For over half of the 49-man field in this week’s BMW Championship, their opportunity to reach the Tour Championship at East Lake remains on a knife’s edge.
Even 50th-place JT Poston still has a shot at not only progressing through to the final tournament of the season, but he can also fly into the top-10 should he manage to pull off a surprise win.
Then there are those around the bubble, who are all aware a bad few days in the no-cut event could cost them not only a few dollars but potentially a chance at playing in the Ryder Cup.
While players like Scottie Scheffler, the returning Rory McIlroy and even the absent Sepp Straka can relax to a certain extent knowing their futures are already locked up, everyone involved will still be jostling for position given there is another round of FedEx Cup Playoffs bonus payments due once the action has concluded at Caves Valley.
With the stakes so high in Maryland, it will be vitally important to make a fast start at a course which flowed with birdies last time the BMW Championship was staged here.
McIlroy was one of three to shoot 64 in the opening round of the 2021 BMW Championship at Caves Valley
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Back in 2021, McIlroy, Sam Burns and Jon Rahm all flew out of the gates via rounds of 64 and co-led through 18 holes. However, none of them could maintain that hot start as Patrick Cantlay defeated Bryson DeChambeau in a playoff after both reached 27-under through 72 holes.
Four years later, we’ve taken a look at who might make the best start this time around and listed a couple of likely contenders for first-round leader at the 2025 BMW Championship.
BMW Championship First-Round Leaders 2025
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