OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The penultimate event of the PGA Tour season returns to Baltimore’s Caves Valley Golf Club with intrigue on multiple fronts, including the added specter of determining who will make the U.S. Ryder Cup team.
Major storylines are aplenty ahead of the BMW Championship, returning to Caves Valley for the second time after a thrilling 2021 contest that saw Patrick Cantlay outlast Bryson DeChambeau in a six-hole playoff.
“That was one of the longest Sundays of my career with that six-hole playoff,” Cantlay said, “and it was a hot week, so we were glad to be finished.”
Both Cantlay and DeChambeau shot an eye-popping 27-under-par that week. Caves Valley organizers have made some notable changes — which have led to shaving two strokes off the track to make it a par-70 — in hopes of curbing such inflated scores.
“I played really well and made a bunch of putts that week … it’s much different [now] and it’s in very good shape,” Cantlay said. “Obviously, with it being par-70, that’s an easy way to make it play closer to par.”
As the second of three rounds of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, only 50 golfers remain of the top 70 in points after last week’s St. Jude Championship, won in a playoff by Justin Rose over J.J. Spaun. The top 30 following the BMW move on to next week’s season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta.
“They definitely tried to make the golf course harder. I think they definitely accomplished that goal,” said Scottie Scheffler, who is the world’s No. 1-ranked player and a two-time major winner this year. “I think they changed two holes from par-5s to par-4s and didn’t really move tee boxes or anything like that. So that’s eight shots there already in score to par.”
In terms of the Ryder Cup, three of the six automatic U.S. slots are already claimed: by Scheffler, U.S. Open champion Spaun and world No. 3 Xander Schauffele. Russell Henley, LIV Golf’s DeChambeau and Harris English are the others currently inside of the top six, with Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa just behind.
The final three will be decided on points after the conclusion of play on Sunday, and captain Keegan Bradley will have six additional selections to make to round out the team of 12.
“When you’re trying to get a pick or trying to play your way on the team, you feel like every round’s Q-School,” Bradley said. “It’s not just difficult for me, it’s difficult for everybody that’s trying to make this team. I feel for them. I know what it’s like. I know people try to act like they’re okay, but they’re nervous every round, and that’s the way it should be.”
The hottest topic in golf? Whether Bradley will choose himself for the team and become the first U.S. playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963.
“Everybody’s telling me to start the year that a player can’t be captain and have a good year,” Bradley said. “For me, I feel like this is one of my best years that I’ve ever had.”
While Rory McIlroy notably said this week he’s been approached to do the same for the Europeans but declined — “I’ve shot it down straight away … because I don’t think you can do it” — Bradley’s American contemporaries think he should.
“I think we have a really good group of guys. I think Keegan can only help that,” Scheffler said. “I think if it’s something that Keegan wants to be part of the team and wants to play, I think he’s a guy we’d all love to have on the team.”
“I think he has a lot of responsibility that week, so if he feels that he can play golf like a normal week, given all his other responsibilities — I’m just saying that if I was the captain and I was thinking, I think he’s definitely one of the best American players,” Cantlay said.
Bradley, a winner at the Travelers Championship in June and inside the top 10 in the Ryder Cup standings, demurred, still unsure of what he will do.
“We’re ready for this if it happens. I’m not sure it’s going to,” Bradley said. “I can truly sit here right now and say I don’t know what’s going to happen. I have to look at myself just like any other player trying to make the team. I’m 10th in points right now, and that’s not 6th.”
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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