Of the 125 golfers who qualified for last week’s The Northern Trust, only the top 70 players in the standings are in the field for this week’s BMW Championship.
Surprisingly, 51-year-old PGA Championship winner Phil Mickelson was the last player to sneak into the BMW field. Among the notables who saw their seasons end were Matthew Wolff, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tyrrell Hatton, Ian Poulter, Bubba Watson, Adam Scott and Jason Day.
Another 40 players will be finished this upcoming Sunday, as only the top 30 players remaining in the FedExCup standings will advance to the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta.
Here is a look at the current bubble:
FedExCup: The Bubble
27. Billy Horschel (1371)
28. Rory McIlroy (1338)
29. Charley Hoffman (1280)
30. Max Homa (1252)
———————
31. Kevin Kisner (1200, -52)
32. Keegan Bradley (1187, -65)
33. Si Woo Kim (1187, -65)
34. Cameron Tringale (1139, -113)
35. Marc Leishman (1135, -117)
With 69 players in the field this week, there will be no cut so even if Max Homa (30th) were to finish dead last, he’d still secure 13 points, so remember to plug that into any predictive models.
Here’s what the distribution of points looks like this week for the BMW Championship (top 10, then increments of 10):
BMW Championship Points Distribution
1. 2,000
2. 1,200
3. 760
4. 540
5. 440
6. 400
7. 360
8. 340
9. 320
10. 300
20. 180
30. 112
40. 64
50. 34
60. 20
70. 12
Those near the bottom of the top 70, such as Mickelson, will need a tremendous week in Baltimore to advance. Fortunately for them, there are a lot of points up for grabs, particularly for a top-3 finish. For instance, with a win, Mickelson would move from 70th to around the top 5 and into East Lake. At minimum, he will likely need a top-3 finish to jump into the top 30.
And it’s not just the bubble guys who are jockeying for position: the points leader after this week gets to start the Tour Championship at 10-under, with other players getting similar advantages due to their position.
FedExCup: The Top-5
1. Tony Finau (3348)
2. Jon Rahm (2763)
3. Cameron Smith (2739)
4. Patrick Cantlay (2302)
5. Justin Thomas (2218)
With the BMW winner securing 2,000 points, there are about 25 or so players who could jump to or close to the top spot with a victory this week in Baltimore.
