Thursday sees the start of the penultimate event of the FedEx Cup Series, the BMW Championship from the Medinah Country Club in Illinois. The field has now been reduced to 70 players, and will be cut again to 30 upon the completion of this tournament.
Our selection last week, Justin Rose, played well but didn’t quite pull off the win. That said, our big takeaway from the Northern Trust event was the play and post event thoughts of Rory McIlroy. The Northern Irish star finished four shots behind eventual winner Patrick Reed and came off the course bemoaning the number of dropped shots he threw into his final round as well as noting that he had reduced the gap to FedEx Cup leader Brooks Koepka. It strikes us that he is extremely motivated to win this end of season money-packed series, and a motivated McIlroy is a dangerous beast.
And then there’s the course. Medinah is where McIlroy starred in the famous come-from-behind victory for Europe in the Ryder Cup in 2012. And also where he met his wife, who helped him get to the course on time after he overslept on the Sunday morning of the singles. These good memories can only help.
McIlroy is joint favourite for this event, with Koepka, but we doubt the American star’s motivation this week. He leads the FedEx Series and will likely be gearing up for next week’s finale. Consequently we’re going to side with Rory this week.
- We will also put a saver on him winning the whole FedEx Cup Series in case he comes close but doesn’t quite pull off the win this week. The new handicap format massively favours the top few players entering the Tour Championship and Rory looks sure to be one of those, with his advantage set to be enhanced by a strong Medina showing.
Recommendations:
McIlroy to win the BMW Championship, 1 pt, at 8/1, widely available
McIlroy to win the FedEx Cup Series, 1 pt, at 5/1, Paddy Power
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