BMW Championship Tips Tips & Odds 2023 for the field

We have the BMW Championship taking place this week and our man Jamie Broadhurst returns with a full preview for the event and five each-way selections, ranging from 16/1 to 75/1.

A blank last week unfortunately with 45/1 J.T Poston being our best placed tip in 14th place. Last week’s preview winner Lucas Glover went back-to-back and beat Patrick Cantlay in a one-hole playoff to secure his second win of the season and move to fourth place in the FedEx cup standings. Lucas has made his case for Zach Johnson’s Ryder Cup team next month in Italy for sure.

We move onto the penultimate FedEx Cup playoff event, and we are left with the top-50 in the standings. This means yet again we are on bubble watch going into this week! Players need to play themselves into the top-30 in the FedEx Cup to play next week at the Tour Championships. I’ve provided a list below of the guys five places either side of the dreaded 30th place!

25th Corey Conners26th Tyrrell Hatton27th Jordan Speith28th Sungjae Im29th Chris Kirk

30th Sam Burns

This year the BMW Championship returns to the North Course at Olympia Fields Country Club. It was last seen when Jon Rahm was the BMW Champion here in 2020. Situated in Illinois and designed by Willie Park Jnr. In 1915, the North Course has played host to six majors and the U.S Amateur Championship.

North Course @ Olympia Fields Country Club

• Par 70
• 7366 yards
• Willie Park Jnr. Design – Mungeam restoration 2014
• Fairways/Greens – Bentgrass/Poa Annua blend
• Rough – Bluegrass
• Parkland design
• X4 Par 3s – ranging from 168-280 yards
• X12 Par 4s – ranging from 389-496 yards – 441 yard average
• X2 Par 5s – 576 and 626 yards

This tree lined course which features small to medium sized greens which contain major undulations will be a proper test for the players this week. As said above, this course has hosted major championships on several occasions and when people see it’s set up, they will understand why the winning score in 2020 was a measly four under par.

2022 – Patrick Cantlay -14 (Wilmington GC)
2021 – Patrick Cantlay -27 (Caves Valley)
2020 – Jon Rahm -4 (Olympia Fields)
2019 – Justin Thomas -25 (Medinah)
2018 – Keegan Bradley -20 (Aronmink)

We have had some monster scores in the BMW in the past but as I say, looking at the four under total here in 2020 and the fact that only six others were under par, it will be a different story this week for sure.

Stats from the 2020 victory at Olympia fields by Jon Rahm can be seen below;

7th Strokes Gained Off the Tee6th Strokes Gained Tee2Green9th Strokes Gained Approach2nd Greens in Regulation13th Strokes Gained Around the Green

6th Strokes Gained Putting

Therefore, I will not be honing in on many specific stats this week as I genuinely feel like picking a player in high confidence from some good finishes lately will be the play of the week. Perhaps a focus on the ‘Strokes Gained Total’ category to really select an all-round golfer.

All 50 guys are in the field from the top-50 in the FedEx standings as far as I can see unless there are any late withdrawals of course.

Joint favourites in the betting market on bet365 within the eight places market at 15/2 are World Number one and two, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. Both with fantastic records as of late, both showing some class form from Tee2Green. The Achilles Heel for them both is always the flat stick when they perform poorly, if they turn up with a hot putter this week, they will be very hard to beat. McIlroy had a late weekend charge last week at the St. Jude Championship to eventually finish just one shot off the pace in a tie for third place with Tommy Fleetwood, so he will be coming here with the higher confidence out of the two you would presume.

World Number three and the current leader in the FedEx cup standings Jon Rahm is next in the market at 9/1. A lackluster start to last week's St. Jude saw him sitting at one over par after the first round, then two promising 67s followed by a 68 on Sunday meant he finished on five under par, some glimpses of good but some wayward drives really penalized Rahm for sure. I did tip him last week but I was really put off by his driving so I will leave him alone this week even though he does come here as defending champion on this course.

