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Check out everything you need to know ahead of the 2018 BMW Championship at Aronimink Golf Club. (Getty Images)
Rickie Fowler, absent from the first two postseason events to rest a strained oblique, eyes a return to competition with his position among the top 30 at risk. The Open Championship winner Francesco Molinari, who opted for rest over the Dell Technologies Championship, also is set to resume.
FIELD NOTES
Bryson DeChambeau, who moved to the top of the FedExCup standings after winning THE NORTHERN TRUST, is joined by FedExCup titleholder Justin Thomas and world No. 1 Dustin Johnson atop a projected full field of 70 players.
Justin Rose and Nick Watney, winners at Aronimink when the old AT&T National made a two-year detour to Philadelphia, are in the lineup though Watney needs to protect his No. 67 spot in the FedExCup table.
Rookies Aaron Wise and Austin Cook are assured of berths at Aronimink, while RBC Heritage winner Satoshi Kodaira was among three rookies just outside the top 70 entering the second stop of the Playoffs in Boston.
https://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/bmw-championship/field.html
FEDEXCUP
Winner receives 2,000 points.
STORYLINES
While DeChambeau, Johnson and Thomas appear assured of top-five slots at East Lake, able to control their own FedExCup futures, the race remains to see who joins them. Tony Finau and Brooks Koepka held the inside track to start in Boston.
The spotlight also falls on No. 30, where Andrew Landry arrived in Boston as the man on that bubble. In each of the past three years, four men have played their way to East Lake after starting the BMW outside the top 30.
Fowler finds himself in danger of falling out, enduring a drop of five slots to No. 22 just by missing the firs event of the Playoffs.
The revamped FedExCup Playoffs structure moves the 2019 BMW Championship into August, as storied Medinah CC draws host duties. Medinah’s No. 3 course has staged six major championships and the 2012 Ryder Cup.
COURSE
Aronimink Golf Club, 7,237 yards, par 70.
Founded in 1896, the club has occupied its current location since the 1928 opening of its Donald Ross design. The club already had a place in golf history before that, as 19-year-old John McDermott came out of the caddie yard to win the 1911 U.S. Open, the first American-born player to capture the crown.
Aronimink welcomed its own major in 1962 when the PGA Championship arrived, as Gary Player prevailed. The club later staged the 1977 U.S. Amateur, 1997 U.S. Junior Amateur and 2003 Senior PGA Championship, also taking a two-year turn as host of the former AT&T National. The course recently underwent a $4 million project to restore Ross features lost to time, including the return of some 100 bunkers.
For those visiting the area, must-play courses include Ramblewood Country Club (Mount Laurel, N.J.), Ballamor GC (Egg Harbor Township, N.J.) and Scotland Run GC (Williamstown, N.J.). Explore your options at TeeOff.com.
72-HOLE RECORD
261, Marc Leishman (2017 at Conway Farms).
18-HOLE RECORD
59, Jim Furyk (2nd round, 2013 at Conway Farms).
LAST YEAR
Marc Leishman rewrote the 118-year-old tournament’s scoring record, opening with rounds of 62-64 at Conway Farms in cruising to a five-stroke romp over Rose and Fowler. The 33-year-old Aussie took a five-shot lead into the final day and received little challenge, as Rose closed within two shots before Leishman countered with birdies at Nos. 15 and 16.
Leishman finished at 23-under-par 261, breaking the tournament scoring mark set by Tiger Woods in 2007 at Cog Hill. It was Leishman’s second victory of the year, along with the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and came after he let a two-shot lead get away on the back nine at the Dell Technologies Championship two weeks earlier. Jason Dufner claimed the final spot of 30 advancing to the TOUR Championship, nosing out Louis Oosthuizen by a single FedExCup point.
Rookie Patrick Cantlay played his way in on the final hole, draining an 11-foot birdie putt to rise to No. 29 with a share of ninth.
HOW TO FOLLOW
TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 2-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, noon-3:30 p.m. (NBC), 3:30-6 p.m. (GC). Sunday, noon-2 p.m. (GC), 2-6 p.m. (NBC).
PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. (featured groups), 3-6 p.m. (featured holes). Saturday-Sunday, 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m. (featured holes).
RADIO: Thursday-Friday, noon-6 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).
The PGSF rolls into Philly with @NoleLizards still holding the overall season lead a week before the point reset. Does he hold on to the lead for back to back regular season crowns?
Congratulations again to last weeks winner @SeaPA
Good Luck to everyone this week
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