler in part because he considers the Players a fifth major.
“I would say Scottie has had the better year, and Scottie would be my pick for Player of the Year,” Horschel said.
Scheffler said he typically votes for the award but in the last few years, knowing that he’s been in contention, he’s elected to sit it out.
“I think since I’m in the running I probably would just refrain from voting. I think it would be a bit weird to vote for myself,” Scheffler said.
Justin Thomas, who was waiting for Scheffler to finish his press conference so his own could begin, heard this and told Scheffler, “I will write myself in before I don’t vote for myself.”
Peyton Manning is a Hall of Fame quarterback and beloved in the Mile High City for bringing a Super Bowl to the Denver Broncos late in his career.
He loves his golf, including an ownership stake in Sweetens Cove in Tennessee, has been a regular participant in the pro-am at the Memorial, and previously played in The Match so he’s been there, done that when it comes to teeing off in front of crowds before.
Still, even the greats of the game in other sports get first-tee jitters. On Wednesday, Manning competed in the BMW Championship pro-am and was paired with 2023 U.S. Open winner and Denver native Wyndham Clark for the first nine and Canadian Adam Hadwin for the back nine at Castle Pines Golf Club.
It didn’t go well for Manning. He topped his opening tee shot, which led to the crowd to chant, “One of us, one of us!!!”
Manning played it off as well as he could giving a feint wave and a sheepish grin, but you know that had to hurt worse than a pancake sack.
Peyton Manning is a Hall of Fame quarterback and beloved in the Mile High City for bringing a Super Bowl to the Denver Broncos late in his career.
He loves his golf, including an ownership stake in Sweetens Cove in Tennessee, has been a regular participant in the pro-am at the Memorial, and previously played in The Match so he’s been there, done that when it comes to teeing off in front of crowds before.
Still, even the greats of the game in other sports get first-tee jitters. On Wednesday, Manning competed in the BMW Championship pro-am and was paired with 2023 U.S. Open winner and Denver native Wyndham Clark for the first nine and Canadian Adam Hadwin for the back nine at Castle Pines Golf Club.
It didn’t go well for Manning. He topped his opening tee shot, and played it off as well as he could giving a feint wave and a sheepish grin and asking, “Anyone see where that went?” he said.
That drew laughter from the crowd, who broke into a chant of “One of us, one of us!!!”
That drive had to hurt worse than being on the wrong end of a pancake sack.
CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — The days of the BMW Championship being a fixture in the Windy City are long gone, so, each year as the second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs hopscotches around the country, the tournament merchandise shop leans into its latest locale. This year, that means a Rocky Mountain high, including shirts touting the course being at an elevation of 6,305 feet. But the love-it-or-hate-it item is the John Elway head cover by Swag Golf.
The BMW merchandise shop is a good mix of brands. Always fun to see Kjus for men and Foray Golf for women along with staples such as Peter Millar.
The Castle Pines logo is a pair of hummingbirds — the club address is on Hummingbird Drive — and there are several items for sale that feature the logo. Inside the clubhouse, the Hummingbird-logoed cap is being sold for $98. Whoa! As Al Czervik once said in Caddyshack, “when you buy a hat like this I bet you get a free bowl of soup, huh?”
Here are some of our favorite items from the merchandise shop at the 2024 BMW Championship.
“When they stopped playing here, it was kind of a stab to the heart for me.”
CASTLE ROCK, Colo. – Wyndham Clark turned off Interstate 25 and onto Bellevue Road to work out with his trainer the other day, passing the land that used to be Mountain View Range, where he hit his first golf shots at age 3.
“It’s five skyrises. It’s kind of crazy to see that,” he said.
Some 27 years ago, his father, Randall, was away on business and so his mother, Lise, a non-golfer, strapped Clark and his siblings in the car and drove them to Mountain View with the sole purpose of getting the kids out of the house.
“She knew nothing about golf,” Clark told Golf Magazine. “She said, ‘My son wants to hit some golf balls,’ and got me a bucket. Had no clubs. They got me some. I hit one bucket and said, ‘Mom, can I hit another one?’ And it turned into, like, an hour and a half, two hours where I just sat there. It was a great reprieve for my mom. And, for me, that’s kind of when I fell in love with the game.”