Patrick Cantlay 10/1, Viktor Hovland 16/1 and Xander Schauffele 18/1 are the next three in the market that takes us up to 20/1 in the market. Last year’s BMW Championship winner Patrick Cantlay comes here off the back of a tough playoff loss last week to Lucas Glover. Cantlay went 66 and 64 last weekend where he played some stellar stuff indeed, he is the ultimate plodder that definitely has an eye for a certain type of set up and the North Course here certainly looks to be one of them.

Viktor Hovland and Xander Schauffele then come next, very much the same type of player in terms of skills set. Off the Tee and Tee2Green they are consistently some of the bests on Tour year upon year. Hovland’s short game has always come under scrutiny as his biggest weakness, all year it is showing signs of improvement and a top ten for scrambling last week on his way to a 13th place finish just shows the improvement and then work he is putting in. Hovland was not here in 2020 but Xander was, and he finished on a score of six over par in a tie for 25th place, just shows how tough the scoring was in 2020.

From 20/1-40/1 the market is packed with talent which is where most of my selections will probably be found. Let’s get into my picks for this week!

BMW Championship Tips

Viktor Hovland - each-way 8 Places

Five 1pt each way selections, all with Bet365 eight places as usual. Good luck to all! Let’s get back on track with a great week!

Viktor Hovland 16/1
Recent Form – 13-13-25-29-19
Course Form – DEBUT

Viktor is consistent as ever on Tour at present, he has won once this season and has seven top tens this year. His Tee2Green game is absolutely stellar, long and straight is his game and this course looks to suit that aspect of his game very well. Hovland is 11th for Strokes Gained: Total, 8th for Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, 9th for Strokes Gained Tee2Green and 13th for Strokes Gained: Approach is no mean feat at all and more than justifies his odds for the BMW Championship this week.

Hideki Matsuyama each-way

Hideki Matsuyama 25/1
Recent Form – 16-MC-30-13-MC-13
Course Form – T3

Feel like Hideki is a sneaky one this week, who is slowly finding his groove after having a quiet month or two not long back, but a 16th place finish last week on a long driver heavy course was enough for me to pull the trigger on him this week. 

Hideki is a strange one, he does not drive it or putt the ball particularly well on a regular basis but his iron play and around the green game goes majorly unnoticed in my opinion, he ranks 11th for both Strokes Gained Approach and Scrambling this season on Tour – very promising figures for this set up, with his 3rd place finish here in 2020 as another positive.

Tom Kim - each-way 8 places

Tom Kim 30/1
Recent Form – 24-2-6-MC-38-8
Course Form – DEBUT

The wonderkid is 21-year-old Tom Kim. Although he is not the biggest hitter on Tour who averages just near enough 300 yards off the tee he is very accurate (10th for Driving Accuracy) and is unbelievably accurate with his approach into greens (10th for Approach and 15th for Greens in Regulation). Kim is streaky hot with the putter, but does rank inside the top-40 for putting averages so that is more than enough for me to take him at a big number this week!

Matt Fitzpatrick - each-way 8 places

Matthew Fitzpatrick 35/1
Recent Form – 66-41-MC-49-17
Course Form – T6

An out of form selection but one that thrives on difficult golf courses that require pin point accuracy and bogey avoidance. He doesn’t have many stats going for him for this week, this is due to the poor run he has been on of late. He is 33rd for Strokes Gained: Around the Green and 25th for Strokes Gained: Putting just shows what type of player Matt is consistently, and he will need to call upon them powers once again this week.

Brendon Todd - each-way

Brendon Todd 75/1
Recent Form – 43-7-49-2-56
Course Form – T8

The Todd Father returns after his unbelievable 7th place for us in my preview of the Wyndham Championship two weeks ago. His accuracy with the driver and the long irons will be crucial here, matched with a very consistent putter which will put him bang there come Sunday with some great memories from a good finish here in 2020

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