Wyndham’s winding road returns to the Mile High City this week for the BMW Championship at Castle Pines Golf Club, the 30-year-old’s first start in his home state as a professional. The last time he played a tournament here? At the 2017 Pac-12 Championship in Boulder. He returns as the 2023 U.S. Open champion, a member of last year’s U.S. Ryder Cup team, represented the U.S. in the Paris Olympics, and ranked fifth in the world.
“You dream about those things, but you never really thought it could be this great,” he said. “I kind of exceeded my expectations in my own career, which is pretty amazing.”
Clark blossomed from those first buckets at Mountain View to learning the game at Family Sports Center, where he and his dad would hit balls for four and five hours at a time.
“Then I’d go do short game and play those nine holes. It’s amazing to see where I started at a kind of local muni and then go into the college ranks and being here, it’s pretty awesome,” he said.
Wyndham Clark of Team United States prepares to tee off on the 16th hole during the first round of men’s stroke play during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Le Golf National. (Michael Madrid-USA TODAY Sports)
Growing up in Greenwood Village, the pride of Valor Christian High School skipped over a pretty significant development in his progression into one of the biggest stars in the game. When their son was 11, Clark’s parents scraped together the money to pay for a membership at Cherry Hills.
“To move to a country club where I could hit unlimited golf balls, that was my candy store,” he said. “I no longer had to put money in a ball machine. I would say, ‘Dad, we have free balls!’ He would sigh and say, ‘Yeah, isn’t that great?'”
Cherry Hills is one of golf’s great cathedrals, where Arnold Palmer drove the first green and made birdie en route to shooting 65 and erasing a six-shot deficit to win the 1960 U.S. Open. Clark, who often rode his bicycle to the course with his bag on his back, recalls being 15 when he first drove the par-4, 340-yard downhill opener, although he concedes it might have landed short and bounced to the fringe. Now, when he goes back he hits a soft, cut 3-wood to reach the green.
“Without Cherry Hills, I don’t know if I’d be here,” Clark said. “It is surreal that I spent my childhood walking past that display in the clubhouse about 1960, hoping that I could win the U.S. Open one day, and that I eventually did it.”
Along the way, he gained additional inspiration by attending The International, the first PGA Tour tournament he ever attended, when he was seven or eight years old. Clark recalls sitting at the ninth green and watching the likes of David Duval, Retief Goosen and Ernie Els marching down the fairway.
“That’s when I knew I wanted to do what they did,” he said. “Just visualizing and imagining myself being here one day, and it’s kind of crazy, fast forward 20-some years and I’m here.”
Before notching three Tour titles, he won the 2010 Colorado State Amateur, becoming the tournament’s youngest winner in nearly 40 years, and two high school championships, including shooting 64-64 in his senior year to win by eight. Sadly, the International closed up shop in 2006 and the BMW Championship last visited the Rocky Mountains in 2014 at Cherry Hills. Clark, a college student at the time at Oklahoma State, attended as a fan and watched his buddy, former Cowboy Morgan Hoffmann shoot 62-63 on the weekend. But it has been a decade since the Tour last played in Denver.
“When they stopped playing here, it was kind of a stab to the heart for me because it was so fun coming out and watching it,” he said of the International’s demise at the dawn of the FedEx Cup era. “So for me this is so special.”
No one had to twist Clark’s arm to shoot a commercial to promote the Tour’s return to his hometown alongside Denver Broncos greats John Elway and Peyton Manning. He’s been waiting for this week to play in front of family and friends that don’t usually get the chance to see him play on a course he said he loves. Plus, there’s no telling how long it will be until the Tour returns to his backyard. Clark won earlier this year at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and enters the week at No. 6 in the FedEx Cup after a T-7 last week at the first leg of the playoffs. Asked what it would mean to win the second leg in his hometown, he didn’t hesitate.
“It would be a dream come true,” he said, “been praying a lot about it and manifesting that maybe I would be the champion.”
Everything you need to know for the first round of the BMW Championship.
The PGA Tour’s 2024 FedEx Cup Playoffs continue this week in Denver, Colorado, at Castle Pines Golf Club for the 2024 BMW Championship. World No. 1 and gold medalist Scottie Scheffler headlines the field. He’ll be joined by Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, FedEx St. Jude Championship winner Hideki Matsuyama, defending champion Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa, among others.
Castle Pines is a par-72 track measuring 8,130 yards.
The purse at the BMW Championship is $20 million with $4 million going to the winner. The champion will also earn 2,000 FedEx Cup points.
